Gilchrist

Picture by Paleo Enterprises

The Gilchrist point was reported by Ripley P. Bullen describing examples from the collections of the Florida State Museum and Mr. Ben Waller. The type bears the name of Gilchrist County, Florida. Bullen described four subtypes, three of which differ widely in quality and characteristics and are of questionable relationship to his type four Gilchrist. They are perhaps exhausted forms of other types and are not considered here.

The Gilchrist is a medium-size point measuring from 2 to 4 inches in length. The quality of workmanship is excellent. The blade is developed through carefully controlled random flaking, creating a thin by-convex cross-section. The excavated blade edges are finally flaked and meet at an acute distal end. The shoulders are inversely tapered but would not be considered barbed. The tang is expanding and meets the basal edge at a sharp corner. The basal edge may be concave or straight and may be lightly smoothed.

Bullen notes that these blades are never beveled. Research done by John Powell (1990) indicates that beveling does occur occasionally on what he believes to be a knife form of this type. Certainly, by-facial rejuvenation is more common. Gilchrist points have not been recovered in a datable context. The association of a Gilchrist-like point with a Kirk Serrated point at the Congress Street site in Newport Richie, Florida may support an Early Archaic date.

Examples of this type have been recovered from as far South as the Tampa Bay, Florida area to as far north as Alabama. More numerous concentrations of the Gilchrist point in Florida occur along the rivers of north-central Florida and throughout Leon and Jefferson counties.