MEADOWOOD POINTS
Early to Middle Woodland: 3,000 to 2,000
BP
DESCRIPTION: Meadowoods range in size from about 40
to 70 mm in length, 18 to 28 mm in width, and 4 to 7 mm in thickness.
Inner notch width is 14 to 20mm with a convex base being the norm,
although straight bases do occur. Side notches are aligned perpendicular
to the biface long axis or at times angled slightly toward the
tip. Cross sections show a flattened lenticular biconvex form.
While the flake patterning is irregular, Meadowood bifaces display
distinctive flat flake scars which allow production of these relatively
thin, smooth surfaced points. Removal of wide, thin biface retouch
is facilitated through the use of a soft pressure flaking tool.
DISTRIBUTION: These bifaces occur throughout most of southern
Ontario, from Bruce County in the north to Essex County in the
west and on into New York state in the east.
RAW MATERIAL: Virtually all Meadowood bifaces in Ontario
are manufactured from Onondaga chert, but an occasional specimen
of Kettle Point chert has been documented. This distinctive biface
form often occurs in mortuary caches , but is also widely distributed
on small camp sites and Onondaga chert quarry sites. Most appear
to have been manufactured in the vicinity of Onondaga chert outcrops
and then transported in considerable numbers throughout southwestern
Ontario, where they were accepted by a variety of groups participating
in locally developed Late Archaic tool production systems.
AGE AND CULTURE: Meadowood points are the best known and
most easily recognized biface form of the Early Woodland period
in southwestern Ontario. The Bruce Boyd site date of 520 B.C.
(Spence et al., 1978) is assumed to pertain to this tool form
and compares well with I. Kenyon's 530 B.C. date for an Early
Woodland Vinette I vessel in the Ausable River drainage. Early
radiocarbon dates in New York state range as far back as 998 B.C.
REFERENCES: London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society.
I. Kenyon, 1980. Meadowood Points. KEWA 80-5. Ritchie, 1961, pp.35-36.
Justice, 1995, pp. 170-172. Waldorf, 1987, p.96. Overstreet,
2003, pp. 145-146, 516-517.