To LeCroy or Not to LeCroy
That is the Question
Many people, when confronted with the term Indian artifacts, immediately think of the word arrowheads. These small projectile points, however, are minor a part of the overall picture of American Indian collectibles. The bow and arrow is only about 1500 years old in the USA Southeast but prehistoric man has been here for at least twelve thousand years and during that lengthy time made and used stone spearpoints and axes, gorgets and pendants, drills and burins and a multitude of other tools and implements. Beginning with what is called the Paleo Period, ancient man made and used fluted points attached to thrusting spears for hunting the megafauna – mastodons, mammoths, the giant sloth and other extinct animals. After those mammals died out, man began hunting smaller animals during what is known as the Archaic Period which began around ten thousand years in the past. The projectile points changed with the times and among the earliest of these are small bifurcated blades that many collectors today call LeCroy points. But are they all LeCroy points or not? That is the question.
The LeCroy blade was named by Madeline Kneberg in 1956 from examples found on the LeCroy site near the Tennessee River in Hamilton County, TN. The location itself was named for the modern finder of the ancient site, Archie LeCroy. The LeCroy is the most famous of the bifurcated blade family but it certainly is not the only one – in fact it is somewhat down the ancestral line of this type. There have been some successful stratigraphic excavations of bifurcated blades thus giving us chronological evidence of the ages of the various types in this family and how to correctly align their successions. All bifurcated blades date from the Early to Middle Archaic Periods which were 8,000 BC to 4,000 BC. They possibly descended from the more ancient Hardaway/Palmer/Big Sandy traditions and are about nine thousand years of age for the oldest, the MacCorkle and Nottoway River, down to about seven thousands years old for the youngest, the Stanly. The classification of these blades as bifurcates is because their stems are split or divided on the basal edge – thus bifurcated. These blades are believed to have been used mostly as knives because their basally notched stems would have been a very effective knife handle hafting area and because most bifurcates have been sharpened and re-sharpened down to the nubby and expended sizes that we generally find today. Most bifurcates have serrated blade edges and it is believed that serrations were used mainly on knives since it would have given the blades saw-tooth margins and greatly increased the cutting areas. Some, though, most likely would have also been used as dart or small spear points.
The knives named MacCorkle and Nottoway River (which may be a distinct type or a MacCorkle variant) are the elder statesmen of the group and date from around 7000 to 6700 BC. They are described as small to medium size corner notched knives with straight or convex blade edges which are often serrated. The stems are expanded up to about forty-five degrees from the centerline of the blade and have rounded basal lobes that are usually ground. This stem abrading or smoothing is probably a carry over from the Hardaway/Palmer/Big Sandy horizons and gradually disappears as these bifurcates evolved during the next couple thousand years. In the Carolinas and Virginia they were usually made of rhyolite and silicified slate in the Piedmont and quartz in the Coastal Plains. Ridge and Valley type cherts were used in the mountains and these blades are somewhat more prevalent in the western Piedmont and foothills but even there they are uncommon. The MacCorkle was named by Bettye Broyles in 1966 from examples found in West Virginia. The Nottoway River was named by Floyd Painter in 1970 from blades found near the river of that name in eastern Virginia.
The St. Albans type follows the earlier ones chronologically and dates from about 6700-6400 BC and was named by Bettye Broyles in 1971 from examples found on the St. Albans Site in WV. It is a small to medium, shallowly side notched blade with straight or convex blade sides that are usually serrated. The stem is expanded and has rounded basal lobes that are normally ground. It differs from it’s predecessors in that it is side notched (though this is not always readily apparent in re-sharpened and expended specimens) and it usually is not as big and hefty as the MacCorkle/Nottoway River type. The lithic materials are usually the same as the earlier types as are the areas where found.
Next in line in the family tree is the LeCroy, which is one of the most prevalent of the types in the southeast and is the one many collectors refer to when discussing the bifurcated blades. It is usually a small to occasionally medium size corner notched knife that dates to the 6500-5600 BC time period. The blade is triangular, normally serrated and infrequently beveled. The narrow stem is straight to slightly expanded and has lobes that are usually more pointed than rounded and they are almost never ground. The shoulders are quite often angularly barbed though on much re-sharpened specimens these barbs may have completely disappeared. Also it is not uncommon to see a barb only on one edge which simply means that the opposite edge received more re-sharpening thus eliminating that barb. It differs from the earlier types with its straight, non-abraded and pointed stem lobes and its often large and toothy serrations. This knife was apparently a local favorite of the ancient Indians in southeastern Virginia based on the large quantities found there and was usually made of white quartz in that region. In the Piedmont silicified slate seems to be the favored stone while the hill country LeCroy makers apparently liked jasper, quartz and black chert for these blades.
The Kanawha point next appears but it is almost always found only in the mountainous regions where it was made of local black cherts and was named by Bettye Broyles for Kanawha County in WV. It is a small triangular shaped point that dates from 6000-5500 BC. The short slightly expanded stem terminates with an often large basal notch and rounded lobes that are not ground. The blade edges may or may not be serrated. The initial thought when seeing this type is that it is a small Stanly knife.
And that bring us to the baby of the bifurcates, chronologically speaking – the Stanly. It was named by Joffre Coe in 1964 from examples found in the 1940’s and named for Stanly County, NC. It is normally a small to medium sized knife which is often broad bladed and triangularly shaped. The stem is usually narrow and straight and slightly bifurcated and is not ground. The straight blade edges are normally not serrated. The blade will be broad on un-sharpened specimens and narrows as the knife sides were re-flaked so to acquire a sharp cutting edge. It dates to around the 6000-4500 BC time period and in its non-heavily re-sharpened state, looks like a classic Christmas tree. The Stanly can be found in quartz and silicified slate and the ancient artisans seemed to like two tone tan and grey rhyolite for this reasonably rare blade.
Since these knives are all about the same size, are almost always triangular shaped and have bifurcated bases, they are often confused one to the others. And to add to this confusion, there are numerous local names such as Culpepper, Fox Valley, Southampton, Lake Erie, Limeton, Susquehanna, Muncy, Frederick, Cossatot River, Rice Lobed and Jerger throughout the eastern half of our country. No wonder most collectors lump all bifurcates under the single overly used name LeCroy. Hopefully this paper will assist you in classifying them by their correct names and ages and not to simply say “to LeCroy or not to LeCroy – That is the Question”.
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