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The Coker knife, also name the Coker spear by James Gray (1975) was named for Mr. David Coker who had recovered a cache of 27 examples from the Marvin Messer farm located along the Hillsboro River in Hillsboro County, Florida. Lyman O. Warren (1971) had been shown these blades by a local collector and was in hopes of finding them at the Fletcher Davis site located immediately adjacent to the site and the Messer farm. the type has also been referred to as the “wills” point for a nickname given to Mr. Messer by his friends. the example illustrated above is one of the original cash of 27 recovered by Mr. Coker.
The Coker knife is a medium to large knife form measuring from 3 to 5.5 inches in length. The blade is developed through random flaking with fine pressure flaking along the blade edges. The cross-section is thin, usually about 3/8 inch thick, and by-convex. Workmanship is generally very good to excellent. The blade edges are convex, one more so than the other, and meet at an acute distal and. The shoulders are unequal in with. The unequal construction led Warren into suspect that this was a knife form as opposed to a thrusting “spear.” This damn has straight sides with a rounded basal edge. Examples are most often made of silicified cherty limestone and are often yellow, red or brown in color.
Mr. Coker had recovered a cache of these points added depth of about 3 feet. This context also contained Sumpter, Thonotosassa, Six Mile Creek, and Putnam points. the 6 mile Creek site, located just downstream from the measure farm along the Hillsboro River, also produced the same point types in very large numbers. The presence of Sumter and 6 mile Creek points suggests an early archaic context. The presence of the Putnam type may suggest a middle archaic context or the very early appearance of the Putnam type. Thonotosassa points appear in both periods and their similarity in outline might at first glance suggest their relationship to the Coker knife. A closer look at the diagnostic flaking patterns and the shoulder construction draw a clear distinction. It is interesting to note that Nunan points are considered fairly rare at these sites and that they are usually recovered at the surface. A good argument could be made for either period as no radiocarbon dates are available.
