What Do You Say, Oh Wise Ones -- Scraper or Scrapper?

[NorCal Gal]

I found the object shown below quite awhile back. It's chert but was found at the bottom of large, steep hill in a gravel driveway of a distinctly different type of rock (dark grey, grainy).













It reminds me of a "polishing stone" because one side (bottom) is virtually flat and actually has a "burnished" texture like it's been used to polish or smooth something (hides?). On the opposite side (top), one end comes up in a volcano-shaped hump that fits perfectly into the palm of the hand (if hand was slightly cupped). Two of the edges look to have been "flaked" and one of those edges is pretty sharp (scraper?). The "front" and "back" (the "humped" side and opposite side), however, are almost sheered off flat.

I should add that the same hill (at the bottom of which I found this object) has also yielded a green "bird" point that I found at the top of the hill some time ago in a pile of "tailings" that had been kicked up by a gopher. And I should add also that many of the points and other tools found here abouts (Sonoma County, Northern CA) are also made from this same whitish-tan chert substrate.

What do you Great and Wise Hunters think? ;o)

NorCal Gal

 

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[ohioaxeman]

Not sure Gal, but do not scrap it!

 

[NorCal Gal]

I won't, then... Thanks Axeman!

 

[all_atv]

If it was found near a driveway that makes me think not an artifact. Of course it looks like a tool and even may have some "flaking". I have seen many times before what looks like flaking but is actually grinding marks from the machine that grinds up the gravel from the quarry. I have counted up to 20 of these "flakes" on one rock fresh from the quarry. There is alot of chert in limestone used for roads, in some areas Ive seen the limestone is all pretty much chert. It just depends where the stone is from, all quarry stone will vary slightly. Arould here theres chert nodules in the gravel if you get the larger stuff thats not as ground up. They look like chalky eggs, crack em open and there like geodes of chert. I would put that in my "natural arrowhead" box that I have kept some naturally made arrowhead geofacts.

 

[artorius]

Sure looks like a worked edge to me - particularly in the top photograph. I would say it is an artifact.

artorius

 

[Lone Star]

Dudes and Dudess.,

 

[NorCal Gal]

ATV:

I see what you're saying but the (very little bit -- cuz the landlord's a cheapskate) gravel in the driveway doesn't have ANY chert in it. It's all dark-grey and granite-like. It also butts up against about a 55-degree sloped hillside that goes up for approx. 300 feet or so and the top of that hill (on the same side as the driveway below) was the same hill where, about 2 years ago, I happened upon small, bright green (probably jasper or green obsidian) "bird-type point" in the tailings that a gopher had kicked up after a light rain. Rumor also has it that several stone mortars and pestles have been found on the property (although exactly where in the 20 acres or so of its hillside-slopes, no one seems to know). My theory is that, with that steep of an incline right down to the driveway, anything could easily fall that far. I have also found perfectly spherical stones (2 of them) -- about 8-10 inches in diameter -- right where I found this object and where the driveway surface meets the hill that (while they could always be naturally-occurring) resemble very much those used by Native peoples both for games and for heating water or soup in a large vessel of some sort.

More than anything about the piece, it was how well it fit in the hand and how polished and smooth (with the exception of what I can tell are a couple of nicks or flakes) that bottom surface is...

I guess I'll keep ahold of it pending my being able to encounter a local expert who might be willing to take a look at it...

Thanks so much everyone for all your good input! I'm learning a LOT here! :^D

NorCal Gal