|
McKean and Duncan/Hanna, Swan River Chert |
|
|
|
| Added Date:
Aug 17, 2018 @ 7:30pm |
| Gallery:
Zhimaa'igan |
| Price: $40.00
|
Status:
Sold
|
These are replicas of a McKean and Duncan/Hanna Points. These point styles predominated on the central Canadian Plains around 4,500-3,500 years ago. McKean and Duncan/Hanna are commonly found together. Whether they are expressions of two tribes who often hunted together, or two specialized weapons for different hunting methods, or something else entirely, is a good question. For a while, the shouldered Duncan and Hanna points were considered separate types, but now they are understood to be various overlapping expressions of a single type. Both McKean and Duncan/Hanna are types of Atl-atl points.
Swan River Chert formed in a unique circumstance. During the Cretaceous Period, some 90 million years ago, on the interior corridor of North America, a huge sea covered much of what is now the plains. Along the edges of Manitoba Escarpment, a thick heaved Crest of limestone running northwest to southeast across the eastern Canadian Prairies, deep hydrothermal vents formed, within this ancient sea, releasing energy from deep within the earth. The heat and pressure around these vents caused unique shafts of mineralization to form through the ancient limestone. The mineralized silicified and fossil rich nodules became Swan River Chert, named after the Swan River Valley in Manitoba, which carries the densest concentrations. During the following glacial periods, massive ice-sheets ground down into the bedrock of the North, and picked up the harder chert nodules. When the ice-sheets melted, they left these nodules scattered across the western Canadian Plains. The material requires heat-treatment to make refined tools; in its raw state, it's hardly different from low-grade Quartzite. Ancient peoples in this region may have begun utilizing heat-treating regularly far earlier than elsewhere, as even +9,500 year-old points, in the Scottsbluff style, have been found, made of heat-treated Swan River Chert. This stone is the dominant type utilized throughout the Archaic/Middle Prehistoric Period in Saskatchewan. |
| |
| Other Available Images |
|
|
|
More Items from Zhimaa'igan |
|
|
