TUSSINGER ECCENTRIC
MADE FROM EARLY PALEO BIFACE
CIRCA 1920's AND 1930's
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COPYRIGHT AUGUST 31, 2010 PETER A. BOSTROM

    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 had to 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 it as a knife or projectile point, 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 made by rechipping more ancient artifacts.
   This eccentric was made from a good quality colorful chert and it measures 4 7/8 inches (12.4 cm) long.

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