PAGE 1
CUMBERLAND POINTS
PALEO-INDIAN
EASTERN UNITED STATES
EST. 10,500 TO 13,000 YEARS AGO
PAGE 1 OF 2 PAGES
COPYRIGHT OCTOBER 31, 2007 PETER A. BOSTROM
Two Cumberland points.
CUMBERLAND POINTS
PALEO-INDIAN
TENNESSEE
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

   These two Cumberland points are reported to have been found in Tennessee. The lower point has a restored tip and it was found near the town of Bear Springs. This Cumberland point is illustrated in a 1958 Central States Archaeological Journal. The upper point was found in the Sequatchie Valley area of Tennessee. Both of these points represent exceptionally fine examples of this rare projectile point type.

Abstract image of Cumberland points.

ABSTRACT
CUMBERLAND POINTS
PALEO-INDIAN

    This article illustrates and describes several examples of Cumberland points from the southeastern United States. Cumberland points are rare compared to Clovis points and they represent the longest fluted point type from the Paleo-Indian period. They were made by a culture who used core and blade technology to make a wide variety of tools.

    "No archaeological feature containing Cumberland points has ever been absolutely dated."---1999, Richard Michael Gramly, The Amateur Archaeologist, Kentucky, "A Cumberland Point Site Near Trinity, Lewis County, Northern Kentucky," p. 83.
    "In the lowest cultural level (Stratum 2) in Dutchess Quarry in New York, a single Cumberland point was recovered along with a caribou bone."
---1987, Noel D. Justice, Stone Age Spear And Arrow Points of the Midcontinental And Eastern United States, " Cumberland Cluster," p. 25.
     "The name Cumberland point was suggested by T.M.N. Lewis because of the frequency of occurrence in the Cumberland River drainage."
1970, Robert E. Bell, Guide To The Identification Of Certain American Indian Projectile Points, "Cumberland Points," p. 22.
    "In order to strike off the long, narrow, fluting flakes, the (
Cumberland) point was made thick, narrow and diamond-shaped in cross-section. This created a median ridge necessary to carry the lengthy flute to completion."---1985, Gregory Perino, Selected Preforms, Points And Knives Of The North American Indians, Vol. 1, "Cumberland," p. 94.
    "(Cumberland points)----appear to be rare in comparison to Clovis points and related forms."---1999, Richard Michael Gramly, The Amateur Archaeologist, Kentucky, "A Cumberland Point Site Near Trinity, Lewis County, Northern Kentucky," p. 83.
       "Cumberland points cluster around especially high quality stone sources along the west flanks of the Appalachian Mountains that effectively tethered the style to the quarries."---2005, Bob Patten, "Peoples Of The Flute, A Study In Anthropolithic Forensics, p. 230.

Cumberland points.

CUMBERLAND POINTS
PALEO-INDIAN

   Cumberland points are the most enigmatic of the fluted point types found in North America. To date, no one has reported an excavation of a Cumberland site with specific information about their tool kit and manufacturing debris. In fact, the most recent Smithsonian publication printed in 2006, in the series "Handbook of North American Indians," that represents Origins and Population, does not mention in the index a reference to Cumberland. Very little is known about Cumberland points compared to Clovis, Folsom, Barnes and Crowfield. Few people have seen more than twenty or thirty complete unbroken Cumberland points.


CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER TRIPLE IMAGE
CUMBERLAND POINT
HARDIN COUNTY, KENTUCKY
PRIVATE COLLECTION

     This is an excellent example of a Cumberland point that is reported to have been found sometime before 1947 in Hardin County, Kentucky. The ears are wide and delicate and the outline is very symmetrical. The recurved edges are expertly pressure flaked into a very neat outline. Notice the uniform zigzag effect on the edge view. It also has the classic Cumberland wasted and deeply concave base. Both of the flutes are wide and they extend nearly three quarters the length of the point. This Cumberland point is made of Fort Payne chert and measures 4 1/4 inches (10.8 cm) long, 1 1/8 inches (2.8 cm) wide and 7/17 inch (1.1 cm) thick.

     The Phil Stratton site is the first encapsulated Cumberland site that is still in the process of excavation. The Cumberland feature is situated in  Peoria loess which is estimated to date between 12 and 29 thousand years. The Phil Stratton site has so far produced 663 tools and 14,059 pieces of debitage. The first report is just now being published.

Cumberland point from Dutchess Quarry site, New York.
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGE TRIPLE IMAGE

CUMBERLAND POINT
DUTCHESS QUARRY CAVE #1 SITE
ORANGE COUNTY, NEW YORK
INC. ORANGE COUNTY CHAPTER
NEW YORK STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION COLLECTION

      This Cumberland-type fluted point was the first of six fluted points recovered from the complex of caves located on lookout Mountain in Orange County, New York. It's fully fluted on both faces and ground smooth on the basal edges. The edges are expertly pressure flaked. Both sides were covered by white lime crust but one side was removed for photography. This crust is due to the location of the caves in a formation of dolomitic limestone of the Ordovician period. This point is made of Kalkberg chert and measures 2 3/8 inches (6 cm) long and 7/32 inch (5.5 mm) thick.
   This Cumberland-type point was recovered well outside the usual geographic range for classic Cumberland points. On the average, this point would be smaller and thinner than most Cumberland points from the states of Alabama, Kentucky and Tennessee. It might be more proper to call this point a Barnes point.

     Cumberland points are diagnostic of the Paleo-Indian period. The only carbon date for a Cumberland point comes from the Dutchess Quarry Cave #1 site in New York. A carbon date taken from a caribou bone produced a date of 10,580 B.C. + 370. The Dutchess Quarry Cumberland point was made of Kalkberg chert and measured 2 7/16 inches (6.2 cm) long. The Phil Stratton site has produced optically stimulated luminescence dates, from soil samples taken within the Cumberland feature, of 12 to 16 thousands years.

Cumberland point from Tennessee.
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER TRIPLE IMAGE

CUMBERLAND POINT
SEQUATCHIE VALLEY AREA OF TENNESSEE
PRIVATE COLLECTION

     This is a rare example of a large unbroken Cumberland point from Tennessee. It was found many years ago by Lt. Col. Ben Thompson, retired Army, sometime between 1966 and his death in 1989. The location of the find site is not known but Mr. Thompson’s surface collecting area was within the Sequatchie Valley in the east central area of the state. This would include the counties of Marion, Sequatchie, Bledsoe and Cumberland.
    This Cumberland point is heavily patinated but it appears to be made from Fort Payne chert. It measures 5 5/8 inches (14.3 cm) long, 1 7/16 inches (3.7 cm) wide and 7/16 inch (1.1 cm) thick.

    Cumberland points have been described as being diagnostic of the Parkhill complex in the Great Lakes area. The Parkhill complex is known for Barnes points which have a different shape than Cumberland points from Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama and other states in the southeast. Barnes points are similar in some ways to Cumberland points but they are not the same. Cumberland points are generally longer, thicker and have wider basal corners or "ears." Barnes points were named by William Roosa in 1963 from a site in Midland County, Michigan.


CLICK ON PICTURES FOR LARGER IMAGES

CUMBERLAND POINTS
KENTUCKY AND TENNESSEE
PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

   These pictures illustrate three more examples of Cumberland points. The example on the left was restored from four fragments that were found separately on the Phil Stratton Cumberland site in Logan County, Kentucky. This is a complete but resharpened Cumberland projectile point that is fluted full length on one side and about half the length on the other. This Cumberland point is made of Ste. Genevieve chert and measures 4 3/8 inches (11.1 cm) long and 5 16 inch (8 mm) thick.
    The center Cumberland point was found in southern Boone County, Kentucky. It's made of a fairly good quality multi-colored chert and measures 4 ¼ inches (11.4 cm) long.
    The Cumberland point on the right was found in a cultivated field in 2001 in Decatur County, Tennessee by Dennus Tolley. It appears to be a finished spear point that was not broken during manufacture but probably was damaged from agricultural equipment. This broken basal section represents a little over half of the original point. An estimated length when it was complete is approximately 6 inches (15.2 cm) long. This broken Cumberland base is made of a yellow chert of good quality and it measures 3 7/8 inches (10 cm) long and 13/32 inch (1.1 cm) thick.

    Most Cumberland points have been found throughout the Cumberland and Tennessee River drainages in Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama. But they have a much wider distribution area that extends outward, in smaller numbers, into Illinois, Indiana, southern Ohio and other eastern states. As the type moves northward to New York and across to the Great Lakes it changes into Barnes points.

CONTINUE ON TO PAGE TWO

"REFERENCES"

1958, Love, C. T., Central States Archaeological Journal, "Cumberland Fluted Spearhead, Figure 75," p. 136.
1970
, Bell, Robert E., Guide To The Identification Of Certain American Indian Projectile Points, "Cumberland Points," p. 22.

1985, Perino, Gregory, Selected Preforms, Points And Knives Of The North American Indians, Vol. 1, "Cumberland," p. 94.

1987, Justice, Noel D., Stone Age Spear And Arrow Points of the Midcontinental And Eastern United States, " Cumberland Cluster," p. 25.
1988, Tattersall, Ian, Delson, Eric, Couvering, John Van, Encyclopedia Of Human Evolution And Prehistory, "Aurignacian," p. 63.

1991, Wilke, Philip J., Flenniken, J. Jeffrey, Ozbun, Terry, Journal Of California And Great Basin Anthropology, "Clovis Technology At The Anzick Site, Montana," p. 257.
1992, Deller, D. Brian, Ellis, Christopher J., Thedford II, A Paleo-Indian Site In The Ausable River Watershed Of Southwestern Ontario.
1994, Funk, Robert E., Steadman, David W., Archaeological And Paleoenvironmental Investigations In The Dutchess Quarry Caves, Orange County, New York, "The Dutchess Quarry Cave No. 8, Artifacts," pp. 15 & 101
.
1999, Gramly, Richard Michael, The Amateur Archaeologist, Kentucky, "A Cumberland Point Site Near Trinity, Lewis County, Northern Kentucky," p. 83.
2005, Patten, Bob, "Peoples Of The Flute, A Study In Anthropolithic Forensics, p. 230.

2007
, Personal communications with Mike Gramly.
2007, Personal communications with Dennis Vesper.

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