AquaPlano Endscrapers

uniface

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Jun 4, 2009
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Back when it was normal and expected that archaeologists (or at least the heavy hitters in the field) would assemble the information they had into a "big picture" (instead of cherry picking it to advance some agenda), Don Dragoo of Carnegie Institute, one of the heaviest, used (perhaps, coined) the term "AquaPlano" with reference to the western point types (like Agate Basin) and their analogues (Scottsbluff/Hardin) found in the east back when Folsom was showing up as far from home as Arkansas as having resulted from the great drought which had dried up the pluvial lakes, forcing the wildlife there (and the people who depended on it) to migrate, following the habitable margin's retreat.


It took me an embarrassingly long time to understand Tony Baker's description (and illustrations) of Paleo endscrapers (in his famous articles about them at ele.net. The wayback machine can probably access them) as "about the size of a silver dollar," since those of Clovis and its eastern analogues are about the size of a quarter. The light didn't dawn until I remembered him describing point types like Balen as being from the Paleo era -- IOW, he was using the term with reference to survival strategy (1. Find buffalo. 2. Kill buffalo. 3. Eat buffalo. 4. Repeat) (which makes no sense to me, seeing as this continued into historical times, plains tribes having only improved it by adding horses and firearms).

So the eastern analogue of his "Paleo" Balen scrapers (all of the examples he illustrated fall outside Clovis/folsom parameters) were our eastern AquaPlano scrapers which, puzzlingly large, don't fit into any other cultural inventory I know of. Supporting (and reinforcing) this association is Converse (1963) having assigned such large, heavy blade tools as illustrated in that thread to the Plano era. Contemporary, then, with Dalton, but independent of it (as a glance at the big frame of Dalton endscrapers Pete Bostrum shows @ lithic casting lab shows).


That, at any rate, is the way I understand (or, think I do) those which follow, posted for the ten or so people here who seem to care much about such stuff.


On with the show then:

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Coshocton chert (Ohio). Note the spur @ right -- a supporting age indicator.
 

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uniface

uniface

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Patination on this one indicates Paleo age. Damaged edge from careless storage shows the underlying color. Lashanne Johnson, Benton County, Tennessee. Fort Payne chert.

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kentucky Quinn

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Jul 27, 2013
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Now I’m going to have to go through my chips / flakes and look for the pronounced spurs AND the spokeshave notches. I should do a better job in my collection, I know I have several scrapers and flake knives just mixed in with the chips flakes boxes....class is in. Thanks for taking the time to educate on this addictive hobby. Learned a ton in past year. Have a great one folks
 

Mine Shaft

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The place i go to in the sierras the ground is littered with that stuff lol. I could fill a gallon zip lock bag in under a hour. It is just amazing the amount of flaking they did around there camps and grinding stones. Around this grinding stone you can pick up 20 pieces in under a minute lol.
 

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