Ichetucknee

Gary Davis collection                  pictures by Paleo Enterprises

The Ichetucknee point was named by John Goggin (1953) for examples recovered along the Ichetucknee River.

Ripley P. Bullen (1975) later described the point, comparing it to the Guntersville and Nodena points described by Cameron and the Hulse (1964). The Ichetucknee is a small sized lancelate shaped point measuring between 1 and 1.75 inches in length. The point is developed through random pressure flaking with a bi-convex cross-section. The blade edges are excurvate with an acute distal end. The blade edges curve in slightly through the hafting area and meet the flat, slightly concave, or rounded basal edge. Workmanship is usually very good. Ripley Bullen correctly assign these points to the Safety Harbor and Alachua cultures. The earliest occurrence of the Ichetucknee point was at the McKeithen village site (Milanich 1994). The lithic assemblage was most extensive at this site during its middle years of occupation about A.D. 350. Milanich also ascribes the Ichetucknee point to the lithic assemblage of the Suwanee Valley people who ascended from the McKeithen Weeden Island culture about A.D. 750 and settled along the Ichetucknee River. Perhaps it was one of their points that John Goggin recovered and named.

Examples of the Ichetucknee were recovered at Hickory Pond and Alachua sites dating between A.D. 600 and 1539 (Milanich 1971). Gordon R. Willey (1949) illustrated Ichetucknee point examples from the Safety Harbor period Parish mound 1 and from the Safety Harbor Village and mound site in Pinellas County. Both of these sites contain colonial period Spanish artifacts and belong to the Tatham or Bayview phases of the Safety Harbor culture dating between A.D. 1500 and 1725. The latest recovery of Ichetucknee points seems to be at the Apalachee Council house at the Fort San Luci site near Tallahassee, Florida. The site dated between 1656 and 1704 (Shapiro and McEwan 1992). One example, made from green bottle glass, was recovered from the Chiefs hut at the mission that would also date between 1649 and 1704. Projectile points from this site were almost exclusively of the Ichetucknee type, many with the excurvate basal edge. One of the few Pinellas points recovered from the site was also made of green bottle glass.

One might expect to find Ichetucknee points in the colonial period Utina sites, which ascended from the Suwanee Valley Indian Pond phase, but none were reported by Johnson and Nelson (1990) as their study of this culture centered around ceramics seriation.

The distribution of Ichetucknee points seems to be throughout the North and North-central Florida regions as well as the Tampa Bay area. Their occurrence at the Apalachee council house in Leon County, Florida may indicate a trade link between the Leon Jefferson and Indian Pond cultures occurring about the time of European contact as suggested by Johnson and Nelson.