Ebenezer

The Ebenezer is a small, short-stem, point with a rounded stem and excurvate blade edges. Examples measure approximately 38 mm in length. The cross-section is bi-convex shoulders are narrow and are usually tapered but may be straight. The blade is usually excavate with an acute distal end. The stem is short and rounded.

The blade stem are shaped by broad shallow or deep, random flaking. Short, regular retouch finishes the blade edges. Use of a rather poor grade of local flint at the King Creek site may account for the relatively crude flaking on examples from this site.

The Ebenezer type was illustrated as Rudimentary Stemmed at Camp Creek in Green County, Tennessee (Lewis and neighbor, 1957). Fifty-eight examples were recovered scattered throughout the midden at the Camp Creek site. The type was described as being “associated with Early Woodland artifacts and other upper Eastern Tennessee sites.” A radiocarbon date of 2050 +/- 250 BP was obtained from the homogeneous midden at Camp Creek. One example was recovered from the midden of Stratum I (Woodland) at Flint Creek Rock Shelter. At Flint River mound MA48 in the Woodland zone, one example was recovered from zone A and one from zone B. The Ebenezer point was dominant at the Rankin site on the French Broad River (headwaters of the Tennessee River) where most of the ceramics were sand-tempered. This evidence would place the type in Early to Late Woodland Association with a suggested date of from about 2000 years ago to possibly 1500 years ago or some part thereof. The type is similar to some illustrated examples of Clifton points from Texas that are estimated to be near the same age.

Information for this article was derived from James W. Cambron and David C. Hulse, Handbook of Alabama Archaeology, Alabama Archaeological Society