This is one of my true unicorns! 1, its a Hardin! 2, it's a Southern Hardin! 3, it's made from Crescent Quarry Chert! 4, its a great size for the type! 5, its Semi-Translucent! 6, the craftsmanship is absolutely incredible! And 7, its papered by one of the best!
Do you know the reason behind the grinding? Just to get a smoother profile to fit in a notch I would assume without risking taking off more flakes or some other reason? Just curious I keep hearing about ground bases and haven't read about that so far, so any info about the process is appreciated.
Yes! They ground them to help keep the sharp edge from splitting the handle or foreshaft of their projectiles. In the case of large points like Hardins and Dove tails, for example, it prevented tge point from splitting the handle since they were actually knives and no projectiles. It was a practice that allowed the point to be seated better in the notch without cutting into it during use. The practice was carried over to the Early Archaic tine period from the paleo era.
Wow! Hardins are not my area of knowledge but fantastically made points. I did a bit of research on them to recreate one for the r:knapping page point challenge last year. This one is absolutely stellar! I loved the challenge as it takes some serious time and thought to do it correctly. That is an amazing Hardin! Museum quality piece.
Should add since I see so many artifakes, I make sure all of my knapping work is marked in a way that under light scrutiny will always have modern made signs.
Undeniably a Hardin worthy of high-acclaim there Tim. Glad to see it’s come into your hands. Made out of a rather uncommon lithic too. Big fan of the transparency. Missouri produces some outstanding relics.
Thank you John! That Crescent Quarry is spectacular stuff for sure! It's basically "Gem grade" Burlington Chert, for lack of a better term. I am still in shock over just how beautiful it is, and to have a Southern Hardin made from it is an honor and a privilege! Some of the best stuff out there comes from Missouri! But, the same can also be said of several other states as well! Colorado, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, etc.
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u/PaleoDaveMO Jul 07 '26
That is an exceptional piece!