One of the largest bifaces documented in Texas is curated in the collections at the Witte Museum in San Antonio.  This specimen, 34.4 cm long, made from a thin slab of Edwards chert, was acquired in 1932 when the fledging museum was building its natural history and archaeological collections.  The biface was found by a field worker in a cultivated plot in Menchaca near Buda, Texas.  No other information about the location is known.  It appears unfinished and may be described as a “preform” but the argument is posed that offers a different interpretation based on the incisions on the cortex retained on one side.  The biface may never have intended to be a preform.  Because of its size and presence of cortex, it may have been an object of spiritual power, and the incisions may have been performed to transfer some of that power to the person(s) who did the incising task. 

Click here to read, print, or download this interesting new article by Dr. Shafer and engage him in the “conversation”.