Photo of Gahagan knives
Thirty-five Gahagan knives were recovered from human burials in Mound C at the George C. Davis site. Dr. Harry J. Shafer, who originally analyzed these specimens, found that the high-quality chert from which they were made was not local to east Texas. The chert was light gray, tan, brown, and tannish brown. Shafer also pointed out that the large sizes of the knives indicated that they had been made from large river cobbles or chert slabs from bedrock sources, and that the makers of the knives probably lived close to the chert sources. These kinds of chert can be found in gravel bars in the Little River near the J. B. White site, and there is no doubt that the knappers who lived there had the skills to make the tools that archeologists call Gahagans. Photograph courtesy of Harry J. Shafer.
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