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This is a large, stemmed biface found by Denise Liscom on her property, which sits at 4070 ft elevation along one of Lake Lahontan’s Pleistocene shorelines in the Honey Lake Basin, Washoe County, Nevada. It is made from a large tan chert flake. That material is common at sites in the nearby Black Rock Desert and is likely local in origin. Dan Stueber, Geoff Smith, and Richie Rosencrance from the University of Nevada, Reno’s Great Basin Paleoindian Research Unit examined the biface shortly after it was reported. The biface retains a remnant platform on its proximal end (base)—a feature present on other Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) bifaces in the Intermountain West. The proximal end also retains evidence of the flake blank’s bulb of percussion, allowing a dorsal and ventral surface to be identified on the finished biface. The dorsal face retains some remnant cortex. The biface was created via bifacial percussion and the edges were finished via pressure flaking. Light edge grinding is evident along the margins of the stem. Also evident is at least one series of resharpening flakes along one edge of each face, suggesting that it may have been resharpened while still in the haft. There is slight post-depositional damage to the biface’s tip and one shoulder, but it is otherwise complete and likely represents a finished and utilized implement. Though it is larger than most other stemmed bifaces in the region, it is technologically and morphologically consistent with WST stemmed bifaces from in the Intermountain West, and somewhat analogous examples have been recovered from Oregon’s Warner Valley and the Buhl burial in southern Idaho. Weight: 78.1 g Maximum Length: 148.3 mm Maximum Width: 55.9 mm Maximum Thickness: 10 mm Stem Width at Shoulders: 31 mm Stem Width at Base: 13.5 mm (Cast copyright Occpaleo 2022)

Western Stemmed Point Cast

$28.00Price
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