"During the past two years
the attention of archaeologists and collectors has been directed toward
peculiar types of chipped stone objects purportedly found in Delaware
County, Oklahoma."---1939, Forrest E.
Clements and Alfred Reed, "Eccentric" Flints Of Oklahoma,"
American Antiquity, Vol. V, July 1939, No. 1, p. 27.
"It is believed that a
further study of these relics (Tussinger
eccentrics) will establish a
connection between the Maya culture and the territory where these
artifacts were found (Oklahoma)."---1937, "Oklahoma
Notes," Hobbies, The Magazine For Collectors, p. 99.
"At first some of the smaller specimens (Tussinger
eccentrics) were sold at twenty-five
cents each; eventually prices in the larger ones reached as high as
$40.00 and $50.00 each."---1950, "The
Oklahoma Eccentric Flints," Wisconsin Archaeologist, Vol. 31, No. 3,
pp. 77-78.
"We must not forget the small group of lithic craftsmen who
became master artists, confident of their ability and completely in
control of their tools; able to play with their art, to satisfy their
creative desire by producing beautiful or fantastically eccentric
artifacts."---1948, Ruth DeEtte Simpson, "Eccentric
Chert Points---The Work Of Master Craftsmen," The Masterkey, Vol.
XXII, July 1948, No. 4 ,pp. 128-130.
"He (J.
G. Braecklin) highly valued the
Rhoades Mound ceremonial blades (Tussinger's
eccentrics), and owned several, as
have President Claude Stone of the Illinois State Archaeological
Society, and a number of other collectors and professionals."---1996,
Jim Iler, "Oklahoma's Buried Maya Treasure," The Ancient
American, No. 13, p. 3-6.
"------Mr. Elsing's collection----now
includes more than a thousand of the points (Tussinger's
eccentrics) found in the original
Rhoades Mounds cache."---1948, Ruth
DeEtte Simpson, "Eccentric Chert Points---The Work Of Master
Craftsmen," The Masterkey, Vol. XXII, July 1948, No. 4 ,pp.
128-130.
MACK TUSSINGER'S ECCENTRICS
CIRCA 1920's to 1930's
OKLAHOMA
Tussinger eccentrics
are uniquely artistic. Many people have been and still are proud to own
them. It doesn't seem to matter if they believe they were made by an
unknown ancient culture or if they believe they were made by Mr.
Tussinger himself. Professor Robert Bell gave me his eccentric not long
before he died. He had gotten it from Mack Tussinger himself and had
kept it as an example of Mr. Tussinger's flintknapping ability. On the
other hand, I was recently shown a nice "classic" Tussinger eccentric
that once hung in a Doctor's office. The Doctor had kept it as an
exquisite example of an ancient culture's flintknapping work. In 1940 H.
Holmes Ellis reported that he could account for and had located 3,000
Tussinger eccentrics that had been distributed to collections from California to New Jersey. The
numbers of Tussinger eccentrics that have been held in any one collection across the country
can be counted from as little as one to Willard Elsing's collection that
once held over a thousand.
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PHOTO FROM CLAUDE STONE COLLECTION----LITHIC CASTING LAB
COLLECTION OF IMAGES.
COLORIZED BY PETE BOSTROM
MR. MACK TUSSINGER
Mack Tussinger probably sent this picture to Claude Stone when
the Illinois collector was building his personal collection of
Tussinger eccentrics. Or it might have even come from Alfred Reed
who once owned about 900 of the eccentrics and was also selling them to
different people. The original image is a black & white print which
has been colorized for this article. This picture was probably taken
sometime in the late 1940's or sometime in the 1950's. The back of
the picture gives the address at that time as Mack Tussinger, Sparinaw, Oklahoma, Star Route.
Mr. Tussinger is reported by the Tussinger family to have been a
gentle man and a Grand Artisan of the Wyandotte people who was able
to create lovely pieces of art from stone and clay. He was also
known as a rockhound and avid trader who frequented gun shows and
trading posts. The family reports that he was a quiet man who worked
hard to take care of his wife, children and grandchildren. |
|
Collectors and
flintknappers have verbally referred to them as Tussinger's. But in
print and from many different publications, they have been referred to
as "the Oklahoma eccentrics," "Oklahoma eccentric flints," "the
eccentrics of Oklahoma," "eccentric flints of Oklahoma," "ceremonial
flints," "eccentric chert points," "eccentrically chipped points,"
"eccentric points," "eccentric ceremonial flints," "Mack Tussinger
eccentrics," and even "Oklahoma's buried Maya treasure." In 1960 Irene Heeringa (M. A. Western Michigan Univ.)
wrote that "This pre-historic art in flint (Tussinger's
eccentrics), in Mr. Elsing's opinion
(a man who once owned over 1,000 of them),
will eventually prove to be one of the greatest archaeological
discoveries of the ancient world, as brought to light in this atomic
era. So there is no doubt that these unique artifacts have stirred the
imagination of many different people for many years. |
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
PRIVATE COLLECTION
MACK TUSSINGER ECCENTRICS
CIRCA 1920's AND 1930's
The
eccentrics in this picture can been attributed to Mack Tussinger's
collection. The picture in the center shows Mr. Tussinger in about
the 1940's or 50's. Approximately half of these eccentrics have been
published in 1948 by Claude Stone and by Willard Elsing in a photographic prints
pamphlet, sometime in the 1950's. They represent a good cross section
of the now famous "Oklahoma eccentrics." Most of the design features
are unique to the Tussinger eccentrics and do not appear anywhere in
the archaeological record. For instance, notice the eccentrics that
have one, two or three small projectile points chipped onto the
bases. Or the ultra fancy forms that have been referred to as
"lacework." One eccentric in this frame was once owned by professor
Robert Bell (small orange example at lower
left corner next to the white eccentric).
Seven eccentrics in this frame was once in the Willard Elsing
collection and the rest were once in the Judge Claude Stone
collection.
The longest eccentric in this frame measures 7 7/8 inches (20 cm) long and
the smallest eccentric measures 1 13/16 inches (4.6 cm) long. |
|
There is no question that most, if not all, of the eccentrics
sold by Mack Tussinger in the 1930's were ancient artifacts. But this is
only in reference to the bifaces and not the edge work. At least one or
more of them date to the Paleo-Indian period well over 10,000 years ago. The
bifaces from which the eccentrics were made can be identified as various forms of projectile points, knives,
spades and other tools. What makes them unique is the edge work that
transformed them into works of art, or maybe it would be more
appropriate to call them folk
art. It's a remarkable accomplishment when you consider the skill and patience
it took to produce thousands of these
complex artifacts. Especially at a time when no one else had ever done
such a thing in such an aggressive a way in all the modern world. |
PUBLISHED ARTICLES ABOUT THE
MACK TUSSINGER OKLAHOMA ECCENTRICS
CIRCA 1939-1945
Many articles have been written about the
Tussinger eccentrics for at least 73 years. Most of them explain how
3,500 eccentrics were discovered in the 1920's by Mack Tussinger in
a mound in northeastern Oklahoma. They disagree as to who made them.
Some of the articles explain how they were made by an unidentified
ancient culture. Other articles argue that the eccentrics were made
by Mr. Tussinger by rechipping the edges of broken artifacts. The
very first article appeared in 1936 in "Hobbies, The Magazine For
Collectors" |
|
The Tussinger eccentrics really are a reactionary phenomenon.
Archaeologists, collectors and authors have argued strong viewpoints
about them for seventy-three years. One source will say they were found
by Mr. Tussinger in a mound in northeastern Oklahoma while another will
say that Mack Tussinger made them himself. It's understandable that
archaeologists in the 1930's wouldn't have been able to interpret
different types of lithic technologies nearly as well as they can today.
There are still some ancient flintknapping techniques that are not
completely understood and have yet to be mastered by modern
flintknappers. But most of today's lithic technologists have a good
understanding of the complexities of the science of stone tool making
and how to duplicate most flake
removal techniques. This knowledge can be applied to the Tussinger
eccentrics in order to better understand them. |
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
PRIVATE COLLECTION
TUSSINGER ECCENTRIC
MADE FROM EARLY PALEO BIFACE
CIRCA 1920's AND 1930's
This eccentric was once in
Claude Stone's collection. At one time he had the largest collection
of Tussinger eccentrics in Illinois. This particular example is technologically inconsistent
when it's compared to other examples in the collection. The biface from which it
was made was manufactured using an advanced lithic technology
that was in use almost exclusively by early Clovis culture
flintknappers well before 10,000 years ago. In fact it may have once
been a Clovis point. The large percussion
flake scars form a pattern that are parallel and oblique. This is a
classic Paleo-Indian bifacial reduction technique. But the edge work
that finished the biface can only relate to
something done by a much later Stone Age culture. There is nothing
in the archaeological record that even comes close to the design
pattern of
this eccentric. Another contradictory point of interest is the fact
that much of the deep surface patina was removed along the edges
when the eccentric was punch flaked into shape.
So in the very least, if this eccentric was discovered in a
mound, the ancient knapper would have made it out of an old
biface that he found. There have been Clovis points found that were rechipped
by a much later culture. But they only side-notched the bases for
hafting in order to re-use them as a knives or projectile
points, never as a ceremonial object in the form of an eccentric. There are no officially
recorded large caches of flaked stone artifacts ever found that were
anciently
made by someone who rechipped them from even more ancient artifacts.
This eccentric was made from a good quality colorful chert and it
measures 4 7/8 inches (12.4 cm) long. |
|
The bifaces from which the
Tussinger eccentrics were made are one of the most
important factors when determining if one person or even if one culture made
them. It's sometimes fairly easy to find out if a cache of artifacts
were made by one or more craftsmen. The
artifacts might exhibit a higher or lower
quality of workmanship in the form of large or small flake removals,
angle of flake removals, thickness of the bifaces, sources of materials, and so on. Sometimes, when bevel resharpening
of the edges is
concerned, it's even possible to determine if the person was right
handed or left handed. Each Stone Age culture used a limited range of
flintknapping technology to make their stone tools. Some flintknapping
technologies were never mixed within a single culture. But the bifaces
from which the Tussinger eccentrics were made
are mixed. They have a stone tool manufacturing technological time span of
several thousand years. |
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
PRIVATE COLLECTION
MACK TUSSINGER ECCENTRICS
MAYA & EGYPTIAN DESIGNS
CIRCA 1920's AND 1930's
These three Tussinger eccentrics
represent design qualities that might relate to Mayan eccentrics and
Egyptian symbolism. The wing design eccentric at the top has an
Egyptian symbolic quality to it. Other published examples of
Tussinger winged eccentrics and this example have design features that
relate to wings. They appear to be fully spread wings which is an
image that is seen in the Egyptian wings of Horus designs.
The two eccentrics at the bottom of this picture do seem to
have a certain design quality about them that might relate to the
Mayan eccentrics of southern Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. The
area where they do seem to have a Mayan shape are their rounded
bases. They have large offset notches, one larger and one smaller,
that give
them a sort of human-head-with-headdress appearance which is a Maya
lithic type feature or
trait.
Only a very tiny percentage of the Tussinger eccentrics can
be identified with any ancient cultural design theme. Almost all of
the eccentrics do not have any design reference outside of the
Tussinger collection of eccentrics.
The longest eccentric in this picture measures 3 7/8 inches
(9.8 cm)
long. |
|
At least one
eccentric from the collection, that is illustrated in this report, was made by a lithic
technology that was used almost exclusively by early
Paleo-Indian flintknappers well over 10,000 years ago. One side of the biface
has very well done parallel oblique percussion flaking. This is a
classic Paleo-Indian bifacial reduction technique that suggests that
this artifact may in fact be a Clovis point. The majority of today's
modern flintknappers would not
be able to duplicate this biface. |
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
PRIVATE COLLECTION
TUSSINGER'S "LACEWORK" ECCENTRICS
CIRCA 1920's AND 1930's
These three Tussinger
eccentrics represent the most elaborate and delicate design pattern
in the collection. They are the most impressive eccentrics and are
best described as having "lace-work edges." They represent some of
the most delicate edge work of all the eccentrics. The design was
applied using large round
expanding notches all along the biface edges. Then another series of V-shaped notches
were applied between the large notches which formed the thin and delicate
"branches." On some of the notches, as can be seen on the example to
the left, in order to further complicate the design a small
projection was left isolated at the center of the V-shaped notches.
The longest eccentric in this picture measures 6 3/4 inches (17.1
cm) long
and 3 1/8 inches (8 cm) wide. |
|
Most of the bifaces from which the Tussinger eccentrics were made can be
attributed to basic
random percussion flaking. This technology was used during all periods in
North America during the Paleo, Archaic, Woodland
and Mississippian periods. |
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
PRIVATE COLLECTION
TUSSINGER "3-POINT BASE"
ECCENTRICS
CIRCA 1920's AND 1930's
These three eccentrics represent one
of the most unique basal patterns that is repeated in various forms
throughout the collection of Tussinger eccentrics. The
archaeological record does record anything remotely similar to these
unique designs. These eccentrics have either one, two or three
projectile points flaked onto the basal ends and various styles of
notching or serrations along the blade edges.
The longest example in this picture measures 3 5/8 inches
(9.2 cm)
long. |
|
The Tussinger eccentrics are radically different in design
from any other stone artifacts that have ever been found. Although
they've often been compared to Mayan eccentrics from southern Mexico,
Guatemala and Honduras. Almost none of them have any pattern that
relates to Mayan lithics. But that is not the case for all of them.
There are two examples that are illustrated in this report that were
originally in Claude Stone's collection that do have definite Maya
design features. Their rounded bases have large offset notches, one
larger and one smaller, that give
them a sort of human-head-with-headdress appearance which is a Maya
lithic type feature or
trait. |
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
PRIVATE COLLECTION
TUSSINGER "POINT BASE"
ECCENTRICS
CIRCA 1920's AND 1930's
These three eccentrics are good
examples of the "arrow point on the base" design. Each eccentric is
unique unto itself. They are very fanciful forms that are so
representative of the Tussinger eccentrics. The deep notching and
delicate points along the edge of the center example would take a
lot of patience and skill to produce. The example on the right
measures 4 1/4 inches (10.8 cm) long and the notch measures 2 3/4
inches (7 cm) long. |
|
Another cultural design trait that can be observed in the Tussinger
collection of eccentrics seems to relate to Egyptian symbolism. Some
published examples and one that is illustrated in this article have
design features that relate to wings. They appear to be fully spread
wings which is an image that is seen in the Egyptian wings of Horus designs. |
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
PRIVATE COLLECTION
TUSSINGER "LARGE NOTCH" ECCENTRICS
CIRCA 1920's AND 1930's
These two forms of Tussinger eccentrics were shaped with large
expanding notches around the edges. This "first stage lacework"
design is common on many of the eccentrics. To produce the
"lacework" pattern, the space between the notches would have been
cut with V-shaped notches. The largest eccentric in this picture
measures 4 3/4 inches (12.1 cm) long. |
|
The vast majority of
the Tussinger eccentrics do not relate to any ancient cultural artifact
design type. A large number of them are much more elaborately and
delicately flaked than most Mayan eccentrics. The majority of the design
features that were incorporated into the eccentrics are unique to the
Tussinger collection. The archaeological record does not report similar
examples. Some of the most notable type designs from the collection
feature either one, two
or three projectile points that were flaked onto the basal ends with various
styles of notching or serrations along the blade edges of the biface. But the most
impressive eccentrics are best described as having "lace-work edges."
They represent some of the most delicate edge work of all the
eccentrics. These eccentrics have large round expanding notches that
were placed all around the biface edges. Then another series of V-shaped
notches were placed in between the large notches to form the most thin
and delicate "branches." On some of those
examples, in order to further complicate the design a small projection
was left isolated at the center of the V-shaped notches. |
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
PRIVATE COLLECTION
TUSSINGER "SMALL SERRATION"
ECCENTRICS
CIRCA 1920's AND 1930's
These two points are good
representative examples of Tussinger's small serration eccentrics.
Small serration eccentrics actually don't seem to be one of the more
common designs, even though they would have been easier to make. The
longest point on the left measures 3 3/4 inches (9.5 cm) long. |
|
I last wrote an article about the Tussinger eccentrics in 2002. It
caused quite a bit of interest and several people did contact me. There
were writers for a newspaper and for a magazine, a professor from the
Oral Roberts Institute and two members from the Tussinger family did
call and write. I believe most everyone is ok with the evidence
that shows that Mr. Tussinger made the eccentrics and sold them,
actually very cheaply, especially if you consider the time and skill
that went into making them. The degree of craftsmanship he accomplished
using indirect flaking, also known as punch flaking, stands out as quite
an achievement. There are no other ancient or modern collections that
have such complex lithics which can be attributed, in these large
numbers, to one person. Mr. Tussinger's eccentrics reflects someone who
had and developed a high degree of patience, flintknapping skill and
artistic ability. It would be an understatement to say that the
Tussinger eccentrics are unique. At this point I would say they really have become legendary. |
"REFERENCES"
1935, Mason, J. Aldren, "Preserving
Ancient America's Finest Sculptures," (picture of Mayan eccentrics)
The National Geographic Magazine, p.542.
1936, Reed, Alfred, Hobbies, The Magazine For Collectors, March.
1937, "Oklahoma Notes," Hobbies, The Magazine For Collectors,
January, p. 99.
1939, Clements, Forrest E. and Reed, Alfred, "Eccentric" Flints Of
Oklahoma,"
American Antiquity, Vol. V, July 1939, No. 1, p. 27.
1940,
Ellis, H. Holmes, "Study of the Oklahoma Eccentric Flints," Vol. 49,
No., 2, 7
pages.
1948, Stone, Claude U., "Journal of the Illinois State
Archaeological Society---Eccentric Flints", pp. 3 & 4.
1948, Simpson, Ruth D., "The Masterkey, July, 1948,"
pp. 128-130.
1950, "The Oklahoma Eccentric
Flints," Wisconsin Archaeologist, Vol. 31, No. 3,
pp. 77-78.
1953, Townsend, Earl, In an article by Earl Townsend, Ohio
Archaeologist, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 20.
1960, Heeringa, Irene, "Treasures From A Pre-Historic
Age---The Eccentrics of Oklahoma", 15 pages.
1996, Iler, Jim, "Oklahoma's Buried Maya Treasure," The Ancient
American, No. 13, p. 3-6.
2004, Whittaker, John C., "Mack Tussinger And The Oklahoma
Eccentrics," American Flintknappers,
2006, Warford-Perry, Janet, "Mack Tussinger And The Oklahoma
Eccentrics," Treasure Cache, January, p. 38.
19--, "Album Prints", Frontier City Museum, pictures of 5 frames
of Mack Tussinger's Oklahoma eccentrics (dates probably sometime in the
1950's or 1960's).
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