A Lithic Collection from the Elliott Site, 14GE303
Date: 4250-2850 BCE
These eight lithic artifacts were collected from an archeological site in Geary County with a Munkers Creek component. They were donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1925. The artifacts shown here are eight large thick bifaces that may have been used as woodworking tools. The upper left artifact has silica gloss from use on plant materials. The Munkers Creek phase describes a stone tool technology restricted primarily to the Flint Hills. During this time most of North America was in a prolonged drought so severe that some archeologists thought people left the Plains. Munkers Creek artifacts show that people stayed, but they had to adapt by using many different types of animals and plants for food in a less productive environment.

Artifact Collection from 14JW304
Date: Unknown
These five artifacts show the variety of the collection from an archeological site in Jewell County. On the top row, from left to right, is a scraper and modified flake made of Florence chert and a biface made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk. On the bottom row, left to right, is a beveled knife, a projectile point preform, and an expanding stemmed dart point fragment, all made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk. Florence chert outcrops in the Flint Hills of Kansas and Oklahoma. Smoky Hill silicified chalk is a good quality knapping material that is exposed in linear beds in northwestern Kansas and western Nebraska.

Artifact Collection from 14LO318
Date: Unknown
These two bifaces and a single flake represent the artifacts collected from a workshop site in Logan County. The dark flake was made of basalt and shows no other modification. The other two artifacts, both made of a chert called Smoky Hill silicified chalk, show different stages in bifacial reduction.

Artifact Collection from 14RY1627
Date: Unknown
Shown is the complete collection of surface artifacts from 14RY1627 in Riley County. Other artifacts, not in the Kansas Historical Society's collection, indicate the site had multiple components or occupations including peoples of both the Kansas City Hopewell and Smoky Hill aspects. The spear point pictured here adds a late Paleolithic to early Archaic component. In addition to the projectile point fragment two bifaces and a mano (grinding stone) are shown.

Artifacts from a Lithic Workshop, 14GO405
Date: Unknown
Shown are some of the artifacts collected from a lithic workshop and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1986. Those shown here were all made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk and include scrapers, bifaces, and modified flakes. Smoky Hill silicified chalk is often referred to as Smoky Hill Jasper and numerous other names. The chert outcrops in Gove County and many other western and north central Kansas counties. Shown here are some of the wide variety of colors found in this chert.

Biface Cache from 14DN2
Date: Unknown
This large biface cache was discovered in the 1940s by Charles Haslouer while plowing his farm field in Dickinson County. It was donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1987. A cache is any items, in this case bifaces, that have been stored or hidden for later use. This cache consists of 23 separate bifaces, one of which was broken in half and reconstructed.

Biface from 14CN307
Date: 1000-1500 CE
This biface was collected from a Middle Ceramic camp site near the south fork of the Republican River in Cheyenne County. The biface, or cutting tool, was made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk, which outcrops nearby.

Biface from 14CS1307
Date: 7000 BCE-1000 CE
This biface was collected from the surface of a multicomponent workshop site in Chase County by Kansas Historical Society archeologists. The biface, made of Permian chert, may have been stored for future use (what archeologists call a cache), been meant for trade, or had some other significance we today do not know. The site was occupied periodically through the Archaic and Early Ceramic periods.

Biface from 14FR410
Date: Unknown
This biface was recovered from an archeological site along Mission Creek in Franklin County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1984. The donor had reconstructed the biface from two fragments. A biface, like this one, could have been used as a cutting tool or, with more work, turned into a specific tool.

Biface from 14GO302
Date: Unknown
The site in Gove County where this biface was recovered is associated with two nearby quarry's for Smoky Hill silicified chalk. The site may itself be a lithic workshop. The site was first recorded in 1977 and revisited during the 1997 Kansas Archeology Training Program. A biface like this one could have been used as a cutting tool or, with more work, turned into a specific tool.

Biface from 14HM311
Date: 1000-1500 CE
This biface was collected from an Early Ceramic site in Hamilton County that may be associated with an Upper Republican occupation. A biface, like this one, could have been used as a cutting tool or, with more work, turned into a specific tool. It was made of a dendritic chert.

Biface from 14HV302
Date: Unknown
This biface was recovered from the surface of an archeological site in Harvey County by Kansas Historical Society archeologists. It is made of local Florence chert from the Flint Hills.

Biface from 14LA306
Date: Unknown
This banded biface was a surface find collected during a survey by Kansas Historical Society Archeologists at a site in Lane County. It is made of a chert called Smoky Hill silicified chalk which outcrops in western Kansas. This biface shows some of the different colors found in that chert type.

Biface from 14SD333
Date: Unknown
This biface was collected from the surface of small lithic workshop in Sheridan County. The site was discovered by Kansas Historical Society Archeologists in 1990. The biface was made of a type of chert called Smoky Hill silicified chert, which outcrops in western Kansas. The two fragments refit.

Biface from Atchison County
Date: Unknown
This large biface was found in Atchison County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1980. It measures 7.6" long by 2.7" wide and is .4" thick.

Biface from Chase County
Date: Unknown
This thick biface was recovered from Chase County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1904. A biface like this one could have been used as a chopping tool or, with more work, turned into a specific tool. The style is similar to a type of biface archeologists call Munkers Creek bifaces. The Munkers Creek phase describes a stone tool technology restricted primarily to the Flint Hills from 4000 to 3800 BCE.

Biface from El Cuartelejo, 14SC1
Date: 1650-1750 CE
This biface was recovered from the El Cuartelejo site in Scott County. The site, unique in Kansas, is the location of a seven room pueblo occupied by refugees from the Taos and Picuris pueblos in New Mexico in addition to Dismal River aspect groups (Apache). El Cuartelejo, also called the Scott County Pueblo, has been excavated and studied by many archeologists since 1898. This biface was recovered during the 1976 Kansas Archeology Training Program. A biface, like this one, could have been used as a cutting tool or, with more work, turned into a specific tool.

Biface from El Cuartelejo, 14SC1
Date: 1650-1750 CE
Shown is a large biface recovered from the El Cuartelejo site in Scott County. The site, unique in Kansas, is the location of a seven room pueblo occupied by refugees from the Taos and Picuris pueblos in New Mexico in addition to Dismal River aspect groups (Apache). El Cuartelejo, also called the Scott County Pueblo, has been excavated and studied by many archeologists since 1898. The biface may have been stored for future use (what Archeologists call a cache), been meant for trade, or had some other significance we today do not know.

Biface from Shawnee County
Date: Unknown
This large biface was found in Shawnee County along Vassar Creek and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1934. The biface may have been stored for future use (what Archeologists call a cache), meant for trade, or had some other significance we today do not know.

Biface from the Country Club Site, 14CO3
Date: 1400-1725 CE
This large chipped stone biface was excavated from a Great Bend aspect village site in Cowley County during Phase IV archeological investigations in 1995. The biface, made of Florence chert, may have been stored for future use (what Archeologists call a cache), been meant for trade, or had some other significance we today do not know. The site had been much impacted by a water line, golf greens, roads, and highways. Excavations had been occurring at the site since 1916.

Biface from the Forrest Site, 14PA303
Date: 11000-7000 BCE
This thin biface was recovered at the Forrest site, a Keith phase site in Pawnee County during excavations by Kansas Historical Society and University of Kansas archeologists in 1967. The oblique parallel flaking on the biface is an attribute more typical of the Paleoindian time period (11000 to 7000 BCE). The site was occupied between 500 and 1100 CE.

Biface from the Monroe/John Fay Site
Date: Unknown
This thin biface shows some evidence of having been heat treated. It was collected from a multicomponent site in Anderson County with occupations in the Archaic, Early Ceramic, and Middle Ceramic periods. A biface like this one could have been used as a cutting tool or, with more work, turned into a specific tool.

Biface from the Thompson Site, 14RC9
Date: 1500-1800 CE
This biface fragment was collected from the Thompson site in Rice County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1971. It may have been stored for future use (what Archeologists call a cache), been meant for trade, or had some other significance we today do not know. It was broken prior to its donation. It is made of a large slab of Smoky Hill silicified chalk, a good quality knapping material that is exposed in linear beds in northwestern Kansas and western Nebraska. The site, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village occupied during the Late Ceramic Period.

Biface from the Tobias Site, 14RC8
Date: 1400-1700 CE
This biface was recovered from excavations during the 1978 Kansas Archeology Training Program field school at the Tobias site in Rice County. The biface, or cutting tool, was made of Smoky Hill silicified chalk, a type of chert that outcrops in western Kansas and north into Nebraska. With additional work it could have been made into other types of tools. The Tobias site is a Great Bend aspect (ancestral Wichita) village that had dense artifact deposits, house remains, and numerous deep trash-filled storage pits. The site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

Biface from the Wullschleger Site, 14MH301
Date: 4250-2850 BCE
This biface was collected from the Wullschleger site in Marshall County and donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1961. It is made of local chert from the Flint Hills region. A biface like this one could have been used as a chopping tool or a core that with more work could be turned into a specific tool. The Wullschleger site is a multicomponent (multiple occupations) site with a Munkers Creek phase, which describes a stone tool technology restricted primarily to the Flint Hills. During this time most of North America was in a prolonged drought so severe that some archeologists thought people left the Plains. Munkers Creek artifacts show that people stayed. Munkers Creek sites often contain similar large, crude bifaces, but such artifacts are also found in other places and from other times.