TED'S INDIAN ARROWHEAD & ARTIFACT COLLECTION

CORNERTANG FOOTNOTE

Several people have asked for more information on cornertangs. We were fortunate to meet Mr. Kenneth Kraft through his guestbook entry on this webpage on June 19, 1997. He has written several articles about cornertangs and he steered us to the Oklahoma Museum of Natural History-Archaeology to get a copy of his latest paper. The Museum was kind enough to send us Mr. Kraft's paper along with several other related articles.

In his paper Mr. Kraft points out that most cornertang finds have been in Central Texas, but some were probably carried northward by migrating Plains tribes. The artifacts are often associated with burned rock middens and are associated with Castroville, Marcos, Marshall, and Montell types of projectile points. Mr. Kraft states that they were probably used for a variety of purposes depending on the form. Base tangs were probably used for cutting soft meat and vegetation, diagonal tangs for cutting and skinning animals, midback tangs for working hides, and drills made by reworking damaged blades. Whether they were hafted or carried on a thong is not really known. I can imagine a thong around the wrist so both hands would be free for skinning but the blade readily available for cutting or scraping. No one really knows for sure what they were used for but they are a most interesting artifact.

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