✅ SOLVED Misc artifacts from bottom of glacial formed ravine

[rosteen85]

Hello, I haven't been on here for quit awhile due to Massachusetts and its long winters which put a damper on my artifact hunting. So on to what I've got now, I can identify some basic scrapers knives grinders ect, however the image below contains the artifacts in question. Any opinions are most welcome!

 

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[jfreakofkorn]

pretty neat ...

 

[rosteen85]

Thanks, just by looking what would you guess the "hatchet" head was made from? One of my professors told me he thought it was solid iron, maybe copper?

 

[Charl]

Hello from a neighbor in RI. On the table, the stone with the groove around it appears to be a full groove axe. Great find anytime! The remainder appear to be rocks.

 

[rosteen85]

Hmmm, cool opinion.... but what about the boatstones in the center, as well as the axe/adze/hatchet head of which I have three pictures all of which display the hallmarks of man made/altered material, but then again it is difficult to discern much from a photograph alone I suppose.

 

[Charl]

It doesn't look like any adze or hatchet head I've ever seen. Do you have the Massachusetts Archaeology Society's "A Handbook of Indian Artifacts From Southern New England"? It's very helpful for showing the artifact forms from our region. You won't see anything like that in there. I'm just seeing unmodified rocks, with the exception of the one grooved axe I mentioned. I can't see any boat stones either. Post a close up if you like. Here are some boatstones from Oklahoma. Notice they are ground and polished into shape. What I see in the center of your table photo looks like an angular rock unmodified by human hands. Actually, I see two rocks in the center with "hulls and sails", but that's just a curious shape, not boatstones.

Boatstones

And here are 3 boatstones from Massachusetts, all surface finds. And an adze from Rhode Island. If that chunk is metal, are you thinking it's a fragment of a metal trade axe? Native axes, adzes, were all pecked and ground into shape. Hatchets often had chipped into shape flanks with a ground bit. So I'm not sure what the chunk is, but it doesn't look like part of an artifact. JMO, but collecting New England artifacts for close to 60 years. And I've never personally ever found a full groove axe, so I think you're very lucky with that score.

 

[Charl]

Rosteen85, I highly recommend this guide for Ma. Artifacts:

A Handbook of Indian Artifacts from Southern New England - Massachusetts Archaeological Society / Robbins Museum of Archaeology

 

[rock]

Lets see some close ups on some of them that appear to be grooved. Its very hard to tell what you have from the pics you have given. Any others with edge work I would also like to see better pics on. I found some a couple of weeks ago that looked like rocks till I checked the edges and then the secondary flaking showed.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

I see rocks and only rocks. No artifacts and definitely not a "hatchet".

 

[Red Earth]

Sure looks like an axe head from this angle

 

[Charl]

Sure looks like an axe head from this angle

That's what I thought. Full groove axe with quite a bit of usage wear to the bit....

 

[The Grim Reaper]

That piece looks like an Axe. I was referring to the rock pictured four times in the first post that is claimed to be a "hatchet". That is not an Axe.

 

[rock]

Id have to see both sides of the "AX" It looks alful flat to me.

 

[Charl]

Id have to see both sides of the "AX" It looks alful flat to me.

Don't know what you mean by "awful flat", rock. That's clearly a full groove axe. I doubt it's a full groove adze just because one side is flatter then the other. Has the form of a full groove axe with usage wear where you expect to see it.

 

[rock]

Maybe but more pics will tell for sure. Maybe holding it in the hand for a size. Id like to see pics from all angles.

 

[rosteen85]

Take a closer look, its not even "rock" as I mentioned initially one of my college professors who teaches Geology at UMass Boston verified not only that it was not stone but rather metallic , he also agreed that it was indeed the work of man. And fyi every stone artifact you or I own is indeed a rock, so yes you are correct on the remainder being "rocks". Ps more directed at Grim Reaper's previous comment

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Take a closer look, its not even "rock" as I mentioned initially one of my college professors who teaches Geology at UMass Boston verified not only that it was not stone but rather metallic , he also agreed that it was indeed the work of man. And fyi every stone artifact you or I own is indeed a rock, so yes you are correct on the remainder being "rocks". Ps more directed at Grim Reaper's previous comment

So which one is it?? It's not a "rock", but every artifact we have is a "rock". lol

One thing it definitely isn't is an Axe. You have one artifact in those pics and that is Axe that was circled. The rest are just rock, but if that is what you wish to collect then more power to you. No matter how closely we look at it is still going to just be a oddly shaped stone.

 

[Charl]

rosteen, even slag can be said to be man made; doesn't make it an artifact. I'm sure your professor can distinguish between sold metal and rock, but it's clearly not an artifact, and besides what are they using to "work" solid metal?
i assumed, maybe incorrectly, that you were fairly new to artifact collecting since Reaper is correct in pointing out all but the full groove axe are ordinary rocks not worked by humans. Happens all the time with beginners. Had a friend find the two best blades I ever saw from in town here. Better then anything I found. Still are, but the rest were rocks. So the Mrs. and I taught him the ropes. Funny thing is he still picks up ordinary rocks, but thanks to us he can find nice artifacts now as well. Compare your two "boatstones" in the center of your table photo with what boatstones actually look like. Can you see a huge difference? You just need someone from your area to teach you the ropes, that's all.
If, as I suspect the two rocks in the center here are your "boatstones", they're just stones that look like a boat hull with a sail, but they are not worked by man, and they are not boatstones. Truly, from what we can see, only the grooved axe is a Native American artifact.

 

[rock]

I guess no pics will be given. I have seen many rocks that look like artifacts even ones with groves that aren't nothing but rocks.

 

[Charl]

rock, I've seen hundreds of full groove axes from New England. You may not get more photos, so trust me, it's a full groove axe. No question, I don't need any more photos to identify that piece. It's a common enough form, and a full groove weight would not have that form. And it's too wide for a New England adze. From my perspective, IDing that one was pretty much a no brainer. You don't have to take my word for it; I'm not holding it in my hands, but the photo is good enough for me to see clearly what it is. And it isn't "too flat" at all, BTW. Not at all, not really sure why you said that actually. It looks to be exactly what it looks to be.