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More than 20 of them have turned up across the American West (and
one in Ohio). They have been unearthed by construction crews,
artifact collectors, and in one case by a man hand-digging an
irrigation canal. They are the Clovis caches, groupings of
exquisitely carved spear points and/or other flaked stone artifacts
crafted thousands of years ago. Were they stored for a planned
retrieval that never came? Were they ritual objects used in sacred
ceremonies or as grave goods? Did the ancients use them for all
three purposes? No one knows. But that only adds to their
fascination for us today. Here, savor the skill and workmanship, the
artistry and mystery, of 10 artifacts from perhaps the most
spectacular of these early American collections, the Fenn
Cache.—Peter Tyson
Note on the photographs
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Artifact #149
The showpiece of the Fenn Cache, this is one of the finest
Clovis points ever found. The Clovis were a prehistoric people
who flourished in North America at the end of the Ice Age,
hunting mammoths and other big game with spear points not
unlike this one. To make the point, Clovis knappers used a
billet, a hammer of ivory or antler, to flake off pieces of
the point through a process known as brittle fracture. This
point, crafted from red jasper, reveals an unusual flaking
style: its maker struck the point diagonally rather than from
side to side, as was the norm.
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Artifact #142
Fashioned from Utah agate, this is a classic Clovis point in
size, flaking, and proportions. It is in such perfect
condition that experts suspect it may never have been used,
bolstering the hypothesis that such caches may have served a
ritual purpose. Like all but one of the Fenn artifacts, this
point bears a residue of red ocher, an iron-rich pigment that
Stone Age cultures often used in ceremonies.
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Artifact #107
The scratches visible on the flaked base, or flute, of this
obsidian point revealed a residue of fossil pine pitch.
Experts believe the first step the Clovis took in attaching
their points to spears or knife handles was to smear tree
resin on each point's flute to serve as a kind of glue. They
then wedged the sticky end of the point into a groove carved
into the business end of the weapon's wooden or bone shaft and
bound the two together with sinew.
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Artifact #154
Made of smoky quartz crystal, this point is transparent. Its
shape suggests to experts that it may have once been part of a
larger point. While the stone used in many points can be
traced to a particular rock formation or region, the original
home of this stone is unknown.
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Artifact #151
No one knows what this crescent-shaped tool was used for,
though it has turned up in association with Clovis points
elsewhere. While the tool's middle edges are dull from
grinding, its ends remain sharp. It is made of chert from the
Green River Formation of southwestern Wyoming and contiguous
parts of Utah and Colorado. This is not far from where the
cache is believed to have been found, the three corners area
where Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho come together.
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Artifact #152
Also of Green River Formation chert, this artifact is similar
to other Clovis blades. Flaked from a stone core carried as
source material, blades were fashioned into knives, scrapers,
and other tools. The edges of this blade are dull, possibly as
a result of use. Although the cache's discoverer died before
sharing details of his discovery, he is thought to have found
it around 1902 in a rockshelter or at the base of a cliff.
Another story says he unearthed it during plowing, though none
of the artifacts shows evidence of plow damage.
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Artifact #116
This chert point shows superior control of "overshot flaking."
In this process, Clovis knappers struck across the point in
such a way as to remove a flake that included a portion of the
opposite face. They used overshot flaking to quickly thin a
point, but they had to be careful: an improper strike could
result in taking too large a chunk off the edge. This point is
not fluted and may not be finished.
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Artifact #104
This specimen shows worn ridges on its flake scars, which may
suggest that it rubbed repeatedly against other artifacts it
was packed with during transport, possibly in a bag. With a
variety of quality rock and mineral types represented in the
cache—this point is made of obsidian—it is clear
that its owner either traveled far to procure specific types
of stone or traded with others who did. In either case, the
stone in the Fenn and other caches was hand-carried great
distances.
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Artifact #111
This Clovis biface—or two-faced point with a continuous
edge—is made of Green River Formation chert. Though
precisely when the Fenn artifacts were made is unknown,
experts used a process known as hydration analysis to get a
rough idea of when two obsidian points in the cache were
created. When a newly broken piece of obsidian is buried in
soil it begins to absorb water, forming a "hydration rind."
Experts can use the thickness of this rind to roughly
determine age, which in the case of the two obsidian points
tested was thousands of years old.
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Artifact #100
At over eight inches long and nearly one and a half pounds,
this obsidian piece is the largest artifact in the Fenn Cache.
All told, the 56 artifacts in the cache weigh about 18 pounds,
a significant load for a hunter likely also carrying food,
tools, and other items. The weight and quality of the
artifacts, along with their association with ocher, their
pristine nature in many cases, and the simple fact that they
were found together hint that this was a prized collection for
one or more of America's first inhabitants.
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Note: The photographs, many of which
show both faces and one edge of each artifact, were taken by Peter
Bostrom (Lithics Casting Lab, Troy, Illinois), who used a 4x5 camera
and triple-exposed each image. To view his photos of all 56
artifacts in the collection, see
The Fenn Cache: Clovis Weapons and Tools, by George Frison
and Bruce Bradley (Santa Fe: One Horse Land & Cattle Company,
1999).
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