Material · lithic
Fort Payne chert
North America — Southeast
Fort Payne chert is the grey, often fossiliferous Mississippian-age chert of Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky, the most widely used toolstone of the mid-South from Paleoindian to Mississippian times. Blue-grey varieties were used for Benton caches and Cumberland points. It is abundant on nearly every Tennessee valley site.
| Kind | lithic |
|---|---|
| Regions | North America — Southeast |
Sources
The Fort Payne formation crops out across the Highland Rim and Cumberland Plateau of Tennessee, northern Alabama and southern Kentucky, with nodules and beds in the limestone and abundant cobbles in stream gravels. Dover chert is a local variety.
Identification
The chert is grey, blue-grey, tan or mottled, opaque with a dull to slightly glossy lustre, frequently containing crinoid stems and other fossils; a distinctive blue-grey banded variety occurs. Weathering produces a lighter, chalky rind. It is coarser than Dover.
Substitutes and fakes
Fort Payne is used by modern Tennessee knappers, and Benton and Cumberland reproductions appear; patina and edge wear are the checks. Fresh surfaces are uniformly grey.
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Fort Payne chert" (Material). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/materials/fort-payne-chert. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-fort-payne-chert,
title = {Fort Payne chert},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/materials/fort-payne-chert}},
year = {2026},
note = {Material article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.