JACK'S REEF POINTS
Late Woodland: 1,000 to 350 BP
DESCRIPTION: Jack's Reef Corner Notched points range
in size from 25 to 65 mm in length, but average about 48 mm. These
are relatively thin points averaging under 6 mm thick. The shape
is either ovoid or pentagonal in outline and flat or nearly so
in cross section. The blade edges are convex or angular, with
deep corner notches creating thin, sharp barbs and tangs. The
base is generally straight, with minor irregularities and sometimes
lightly ground smooth.
Closely related to the corner-notched version is the Jack's Reef
Pentagonal. This is a small to medium sized, very thin, five-sided
point usually with a very sharp tip. The hafting area is usually
a straight-sided contracting stem, with a slightly concave to
straight base.
DISTRIBUTION: The major centre of use was the Seneca River
area of central New York, where it has been found in burials or
middens of the Kipp Island, Jack's Reef, Bluff Point, Wickham
and other sites and on numerous surface sites. It also appears
in Ohio and southern Ontario.
RAW MATERIAL: In southern Ontario Kettle Point or Onondaga
chert would be the main material used, but both Pennsylvania jasper
and Ohio Flint Ridge chalcedony were used as well. These points
appear to have been made by carefully controlled pressure flaking.
AGE AND CULTURE: This point falls into the late Middle
Woodland to early Late Woodland time period and is a principal
point of the Point Peninsula and early Owasco complexes.
REFERENCES: Ritchie, 1961, pp. 26-27, 78-79. Perino, 1968,
pp. 38-39. Justice, 1995, pp. 217-219. Tully, 1998, pp. 89-90.
Overstreet, 2003, pp. 474-477..