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The Oliver and Orchard sites are very different in terms of time and space but have both produced thumbnail scarpers which are quite similar in terms of raw material and technology of production. Oliver is located near the Mississippi River in the Yazoo Basin of northwestern Mississippi and produced European trade goods dating to the early 17th century. Orchard is a Chickasaw site located in the Black Prairie of northeastern Mississippi and dates to the decade beginning in 1730. This paper explores the technological and metric similarity to suggest that tool function dictated production technology and form to a large extent. A reflectance spectroscopy analysis of the raw material used in make the tools from both sites demonstrates that similar chert was used in make these tools and the majority of that chert came from the Burlington formation which outcrops in Missouri and Illinois. Oneoto phase sites in that region produce nearly identical thumbnail scrapers made from that same chert and the possibility that Oliver represents and intrusion of Oneoto peoples into the Yazoo Basin is considered. The Chickasaw use of Burlington chert raises equally interesting possibilities including direct procurement in a region which had been cleared out during the slave raids that preceded the occupation at the Orchard site. 

The study details a pilot experiment in which samples of ‘chocolate’ flint from four procurement sites in Poland and chert from the United States were characterized spectrally and distinguished using reflectance spectroscopy and multivariate statistics. The characterization of ‘chocolate’ flint and the successful differentiation of sources has been, and continues to be, a major research focus for understanding prehistoric consumption, use, and distribution of this favored lithic resource. Reflectance spectroscopy potentially provides an analytical methodology for identifying artefact source by successfully distinguishing spatially and compositionally unique deposits. Initial results from the study show that ‘chocolate’ flint can be distinguished from other silicite tool stone resources, regional lookalike materials, and by individual deposit. Future studies will test a more robust sample size of ‘chocolate’ flints and conduct experiments on surface weathering. 

The presence of Dover chert artifacts at the Mississippian Kincaid site was established in the 1930s and recent work has shown that Dover, or something very much like it, was being brought into the Black Bottom as early as the late Middle Archaic. There has been a growing concern that some of what has been traditionally identified as Dover chert in the Kincaid area is actually a variety of Fort Payne chert. Samples of Dover-like chert from Archaic and late Early-to-Middle Woodland (Baumer) components at Kincaid have been tested for geological provenance, and the results suggest that a preference for local Fort Payne chert existed during both occupations.