Help with identification please?

[Jess122604]

I found this as part of a collection, unfortunately at an antique store so I have no idea where they were first found. The owner said they were bought in the Oklahoma City area at an estate sale. I have no real knowledge as to whether this is real or a reproduction, but I have been reading and trying to learn. Maybe it's a cultivation tool, like a hoe? Would value opinions.

 

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[Tdog]

It looks like it may be a flint hoe.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Looks like a flint hoe to me as well.

 

[Lone Star]

That's a hoe if I ever saw one.
Very nice too.

 

[dognose]

yea very nice, looks like the bit has use polish.

Looks like Mill Creek Chert, which is the material 99.99% of hoes and spades were made of.

 

[antmike915]

Agree with above comments

 

[newnan man]

Always nice to see a good looking hoe!

 

[villagenut]

Always nice to see a good looking hoe!

.......and an 8 dollar hoe at that..

 

[Tdog]

.......and an 8 dollar hoe at that..

I never left an 8 dollar hoe where I found her.

 

[Jess122604]

Thanks everyone for the info, especially Dognose. I just read a lot of information about Mill Creek chert. Here's what I've gathered so far, and please correct me if I'm wrong! Looks like this tool was mined by the Mississippian culture in southern Illinois and distributed for tool production from there. Probably 800-1600 years ago. Possibly used for maise or bean farming. Now I'm wondering if it got lost or was part of a burial. I'm thinking that these tools were fairly valuable to the people that used them and they probably weren't careless with them. And I'm also thinking that I need to go back to that antique shop and see if they still have the rest of the collection!

 

[joshuaream]

yea very nice, looks like the bit has use polish.

Looks like Mill Creek Chert, which is the material 99.99% of hoes and spades were made of.

Yup a Mill Creek chert hoe/spade. I've handled lots of them over the years, that one looks right as rain. (Material, polish, thickness and most importantly that slight curve in the side view that comes from taking a big spall off a nodule of chert vs a sawn slab.)

Just a guesstimate, but 85% of those (material and shape) are from Southern Illinois, the remaining 15% or so spread between Missouri and Kentucky in counties that border Illinois. Missouri and Tennessee have other large cherts (Burlington and Dover) that are also good for making hoes, so they tend to be kind of local.

My guess it wasn't a burial item, it shows a lot of use. Probably just set aside at the end of a season and not recovered (user got some new ones, etc.) Around Cahokia they show use of being resharpened in a central location, so it might have been dull and just have been waiting to be sent back for service. (One of the satellite sites south of Cahokia had a lot of chips with one side heavily polished. Way more than you would expect for a normal reduction site. The idea was they were repairing these, and rehafting them for use at other locations.)

 

[joshuaream]

Thanks everyone for the info, especially Dognose. I just read a lot of information about Mill Creek chert. Here's what I've gathered so far, and please correct me if I'm wrong! Looks like this tool was mined by the Mississippian culture in southern Illinois and distributed for tool production from there. Probably 800-1600 years ago. Possibly used for maise or bean farming. Now I'm wondering if it got lost or was part of a burial. I'm thinking that these tools were fairly valuable to the people that used them and they probably weren't careless with them. And I'm also thinking that I need to go back to that antique shop and see if they still have the rest of the collection!

Yes, you should definitely see what else they have!

Lots of historic tribes referred to the three sisters. Corn, Beans and squash. Interestingly when they are cooked together, they help release a lot of nutrients that you wouldn't get individually from the corn and beans.

It's almost a complete balanced diet from a nutrient and protein stand point, and allowed for much higher population densities at mound sites. If you were a hunter gatherer civilzation you needed a lot of space to get through lean times, but if you can grow and store these crops you can live in cities. If you eat the squash leaves/flowers you get vitamin K, and adding bit of meat/fish/turtle once a month or so will give you all the vitamin B & omega 3s you need, and some fats your body likes. The only thing missing is standing/working in the sun for a while get your vitamin D, and you have a complete nutrition package.

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

It looks like it may be a flint hoe.

I agree, as it is too light weight to be a chopper

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

I agree, as it is too light weight to be a chopper

and an adze would have a squared-off, chisel-like edge