Modern knapping left behind

[littlewindmill829]

I'm hoping this is modern stuff that someone left behind, I found it on a rock at an established (primitive) campsite. No flakes around which I thought was weird if they had been working on it right there, but it was totally clean and right there on a rock. I figure its someone out camping and messing around, so I took it for the obsidian. The only other (unlikely) possibility is someone found it, cleaned it up, and then forgot it/decided not to take it.

 

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[traveller777]

Sorry, a bit confused by your post. Did you find one or three pieces?
Did you search around the area for other pieces?

 

[joshuaream]

In the middle picture I see that onion peel haze that old obsidian in some types of environments get.

I don't think I'd assume they are modern. Plenty of collectors pick up everything and then sort and dump misc pieces like that.

 

[littlewindmill829]

Sorry, a bit confused by your post. Did you find one or three pieces?
Did you search around the area for other pieces?

Sorry, yes, I found these three pieces all together. There was nothing else around at all. It is an established campsite with nothing but packed dirt and broken glass.

 

[littlewindmill829]

In the middle picture I see that onion peel haze that old obsidian in some types of environments get.

I don't think I'd assume they are modern. Plenty of collectors pick up everything and then sort and dump misc pieces like that.

Thanks, I guess my standards for what's worth keeping are very different than some other collectors, as these would be things I would be really excited to find!

 

[traveller777]

Sorry, yes, I found these three pieces all together. There was nothing else around at all. It is an established campsite with nothing but packed dirt and broken glass.

My opinion. I agree with you. Somebody found them and either forgot them or left them cause they did not want them. But, since a campground they could have found anywhere and carried them there. I would have picked up also. Thanks for sharing.

 

[joshuaream]

Thanks, I guess my standards for what's worth keeping are very different than some other collectors, as these would be things I would be really excited to find!

I'm in the same boat. I went hunting in Oregon several years back with a local hunter. I picked up broken points, tips, bases and flake tools until basically I had 20 lbs of rocks in my backpack. He picked up complete pieces, and has thousands of personal finds from those dry lake beds and deserts. I get why he doesn't pick up the broken stuff.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I'm in the same boat. I went hunting in Oregon several years back with a local hunter. I picked up broken points, tips, bases and flake tools until basically I had 20 lbs of rocks in my backpack. He picked up complete pieces, and has thousands of personal finds from those dry lake beds and deserts. I get why he doesn't pick up the broken stuff.

While hunting artifacts in Missouri for over 20 years I found thousands of broken pieces over the years, when I first started I use to bring them home and put them in an artifact rock garden I had, (I left them when I moved back to Florida), for me finding broken artifacts pieces is like finding junk jewelry metal detecting. When I found 6 rings and only 1 was gold then in my mind I found 1 ring, not 6, I don't count junk jewelry, only precious metal rings and I didn't count broken artifact pieces.

 

[littlewindmill829]

While hunting artifacts in Missouri for over 20 years I found thousands of broken pieces over the years, when I first started I use to bring them home and put them in an artifact rock garden I had, (I left them when I moved back to Florida), for me finding broken artifacts pieces is like finding junk jewelry metal detecting. When I found 6 rings and only 1 was gold then in my mind I found 1 ring, not 6, I don't count junk jewelry, only precious metal rings and I didn't count broken artifact pieces.

Yes that makes total sense. My standards for what to keep are definitely still evolving, but especially when very first starting out, everything seems so special! I was pretty embarrassing the first time or two I took out my detector, I even kept a nail.... haha! Like I said, standards evolving with experience!

 

[joshuaream]

While hunting artifacts in Missouri for over 20 years I found thousands of broken pieces over the years, when I first started I use to bring them home and put them in an artifact rock garden I had, (I left them when I moved back to Florida), for me finding broken artifacts pieces is like finding junk jewelry metal detecting. When I found 6 rings and only 1 was gold then in my mind I found 1 ring, not 6, I don't count junk jewelry, only precious metal rings and I didn't count broken artifact pieces.

Yup, I am the same way with areas I have hunted for a long time. I don't get to hunt obsidian rich areas, so the first time I had a chance I picked up a lot of stuff. I've been back out west a couple of times since, and really don't pick up much any more.

 

[uniface]

Picking up broken artifacts depends. If you're just a trophy hunter, then not saving them makes sense. But if you're trying to get a handle on who all lived on a given site (and when) -- especially when it's been picked over -- then brokes are valuable (potentially, the only surviving) evidence available to answer that question.

My personal finds collections were all site-specific, and full of (actually, mostly) artifact fragments for that reason.

FWIW

 

[Older The Better]

I’m definitely a keeper, maybe because even brokes are hard to come by where I look, I agree with uniface, I’ve got an ongoing project of trying to tease out the history of a specific area and everything is a clue however minor, at the very least they help to understand what type of stone they preferred. That and it’s hard to leave something in the dirt that was the work of a human thousands of years ago, that by a series of random events wound up in my hands…. But I get the other side too I do that with interesting rocks and fossils, if I took everything home my floors would start to bow, I focus now on pieces that are mostly if not 100% fossil and in good condition.