Faith Works 8-26-06
Jeff Gill

A Spirituality Made Of Flint

Ching . . . ching . . . ching . . . plink.
Ching . . . ching . . . ching . . . ching . . . tangk!
Multiply times dozens, if you can hear what I just described, and you have the soundscape of Flint Ridge State Memorial next weekend, Sept. 1 through 3, for the annual Flint Ridge Knap-In.
Flint knapping is the process of chipping at a flint nodule until you have a projectile point, an arrowhead or spear point, ready to join a shaft of wood with raw sinew wrappings drying to a tight tough grip. A few feathers, or fletchings, to give stability through flight to the target, and you have a dart or spear to throw by hand or with throwing stick.
Our modern term for throwing stick is adapted from modern South American indigenous language, an "atl atl," or "fish shaped stick." This simple tool allows a flint-tipped spear to fly farther with more impact.
The key, though, is flint, found in a limited number of spots in Ohio, but nowhere else with as much color and contrast as right here in Licking County.
Flint Ridge Flint is a type of flint known by geologists and archaeologists all over North America. Just as resources from all over the continent are found in graves and sites from 2000 years ago in central Ohio, like copper from northern Michigan, shells from the Gulf Coast, and obsidian from the Yellowstone area of Wyoming, so is Flint Ridge flint found in those areas.
But with this one, odd, attention grabbing qualification. Flint Ridge flint, with rainbow of colors from bubble gum to root beer to translucent, is found in remarkably small amount in those places, especially compared to the amount of distant material found in central Ohio.
Mica, a mineral from the Carolina mountains, has been found in bushel basket loads in burials around Licking County from 2000 years ago, a period known archaeologically as "Hopewell," but Flint Ridge flint is seen in the archaeological record in barely handfuls from the same area.
This would seem to mean one of two possible interpretations: that Flint Ridge flint, full of color and variety, was greatly valuable like unto diamonds, or it was a token, with symbolic meaning as a pilgrim’s souvenir. Or both.
Those who have learned today the ancient skill of knapping flint have said that the act of shaping a useful tool, a knife or projectile point, from flint is a process of near hypnotic repetition, rhythm, and finally beauty. The aesthetic aspect of crafting a vitally useful tool from Flint Ridge flint is tangible, as well as visual.
It doesn’t seem like too much of a stretch to wonder that the work of making everyday implements from our local, uniquely vivid flint, took the makers to a very special mental and even spiritual state.
Add to that the stories I have heard from modern day Native American peoples about Flint Ridge: that this high plateau is up where the rainbow of the sky touches the precious stone of the earth, and brings earth and sky together in a spectrum of colors from violet to red and all nature in between, joining the ground and the heavens in this unique mineral. You feel the special nature of this place in those stories and with the stones themselves.
Go out US 40 and turn north at Brownsville, or east on US 16 and turn south on Brownsville Road to Flint Ridge State Memorial, where a modest parking fee gives access to this rhythmic music of knapping and shaping, the revelation of the earth’s colors and the display of atl-atl throwers making skillful use of the heavenly mineral on a speartip.
Is there a spiritual element to these Licking County materials? Look, listen, and participate, and you tell me.

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and supply preacher around central Ohio; he also regularly guides school groups around Flint Ridge State Memorial. Offer your perspective on the spiritual elements of everyday life to knapsack77@gmail.com.