Awesome 60 Year Collection: some observations

[OntarioArch]

Just visited a local Old Timer gentleman whose 60 years of collecting has produced an awe inspiring collection of several thousand artifacts from the Finger Lakes Region of Central New York. After our greeting, I presented him with a blueberry coffee cake my wife baked for him (he is a widower...) and we walked down into his artifact den.

Because he collected almost exclusively within a 10 mile radius of his home; because he walked as well as dug; because he knows ALL the fields / sites; and because he collaborated the other collectors of his era - most of whom have now passed on, my interpretation of his collection is that it must represent a reasonably valid survey of the complete breadth / depth of NA artifacts that exist in our area. Certainly it represents the best available survey! So here are a few observations:in 60 years, he found.....
a) exactly 3 Clovis points, each about 2-3 inches long
b) 6 or 8 Jasper chert points/drills
c) 5 or 6 bannerstones
d) 1 birdstone
e) 8 or 10 gorgets
f) 10 or 12 bifurcated points
g) 6 or 8 copper pieces
h) bushels of pottery sherds and soapstone bowl pieces, but 0 complete, or nearly complete, bowl artifacts.
i) one soapstone effigy pipe - awesome
j) 3 or 4 intact, complete incised clay pipes
k) 7 or 8 plummets (including a quartz plummet - really!)
l) 8 or 10 drilled slate pendants, several with tally hatch marks
m) 10 or 12 prismatic blades of exotic chert - not gray Onondaga Chert
n) too many mortars/pestle to count
o) And thousands of projectile points from all phases of NA culture, 98% made from good old ....gray.....Onondaga Chert.
p) 8 or 10 gouges
q) and a most interesting observation, imho: about 50 or 60 celts of various sizes, material, forms....some so sharp they could literally cut you open....and several beautiful beveled celts. Really nice. But, but.....exactly ONE AXE! One 3/4 grooved axe.


My conclusion: why create an axe when a celt will do the same job for less work? What could the NA workers do with an axe that could not be accomplished with a nice, sturdy celt? Easier to make; easier to replace. What'ya think?

A very enjoyable and educational visit with a gentleman who is obviously proud - rightfully proud - of his life's avocation, yet sincerely humble. And the parting words to us from this local icon of Native American archeology? "Now I'm gonna go in and have a big piece of that coffee cake!"

 

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[redbeardrelics]

Good observations and reporting !
I find the observations regarding celts vs. grooved axes interesting, and wonder if it is a regional - cultural phenomenon, or perhaps more due to the time frame of the sites he collected. I also find it interesting that bifurcates seem to be scare from his sites, and also the amount of jasper material that made it's way into that area.

 

[11KBP]

Just visited a local Old Timer gentleman whose 60 years of collecting has produced an awe inspiring collection of several thousand artifacts from the Finger Lakes Region of Central New York.

Sounds like a very nice personally found regional collection. That type of collection has archaeological significance and archaeologists will seek out those types of collections when they are doing an archaeological survey of a specific region. It would be nice to see pics of the collection, especially of the Clovis points.

 

[OntarioArch]

...That type of collection has archaeological significance and archaeologists will seek out those types of collections when they are doing an archaeological survey of a specific region.

Indeed. The gentleman has been visited by several well known archaeologists in search of some bit of knowledge.

Not possible to provide any pictures, sorry to say.

 

[arrow86]

Too bad no pics but sounds like an amazing collection .... 5-6 bannerstones .... wow! Would love to see the incised pendants too

 

[joshuaream]

Cool observations. Another one that I can make from your points, the early guys found much of the big, obvious stuff in fields. Collectors hunting those same sites today will still pick up points, but probable not as many large stone tools.

Grooved axes vs celts. My understanding is the difference is in the hafting. Celts, all around the world, tend to be hafted in handles with a big head and a hole worked through the handle. (A surprising number have been found still hafted in bogs, mud, and dry sites on all continents.) Essentially you are carving the handle out of a log, and that probably took the grace of time, and some degree of permanency in a camp or village which came with agriculture. Grooved stone axes took longer to make, but the hafting was easier to make. Stone celts were almost disposable in some areas compared to earlier grooved axes, so that ratio probably isn't too far off.

 

[dognose]

Good information.

The celts tended to get tighter when used due to the hafting stile, while the axes appears to get looser as used. Many of the 3/4 axes around my area have an area on the poll which I think where used to drive in wedges to tighten the ax to the harft.

 

[OntarioArch]

Dang! I forgot to list the absolutely awesome frame of cache blades.

Maybe 16 or 18, 3 to 3.5 inch lanceolate blades, nearly identical - hard to see any difference in form. Guess I would call them 'Fox Creek' types. Very thin, in G-10 unused condition: needle tops on all, no chips, dings, bug bites. I know 'G-10' is overused, but these were perfection. My belief is that they were never used. Several showed remnants of ochre.

Are cache blades ceremonial? Or were these just an abandoned / lost group of tools waiting for next hunting season? Old Timer found them all in one spot, on the surface and down just a little as he dug.

If I get up the nerve, I may ask to photo some artifacts and post...if I swear to keep his identity confidential. You gotta see these!

 

[arrow86]

Would love to see pics