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Paleolithic tool...

SuperMac

Member
Paleolithic tool, That's what she said...

Paleolithic tool, That's what she said...

another rock pic
 

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Randomrocks

New member
check to see if it is balanced at the point where to narrows. basically right where you would attach a stick for a handle (Hafting). I have several examples that look similar and all have well defined balance points in that basic area. I believe they could be axe heads.
 

armedoldhippy

Well-known member
Veteran
You my friend have a keen eye. What’s your take on this one?
those cross-hatch marks would be nearly impossible to have been the result of random wear over the ages. the edge opposite your thumb in photo...is it sharp? can't tell from this angle. its shape/markings suggests a personalized knife/scraper. some stuff you really need to hold in your own hands to understand. cool topic we are working on here. i found a pretty point on an island in the river here last week, it was sacred ground for the Cherokee for untold ages. now it's a chemical plant on one end and softball fields on the other...:shucks:
 

Randomrocks

New member
Thanks for getting back to me. I would like to see any finds you have and would like to share.
your story about the chemical plant is so typical. What we have done and do to this land is truly frightening.
That particular piece is not sharp but is a grinder that has great places for thumb and finger placement. It also has a little orange staining which is fairly common on the pieces I find.
The local geological “expert” told me that the scratches were caused by a glacier dragging this tiny piece across the country. When I mentioned that if you looked closely you could see the variable length, depth and direction of each striation he moved on to another subject...
Which was to tell me how this next piece was natural and caused by the unique cleavage characteristics in some pieces...he completely ignored the actual geological makeup of this piece and all the easy to see marks. I then showed him a picture of about 20 examples of triangular pieces that appear to made in the same way. They were all found in the same area and all are about the same size. Each of them was made from different types of rock which included igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary.…
He did not even miss a beat and pivoted to the freeze, thaw cycle and how it does strange things…strange indeed..
 

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armedoldhippy

Well-known member
Veteran
Its a well weathered sandy quartzite.
i was looking at that point more here lately. it took some pretty careful work to get stone that "sandy" or "gritty" to knap. could be very early, or might be because that type of stone was what they had to work with. many AmerIndian peoples heat-treated stone like that by burying it under a fire to make it more "glassy" and easier to knap. done more scientifically now, folks stack it in ceramic kilns with thermostats and timers to improve their stone...
 

exoticrobotic

Well-known member
If you look closely sometimes you can see the prey and/or the hunter depicted in arrow/spearheads.

Here's an Axehead/Pickaxe found in South England

Must've been owned by a leather aproned clad shepherd.

Screenshot 2022-10-03 at 19.25.23.png
 

exoticrobotic

Well-known member
A speahead maybe for Hare/Rabbit hunting. The hilt is shaped like the head of a Hare.

Spearhead.jpg


In England these tools are plentiful in and around our ancient forests.
 

armedoldhippy

Well-known member
Veteran
A speahead maybe for Hare/Rabbit hunting. The hilt is shaped like the head of a Hare.

View attachment 18765014

In England these tools are plentiful in and around our ancient forests.
interesting stone. any visual evidence of reworking the edges, flake scars emanating from the edge? the "skin" on it looks like flint chunks i find in lake beds here during winter draw-downs...
 

armedoldhippy

Well-known member
Veteran
randomrocks...the picture of the stone with a "V" notch in process made me go back and study some other pics. paleo peoples (even some followers of "primitive archery" today) used stones like that to grind/shave raw arrow shafts to diameter and smooth them. i'm wondering if that is an unfinished tool possibly. i can't see how it is an accident of nature...
 

armedoldhippy

Well-known member
Veteran
boy, Captain! that white point looks like it could be hafted and go hunting even after all of this time. researchers are now theorizing that the smaller "bird points" like it are actually archery hunting points for deer etc, and that the larger points previously thought to be big game heads are actually atlatl points, or possibly knives. science marches on...a recent dig/discovery at the mouth of the Miami River has archeologists falling over themselves to explain why stone points/tools/etc excavated there may push the timeline back considerably on human habitation in the area. carbon dating of some recent finds is off by hundreds, possibly thousands of years compared to what they thought they "knew".
 
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