Named stone
Greenbrier and Kanawha cherts
Also called Hillsdale chert, Greenbrier Limestone chert, Kanawha Black chert, Kanawha black flint
A kind of chert (and flint)
Greenbrier and Kanawha chertsChert (and flint)Mid-AtlanticDescription
Greenbrier chert and Kanawha black chert are the two main local cherts of the West Virginia highlands. Greenbrier chert comes as small nodules in the Mississippian Greenbrier limestone, in gray, brown and black shades from light to dark, so tools made from it are small and often keep part of their outer rind. Bipolar reduction was common. The Hillsdale chert of the Greenbrier limestone crops out at Mill Point, about 20 miles east of the upper Gauley River basin. Kanawha black chert lies in a shale layer at the base of the Homewood Sandstone, more than 30 miles to the west. The Gauley basin and its rockshelters sit between the two sources.
How to identify it
- Colour
- Gray, brown and black, in shades from light to dark (Virginia DHR, Greenbrier chert).
- Cortex
- Small nodules produce small tools that often retain cortex.
Geology
Greenbrier chert occurs as nodules in the Mississippian-age Greenbrier Formation of southwestern Virginia and West Virginia; the Hillsdale chert is in the Hillsdale Limestone member of the Greenbrier Limestone. Kanawha black chert occurs in a shale layer at the base of the Homewood Sandstone member of the Kanawha Formation (Pottsville Group), in an area more than 30 miles west of the upper Gauley River basin.
Where it comes from
Mid-Atlantic, Southeast
States
Quarries and outcrops
- Pine Ridge locality (site 44SC95), Scott County, Virginia (Greenbrier chert collection site)
- Mill Point, West Virginia (Hillsdale chert outcrop, about 20 miles east of the Gauley basin)
- Shale at the base of the Homewood Sandstone, west of the Gauley River basin (Kanawha black chert)
- Greenbrier chert outcrops east of the Gauley Ranger District, studied by Brashler and Lesser
Used by
- Late Paleoindian, Early Archaic and Middle Archaic: Greenbrier chert artifacts in southwestern Virginia (Virginia DHR)
- Rockshelter use in the upper Gauley basin, Middle or Early Archaic through Late Woodland (NPS registration form)
Look-alikes
Stones that are easy to confuse with Greenbrier and Kanawha cherts.
- Other gray-to-black Appalachian cherts
- No look-alike is named by the opened sources
Sources
- Tolley. 1999. Greenbrier Chert. Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Lithics (Projectile Points and Lithics guide).dhr.virginia.gov (opens in a new tab)
- Jensen (1993, as named in the plan). National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form for rockshelters of the upper Gauley River basin, Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia. Hosted by the West Virginia Division of Culture and History.wvculture.org (opens in a new tab)