14 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. IO3 



C"Iosely associated with the foregoing implements is a similar grou]) 

 that is arbitrarily considered to consist of rough flake knives. The 

 main distinction is that of thickness and the nature of the functioning 

 edge. In the case of the knives the flakes are much thinner and the 

 edge has an acute, longer-tapering bevel. Both scrapers and knives 

 of this type are commonly regarded as fortuitous flakes and Httle 

 attention is paid to them. They seem to have been an important part 

 of the implement complex in this district, however. The closest 

 similarities between them and artifacts from other localities are found 

 in a series from caves along the Cimarron Valley in northeastern New 

 Mexico and western Oklahoma (Renaud, 1930). The latter were part 

 of a complex that has been considered as a primitive form of Basket 

 Maker culture and although, because of peripheral lag, it may be later 

 chronologically than the material from the main Basket Maker centers 

 farther west, it is, if correctly identified, older than the San Jon speci- 

 mens. In view of this situation, perhaps the main significance in the 

 similarity of forms is their indication that in this general region the 

 hunting peoples over a long period of time tended to rely on implements 

 produced with a minimum of chipping. 



Better knives of the more conventional type consist of bifaced 

 blades of a general broad-leaf shape with rather blunt points and 

 broad, convex base (pi. 6, h, i). The workmanship on these imple- 

 ments is not so good as that on the projectile points, but they are 

 definitely made tools. There is nothing, however, to distinguish them I 

 from similar artifacts scattered abundantly and widely over most 

 of the Plains area. Fragments from a diamond-shaped, double-ended 

 or four-edged, beveled type of knife that is common in districts 

 farther east in Texas and Oklahoma (Poteet, 1938), and extending 

 northward along the western edge of the Plains, were found, but 

 no complete specimen was obtained. This type of knife has been 

 attributed to the Wichita (Sayles, 1935), yet it has been found under] 

 conditions suggesting that it may derive from other, and in some 

 cases possibly older, groups. Whether the form actually was made] 

 in the San Jon district or was an importation is an unsettled problem. 

 On the basis of its small representation and the lack of complete' 

 specimens it would seem to belong in the trade category. Sayles, 

 however, notes that it was a common Panhandle artifact and the] 

 present fragments appear to be of Poteet's type B which is believed 

 to center in the Panhandle. Hence it may be at home in the San Jon 

 collection. The kinds of stone used in this instance are not much 

 help as they occur locally as well as farther east. The implement 



