antler pressure flaking artifacts

[GatorBoy]

I have found some antler pressure flaking tools on one of my sites that are always the same section close to the skull. I was hoping someone had the same or knew a bit about why that portion might be preferred. Is that section harder? The larger one appears to have been used for a long time. It has been modified some and is heavily polished on the side that faced the hand

 

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[rock]

Looks like a marble type of rock GB. It comes in all colors and is very hard.

 

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[GatorBoy]

Here is one of the tools I've found I mentioned earlier. What do you guys think? Knapping?

 

[animoosh]

In my opinion, your rock seems to posses the same fracturing (conchoidal) properties as any rock you would use it to knap on. In my experience, a rock with the same qualities isn't really the best to try to knap another. Something harder, such as granite or hardstone would work much better...but would still cause a lot of crushing on impact.

 

[GatorBoy]

So if used on lower quality material...which there is alot of here..my "rock" should work or so I think. What do yo think that "rock" is? Mabey it was used in makeng shell tools somehow.. I'm not sure. Thanks for your help. I see you have over 40 yrs. Experience in Canada .. is there any tool up there that resembles this "tool" from Florida?

 

[rock]

As to the type it looks like flint to me. Now it does look like a core or a early stage preform.

 

[GatorBoy]

Sometimes I don't know why I post some things on here that I should know people aren't going to be used to seeing. If you look at the flaking pattern it's obvious that section was purposely shaped in that manner. there is no reason that pressure flaking in that small area at those angles would be part of the process of knapping a projectile point. And yes of course it's Flint.

 

[animoosh]

Gatorboy....maybe such objects were used on softer materials like sandstone or limestone. I've seen the odd example up here which I believe were used someway in the meat/hide preparation process. Bone working is yet another possibility. Close examination of the "business" end of your artifact may reveal whether it was used to smash on things or used to scrape/score them. There's some evidence that certain flint type tools were used to "peck" minute grains off of hardstone to create grooves for hafting, etc. This was accomplished by the repeated pecking of the target stone, pulverizing small amounts of material as they went. (I'm sure this was horribly tedious!)

 

[rock]

LOL glad I could help. Its a flake tool, thats what I call them.

 

[GatorBoy]

Ahhh..good thought...pecking... would work. On These guys

 

[GatorBoy]

As to the type it looks like flint to me. Now it does look like a core or a early stage preform.

That's not What you called them Only a few minutes ago.

 

[animoosh]

Ahhh..good thought...pecking... would work. On These guys

View attachment 722414

Now that's a cool sinker! Such artifacts don't exist up here, For sinkers, early peoples just took a small slab of limestone...knocked a "V" shaped notch out of two opposite sides and tie their lines around it. Very simple yet effective. The rivers here have really rocky and craggy bottoms, so I'm sure they lost a lot of these sinkers to snags...probably why they didn't put a lot of effort into making sinkers. Thanks for sharing that photo!

 

[kuger]

Tnmountains and kuger....I would be willing to bet that early man in your respective areas knew the properties of those woods and used them when needed. It would be fun to experiment with both types.

Many might call BS on this but where we summer our cows is a pretty fair sized obsidian outcrop,and two different tribes "shared",it,and traded it to at least four different tribes.When I was a kid I picked up the pedical of an elk antler and about 9"of the main beam,the brow tine was broke off and it had been "petrified",thats what I thought at least but may not have been petrified seeing many other cow bones from that desert enviro now...it was just VERY old...the interesting thing is there to this day no elk within 300+ miles of there.You could see strike marks in it where they whacked blanks from spawls.I have looked for where Dad put that for over 15 years now,and be darned f I can find it?Someday I sure hope to see it again

 

[GatorBoy]

Now that's a cool sinker! Such artifacts don't exist up here, For sinkers, early peoples just took a small slab of limestone...knocked a "V" shaped notch out of two opposite sides and tie their lines around it. Very simple yet effective. The rivers here have really rocky and craggy bottoms, so I'm sure they lost a lot of these sinkers to snags...probably why they didn't put a lot of effort into making sinkers. Thanks for sharing that photo!

Funny you say that... they do the same thing here with hard sandstone. that's one of the reasons I don't believe those to be sinkers down here..also if you look closely at that one it is grooved on top and bottom.

 

[animoosh]

You can bet that elk antler was used in that quarry. The broken brow tine may have resulted from them prying the stone out of the matrix or separating larger chunks. There also may have been elk present when the natives were there. Here in Manitoba, there hasn't been an elk around in the wild for at least 250 years, yet when the first Europeans arrived, elk were the predominant deer species here. Whitetails only showed up once the agriculture of the 1800's showed up.

 

[animoosh]

Funny you say that... they do the same thing here with hard sandstone. that's one of the reasons I don't believe those to be sinkers down here..also if you look closely at that one it is grooved on top and bottom.

View attachment 722448

If not sinkers, what do you think the grooved pieces are? Would be an interesting study, considering there appears to be two different types of stones that could fit the same purpose. Do you think that the more simple weights may be older? Ground and pecked tools are the hallmark of the Archaic time period. You think the others may predate these?

 

[GatorBoy]

Haha... We have just stumbled upon An ongoing debate over these little artifacts we call plummets. It's a doozy... I have even entertained the thought that they could serve as a weight for spinning threads together. Here is a perplexing one I found here locally...it is pottery.

 

[animoosh]

Haha... We have just stumbled upon An ongoing debate over these little artifacts we call plummets. It's a doozy... I have even entertained the thought that they could serve as a weight for spinning threads together. Here is a perplexing one I found here locally...it is pottery.

View attachment 722475

Well, if they're not for fishing, then I'm at a loss. There is nothing like these artifacts up this way, so I'm not even able to give it an educated guess, Fascinating though....

 

[kuger]

Haha... We have just stumbled upon An ongoing debate over these little artifacts we call plummets. It's a doozy... I have even entertained the thought that they could serve as a weight for spinning threads together. Here is a perplexing one I found here locally...it is pottery.

View attachment 722475

I swear I seen something very similar in Emory Strongs writtings on the Great Basin?Seems they didnt know what they were either....they were made from stone though

 

[kuger]

Funny you say that... they do the same thing here with hard sandstone. that's one of the reasons I don't believe those to be sinkers down here..also if you look closely at that one it is grooved on top and bottom.

View attachment 722448

....and those I am nearly positive have been found here still attached to Jackrabbit nets.I know I have found them

 

[GatorBoy]

Lets go with this...its more interesting than flaking tools. .... were those Jack Rabbit nets native artifacts?