This seems like a multi-tool, an end scraper, side scraper, pick, with a graver. Quartz is so frustrating to take pics of, I did my best with what I got.
The pics aren’t great, but I’m pretty sure it’s an artifact, though I’m certainly no expert. Most everything I have is quartz and will probably be debatable, so feel free to trash it all, I take no offense.
I would say natural as well ... that particular quartz looks like it would fracture easy and not be a good option for knapping .... I live in Maryland and probably 90% of my finds have been quartz so having handled a lot of it and seeing what they usually use I don’t think it’s an artifact
I think it's a geofact. In addition to what has been previously said, that piece looks too brittle and full of cracks and weak areas to use for any tool. That may be quartzite or a conglomerate but quartz looks way different here. We've got plenty of it.
I’m in the Merrimack Valley of Mass., and no, I really THINK I’m right. I hunt on what we call rock pile or cairn sites around here, which you would probably have some familiarity with.
I’m in the Merrimack Valley of Mass., and no, I really THINK I’m right. I hunt on what we call rock pile or cairn sites around here, which you would probably have some familiarity with.
There are great places to surface hunt in the Merrimack Valley. And I’m rooting for ya!
Regarding your post though, what is it, that you see in that specific rock that the rest of us are missing?
Further-on the subject of those trail markers, or cairns, how do you know how old they are? Have you found any artifacts on them that people who study NA Artifacts might recognize and maybe not have to rely so much on imagination?
By the way, it may not be wise to tamper with a historical mound of stone (or Cairn as you say).
The spot was on private property, and no laws on picking up “rocks” off the ground that I know of. Definitely not wise to mess with sites like that , the spirits will start talking to you, lol. I’ve been looking into this for long while now, so while most might not agree, and I probably am not 100 percent correct in my thinking, the truth probably lies in the middle ground. No one knows how old the “rock pile” sites are, not really cairns or trail markers, how do you date a pile of rocks.
I watched a video on the Topper site the other night, and when discussing the pre-Clovis artifacts, Dr. Goodyear mentioned bi-polar knapping more than once. Smash rocks, make tools with what you get, so they won’t resemble what we’re used to seeing.
Further in this book, the author talks of the "Wa-gas" people leaving monuments along the tops of the mountain ridges as they left for the north. It goes on to say the Indians respected these piles of rocks as ancient artifacts and maintained them through the ages.
I always heard the natives in this area claimed the stone structures around here were already here when they got here, sort of the same story. Pretty cool. Now that people are becoming interested the tribes that are left are claiming them as “ceremonial landscapes.” Not that it bothers me, they deserve everything they can get, but the story has done a 180 in the last few years.