Archeologists Cory Broehm and Troy Lovata wrote of the Silo Site items: “The combination of quality, size, and context of these artifacts is exceptionally rare. Like the Ernest Witte corner tang specimens, those from the Silo site appear to be unused. Smaller corner tang bifaces found throughout central Texas show evidence of use such as worn or beveled edges and fractures.Īlthough very rare, large corner tang bifaces have been recovered from burials in other south Texas cemetery sites including the Morhiss Mound site in Victoria County and the Silo site (41KA102) in Karnes County.Īt Silo, three corner tang artifacts were found with the burial of a child who was interred beneath an adult male. Indeed its large blade size relative to the diminutive stem almost certainly would result in a break if the tool were hafted and used for cutting, skinning, or some other process. The remarkable proportions of this artifact-its length and flatness-suggested to Site Archeologist Grant Hall that the piece was made on a large chert slab which had been reduced to form a blank, rather than from a large flake.īecause of its context and because it appears unused, we can conclude that this grave offering carried special significance, a ritual or symbolic function. Measuring 28.8 cm in length and 5.1 cm in width, it is exceptionally well thinned, with maximum thickness of less than one centimeter. The specimen from the Ernest Witte site is without question one of the finest and largest known examples of the corner tang type. Patterson), more recent tallies indicate their distribution extends as far north as Wyoming, although generally confined to the Plains. Thought to originate in central Texas (based on numbers of recorded specimens in a 1930s study by J. Edge wear on some suggests hafting for use as a cutting implement others have been worn down through use and reworked into drills. For example, several boatstones (likely atlatl weights) and a gorget were made of stone from the Ouachita Mountains of Arkansas, hundreds of miles distant.Ĭorner tang knives are a distinctive artifact form, typically characterized by an off-center placement of the tang, or haft element, but varying considerably in size and blade shape. In addition, several artifacts from the same burial group were made from “exotic”, or nonlocal, materials, indicating the people were involved in a long-range trade network or “import-export” system during the Late Archaic. 450, and was notable for evidence of violence within the remains (at least five individuals died from dart point wounds). The burial group from which the biface was recovered dates to Late Archaic times, ca. Known as the Ernest Witte site (41AU36), the cemetery contained more than 250 burials, reflecting approximately 3000 years of use.
In 1974, excavators from The University of Texas at Austin uncovered the biface along with numerous other items-including a second corner tang biface and shell ornaments-from the burial of a young woman in a prehistoric cemetery in Austin County, Texas. And based on the over-sized proportions and lack of wear along the blade edges or other evident signs of use, the piece had not been intended for utilitarian purposes. Based on the color and fine-grained texture of the stone, the material he chose for this piece likely derived from the Georgetown area in central Texas. More than 1500 years ago, an expert craftsman fashioned this unusual corner tang biface with an extraordinarily long, curved blade. TARL Collections photo by Laura Nightengale.
Because it derived from a burial context and appears to be unused, it almost certainly was a “ritual” or symbolic object, reflecting the special status of the individual with whom it was buried. Featured image: This exceptionally well made corner-tang knife measures almost a foot in length and just over a third of an inch in thickness.
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