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Flint does not
appear naturally in the area (Guernsey County,
Ohio) in which this site is located. Since this part of the state was not glaciated, flint is likely to appear here without human involvement only
in the form of glacial outwash from far to the north. But
such outwash has not been reported in this county, and even at that,
the site described here is 90-120 m (300'-400') above creek beds
in which this might even possibly be present. It therefore
appears that flint objects were imported by early
inhabitants of the area, for whatever reason. Typically,
in the established American archaeological paradigm, this
material is believed to have been imported only in the form of
the popularly recognized "Indian" artifacts such as
points, blades, and scrapers, or as larger cores of raw material
for reduction to these utilitarian implements. Strangely,
only a very few scrapers and picks made of flint have
appeared here among the many professionally verified artifacts
of other (mainly local) lithic material. Concentrations of flint along with other
imported rock (including igneous and metamorphic)
have appeared eroding from the surface near the spring on the
east (sheltered) side of the knob, mainly as pebbles, sometimes worked, usually not, or at least not obviously, the latter
falling into the category of "manuport", brought in
likely because of their novelty or their natural resemblance to
animal forms or more-or-less human faces. |
