GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This is a medium to large, trianguloid point with recurvate edges.
MEASUREMENTS: The illustrated example is, perhaps, slightly shorter than average. It measures 80 mm. long, 22 mm. wide at the widest point of the blade, 22 mm. wide at the base, 21 mm. wide across hafting constriction and 7 mm. thick.
FORM: The cross-section is biconvex. The blade is recurvate as a result of the hafting constriction. The distal end is usually acute but may be acuminate. The hafting area is expanded at the base. The basal edge is usually straight but may be excurvate or occasionally incurvate. It is usually thinned. Light grinding is usually present on the hafting area edges.
FLAKING: The blade and hafting area are shaped by broad, shallow, random or collateral flaking. The removal of these flakes occasionally resulted in a low median ridge. The edges are finely retouched as from pressure flaking. Copena points are usually made of local flint.
COMMENTS: The type was named after the Copena burial mound culture of North Alabama. The term "Copena" is derived from the first three letters of copper and the last three of galena, since copper and galena artifacts are often associated with the burials. The illustrated example is from Hulse Site 17 in Limestone County, Alabama. This type was illustrated by Webb and DeJarnette (1942). Copena is often called Southern Hopewell. It is a Woodland point, usually found in burial mounds, but occasionally on late Archaic sites in the Tennessee area (Kneberg, 1956). Copena points appeared in the lower levels of the Woodland stratum at Flint Creek Rock Shelter (Cambron and Waters, 1961) and two examples were recovered from Level 3 (pottery) at University of Alabama Site Ms 201, Rock House Shelter, in Marshall County, Alabama, as well as in the Woodland zone at Ma 48, Flint River Mound, in Madison County, Alabama (Webb and DeJarnette, 1948a). One example was recovered from Level 1 at the Stanfield-Worley Bluff Shelter (DeJarnette, Kurjack and Cambron, 1962). The type is found eroding out of several predominately Woodland shell middens in the Wheeler Basin of the Tennessee River. A suggested age is from about 500 B. C. to A. D.
COPENA TRIANGULAR, Webb and DeJarnette (Cambron, 1958b): A-20-a
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This is a medium to large, trianguloid point. The sides of the hafting area are usually parallel.
