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An Unusual Side-Bladed Knife from a Protohistoric Mandan Site

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2017

Wm. Duncan Strong
Wm. Duncan Strong*
Affiliation:
Columbia, University
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Extract

In 1938, a seemingly unusual type of side-bladed knife with its stone blade in place was excavated at the Old Fort Abraham Lincoln Mandan village, across the Missouri River from Bismarck, North Dakota. This specimen, now in the collections of the North Dakota Historical Society, was found in an ash-filled storage pit at a depth of 90 cm. The same pit also contained two other side-bladed knife handles of bone and three ovoid stone knife blades, as well as other artifacts, some indicating European contact. The Old Fort Abraham Lincoln village is of protohistoric age and was occupied by the Mandan prior to 1800. The general characteristics of the site and the excavations in question have been outlined elsewhere. The present specimen (Fig. 6, left) is distinctive in that the lanceolate blade of Knife River flint is so inserted that one corner of the butt serves as the cutting corner or point of the knife.

Type
Facts and Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , July 1945 , pp. 60 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1945

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References

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