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Material Classification
of Projectile Points Found in Caches at Mound 72, Cahokia. After Ahler in press
Appendix E2.
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Some stone tools were made of chert found in places even farther from the
American Bottom. Like other artifacts fashioned from exotic material, lithics
manufactured from non-local materials are often associated with the elite,
particularly elite burials The Cahokia points in the cache from
Mound 72, for example, are made of chert from several midwestern sources
including Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wisconsin. Although some
of these points may have been manufactured at Cahokia, the shape and style of
others suggest their place of manufacture was nearer the raw material source.
Alternatively, these stylistically different points made of exotic raw
materials may have been manufactured by immigrants to the American Bottom. In
either case, the presence of these non-local objects may be indicative of
Cahokia's prominence and fame in the Mississippian world.
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