Flying Monkey
Member
johnstone nice... good stoned thread
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Paleolithic tool...
- Thread starter SuperMac
- Start date
Television screen glass works nicely too.
toilet tank material AKA "johnstone" lol...great stuff for knapping.
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.
Randomrocks
New member
You my friend have a keen eye. What’s your take on this one?it "does have" some parallel grooving along the left end radiating away from the edge which could indicate human handiwork, but...it COULD just be a rock too.how's that for a non-committed waffle response?
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Randomrocks
New member
Check to see if the one with the orange residue is balanced right where it gets larger. I have several that do.
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...
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..
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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it sounds as if he's endured a cycle or two himself...the freezing, that is.
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.
Here's an Axehead/Pickaxe found in South England
Must've been owned by a leather aproned clad shepherd.
exoticrobotic
Well-known member
A speahead maybe for Hare/Rabbit hunting. The hilt is shaped like the head of a Hare.
In England these tools are plentiful in and around our ancient forests.
In England these tools are plentiful in and around our ancient forests.
Supermax If you got that in South Africa I'd say you've got a 2 million year old hand axe from homo habilis.
I love hominids and unravelling the human family tree.
I love hominids and unravelling the human family tree.
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...
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...
exoticrobotic
Well-known member
Yes. The edge is regularly serrated with the hilt smoothed.
I am interested in the art that is often contained on rocks.
could be a midden and worth exploring!
those look like some awesome hand made tools from way way back man!!
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".
