BREWERTON CORNER NOTCHED POINTS
Middle Archaic: 9,000 to 5,500 BP
DESCRIPTION: Brewerton Corner Notched points range in
size from 30 to 55 mm in length, 20 to 40 mm in width, and 6 to
11 mm in thickness. Basal hafting width is 20 to 22 mm. The blades
usually display convex lateral margins, but some specimens have
straight or concave margins and these are mostly reworked points.
Typically the bases are straight or slightly convex. The hafting
modification ranges from basally notched to almost side notched.
In fact,this type tends to integrate with the Brewerton side Notched
form. In cross section they are often biconvex, but owing to variable
workmanship, they may be plano-convex or otherwise asymmetric.
The quality of workmanship varies, but most of the bases areslightly
to heavily ground.
DISTRIBUTION: Brewerton Corner Notched points are found
throughout much of eastern North America, although reported under
a variety of more or less synonymous type names.
RAW MATERIAL: These points are primarily made from Onondaga
chert..
AGE AND CULTURE: The type was named by William Ritchie
(1961), who regards them as a minor point type in the Brewerton
phase of the Laurentian tradition; however, corner notched points
of similar form, size and age are found in many non-Laurentian
Archaic complexes in the eastern woodlands. Archaic corner notched
points have a long history, but they seem to be most popular between
2,500 and 3,500 B.C. At the Morrison's Island-6 site on the Ottawa
River, they have been carbon dated along with Brewerton Side Notched
at 2,750 B.C. by Clyde Kennedy. Closer to home, Brian Deller has
found water-rolled corner notched points in the Thedford embayment
by Lake Huron. The chronology of Huron basin water levels suggests
a date of about 2,500 B.C. or earlier for Deller's specimens.
REFERENCES: London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society.
I. Kenyon, 1981 Brewerton Corner-Notched points. KEWA 81-8. Ritchie,
1961, pp. 16, 66-67. Justice, 1995, pp. 115-118. Overstreet, 2003,
pp. 106-107, 392.834.