Obsidian point

[Out Of Time]

Hi there everybody.

This is my first post.

I wondered if there's an expert to help me figure out what I've found.

It's made of obsidian and found in an creek bed in Northern California.

 

[SportsmanAll]

Can u post a side pic showing the width of it? I can see what look to be concoidal fractured, or worked. But from your pics it looks too thick to be a point. It seems to be very river warn and tumbled as well.

 

[Out Of Time]

Thanks for replying. Here is another pic which hints at thickness (2-3mm). I will try to get some better pics to post tomorrow.

 

[quito]

Looks like a heavily water worn fluted point to me.

 

[sandchip]

Looks like a heavily water worn fluted point to me.

I agree. An old timer that's been in the creek for a long, long time.

 

[Out Of Time]

I would like to think it is what you say. Then one wonders how old is old?
This piece was found twenty miles south of Clear Lake, CA where very old artifacts have been found. Could this be related to that culture?

Others have said that perhaps the 'flute' is actually impact damage. What do you reckon?

Also is there any way to shoehorn a point like this into a type?

 

[southfork]

I doubt that's a fluted point because of its small size a good guess would be impact damage . On a small constricting stem point .

 

[T.C.]

I would like to think it is what you say. Then one wonders how old is old?
This piece was found twenty miles south of Clear Lake, CA where very old artifacts have been found. Could this be related to that culture?

Others have said that perhaps the 'flute' is actually impact damage. What do you reckon?

Also is there any way to shoehorn a point like this into a type?

Are you referring to the Clear Lake just south of the Oregon border or the Clear Lake further south in the interior of California?

 

[Out Of Time]

Clear Lake, Lake County, California.

Obsidian sources at Napa's Glass Mountain and Lake County's Mount Konocti.

Clear Lake is also the home of Borax Man and artifacts have been dated to 12,000 BP, I have read.

I would suppose that there was continuous indigenous habitation till contact contrived to all but wipe it out.

This means this point could come from any time within that frame.

My hunch, based on it's worn condition, is that it is quite old. I find a lot of lithic material in same creek bed that is far less worn and seems to be quite different in style.

As far as the Clear Lake association goes, I don't know that fluting is a feature of early finds.

That undermines the whole fluting theory, as far as I can see, and lends credibility to to southfork's take that it's an impact fracture.

Either way it's a cool thing.

 

[southfork]

Not Borax Lake Man .
The Borax Lake Site, also known as the Borax Lake—Hodges Archaeological Site and designated by the Smithsonian trinomial CA-LAK-36, is a prehistoric archaeological site near Clearlake, California. The site, a deeply stratified former lakeshore, contains evidence of the earliest known period of human habitation in what is now California, dating back 12,000 years. A portion of the site, designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006, is owned and preserved by the Archaeological Conservancy. Fluted Points have been found on the site along with Borax Lake Stemmed Points named for the site .

 

[southfork]

This is a California Fluted Point to give a little perspective to shape and size .

 

[Out Of Time]

Yes. I see. Your authentic point is far more like what had imagined than mine.

I look at the flute on mine and notice the step at the end of the 'scar, I think that has to show the exit of the flake removal (if you get what I mean) which orients it running from point to base.

I may have been looking at the point the wrong way round and seeing the scar as a fluke. If that is the case, it makes sense that it is exactly as you say.

The only slight qualm is that the point end is, if broken off, rather a strange example of a break. It looks more pinched off, with a slight convex form, also the hint of knapping that appears over most of the edge seems too be diminished - almost like grinding. On top of all that is fact that it's slightly thicker toward squared off end. Those are the tiny and probably imagined clues that allowed me to think there was a chance this was something more unusual.

Instead I think I have been looking at it back to front and kidded myself. Live and learn.

Case closed.

 

[southfork]

What I see in your point the left end was the tip the right end the base . So the ripples in what your calling a flute are going the opposite way a flute would travel imop . Its hard to tell a type when so water worn but maybe Cascade Shouldered ? They come in all sizes small to large .