Barren Fork Chert

Barren Fork chert has a center of useage in eastern Oklahoma, extending into bordering states to the east and north. It is a good quality opaque material with colors ranging from a pale gray to a medium/dark gray. Very consistant material with very few inclusions made it a very workable chert. Heat treating in Archaic and later time periods increased the workability of the chert. Color change in the process was not intense producing a slightly darker grayed material with a waxy sheen. It was used during most prehistoric time periods within the area, with greatest useage appearing to be in the late Paleo and Archaic. Barren Fork comes from Eastern Oklahoma and is predominately an opaque good quality chert that ranges from a light gray to a medium gray in color. Generally solid in color with no modeling or color changes in one piece of material.

 References

  Lyle Nickel and Richard Thompson

scan by P. Allen