A core is a reservoir of workable stone used for producing tools via flake or blade removal. The only true Beverly blade cores are ASTt, but rare Taltheilei quartzite ones are bladelike. Cores may be round, cubic, flat, keeled, pyramidal, conical, cylindrical or amorphous. They may have one or both ends or a side percussed from a single or a rotated striking platform, resulting in few flake scars or many surrounding blade scars like a fluted Greek column. Cores were used by Déné Indians for preparing flake tool blanks until metal knives and scrapers replaced stone tools in the 18th and 19th Centuries. The Déné ancestors of the Taltheilei tradition, and their Shield Archaic and Northern Plano predecessors used a variety of cores, but generally they are quite simple due to their common function and the ubiquitous quartzite river cobbles. ASTt chert microcores are more complex.
Of 170 cores, 146 stratified and 24 culturally-assigned cores occur, the latter based on association, attributes or definitive material. Included in 144 tundra and 26 forest cores are 20 chert ASTt cores (many blade-scarred), plus an SA and NP core. Dozens of cores remain culturally-unassigned in surface collections. By number and culture, from earliest to latest, cores include one NP, 21 SA (13 tundra & 8 forest, 29 ASTt (26 tundra & 3 forest); 21 ET (11 tundra & 10 forest, 59 MT (58 tundra & 1 forest) & 37 LT (33 tundra & 4 forest). ASTt, ET & LT forest cores are shorter, a situation relating to distant tundra quarries. All forest cores are narrower except slightly heavier SA, while ET cores are lighter. Rangewide sections are 25% round, 40% rectangular-square or rhomboid, 5-6% each of triangular, planoconvex and biconvex and 16% unknown. Comparisons are 24 & 35% for tundra & forest round, 40 & 42% for squarish, 6 & 4% for triangular, 6 & 12% for planoconvex, and 5 & 8% for biconvex. Range difference is due to high forest ET round & planoconvex frequencies, and a small forest sample where single cores amount to 4% of the sample of 26.
From earliest to latest, the single NP core is round, while tundra SA cores are round then squarish, while forest ones are squarish then round. Half of tundra ASTt cores are squarish with some planoconvex, round or triangular, while forest ASTt ones are squarish and some biconvex. Minor frequencies of SA tundra planoconvex sections change to triangular and biconvex in forest sites. Tundra ET sections are mainly squarish with some triangular and planoconvex, while forest ET is squarish and planoconvex. Tundra MT cores are half squarish and a fourth round, while forest MT is squarish (1 core). Most tundra and forest LT cores are round or rectangular. Rangewide squarish sections outnumber round. Rangewide comparisons are 56 & 77% blocky for tundra & forest, 26 & 12% conical, 4 each of spherical and 12 & 8% boat-shaped. More blocky forest cores are balanced by fewer forest conical & boat-shaped ones. As depleted quartzite cores are mainly nodular or blocky, forest cores appear to have been more heavily utilized. Lenticular cores appear only in tundra sites in SA & ASTt.
From earliest to latest, the NP core is round; SA cores an even mixture of rectangular-square, ovoid and round, ASTt mainly squarish, ET chiefly round but equally squarish and ovoid, MT mostly squarish, LT round and squarish. No transition appears in NP and ASTt, while Taltheilei varies between squarish and round. Single platforms predominate in ASTt and MT, rotated platforms in MT followed by LT, and bipolar platforms in LT followed by MT & SA. In sum, most platforms are rotated, an indication of more extensive flake or blade removal for producing further tools. Taltheilei cores are consistently rotated, indicating continuity across this tradition. More forest than tundra cores (31 vs. 26%) are depleted, perhaps due to inaccessible raw material. 12% of tundra and forest cores have other functions vs. 4% of pushplanes and knives, 2% of wedges and <1% of hammerstones and cleavers,. Cores are 82% quartzite, 11% chert, 4% quartz and <1% basalt. 21% of all cores are banded stone, mainly MT & LT, and half as much in ASTt & ET. This repeats in tundra, but predominates in forest ET, followed by SA and ASTt. Culturally important core traits and variables are noted below.
Plan: 1=round like river cobble; 2=rectangular/square; 3=ovoid; 4=triangular.
Section: 1=round; 2=rectangular/square/rhomboid; 3=triangular; 4=planoconvex; 5=biconvex.
Profile: 1=blocky; 2=conical; 3=spherical; 4=boatshaped; 5=lenticular.
Flakescars: 1=blade/bladelike; 2=flakelike.
Striking Platform: 0=unknown; 1=single; 2=rotated; 3=bipolar.
Cortex: 1=present; 2=absent.
Battered: 1=unipolar; 2=bipolar.
Edgewear: 0=unknown; 1=present; 2=absent.
Depleted: 1=no; 2=yes.
Multipurpose (dualtool): 0=no/unknown; 1=pushplane; 2=wedge; 3=knife; 4=hammerstone; 5=cleaver.
Serrated: 0=no; 1=yes.
Hinge-fractured: 0=no/unknown; 1=yes.
Material: 1=quartzite; 2=chert; 3=quartz; 4=basalt; 5=granite; 6=sandstone.