Very Well Worn Uniface Scraper

[OntarioArch]

I hope the significant wear on the business end of this scraper shows up in my amatuer pics! The flake scar ridges are worn way down, way smooth, compared to most of my other Onondaga chert pieces. The flake scars look abnormally shallow!
I am guessing this artifact was a lot longer during its useful days: it's hard to get a good grip on it now, and a good grip must have been essential for the years and years of scraping it must have gone through. The broken face has a nice patina on it - an old, old break I would say.

So, are uniface scrapers like this one generally believed to be Archaic or older?

 

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[OntarioArch]

Two years ago, when I first began to learn about the wonder of NA artifacts, an Old Timer gave this piece to me, along with a few dozen other artifacts he had collected throughout his life.

Ironically, I did not recognize this piece as an artifact at that time....and left it in a cigar box of brokes. Just the other day I was looking through the box of brokes to give some to the children of a landowner whose fields I was given permission to walk. I thought they might be interested. I then saw this piece for the second time....two years and a lot of learning later.

This duckbill scraper, likely from the Archaic Period, now occupies a prominent place in a frame of my best artifacts. Thanks to all, very much appreciated.

 

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[uniface]

Made on a blade, suggesting paleo era.

 

[filmiracl]

How can anyone conclusively say when a scraper is from without other dateable finds to put it into context (and I'm not talking about a blunt?) It can be paleo, archaic, or woodland. That scraper is identical to all the scrapers I find on a woodland site dated from around 700 - 1200.

 

[Kevin in IN]

I've noticed over the years that many of the scrapers are made of a higher grade of material than the points I find. They must have been a very important tool to use your best flint. Anyone else notice this ?

 

[uniface]

Often, but not always the case in paleo assemblages.