Once Upon A Flood

[Reanm8er]

This is not a new find but I thought it might be pertinent to the current circumstances. The photos show an stone adz that I found on a hunting ground along the Shenandoah river in September 1996. The river crested at 29' as a result of rainfall from hurricane Fran. I know that many of these adz finds have been classified as rocks but I believe this one to be genuine.



Archaeologists don't believe the natives made or used dugout canoes, mostly because they've never found one. I've seen the Shenandoah propel a full size house trailer
along with the speed of a torpedo. A dugout canoe wouldn't have stood a chance! I found the artifact about a hundred yards back from the currant bank in area that becomes the bank in a hundred year stage flood. The area could have at one time been the main bank of the river. It has plainly been worked and features something that I've never seen on a native artifact. Looking at the front view of this tool notice the angles tapering down from the edges. They're pretty much the same angle on both sides. This person not only knew how to create an edge, he also utilized a relief angle below the edge. This is something that is most important when plunge cutting in wood because without it the blade would stick. The relief angle allows the chips to clear themselves from the cut and makes the tool more efficient. This is a built in feature of modern metal removal tools, and even wood saw blades and routers. Most edges are relieved by about 30 degrees and so is this.
Thanks for looking folks!

 

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[jan nielsen]

In my eyes it's just a rock, but what do I know.

 

[CRUSADER]

In my opinion, if you tried to cut with that 'tool' (give it a go) it will just bruise the wood & be completely ineffective. ie. its not sharp enough.

 

[GaRebel1861]

I don’t see any artifacts. I see naturally formed rocks. Keep looking as there are many more artifacts just waiting to be found. Good luck.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Sorry but not an indian artifact at all.

 

[Nitric]

I'm no expert at all....But I'm not seeing it. That doesn't mean a thing though.

I have a member in my family that collects and has had things handed down from when horse were used to plow fields and this kind of stuff was found. Usually, you know with out a doubt that it is some kind of tool. They were pretty advanced in making stone tools and you can usually tell with ease. That's just with the stuff I've seen. I've seen stone axes(can't remember the real name) that look like they were machine made. The indians had this down. I've seen tools that we've never spent the time to identify, but you know it's a tool there is no doubt.

That above resembles what we find all over our property in AL. The stone breaks apart in all different shapes and wedges. Along the banks of the water is a ton of it.

 

[Reanm8er]

I get that and with absolutely no animus or offence, but look at it this way. Having lain in the dirt, plowed over year after many years and perhaps tumbled along the river bottom for centuries, it's not too bad. The indications are still visible that indicate the stone was definitely worked. The 3rd photo shows the bottom but also illuminates the feature that allowed someone to wrap their thumb around the back for greater control. The medium is quartzite which doesn't sharpen like agate, flint or obsidian. I believe this is a late piece, less than 10,000 yrs old because that's when the trade network collapsed. By the time the colonists arrived, the natives were so starved for sharper media they started to salvage broken glass media from the colonist trash dumps to make the kind of sharp points they most preferred. The side view of the tool shows an ergonomic design that would allow a man to tuck his fingers underneath without digging his fingernails into the work. (Ouch). But also remember, this a hand adz, never intended to me mounted on a stick. The woodcut was done sometime after the colonists arrived from England. Many of these were done to attempt to record the natives at their daily tasks. This woodcut was in my history book in 1963.

The woodcut shows the various phases required to make a dugout canoe. First we set a fire around the base of a living tree. As it burns the base of the tree we chop away at the charred wood,(because our tools are not sharp enough to hew the tree while standing). We get the tree on the ground and then we build a fire under the place where we want to cut it and use the same method as when we felled it. In order to hollow it out we build a fire on top and since the wood is green we have to fan it to keep it burning. Wanchesse starts the fire on one end and fans it toward the middle. This chars the wood into charcoal and then I ,Manteo, can take my adz and cut out the charred wood while he burns the other end. The fire won't blaze because the wood is green and must be forced to burn, by fanning. We alternate back and forth till we get the tree hollowed out just right. We have to do it this way while the tree is still green or the bottom of the canoe won't be heavy enough to keep from tipping. We don't get in no hurry we chop a while and then we fish! Our wives do everything else. Ha Ha!

You think is far-out you should see the wood-cuts of them crabbing and fishing for flounder and sturgeon.

 

[A2coins]

It is what you believe it to be no one can change that nice relic