not a lot....

[naturegirl]

....but for the third weekend in a row, I found somthing! Makes me happy. I'm pretty sure the first is a grinding/ hammering/abrading kinda stone. Not sure what to call it, but it has 4 flat surfaces on each side of the edges, and the two ends are uniformly pitted? Pictures don't show that so well, they are shaped a little different, but have the same kind of wear. The flat surfaces have small grooves going across the grain of the rock. This is one of the most intentional pieces of sandstone I've seen, it can't be just a rock.

A nice scraper? preform? I wonder if it's a reject because it has a shattered look on part of it, with the flaking too. Or was that a break caused by nature? It's thick, sharp, even the breaks are sharp. No kind of wear or bouncing around in the water it seems, but it was found by the water.

And y'all ever seen a gar scale like that?

thanks for looking,
naturegirl

 

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[Tnmountains]

The first piece seems to have use wear on the ends one end more that the other with the pitting. The second one is a very nice scrapper/knife.Looks to be a tool and was made that way. Nice artifacts and finds. I have yet to find a gar scale point.I have learned on here that they were used as points. That being said it sure looks like something made to me.

Great hunt your perseverance id paying off and you are finding some nice items

Regards,
TnMountains

 

[bravowhiskey]

It sure looks like a Mano which goes with a Metate, like a Mortar and Pestal. And nice scraper.
nice finds all round!

BW

 

[Th3rty7]

Looks like a nice mano, or grinding stone to me, good piece. The other looks like imo, a humpback knife or hand knife. Never seen anything like that scale, sort of looks like a mini translucent perd from here. Nice finds naturegirl, congrats.

 

[naturegirl]

Thanks guys. I wasn't sure if mano would be correct. I've only seen them in pictures and this wasn't quite what I expected. They all look really round in the pictures, this one is kinda oval in shape. But the it's so amazing to hold. it fits my hand no matter how I turn it. I have new respect for sandstone. That scraper is so sharp, I bet it's the sharpest one I've found, but I was hunting in a different area, so maybe it's a different material, and sharper. Now that gar scale has me very skeptical. A quick google search and O-book(waiting on some more ID books to come snail-mail) showed scales used as arrowheads, but they hadn't really been changed much from the original shape, that teardrop shape. I thought maybe there is a scale on the fish actually shaped like this, I've just never found one, or someone was just having fun with a pocketknife waiting on the fish to bite. It does not look like knife carving though, it's beveled all around, and has a fluted look one one side. Hope someone else can post a picture of any gar scale points they might have found.

ng

 

[uniface]

Nice stuff, NG.

Your second piece, as I see it, is a flake core. The sharp edges of it could well have been used to cut and chop things. But the flakes taken off it were the main reason it's in the form it is. This type of flake core is the US analogue of what are called "hand axes" elsewhere (like in Europe and Africa).

People often call pieces like this "scrapers." But scrapers have high-angle edges.

Onward & Upward

 

[naturegirl]

But scrapers have high-angle edges.

thanks uniface. You know, I'm tempted to chop onions and celery with this little chopper!

naturegirl

 

[bravowhiskey]

here is a link that shows jewelry made from gar scales...

http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/Dianne_Ulery/items/Lone_Star_Texas_Necklace_Alligator_Gar_Scale

and a link for gar scale arrow heads....

http://www.lithiccastinglab.com/gallery-pages/garscalespage1.htm

 

[mamabear]

what a great hunt! I'd be happy to find just one of those! happy huntin'

 

[naturegirl]

right bravowhiskey, that's the only shape i can find. So, this isn't an arrowhead? What are some other scaled fish maybe? my husband said tooth, but I don't think so.

Yes it was a great hunt, and I just kept fondling the stone!

naturegirl

 

[jeff a]

the second one looks like a little biface in progress that was given up on after they couldnt reduce the stacks on it.we see alot of them like that on the workshop sites in southern ohio

 

[bravowhiskey]

Hey Naturegirl,

Lets see some close ups of the arrowhead/scale. Does it appear to have been ground, whittled, shaped in some way? What is the material like? Is there any flex to it, or is it solid and brittle like?
What is your best guess as to the material, If not fish scale?
You know Tarpon is another fish with very large scales, but a different shape. As far as fish scales go, majority of them are basically a roundish shape.

It looks the part (of an arrowhead) or at least could have been used as. Very cool find.

BW

 

[*Molly*]

Very nice finds. I also don't see that point? being a gar scale, a closer pic would be helpful, also does it feel/look like scale/shell?

molly

 

[naturegirl]

Hi Molly, Bravo. Yes it did feel just like a gar scale. Brittle, no flex to it at all. I say did, because I have managed to lose it. I couldn't find it when I went to photograph it better. I'm just sick. The last place I know I had it was the big recliner late Sat. nite., looking over the days finds. I kinda remember putting it back in the container I have all my points in. But it's gone. I've been all over that chair, the cushion doesn't lift off, but I can get my hand down in there, and nothing. I know I managed to lose things from time to time, but this just really bums me out. I'll look again after work. dad gum it!

stupidnaturegirl

 

[Bluesy]

Wow, great finds, Naturegirl! Love the mano and the scraper/core/chopper. I've never seen a gar scale and I would have thought it was a point or a flake, lol. Congrats from Missouri on a great hunt.

 

[Charmin]

Ya did good, naturegirl! I like that mano the best! My grandpa always said it was hard for him to look for grinding stones and arrowheads at the same time. You have to train your eyes to see both---maybe that's why I've never found one .
Think of what those poor indians teeth looked like after using something like that to grind up their food!! Not to mention the "gritty" texture it probably added to the food.
Grandpa took me to a place when I was little where he found some manos like yours. It was a rock ledge above a creek and it had great big "dished" out places where the indians had sat and ground up nuts. I was pretty little but still remember being enthralled with that!
regards,
sandcreek

 

[naturegirl]

I still can't find the danged thing! I see now why it's questionable as a gar scale, it just doesn't look like one. But when I picked it up, it felt like enamel, it felt just like a gar scale. I thought it must have been a large one someone modern whittled on because, it had some soft material on it like a membrane? moss? I scraped it off with my thumbnail. It was so thin, in places, that it was transparent. ( That's the dark colors you see on it) extremely thin in places, and transparent. Like a gar scale. I put it in my pocket anyway, cause I hadn't seen anything like it. Later I showed it to Buckshot, he said gar scale, and I showed my husband who said the same thing. Hard, shiny, smooth, thin, sharp. The concave side of the tip, was beveled, not broken. I thought I was seeing an unaltered end of a scale. One side of the"stem" seemed to be fluted, but it had so many of the same characteristics of gar scales, that I picked up and rubbed in my fingers all day, I thought that's what is was. Now I don't know. It does look like a perdanales, but it didn't looked flaked, or worked. Still leaning towards natural. Maybe I should post it in "what is it?" A fisherman might know.

The grinding stone. I took it to work, and a woman took it in her hand and said "this it what I remember my Grandmother showing us." She held it in her hand and made a hammering motion with a narrow end, then fip the stone over and made circular, grinding motions. And that's how her grandmother ground corn. What's cool is, the ends of the stone show that kind of use. Partly pitted on one side, a smoother flat ground-down area on the other side. Both ends show this.

So, do not consider my "scale" to be a gar scale point. I don't know what it is. or if I'll even find it so it can be figured out.

bummed,
naturegirl

 

[naturegirl]

Re: not a lot....New pics

Ok, I found it. All this, over a fish scale, but it LOOKS like something, so I want to know what it is. First pic is with the gar scales I have, and why I kept it. It's different. Very thin, and probably not altered to a point. Jeez, now I get to learn fish scales.

naturegirl

 

[abarnard]

Very nice finds, if that is a mini perd that is rare from what I have seen here in tx. Cool grinding stone though, very cool. It is hard to say what's a preform and what was actually used as a tool unless there is use wear. I am sure in those ancient days they would use what was available and suitable. Thanks for the look, very cool...

 

[Tnmountains]

Not so bummed now huh? Where was it we were getting worried. Could it be the inside part of a shell maybe? shell and not a scale?
TnMtns