LATE STAGE BIFACE
McKINNIS CLOVIS CACHE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION COLLECTION
COPYRIGHT NOVEMBER 30, 2009 PETER A. BOSTROM

CAST ILLUSTRATED
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CAST #P-85
LATE STAGE BIFACE
McKINNIS CLOVIS CACHE
ST. LOUIS COUNTY, MISSOURI

   This is the largest biface in the McKinnis cache and the best representation of a recognizable Clovis shaped artifact in the cache. The lanceolate shape and "classic" Clovis flaking pattern suggests that this is a late stage preform for a Clovis point. It was made with edge-to-edge percussion flaking. Several large percussion flakes extend nearly across one edge to the opposite edge. A large thinning flake was also struck from the base. This late stage preform was made of Burlington chert and it measures 5 5/8 inches (14.3 cm) long, 2 1/8 inches (5.3 cm) wide and 9/16 inch (1.4 cm) thick.
    It's generally accepted that fluting is an American invention and the technology must have developed from a pre-Clovis people who were not fluting. One possible explanation for a paradigm shift towards a fluted point technology might have been the incentive to use a different flintknapping technique. This fundamental change might have developed from a desire to utilize large high quality cherts and chalcedony that became available in the New World for the production of very large biface cores. If, for instance, a knapper changed his technique from just using a billet and punch to a rocker punch technique (see Dothager), the difference in flake removal control might begin to produce a completely different type of projectile point. The indirect rocker punch technique allows the knapper to remove, with less effort, very large flakes across the face of very large bifaces and to remove the flakes from any side, end and corner angle. This edge-to-edge style of flaking does not appear as a tradition in post-Clovis cultures and it's a good bet that the technique probably won't appear in a very early pre-Clovis culture.

THE McKINNIS CACHE SITE