Archaeology Terms
Biface Refit
This reconstructed biface brought together not just three pieces of a broken artifact but two sites on a northern Wisconsin reservoir as well. Red arrows point out the cracks where the three pieces match up on the two broad sides of the biface. The tip of the biface (to the left of the large double arrow) was found at one site during a survey in 1989, and the two adjoining pieces of the midsection and base (on either side of the small double arrow) were collected from the second site farther east in 2012. The refit indicated a direct connection between the two sites, and they were reclassified as one in the Wisconsin Historical Society’s archaeological site database. The sites likely were recorded as two separate ones during initial survey in 1989 largely because of higher water levels in the reservoir, which flooded the land between the sites but left two separate rises visible.