My favorite Native American artifact from my collection -- and the reason why

A very rough example of a 'Kerrville Knife,' 
from my collection of Native American artifacts.
Though ugly, it's my favorite stone tool artifact.

I have a favorite artifact in my collection of Native American stone tools – a Kerrville knife. It’s a stone tool made from chert, and it’s not much to look at. There are other Kerrville knives in my collection which are more magnificent, but this one is special.

The bottom of the tool is worked into a sharpened edge; the other top remains smooth. This particular specimen is 4.5 inches tall, and 4 inches wide, and weighs just under 1 pound.

These artifacts were first described in the 1930s by Walter Goldschmidt, who called them a “butted knife.” Others have called this class of stone tools a “Kerrville knife.” 

For obvious reasons, I prefer that name. 

They are only found in sites in and near Kerr County, ranging from Kimble and Menard counties to our north, and Bandera and Uvalde counties to our south, and the westward all the way to the eastern tip of Pecos County, though skipping several of the counties between here and there. Mostly they’ve been found in Kerr, Bandera, Uvalde and Real counties.

Dr. Donald James Priour, of Kerrville, wrote an interesting article about these specific tools in the April, 1987 issue of “La Tierra: Journal of the Southern Texas Archaeological Association.”

In the article, Dr. Priour discusses two separate types of these tools, which he calls ‘classic’ or ‘nonclassic,’ and collects data on each.

I was interested in what these tools were used for – and roughly how long ago they were in use.

Determining the age of these artifacts is difficult. Many are found on or near burnt rock middens, and associated with artifacts from many different eras. Those which were found in the same ‘strata’ as other artifacts are not as common, though a few were found near Montell and Castroville points, suggesting the Late Archaic era, dating from around 3000 to 1500 years ago.

That’s quite a range – dating roughly from the time of King David in the Bible, to about the time of Charlemagne in what is now France.

And what were these tools used for?

Since so many have been found near burnt rock middens – which are believed to be the remnants of a primitive type of oven for cooking food – Dr. Priour’s article suggests their use had something to do with the middens themselves. “The key to their function,” Dr. Priour writes, “may be associated with the activities occurring at those locations.”

Burnt rock middens are made from the debris left after a type of earth oven was being reused. Native American artifacts can often be found within or near these middens.

Those ancient ovens were made by first digging a shallow, circular pit about 3 to 5 feet across, in which a roaring wood fire is built; large rocks were then placed on top of the fire, making them very hot. Within the pit, these blazing hot rocks were then pushed and moved with a pole until a semi-flat surface was formed of the rocks, which was then quickly covered with wet grass or prickly pear pads. That layer of green plant material would separate the hot rocks from the food being cooked, and would also release steam. Food would be placed on the surface of the green plant material, and then the food would be covered by more green plant material – to keep the food clean from the next step, which was a thick layer of earth.

Surprisingly, with these layers of plant material and earth, those stones, which had been very hot at the start of the process, would stay hot for a very long time, perhaps up to 48 hours.

The rocks used in the oven – the ones that were heated to high temperatures – would usually crack and break during the operation of the oven. When one of these oven sites was reused, days, years, or even centuries later -- which was easier than digging a new pit -- the rocks which were still large enough could be used again. The others were discarded, along with other trash, in a pile near the oven itself. Those piles of discarded rocks and debris form what we call ‘burnt rock middens’ today.

The food cooked in these ovens was likely plant foods – rich in starch and other compounds, including a type of prebiotic which may have been healthful, inulin. Bulbs, tubers, wild onions, sotol, and some types of agave plants may have been cooked in these ovens.

If so, a Kerrville knife may have been a useful tool to solve a local problem associated with the ovens here in our region. What that local problem could have been, no one knows, though it may have had something to do with the operation or construction of the oven, or the preparation of the foods being cooked in the oven. Since the Kerrville knife is only found locally, it may have been used to solve a problem not found in other areas.

Now – why is this particular ugly brute of a Kerrville knife my favorite artifact in my collection?

It fits my hand almost perfectly. The palm of my hand rests on the smooth, unknapped stone, while my fingers rest on a smooth, and slightly concave, knapped plane on the opposite side. It’s as if the tool was shaped for a person whose hand was almost exactly the same shape and size as my own hand. 

Please don’t think me odd – but when I hold this old stone tool, I feel a connection with the person who made it, and who used it beside a hill country oven, perhaps over a thousand years ago.

Until next week, all the best.

Joe Herring Jr. is a Kerrville native who collects artifacts, photographs, and ephemera from our community’s historic past. If you have something you’d care to share with him, it would make him very happy. This column originally appeared in the Kerrville Daily Times December 17, 2022.

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