Blade or not? How do you tell the difference?

[autographcollector11]

Would you call this a blade or debitage? How can you tell if the blade form was intentional?

 

[OnPoint]

I would have picked it up. Looks worked on the edges to me, but I'm no expert.

I am getting more into hunting and found a number of these today and over the last month.

 

[OnPoint]

I'm meeting with an archaeologist on Tuesday to review some of my finds. I'll see if she can provide any good insights on determining blades from flakes or debris and will follow up here if I learn anything meaningful.

 

[quito]

I'm meeting with an archaeologist on Tuesday to review some of my finds. I'll see if she can provide any good insights on determining blades from flakes or debris and will follow up here if I learn anything meaningful.

Welcome to the forum!

The piece you showed looks like a piece of debitage to me. BUT it is a flake that COULD have been used. When a flake comes off, normally they have a very sharp edge, yours probably does too, or did at one time. It could have been used and discarded, but we will never know for sure.

NOW, if your piece had some nibbeling or flaking on the edge, like the other guys pic (right side bottom pic), that would be a pretty good indicator that it was indeed an artifact. When you have stuff like that on an edge, it shows it was likely used. The edgework indicating re-sharpening and or the shaping of the piece.

 

[autographcollector11]

Ok, but am looking for input on the actual manufacture of the piece. It is pretty evident that if there is edgework, whether microflaking, use wear, etc that the end result was a blade, but from the way it was struck I read that this would indicate the initial use as a blade or not. In my area, the microblade was "technology" that was resurrected during the woodland period where the length is 3x longer than the width. These do not have signs of edge wear but the lithic design proves that it was a blade.

So with that said, thoughts?

Thanks

 

[unclemac]

this should help...i have a few myself

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microblade_technology

 

[joshuaream]

No, that is not a blade (bladelet.) It might be an artifact, it might have been used, but it doesn't fit my idea for a bladelet in the North American archaeological record.