A sample of typical Tallahatta Chert artifacts. Click on the picture for a larger view.
| Tallahatta Chert: Archaeology | ||||||||
| While Tallahatta Chert artifacts generally occur in lower density at most sites in southwest Alabama as compared to Tallahatta Sandstone, except at quarry sites, a range of styles and functional types have been recovered. This suggests that Tallahatta Chert tools were manufactured from Paleoindian to historic times, as with Tallahatta Sandstone. Tallahatta Chert often occurs naturally as thin, lenticular pieces. This shape lent itself to being fashioned into rough bifaces. Such bifaces may have functioned as cores, sources of flakes, rather than as cutting tools themselves based on the sinuous edge these artifacts often exhibit. Internal cleavage planes are common in chert so while the material flakes well, it is often difficult to work. | |
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A sample of typical Tallahatta Chert artifacts. Click on the picture for a larger view.
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| An example of a Tallahatta Chert biface (shown larger than actual size.) Courtesy of the Walter Davis Collection. | ||||||||