an extremely productive half hour and another different knife handle

[larson1951]

i went just 50 feet north of my garden with not much time to walk right after lunch
only had bout 20-30 min and noticed about 15-20 red rooted pigweed plants getting ready to go to seed and needing to be pulled
i stopped and walked over to start and B4 i got to the weeds i noticed arib bone w/a little polish to it
looked a little closer before picking it up and.... YEE-HAW!!!!!!! another knife handle only this is another one of a kind for me
here is why,
this one has rust stains on the blade groove
copper does not rust or make a stain, and neither does flint, chert, or agate
the only thing that it could is either steel or most likely sheet iron,so that makes this blade a post contact trade item making it even rarer in my opinion as the post contact period was not a terrible long period of time
after taking the photos i walked about 3 more feet and here is a clear agate point, then another 4 feet and a gastropod shell bead
then as i pulled all the weeds a few scrapers and some pottery pieces
so here we go w/the handle and next will be the rest
i feel very fortunate today!
steve

 

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[flintdigger]

Steve, I was wondering and about it and was going to ask but forgot . How long is the groove for the blade in the bone handle ? It look's about two to three inches is that right ?

 

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[larson1951]

yes thankyou tommy
the blade grooves are usually bout two or three inches long
the wider grooves are for flint or chert or agate or other stone blades
the rarest handles would be rust stained indicating a sheet iron or steel blade but they are all rare in my opinion
and i have never seen any others
the ones with a very thin groove or more like a thin slot are the ones with a thin copper blade press fitted into them
now back to the handles that had stone blades in them;
these varied greatly in size and length
making me guess that the raw material was deer for the smallest, then elk for the next bigger sizes,
and then buffalo for the biggest with all being made from the rib bone of these 3 animals
as far as what you asked about the length of the slot or groove;
a lot of these had one blade which varied in length
some of the longer or bigger handles made for stone had a series of two, or three, or four shorter blades w/each being about an inch or slightly more placed end to end or in a row long enough to make a series of blades 2"- 5" long and hafted end to end into the handle, i will try to illustrate this and hope that my rookie drawing ability is good enuff for you to get my point
please know that this is not something i thought up, i have seen knives like it, i can see how it could get the job done with a little work and timely persistence

 

[flintdigger]

That explains it very well, I have a book that illistrates a knife with multipule stone blade's. I thought the ones with the longer groove might be used for the multi-blade knives. The are some interesting find's and thank's for sharing them with us.

 

[junkboy]

This might be a silly question but do you know how long and by whom your area was populated. It just amazes me the amount and quality of artifacts that you pull out of the ground. Thanks for posting.

 

[larson1951]

thanks junkman
this sight has post contact items such as the knife handle w/the rusted blade which would be 300 yrs old or a bit more
also there are pelican lake points as well as duncan-hanna and even older stuff than that which can take it back many cultures even 8 -10 thousand years or more ago
i hope this helps answer your questions
steve

 

[junkboy]

That is simply amazing. You are so lucky to have that kind of history right in your front yard. around here your lucky to find one point every three or four hunts. one of your posts looks like my entire collections. Thanks again for posting your find.

 

[larson1951]

thanks junk
you are much appreciated w/your questions
i will do my best to answer them always
the last culture that inhabited this site was the Mandan culture
this by the big missouri river
steve