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COLORFUL BIFACE
This is the most remarkable biface or flint blade
that was found during the excavation of
Craig Mound on the Spiro Mound site. The color and banding pattern
on this biface is really quite
extraordinary. The stone must have cause some excitement when it was
discovered by the Mississippian quarrymen. Nothing quite like it has
ever been seen before. It was destined to fall into the hands of one of
the most skill flint craftsman of the time. The shape and style of
flaking is the same as some Ramey knives. Bifacial reduction was done
with very skillful shallow percussion flaking that generally meets at
the center of the medial ridge. The quality of the edge work is also
just as skillfully done with fine pressure flaking. It's very likely
that a Cahokia culture craftsman made this "gem" of a biface. Hayden Vandagriff
discovered it sometime in April of 1935. He found it while digging in
one of the smaller mounds or cones located within the large
saddle-shaped mound complex known as Craig Mound. Robert Bell bought it
in 1935 for his dad for $15.00. It measures 13 1/8 inches long and 3/8
inch thick. Robert Bell identified the material as Kay County chert from
northern Oklahoma but it may actually be Kaolin chert from southern Illinois.
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