Large Uniface Blade

[ToddsPoint]

I walked out into a freshly picked bean field yesterday looking for signs of an old house site. Field about 1mi. west of the W. Okaw/Kaskaskia River junction. No detector, just scouting. Field needed chiseled and rained on as it was still trashy. Found a rim of a crock, a piece of glass and a piece of a dish so I figure the old house was in that area. Spotted something white and figured another dish piece but was surprised with this blade. Burlington flint. Closest source is 100 mi. west on the IL River. These are usually labeled "paleo" but how can you tell for sure? It's a large tool for this flint poor area, that's for sure. Note the rust marks. Old plow strikes that left a little steel on the flint that then rusted. Gary

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Minelab PRO-FIND 35 Waterproof Pinpointer Metal Detector for Experts with Tone ID & Adjustable Sensitivity - Grab it through Amazon!

[SD51]

Nice find Gary, Congrats!

 

[smallfoot]

Always nice to run into incidental finds while looking for other things!

 

[Tdog]

Maybe a limace.

 

[tomclark]

I might call that a "Square Knife" and is Paleo. IMHOP

 

[uniface]

There are people who firmly believe that Hopewell era people made large blades as well as microblades. But I'm not aware that such blades have ever been found in a controlled context.

Anybody ?

 

[antmike915]

Nice find Todd, I'm all to familiar with the plow strikes on artifacts.

 

[H.P.]

Nice find, those are not very common in S/W Florida, conventional thinking on larger pieces is, larger animals, therefore larger tools.

 

[joshuaream]

There are people who firmly believe that Hopewell era people made large blades as well as microblades. But I'm not aware that such blades have ever been found in a controlled context.

Anybody ?

If I am not mistaken there were some found on the Kansas City Hopewell sites, but I don't believe any large prismatic cores were found. But I haven't seen anything from a controlled contex, or analysis by a knapper who might be able to diagnose the difference between "strategic" production via large cores vs getting a couple of large uniface blades off a chunk of chert. (I'd think there might be some differences in core top prep grinding, errailure scars, etc.)

 

[dognose]

Nice find. Decent find in a fresh turned field.

That sort of walking can sometimes be as tough as a serious muddy field.

In some of the fields in my hunting area, i find the relics where the old house and barns had sat. So in specific fields I will search for the old house broken bricks, square nails and crockery.

There may be flakes and debitage in the surrounding hills, but most of the relics picked up long ago. But where the structures had sat, they tended to "protect" the relics from being picked up until they were demolished in the 40's, 50s or 60's and the farmers started plowing that ground as well.