Semi-Lunar Knives	by John M. Selmer
Central States Archaeological Societies 2022 January Journal	Herndon, Virginia

This excerpt from "Semi-Lunar Knives" published in the 2022 Central States Archaeological Societies 2022 January Journal Read this and mores in the Central States Archaeological 2022 January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2023
Semi-Lunar Slate Knives from New York.

A semi-lunar knife is a distinctive and wellmade smoothed or polished cutting tool. It is half-moon shaped with a circular/curved blade edge for cutting and scraping, with a straight or nearly straight back handle area. Although there are some which are chipped from flint/chert, most are ground and polished slate. The slate knives are chipped and pecked into the rough shape and then ground and polished smooth ensuring the cutting edge is finely honed. There are three types of ground slate semi-lunar knives: plain back with no grip, perforated, and comb-back. The plain-back type has no special workmanship in the handle area and may have been affixed to a slotted wooden, antler or bone handle using pitch or asphaltum. The perforated type has one or more slotted holes opposite the cutting edge to help with affixing a slotted handle. Those holes are completed by grinding (not drilling). The comb-back type has a thick and projecting handle worked into the knife material itself similar to a hair comb for greater convenience in handling. Some semi-lunar knives are decorated with incised lines.

According to the former New York state archaeologist William Ritchie, semi-lunar knives from the northeastern United States are from the Late Archaic Laurentian Tradition (circa 6,000 to 4,300 B.P.) of hunters, fishers and gatherers. The Laurentian Tradition occurs within western New York state and central and eastern Ontario. Point types from the Laurentian Archaic cultural period include Brewerton, Kittatinny, Otter Creek, Vosburg and Normanskill biface forms. Bannerstone or atlatl weights, plummets, adzes, gouges, choppers, and whetstones also have been found with semi-lunar knives at professionally excavated sites. Further archeological research has been conducted by multiple archaeologists building upon Ritchie’s foundational work. Their research shows semi-lunar knives are found over a wider geographic area for a longer period of time than what Ritchie hypothesized. Some of the more recent research is summarized by Mary Lynn Rainey and William Turnbaugh in their published papers. Archaeologists now believe semi-lunar knives were ....

 

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