ADENA POINTS
Early Woodland: 2,500 to 1,500 BP
DESCRIPTION: Adena points range in size from 60 to 125
mm in length but average around 65 mm, and 6 to 10 mm in thickness.
These points are considered as dart points (Ritchie abd Dragoo
1960). The blade is generally ovoid in outline, but some of the
narrower specimens could be described as lanceolate. The cross
section is biconvex to nearly flat, with excurvate edges. Shoulders
are weak to moderate, but never barbed, and slope gently to the
long broad contracting lobate stem. While moderate to heavy stem
grinding is reported, on the New York examples in most cases it
was absent.
DISTRIBUTION: The Adena type is found chiefly in the upper
Ohio River Valley, especially the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana,
West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York, but appear across southern
Ontario as well.
RAW MATERIAL: In the upper Ohio Valley these Adena points
are frequently made from quality grey or white Flint Ridge chalcedony
or Indiana flint. However, Ontario examples tend to be made mainly
from Onondaga chert.
AGE AND CULTURE: This is the characteristic point style
of the Adena culture of early Woodland times, radiocarbon dated
bewteen 800 B.C. and 800 A.D. However, this point type was gradually
going out of use by the time of the advent of of the Hopewell
era at around 2,000 B.P.
REFERENCES: A Typology and Nomenclature for New York Projectile
Points by William A. Ritchie, 1961. Waldorf, 1987, pp. 180-185.
Justice, 1995, Tully, 1998, pp. 8-9. Overstreet, 2003, p. 98,
191, 251, 357-362.