Graver

A graver is a small flake tool with one or more short, sharp projections, often called spurs or beaks, used as a working point. Most are made on medium-sized flakes; some are flaked onto the tip or edge of a broken projectile point or another tool. A single flake may carry several spurs (Morrow 2016; Boen and Williams 2022).

The spur was formed by pressure flaking small notches or retouch on either side of a point so that it stands out from the edge. The projection is usually plano-convex in section and worked on one face only (Boen and Williams 2022). Engelbrecht and Hanrahan (2025) separate gravers from perforators by the projection: perforators are thin with a narrow tip angle, while gravers are thicker with a wider angle; they class a projection with a perimeter of 20 mm or less and a tip angle of 40 degrees or less as a perforator.

Archaeologists interpret gravers as tools for incising, scoring and slotting bone, antler, wood and ivory, and for engraving soft stone. Microscope studies of gravers from an Iroquoian village in New York found heavy micro-fracturing and polish on the tips, unlike the lighter wear on perforators (Engelbrecht and Hanrahan 2025). The key trait is a short, stout, deliberately isolated point projecting from the edge of a flake.

Length 11.3–44.7 mm (mean 32.8 mm, n = 25 complete); thickness 1.7–9.6 mm (mean 4.7 mm, n = 68); weight 0.09–16.5 g (mean 3.3 g) (Maika 2010, Early Paleoindian sites in southern Ontario). Projections 20 mm or less around with a tip angle of 40 degrees or less are classed as perforators rather than gravers (Engelbrecht and Hanrahan 2025).

Found across North America. Flake gravers with one or several spurs are most characteristic of Early Paleoindian sites but also occur in Late Paleoindian, Archaic and later assemblages, generally in small numbers (Morrow 2016).

Identification tips: Look for a point that has been isolated by small flake scars on both sides, rather than a natural sharp corner. Check the tip under a lens for crushing, rounding or polish.

Similar types: Drill / Perforator has a long, slender, pencil-like shaft (Bell 1980); a perforator's tip is thinner and more acute than a graver's (Engelbrecht and Hanrahan 2025). Spurred End Scraper has a spur at the corner of a scraping bit. Some analysts keep burins, small beaks made on a flake or on another tool such as an end scraper, as a separate type; others lump them with gravers (Boen and Williams 2022).

Naming: The projections are also called beaks or spurs (Boen and Williams 2022).

Dating evidence: Gravers are not diagnostic by themselves; 68 came from Gainey, Parkhill and Crowfield phase sites in Ontario, about 11,000–10,400 B.P. (Maika 2010). Gravers made on reworked points can be dated by the point type, such as a Minnesota graver made on a Besant point (Morrow 2016). They are listed among Early Woodland chipped stone tools in Kentucky (Pollack 2008).