Questions from Texas

[hav2fish]

First off, Hello to everyone. This is my first post altough I have been reading this site for a while. I got hooked on this hobby on a fishing trip to a local body of water. I reached down and picked up a small piece of worked flint and realized I was holding something that had last been used by a human hundreds if not thousands of years ago. At the risk of sounding sappy(my daughter thinks I'm crazy) the connection to the past was almost electrical to me and still is every time I bend down and pick up even the simplest of tools. At first I even bought a few points off ebay, but it's not the buying I love it's the discovery. That's what makes my pieces priceless to me. Anyway,that's enough of that and brings me to my questions. There seems to be some good knowledge on this web site so here goes. Is the piece in the top center a finished blade or was it a work in progress? Is the piece in the bottom left some type of drill? Is the brown piece a broken point or was it made this way as a knife? And lastly are the other two pieces anything? I left the round one out of the last photo cause the first pretty well captured it. The last photo shows pieces from a different angle. I hope my camera is clear enough and I appreciate the information in advance.

[steve71]

preform in center, game piece is the round one. others are artifacts

[razor]

Top left, guessing at the size, looks like a pecking stone. If you'll go to www.westernartifacts.com and go to the museum page you'll find a pretty good comparason between hammer stones and pecking stones. The round one "could" also be a pecking stone as well. I've got one just like it... again guessing at the size. What general location are you in? I'm just east of Dallas. Razor

[hav2fish]

First of all thanks for the responses. I'm in Central Texas. I have been wondering about "hammerstones" "pecking stones" etc. A couple of the places I search have many types of artifacts. I have found stones similar to this in shape and size but all this is in context to a river, so there are many stones that are shaped close to this. I keep the ones with obvious wear, odd shape, and in this case some type of fire damage or mark. Are there any other factors that would help identify these stones or has time and water worn that away. The whole thing is obviously not a perfect science based on what I discover trying to place my finds in certain types. Finding them in relation to other artifacts makes me believe they were used for something. Thanks again.

[razor]

hav2fish, I've not been doing this very long and there are those on this site that know much more than I do, badandy and fossis for example. However, in relation to the pecking stones. I've found three, see the pic I sent, all within a very small area. Additionally, within the surrounding area I have found a ton of shards, thumbnail scrapers, and points that were damaged in the manufacturing process. The one on the left hand side had a red ocher coating, which I thought was kind of neat. From what I've learned this type of find usually comes down to location, location, location. What did you find accompanying the piece, where was the piece found, ect... One other thing, with the two upper pecking stones, I swear there are slight groves worn into the stone were the user naturally griped the stone, the camera really can't pick it up... no pun intended The few people I know personally who also collect agree with me on the groves. I hope this helps, Razor

[fossis]

Welcome to Treasure Net have2fish,
I used to think I had to fish, but now I do lot's of things,
including Indian Artifacts, it is a very educational, intresting,
hobby, HH,
Fossis....................

[hav2fish]

Thanks for the welcome Fossis. I've read many of your posts and responses. My brother gets irritated at me cause now when we fish tourneys in new locations I always have one eye on the landscape and the ground for potential sites. The two hobbies really do go hand in hand as water seems to be a key thread in both.