The Perrin Pickwick Knife

Length: 4"

Grade: 9

Description: An unusually long narrow blade created by continuous sharpening of the blade edges. This is not a drill, as evidenced by the lack of use wear patterns that would be associated with the spinning of a drill. Rather this was an attempt to preserve the length at all cost while maintaining a sharp blade edge. We can speculate that it would have or could have made a nice drill, but the blade edges are sharp and not worn. While this blade has some similarity to a Benton, I tend to believe it to be a Pickwick made out of some form of Fort Payne's Chert sourced probably from north Alabama, some 160 miles to the north as the crow flies from where this point was found. Also a supportive fact for it being a Pickwick is that it was found in the same layer in the soil and 10 inches away from a cache of 2 Clay Blades. These are Gulf Formational period pieces while this Pickwick is Late Archaic with an overlapping use into the later Gulf Formational period. This camp site's location was not doubt selected because it is next to a shallow river crossing on the Flint River and also near a spring. Fascinating 3,500 year old relic!

Provenance: Found on the Perrin's private property by the property owner in Meriwether Co. Georgia near the Flint River.