Thebes

Description: Thebes are large, well made spearpoints that exhibit distictive deep corner notches and large rounded ears. The blade element is typically broad and triangular shaped and was thinned by large percussion flaking. Resharpening is common and commonly accomplished by left hand beveling, with heavily alternately beveled resharpened examples often exhibiting serrations. Exhausted forms were sometimes made into scrapers or drills. Their generally large size and patterns of resharpening suggest these “points” probably functioned more as handheld knives used in butchery and other cutting tasks.

Distibution: Thebes points are found across all of Illinois and a wide area of the Midwest in a variety of different environments and ecosystems. Patterns of chert procurement also suggest that Thebes related cultures maintained fairly large patterns of mobility and/or social contacts

Age: Thebes points are one of the most diagnostic and distinctive of the Early Archaic points in the Midwest. They have been dated in context at several sites in Illinois to the 10,600-10,000 BP timeframe.