An Authentic “Problematical” from the Ozarks

Abstract

In the spring of 1948 during an archaeological survey of the headwaters of the Lake Norfork Reservoir Area on the North Fork of White River in Ozark County, Missouri, an unusual flint object was found. This artifact, illustrated as Figure 35A, was picked up on the surface of a prehistoric Indian village on the left bank of the North Fork of the White River about 1/4 mile below Tecumseh, Missouri. The only other object found on this site, other than flint chips, flakes, and spalls, was what appears to be a long slender projectile point, B in Figure 35. The owner of the land, since deceased, had picked up a fragment of a full-grooved limestone ax while cultivating the field many years before.The problematical form appears to have been made from a short, stubby projectile point of quartzite, a stone commonly utilized by the prehistoric Indians of Ozark County.