Updated By Emily Hildebrant
March 24, 2008
Lithics are any tool made of stone; the most common functional form is a projectile point (arrowhead). Archaeologists can use lithic styles found at a site to date it because styles change through time and as needs differ. Minnesota's most common point styles are listed below.
Lithic making uses a reductive technology, which means that flakes are knocked or pried off of a chunk of stone until it reaches the desired style or size. Lithics are continually sharpened by knocking off small flakes so a projectile point may be much smaller than its original size by the time the archaeologist analyzes it.
Minnesota Lithic Artifacts |
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| Adena Point | Clovis Point |
| Madison Point | Raddatz Point |
| Snyders Point | |
The most common lithic raw material in Minnesota is chert (microcrystalline quartz or Si02)
Agate: Form of chalcedony quartz that forms in bands, fine-grained and brightly colored Si02
Chert: May be fossiliferous, light (including gray, green, red, pink, brown, and purple) colored Si02
Chalcedony: Wide range of colors, waxy luster, and very fine-grained Si02
Flint: Very dark colored and fine-grained Si02
Jasper: Red, yellow, or brown Si02
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Minnesota Lithic Raw Materials |
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| Material Name | Color | Distinctive Features | Luster | Texture | Translucency |
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Bijou Hills Silicified Sandstone |
Pale green to olive green. | Patinates to a frosty white color. | Sugary. | Sugary. | Somewhat translucent. |
| Blanding (Kankakee) Chert | White to cream and light gray.
Heat treatment produces a pinkish tint. |
Often streaked or mottled. | Dull.
Heat treatment produces a dull to satiny luster. |
Medium to medium-fine. | Slight. |
| Burlington Fossiliferous Chert | Off-white to light gray and tan. Heat treatment occasionally produces a pinkish tint. |
Speckled with tiny, diffuse, fractured fossil pieces. High quality chert. | Dull.
Heat treatment occasionally produces a satiny luster. |
Medium-coarse to medium fine. | Low. |
| Burlington Mottled Gray and Tan Chert | Light gray to tan. Frequently has diffuse
streaks of orangish tan.
Heat treatment leaves a pinkish or reddish tint. |
High quality chert. | Dull to satiny.
Heat treatment produces a satiny to waxy luster. |
Medium to medium-fine. | Typically low. |
| Burlington Mottled White Chert | White to very light gray. May have irregular
mottled bands of light gray with occasional fossils. Heat treatment may produce a pinkish tint. |
High quality chert. | Dull to satiny.
Heat treatment usually leaves a satiny to waxy luster. |
Medium-fine. | Moderate. |
| Cobden Chert | Medium to dark gray with a slight olive or blue-gray tint. | Often has concentric banding. | Satiny. | Very fine-grained. | Low. |
| Cedar Valley Chert | Light yellowish brown to brown.
Heat treatment produces red to brown. |
Two varieties: opaque and translucent. May be mottled. | Poor to fine-grained. | Slight to transparent. | |
| Galena Chert | Light to medium gray to tan. Heat treatment changes the color to pinkish or reddish gray. |
Some pieces are mottled. Crushed white fossil pieces and dark fossil worm borings usually present. | Dull and chalky.
Heat treatment leaves a satiny luster. |
Medium to medium-fine. | Slight. |
| Grand Meadow Chert | Light to medium gray frequently with an olive tint. Slightly darker banding. | May have numerous small, white fossil pieces. | Satiny | Fine-grained. | Moderate. |
| Hixton Silicified Sandstone | White to cream and tan. May also be pink, red, yellow, orange, and lavendar. | Sugary. | High. | ||
| Hopkinton Chert | Patchy off-white to light gray and cream
colored. Heat treatment produces a pinkish color. |
Moderate quality. | Dull. | Irregular texture. | Low. |
| Jasper Taconite | Grayish black to medium dark gray and blackish red | May be speckled with small inclusions Distinctive red color |
Satiny | Medium-fine | Thin sections are moderately transparent |
| Keokuk Chert | Light gray, light blue-gray, and medium gray to
cream and tan. Heat treatment occasionally produces a pinkish or reddish tint. |
Often finely fossiliferous. | Dull and chalky. Heat treatment produces a satiny luster. |
Medium to medium-fine. | Slight. |
| Knife River Flint | Dark brown. | Patination will sometimes be milky white or cream surface color. | Dull to satiny. | Fine-grained. | High. |
| Maquoketa Chert | Light to medium brownish gray, and not strongly
colored. Heat treatment produces a lighter gray to off-white color. |
Poorly cemented bands from variable silica content. Mottled appearance. | |||
| Moline Chert | Light gray to black. Heat treatment may leave a pinkish gray tint. |
Often specked or streaked with black pieces of carbonized plant material. | Satiny. Heat treatment produces a slightly waxy luster. |
Medium-fine. | Low. |
| Prairie Du Chien | Cream to light and medium gray or reddish
orange. May be streaked with grayish yellow, olive gray, light
brown, pale brown, brownish gray or grayish pink. Heat treatment produces a frequent patchy pinkish, pinkish gray, orange, or reddish tint. |
Often milky-mottled. Often has oolitic grains. | Dull to satiny.
Heat treatment leaves a satiny to waxy luster. |
Coarse to medium-fine. | Slight to moderate. |
| Quartzite | Clear to opaque in a range of colors but mostly clear to white. | Distinctive texture. | High. | Sugary. | Moderate to high. |
| Rapid Chert | Off-white to gray and tan. Heat treatment produces a pinkish, reddish, or purplish tint. |
Highly fossiliferous. | Dull to satiny. | Medium. | Minimal. |
| Rhyolite | Medium gray to olive gray to greenish gray to bluish gray | Some pieces have flow banding Distinctive dull texture |
Dull | Coarse to medium-fine | Opaque |
| Spergen Chert | Light and medium gray or yellowish tan and
brown. Heat treatment alters tan and brown pieces to a reddish color. Heat treatment alters tan tabular pieces to maroon with an off-white cortex. |
May have concentric banding. | Chalky to dull. | Medium to medium-fine. | Minimal in most pieces. |
| Tongue River Silica | Yellowish tan to brown. Heat treatment produces a pinkish to maroon color. |
Fine-grained. Fossil stem and root impressions are common. | Heat treatment produces a satiny luster. | Gritty. | Low. |
| Wapsipinicon Chert | Light to medium gray to cream and brown.
Heat treatment may produce a pinkish tint. |
Some pieces have small brachiopod fossils. | Dull to satiny. | Medium-fine. | Moderate. |
Bibliography
Gonsior, Leroy
1992 Lithic Materials of Southeastern Minnesota. Manuscript on file, Minnesota State University, Mankato Archaeology Laboratory.
Morrow, Toby
[1984] 1992 Appendix A: Raw Material Descriptions. Iowa Projectile Points. Special Publication from the Office of the State Archaeologist. University of Iowa, Iowa City.
Morrow, Toby and Jeffrey A. Behm
1985 Descriptions of Common Lithic Raw Materials Encountered on Wisconsin Archaeological Sites. Preliminary Draft for the Fall Meeting of the Wisconsin Archeological Survey, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Manuscript on file, Minnesota State University, Mankato Archaeology Laboratory.