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This is an excerpt from "Some “Exotic” Lithics
on Martha’s Vineyard".
Read the complete column in the Central
States Archaeological Societies 2024
July Journal which can be purchased on-line after March
2025
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Examples of various New York (Hudson Valley)
cherts. |
With 20 years of experience doing archaeological research, fieldwork
and surveys on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, which is situated
just off the south coast of Massachusetts, the author has become familiar
with the large variety of lithic materials that were utilized here
by the native inhabitants throughout prehistory. The primary reason
for the abundance of suitable tool stone available on the island is
that it stands at what was the terminus of the last Wisconsin glacier
some 15,000 years ago. This tremendous ice sheet deposited a huge amount
of stone, in the form of numerous large glacial erratics, many medium
to small size boulders, and untold thousands of cobbles dispersed throughout
the island.
All of the glacially transported tool stone arrived primarily from
directions to the north, the northeast and slightly northwest of
Martha’s Vineyard. This transport accounts for such lithics
as Marblehead rhyolite coming down from its source north of Boston,
or the fine-grained Kineo rhyolite coming from as far away as outcrops
in the state of Maine, or the Mt. Jasper rhyolite from New Hampshire,
and even a small amount of Ramah “chert” from Labrador.
The primary types of lithic materials that early stone toolmakers
had ready access to on Martha’s Vineyard consisted of quartz,
quartzite, various rhyolites and felsites, argillite, and a small
scattering of hornfels. Again, all of these would have been made
available by glacial transport. This would not, however, account
for what might be classified as other “exotic“ types
of lithic materials.
For example, the author has collected both flake debitage and finished
tools manufactured from jaspers that were most likely sourced either
in Pennsylvania or Rhode Island. Present also are Onondaga and Normanskill
cherts from outcrops in the Hudson Valley region of New York. And
the author has even observed some other chert types that were clearly
derived from deposits as far away as the midwestern United States,
such as the Coshocton (Upper Mercer) and Flint Ridge sources. Also
included in the types of exotic lithics present on the island would
be the specific Lockatong argillite from sources likely originating
in New Jersey or Pennsylvania. Although this argillite is not “showy” like
many of the other exotic imports and it weathers heavily over time,
leaving almost no visible flake scars, it is easily knapped, producing
sharp edgework, when utilized in its primary raw state. Lockatong
argillite is also readily available at quarry sites in its area...
Read the complete column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2024
July Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2025 |
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