THEBES POINTS
Early to Middle Archaic: 8,000 to 5,500
BP
DESCRIPTION: Thebes points range in size from 40 to
68 mm in length, 24 to 40 mm in width, and 5 to 10 mm in thickness.
Basal width is 25 to 35 mm and the most prominent feature of the
Thebes is the hafting area. The stem is often quite large and
sharply flaring. Heavy basal grinding is almost always present
and the base ranges from slightly concave to convex. The side
or corner notches are usually very deep and sometimes squared,
and enter upward and inward diagonally. The blade area is large,
broad and flat on unsharpened specimens, and the edge is sometimes
serrated. Blade edges are usually fairly straight and often beveled,
giving a rhomboidal cross section. Surface flaking is typically
broad and shallow. Pressure flaking is concentrated at the blade
edges and hafting area. The large variation in metrics is due
to extensive resharpening. Thebes-like bifaces have been found
as knives, points and hafted scrapers, suggesting their use was
as a specialized "heavy duty" tool, used and repaired
until nothing was left.
DISTRIBUTION: Thebes points are found over most of the
midwestern USA (Bechtel 1988; Justice 1987), but are rather rare
here in southwestern Ontario. Thebes sites tend to be concentrated
to upland biotic zones such as terraces and fossil beach ridges.
RAW MATERIAL: Points are most commonly made from local
materials, but Bayport, Upper Mercer and Flint Ridge are more
commonly used in northwest Ohio.
AGE AND CULTURE: Presently only one site has yielded C-14
dates for Thebes points: 7,750 B.C. and 6,880 B.C. from the Graham
Cave site. Based on their position in stratified sites such as
Graham Cave, Dillow and Duvan Rockshelters, a range of 8,000-6,000
B.C. has been suggested (Luchterhand 1970). In northwest Ohio
a longer time range is suggested by the abundant use of Bayport
chert, which is rare in Early Archaic assemblages, but common
in Middle Archaic ones, suggesting an end date in this region
of perhaps 5,000 B.C.
REFERENCES: London Chapter, Ontario Archaeological Society.
T. Abel, 1990 Thebes Points. KEWA 90-8. Perino, 1971, pp. 96-97.
Justice, 1995, pp. 54-57. Tully, 1998, p. 142. Overstreet, 2003,
pp.179-180, 590-593, 940-943