Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Unknown |
Description |
Found near Wilbour's Woods before 1940. Observations from Nat Atwater (local collector of stone artifacts) Item is very rare due to large size. It is a working item and not ceremonial. Item is from the pre-contact period. The stone is credible from Little Compton and the shape is credible. It has seen use. It could be used as a knife Large, thin ovate biface, thinned with large, well-controlled flakes removed from both edges on both faces that extend beyond the midline of the biface. Possible initial fluting scar on one face, with the opposite side base potentially prepared for thinning through the creation of a beveled striking platform. If so, abandoned as a preform for a projectile point and used as a heavy-duty chopper/knife with retouch along one edge, both soft hammer percussion and pressure retouch. The area now known as Little Compton, RI is the traditional homelands of the Sakonnet Wampanoag people. Historic Sakonnet belongings in our collection and in private collections indicate that the Sakonnet people, and their antecedents who may have called themselves by another name, have lived and cared for these lands for at least 13,000 years. The Sakonnets appear most frequently in written records during the second half of the 17th century while led by their Sachem Awashonks, one of several female leaders in the Dawnland or Southeastern New England at that time and during the devastation of King Philip's War. They appear first in the written record in 1622. Presently, the Sakonnet people are no longer an active Native community and have not been since the late 1820s. Many Sakonnet people left their homelands in the 17th, 18th and 19th century, sometimes under great pressure from European settlers, to live within other Native and non-native communities near and far, including the Pocasset reservation at Wattuppa in Fall River, MA; Bristol, RI; Middleborough, Westport, Dartmouth, and New Bedford, MA; and likely within the Aquinnah and Mashpee Wampanoag communities. Many Sakonnet men also sought employment at sea. People who believe they have Sakonnet ancestors still live locally. |
Object Name |
Biface |
Catalog Number |
2013.06.7 |
Date |
Unknown |
Makers mark |
None |
Material |
Brown flow-banded rhyolite from Boston Basin, probably Blue Hills; Stone |
Provenance |
Found near Wilbour's Woods before 1940. This item is given by Deborah Ingram. Items were found in the attic at 566 West Main Road in Little Compton RI. Ms Ingram is a descendant of the Burgess family who lived in the house. J.B Burgess born in 1809 ran a nursery business and planted Sycamore Maple trees along West Main Road. |