As 79-year-old Carl Bryant grabbed his knees pads and a pressure flaker, he was not only prepared to carve arrowheads, but also to teach community members through a live flint knapping display at the Moundville Lithic Arts Festival on Friday.
Flint knapping is a traditional tool used for hunting and weapons. Bryant said early inhabitants of McFaddin Beach in Jefferson County, Texas, flint knapped near a beach and put it in a basket before trading with other flint knappers for canoes and food.
“I saw a study where these collections of points were found in McFaddin Beach and tracked the lithic source in specific areas of the country,” Bryant said. “It only showed up in specific areas of the country, from Lake Erie all the way to Montana.
Joel Edmondson, a graduate student majoring in anthropology, explained the origins of the Chunky Game, a household game but during the Mississippian period when the mounds were being developed, became a competitive sport with chiefdoms betting their freedom on it.
The rules of the game, rolling a stone and throwing spears at it, were similar throughout the Southeast. The players of the game play until one person reaches 12 points, a culturally symbolic number for the different tribes during the Mississippian period.
“There’s probably other games that are older than Chunky, but as of now, the archaeological record has shown this is probably the oldest that we can find evidence for this extent and lasted this long,” Edmondson said.
Volunteer Bill Skinner taught visitors about knife fighting and the use of metals for weaponry by Native groups. The Old Copper Culture people of Wisconsin are one of the oldest examples of metal use by indigenous groups to create weapons and tools.
Jessica Dees, the education outreach coordinator and festival director at Moundville Archeological Park, said she rebranded the event to become Moundville Lithic Arts Festival from previously being “Knap-in” to refer to “flint knapping.”
“We’re really excited to have this bigger and broader than knapping to really benefit the local community, have more educational opportunities,” Dees said. “ We have Native descendents communities, their ancestors are from Moundville, in this land.”
When starting her college career, Dees worked at a repository where artifacts were stored and did experimental work of making tools. She learned the tradition to make tools like shark teeth tools and pottery.
“It’s a dying art form unfortunately, so that’s why we still want it to have a presence here,” Dees said.
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