An Indiana whatsit and some other recent finds

[Kantuckkeean]

Howdy Y'all,

A couple or few weeks ago, I was spending a couple hours/day walking because some ground had gotten disked and I knew that I'd be flipping it again pretty quick. It seemed like I was finding about 1 decent piece per day. This was the first one that I found. I think that it's a hafted saw or a handheld saw, but I'd like to hear your thoughts as well.


Found this a day or so later. Knife turned into a hafted scraper.


Then I found this a couple of days later...


It's kind of a weird knife. The tip isn't broke and has a sharp point on it, kind of like a perforater.

The next day, I kept the streak alive by finding this little white one...


I also found this curved thumb scraper. I like it, even though it's not a really refined piece.


We got all the corn and beans planted and sprayed, so hopefully I'll have more free time to do more walking in the near future. Rain is forecast for the area for this weekend. Hopefully it'll wash off the rocks and everyone in this region can get out and find some nice stuff before the crops get to big.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[joshuaream]

I love seeing some good Indiana field finds.

The Whatsit likely started life as an overshot flake, basically an ancient knapper whacked the biface hard enough that the flake crossed the blade and blew off the opposite edge. Clovis people used overshots to strategically to thin a biface, but almost any knapper who hits rocks will make them occasionally, so it's really hard to say they are paleo or Clovis unless they come from a Clovis site. If I had to guess, yours took off a lot of the edge to the point of almost being catastrophic, so likely not paleo. (The maker might have mumbled a bad word when that happened.)

Whether intentional or accidental, they were often used as tools after the fact, so they can show some use and alteration.

Here are a couple of pictures of examples I have in my collection.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Overshot flake is exactly right. Hit it a bit too hard and the material was good quality. Oops! Gary

 

[Quartzite Keith]

Well, sort of an overshot flake, but not in the classic sense. In the first photo you can see the guy was knapping it, making a biface. Looks like he set up a stout platform and gave it a good whack to try to undercut that thick spot in the middle. Instead, the biface split down the middle. What?! The second photo shows why. See that ridge? See how you have solid, smooth material on one side of it and lumpy, not so good looking material on the other side? When that chert bed was being formed, that spot in the bed of compressing rock slipped slightly, probably because the bed was forming over a sloped surface, not level ground. Material tried to fill in and re-weld the stone, but didn't entirely get the job done. When the knapper sent the energy wave across the face it dove into that tiny crack and expanded it. He probably did cuss, but one of the main reasons to make a biface to begin with is to thoroughly stress test the material so stuff like this is found while you are still near the rock source. In that sense, it was good thing.

 

[Kantuckkeean]

Great information! Thanks guys. I’ll put it with the rest of the nice looking chunks of chert and flint that didn’t make the final cut. We’re accumulating quite a pile. It’ll take a while before our collection is as big as Fred250’s, but we’re getting there.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[Jon Stewart]

1st one looks like debatage. Material looks like flintridge

 

[11KBP]

If I had to guess, yours took off a lot of the edge to the point of almost being catastrophic, so likely not paleo. (The maker might have mumbled a bad word when that happened.)

Whether intentional or accidental, they were often used as tools after the fact, so they can show some use and alteration.

Neat artifact!
Only guessing as well but it appears that more material was removed from that overshot than was probably intended.