Description, morphometrics, and microwear of Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene artifacts from Southwestern Kentucky, U.S.A.

Abstract

Five flaked stone artifacts from the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene periods of North America were discovered by a collector in Christian County, Kentucky. These artifacts include a Clovis projectile point, a Cumberland preform, a biface, a prismatic blade core, and a St. Charles projectile point base. All specimens were made from material macroscopically consistent with Ste. Genevieve chert. We present here descriptions, morphometrics, and microwear analyses of this collection. Given that the artifacts discussed here are a rather heterogeneous collection of items, we conclude the report with a discussion of the utility we feel the publication of small artifact sets provides the field of archaeology.