Archaic to possible Paleo material

[willjo]

Found these Labor Day, haven't found anything to pin down dates of material. found a broke greenstone banner stone also.

 

[rock]

Dang thats a shame on the Banner

 

[DigIron2]

Man you found some nice stuff! Big congrats on the ax. I really like snapped base piece too.

 

[arrow86]

Nice finds , is backside of banner flat ? Looks odd for a banner but doesn't really look like an axe either

 

[Cameronstrause]

Really cool finds!

 

[willjo]

Nice finds , is backside of banner flat ? Looks odd for a banner but doesn't really look like an axe either

Just the way it looks in photo, a nice cresent shaped Banner

 

[flinthunter]

I would like to hear from some of the experts on here, The hole in your broken banner stone doesn't look drilled to me. I think it could be natural.

 

[sawmill man]

Not a expert but, dont think its natural, i do see lines running with the groove but i think it could have been worked on after it broke. maby tried to be reused for something else.

 

[sandchip]

Don't see much evidence of drilling in the hole, but still looks like a banner to me. Here's one that I found where the hole was enlarged by gouging, totally obliterating all boring marks, so I wouldn't be so quick to shoot it down as naturally formed, especially considering the material that it's made from. Looks like you're on a good site, Willjo.




I think I have another broke that exhibits the same properties. I'll see if I can find it and post a picture of it later.

 

[willjo]

The reason the hole does not look drilled is after it was drilled they came back and polished the hole or straightened it. The polished marks show this.

 

[sandchip]

Here's that frag I mentioned with the same longitudinal marks in the bore as yours, Will.

 

[sawmill man]

I wanted to mention scrapping last night ,but i hated to get out of bed to edit my post again.

 

[monsterrack]

If you enlarge the photo of the broken banner you can still see some of the drill marks. These things had a shaft stuck through them and it had to move, so long term use would give it a polished look. No one knows for sure what they were used for but JMO I say a weight for a drill system.(just throwing that out there).

 

[Mark Todd]

Nice find willjo, many have hunted all their lives and never found an axe or celt.
But to find a piece of a banner stone is all the more unlikely. It's not hollow core ground, so,the hole does not show that particular style of hole grinding.
Nice find! Your's is solid core ground.

 

[theviking]

Nice finds. Congrats on the Banner, I would love to find something like that. Thanks for the view.

 

[Mark Todd]

Your Bannerstone would be classified as a "winged" type or a "butterfly" type Bannerstone.
There were two different methods used for forming the holes, and both were used contemporaneously (at the same time) on winged and butterfly Bannerstones. The hollow core method leaves thread scars in the hole, the solid core method used chert tools to make the hole.
They sometimes left vertical scars through the length of the hole, but no thread scars.
The number of archeological sites that have rendered winged and butterfly Bannerstones along with atlatl hooks (bone or antler components of a spear throwing device) has demonstrated that Bannerstones were used as counterweights on Atlatl shafts. I see nothing whatsoever unusual about the hole on your solid core drilled Bannerstone fragment.