Can anyone tell me what I have here?

[grasshopper]

Found yesterday at 1780s home site in Upstate NY. The ground at the property has recently been stirred up by the owner, and there's an abundance of pottery, glass, and ceramics on the ground, but nothing that I recognize as Native American from the few archaeology classes I've taken.

It's about 5 inches long. Very smooth on the one side. There appears to be noticeable grooves on the round side, where your fingers seem to fit really well.

I emailed my old college archaeology professor and he said he's not entirely sure - he said one end reminds him of a groundstone adze and the other end reminds him of a groundstone pestle.

Just wondering if you guys have any thoughts.

Thanks!

 

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[joshuaream]

Grooved adze. Some have one indent, some have two or three. The number likely has to do with balance as they were resharpened from wear or breaking, or perhaps providing a lot of area for a very tight haft to absorb serious force.

One of the members here has a couple of very nice ones from New England if I remember correctly.

 

[joshuaream]

Btw, congrats on an awesome find. That is quite a bit older than the homestead, and would be a rare find for most of us.

 

[grasshopper]

Btw, congrats on an awesome find. That is quite a bit older than the homestead, and would be a rare find for most of us.

Thanks a lot for the info.

Is there any way to date this piece, or is it better determined from when Native Americans may have been settled in the area?

And just to clarify, the grooves are not for your fingers, but rather where a handle would be attached?

Thanks again - never found anything like this before. Strange to see this pop up with no other indication of Native American items. When I took a field methods class, the field was abundant with chipped stone all over the place. I've detected this property probably 30 times and haven't seen a single thing that would lead me to believe there was any Native American presence.

 

[arrow86]

Would have been like the ones in the pic.
Like Joshua said a really nice find and there’s probably a lot of artifacts still to be found.
Iv been hunting arrowheads for over 20 years and have never found one so that’s a heck of a find.

 

[Charl]

Yes, that is an excellent find. I have a few grooved and ungrooved examples from New England. The two principle woodworking tools for construction of dugout canoes were the gouge and the adze. The gouge was used to hollow out the interior of the dugout, and the adze was used to shape the exterior. I'm sure they were used for other jobs as well. The artifact guidebook put out by the Massachusetts Archaeological Society dates the grooved gouge as Late-Transitional Archaic, and the same range would be true for a grooved adze, say about 3500-6000 years old.

 

[monsterrack]

Super find, Joshua nailed it. I would be looking in that area some more.

 

[grasshopper]

Super find, Joshua nailed it. I would be looking in that area some more.

Thanks.

It's odd - I've hunted the same small area where it was found about 30 times with my detector. I'm obviously always staring at the ground and haven't noticed a single piece of chipped flint or anything that would lead me to believe there was Native American activity there.

 

[welsbury]

It is possible the owners of the old home had found it somewhere else if there are no signs of a camp there. Dandy find for you for sure.

 

[Peyton Manning]

I found an adze a couple of years ago, so I got that going for me which is nice

 

[ToddsPoint]

Pecking and polishing stone came during the early archaic. Paleo's never made hardstone axes or tools. In New England, there is a culture called the Maritime Archaic. They made incredible pecked and polished wood working tools. They also used flint from Ramah Bay, brought down from the northern coast of Canada. Lots of good stuff in your area. Gary

 

[rock]

Like that use wear it shows. Im still looking for a hardstone Adze myself. Have a few Celts now but not an Adze.