Plummets from maine

[mainejman]

These plummets or fish weights were both surface and dig finds, near area streams in maine.

 

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[Charl]

Are they personal finds? They are very nice! Always loved plummets. Have a perforated and grooved one from York Co., Me, but most of mine, including a few personal finds, are from RI and Ma.

 

[Tnmountains]

Wow!! I have one and it looks like it was made for minnows. Those are nice.

 

[SOHIO]

great stuff

 

[Charl]

Didn't see the "Laurentian Tradition" display card at first glance. Maine is a great place for lots of stuff, ground hardstone tools like gouges, ground slate implements of the Maritime Archaic, and great plummets being just a few. Would love to get to some of the fluted point sites in upstate Maine.

 

[theviking]

Very interesting, I haven't heard of many plummets coming from the north east, very cool. Thanks for the view.

 

[oxbowbarefoot]

Awesome pieces! I can't wait to see more posts

 

[mainejman]

Yes everything I find I display at a historical society-library in newport maine.I've noticed there is nothing fancy about these definitely not ornamental.

 

[rock]

Great finds for sure. I still have that one on my wish list for finds.

 

[wells]

The extreme Northeast produces some of the nicest plummets i've seen along with magnificent gouges and ulus and the knobed celt. Every area seems to have something special to offer.

 

[Charl]

I agree with wells. I have many nice gouges and adz from New England. The big ones were used to hollow out dugout canoes. Anyway, I found a photo of one of my plummets from Me. One could argue this is an effigy of a Great Auk, a sea bird of the North Atlantic. Well, I won't argue that simply because the perforation and groove do serve the practical purpose of stabilizing the plummet, if it were some sort of weight. I think black steatite. York Co., Me.

 

[mainejman]

Nice plummet.the more elaborate they get the more I question their use.sometimes they seem to make them just a little to fancy, just to lay in the mud.

 

[Charl]

Nice plummet.the more elaborate they get the more I question their use.sometimes they seem to make them just a little to fancy, just to lay in the mud.

I agree. The subject has come up on forums in the past. The traditional interpretation, at least here in New England, has been fishing weights, whether line or net. But in California, where they fall into the class called charmstones, they can have really wild design and be works of art and Moorehead and Willoughby both illustrated the same high level of design and workmanship in plummets from Maine.

 

[GatorBoy]

Something to conciser is a loom weight for spinning thread. Or even a single weight for spinning cord in the field. One loom could stay in a village for generations. It would lend itself to being embellished upon.

 

[GatorBoy]

I have one I found here in Florida that is made of pottery. This would not work as a sinker.

 

[mainejman]

I agree g.b. there are a few things that don't add up.one of my plummets had no use for a weight as it was made of a sandstone type material.

 

[Charl]

I agree g.b. there are a few things that don't add up.one of my plummets had no use for a weight as it was made of a sandstone type material.

Sandstone will work fine as a weight. Most of the plummets I've found are made of sandstone. It's specific gravity is enough to sink, it's a rock after all. For that matter, most of the notched weights and grooved weights we've found are made of sandstone, and they were certainly used as fishing/net weights. But pottery as GatorBoy indicates? I agree, no way pottery could be an effective sinker.............