Moundville Park

These are some of the various stone tools ancient people could create. Learn more at Moundville's Knap-In March 13-14.(Photo Credit: Jerome Adams)

The Moundville Archaeological Park will host its 14th annual Knap-In March 13-14, giving the community a chance to observe and practice the ancient craftsmanship found in many American Indian tools and technologies.

The Knap-In is named after flintknapping, the technique of striking and chipping stone into tools and weapons.

There's a fine art (and science) to the process of fashioning knives, spear points and other tools from stones like flint, chert and obsidian.

"There's nothing primitive about the sense of innate geometry someone has to have to methodically take a glass-like rock and reduce it into an ultra-sharp projectile like a spear point," Betsy Irwin, interim director of the Moundville Archaeological Park, said. "The physics of how glass breaks is set in stone, so to speak."

While the event is likely to attract historians and art lovers, it also draws a crowd of avid outdoor enthusiasts who enjoy hunting, fishing and basic survival technologies.

In addition to demonstrating the creation of arrow heads, spear points and drills, the Knap-In will incorporate and teach other skills, like making bows and arrows.

"The knap-in is a perfect way for people, young and old, to reconnect with their environment," Irwin said of last year's event. "We've been shopping at Wal Mart and grocery stores for so long that many of us have forgotten that everything we eat, drink, wear or somehow use has to come from Mother Earth. Most tribal people and all of the artists at the knap-in are in touch with their surroundings, much of their tools and supplies coming directly from the earth with little or no refinement."