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Name Details:
Named By: Terry Avery
Named For: A Shawnee Word for the Cumberland River meaning "muddy water"
Date Identified: 1990
Type Site:
Warito Knife
(Collector Type)
Cluster:
Commonly Utilized Material:
Various locally available materials including quartzite,
flints and cherts. Medium grad cherts are commonly heat treated.
Date:
Cultural Period:
5,500 - 4,500 B.P.
Middle Archaic
Middle Holocene
Benton Culture
Glacial Period:
Culture:
Outline is Representative of Common Size and Shape:
Description of Physical Characteristics and Flaking Pattern:
This is a large triangular corner notch point with a
flattened cross section and rarely plano-convex. The blade is excurvate. The shoulders range from slightly barbed to horizontal with a
short expanding stem and straight base. The base is commonly
beveled and unground. This point is manufactured with well
executed shallow percussion flaking with fine pressure flaking along
the edges forming a random flaking pattern.
Size Measurements: Total Length - 72 to 167 mm
(average 114 mm),
Stem Length - 6 to 12 mm (average 9 mm), Blade Width - 30 to
44 mm (average 37 mm),
Neck Width - 20 to 28 mm, Notch Width - 6 to 13 mm (average 8
mm), Notch Depth - 5 to 10 mm (average 8 mm), Base Width - 20
to 35 mm (average 25 mm).
Distribution:
Distribution Comments:
This point is primarily found in the
Cumberland River drainage areas in Northern-Middle and Western Tennessee
and Northern Alabama with an especially high concentration being
reported from the Central Basin, Western Highland Rim and West Tennessee
Uplands of these two rivers (Avery, 1990).
Similar Points:
Additional Comments:
This knife is considered to be a ceremonial class within the Benton cluster.
It is found in association with Benton type points and Tupelo
Turkeytail points associated with the Benton Culture (Avery, 1990).
Pictures:
Other points in this Cluster:
Point Validity: Collector Type
Avery is an avocational archaeologist with a Native American heritage. This type was
named in the Ohio Archaeological Societies Publication (Vol. 40 No 2). There are currently no professional references to this type, but several collector type references. This is considered a collector
type.
.
Age Details:
Avery (1990) notes that "Two firm C-14 dates of
4880 and 5020 + or -100 years have been established for six of the ten
cotypes which would put this point at the end of the middle and the
beginning of the late Archaic period".
Pictures Provided By:
Neil Schultz
References: (See Reference Page, Entry Number):
30, 170
Warito Projectile Point, Warito Arrowhead
