Biface

[Older The Better]

Hit my new site again, again lots of flakes but not much in the way of tools. I did get this biface. Seems a little too purposeful to be a core, and I don’t see enough to be a scraper although it’s got that geometry in cross section, I’m leaning abandoned preform? Maybe they felt they couldn’t continue to thin it? Not the most exciting but finally starting to break out of the flake slump. This is made out of lower quality local material I’ve heard it called hertha but I can’t find much on that also similar to Boone chert.

Still very productive flake wise and definitely showing burnt sandstone… still not sure if theres enough evidence to call it a campsite. I’ll just have to keep gathering info.

 

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[CreekSide]

Looks like a scraper in the making just never finished

 

[dirstscratcher]

If all that stuff is from the site, what more do you need to consider it a camp site . I'd guess that chunk was used as a core, but with the added capability of being a chopper as it was reduced in size.

 

[Older The Better]

Well you can make a lot of debris sitting down for 10 minutes and making one point, I’d like to see some more discarded tools and things to feel good calling it a camp and not a passing na who stopped to rest and crank out a few tools. Not saying it’s not a campsite but it’s early to say.

 

[dirstscratcher]

With the variety of flint you have, I'd think it was a lot more than a tool or two. Also you don't have the wider range of flake sizes from reducing a chunk to an artifact. It actually looks more like a quarry site, are there any potential rock sources nearby? I guess I consider a hearth a campsite and I have excavated a few on our farm with almost no lithics. A longer term base camp on the other hand may have a larger lithic scatter. Anyway, you have an interesting site that looks like it could produce a lot more.

 

[Older The Better]

That’s a good thought on flake size and variety. No quarry site, there’s actually very little local stuff so far, they seemed to like that grainy white stuff and the porcelain like stuff I suspect is Burlington. The geology is sandstone limestone and shale, mostly limestone the local stuff that shows up in random cobbles is at the top of the picture I suspect they used it in a pinch more than anything , 3 and 4 o clock is also local out of the river. there is also a buried river gravel at the top of some hills. (geology is wild sometimes the highest point in the county was once the lowest) I suspect the more I look the better I’d feel about calling it a camp just tempering expectations. Right now it appears small maybe a couple 100’ x50’ two rises divided by a wash sitting at the edge of a bluff. I took my leaf blower and cleared out some spots now I need a rain and we’ll see if the site gets bigger. Appreciate the interest.

What I think may be Burlington

The more grainy white no idea currently

And for fun some calamities fossils from the sandstone it’s sitting on