A Rare Corner-Tang Knife and Obsidian Acquisition in the Cypress Hills: Long-Distance Interaction Networks on the Northern Plains

Abstract The movement of peoples, goods, and ideas across the North American Great Plains may be inferred by sourcing raw materials and documenting the spatiotemporal distribution of artifact types. One such form of artifact is the corner-tang knife, a notched biface with a tang opposite the cutting edge. Based on more than a century of investigations, corner-tang knives are understood to have originated in central Texas, from where the technology quickly spread. However, few specimens derive from dated, undisturbed contexts from either the United States or Canada. Here, we report on a corner-tang knife from the Middle to Late prehistoric site of DjOn-8 (∼3600–250 BP) in the Cypress Hills, Alberta (Canada) along with its archaeological context and obsidian sourcing results. The knife in question is a diagonal variant manufactured from local chalcedony. Use-wear analysis indicates that it was hafted and used for cutting, whereas protein antigen precipitates suggest that the knife was used to process large ungulates. Obsidian artifacts recovered from DjOn-8 are sourced to Bear Gulch (Idaho) and Obsidian Cliff (Wyoming), more than 500 km away. Our findings shed light on the nature and complexity of trade and interaction networks across the Great Plains and underscore the potential for consulting archaeologists to contribute meaningfully to archaeological discourse.