Quartz Point - Just like the day it was made

TimeWaster · Feb 15, 2013

Found this on a creek bank while running in a 5K last week. A friend of mine told me that is a testament to how slow I run! Not a nick or break anywhere it isn't supposed to be. How the heck did they do this with quartz?

TimeWaster · Feb 19, 2013

Ok, Rock, GatorBoy, anybody else who is interested, hear are some rough flakes that I am pretty sure are quartz reduction. Mainly because of how many times I keep finding bases that look like Articulate, or Lanceolate flakes. Tell me what you think. I'm also going to post the obvious points from the same site that look like that may span thousands of years. I think this is a reduction site used for a very long time.

GatorBoy · Feb 19, 2013

I can see...I think... some reduction flakes..broken points and possible retouched flakes and scrapers but in order to tell anything for sure you would need closer clear photos of each from a couple angles. The first two photos are tips and stems and roughed out points or knives. It looks typical of what is found walking a field.

TimeWaster · Feb 20, 2013

I'll try to get a little better pic of a couple of the best ones. Notice there is one piece of dark and light gray mottled chert. That is the only piece of chert I've ever found here and is broken on the right and the left side. Might have been a scraper or knife. I'm pretty sure the chert is from around Lookout Mtn. a hundred miles north of here. I need to take a couple of pics of the crude digging tools too. They are about a foot long and pointed, usually with the point beat to a pulp and a crude hand hold at one end. If I hadn't found a hundred just alike, I'd think they were just rocks too.
as far as the points go, what I see a lot of looks like a Quad type shape.
I'm like you. "I see...I think..." LOL

GatorBoy · Feb 20, 2013

The bases are what will give you the most info. The ones that are recognizable are stemmed points from what I see. They look archaic and I'm sure you will probably find several time periods in that field. The digging tools sound like hoes to me. They were Hafted to a handle.

rock · Feb 20, 2013

TimeWaster said:
GatorBoy, what was that "dimple stone" used for? Cool, but I am talking about a big flat piece of quartz with an indention beat out of the middle. Maybe to hold an object in place while you flaked it.

See if this is anything like yours. It is 4"x 3.5"

TimeWaster · Feb 22, 2013

Rock, the ones I see are actually a larger rock that seems to have been chiseled out to have a hole that would seem to hold a large marble if you set one in it. I would think coincidence if there weren't 5 or 6 of them on the side of that hill.
GatorBoy, I need to get some pics of the digging tools. They seem to have more of a hand digging use than a hoe use because they are not really flat, so are pretty heavy. Seems to me they were used to mine quartz on the side of this hill in the Brevard zone. But, remember, I know nothing and appreciate any info I can get!
I'm going bird hunting this weekend, but I'll try to get some more pics soon. I appreciate the ideas. This quartz stuff is ugly, and doesn't have nearly the appeal that the chert stuff has. Still, it gets me wondering.

GatorBoy · Feb 22, 2013

I hear ya! Good luck hunting.

TimeWaster · Feb 22, 2013

GatorBoy, when you brought up Hoes, it reminded me that last deer season I helped a friend build a new outdoor fireplace from an old house fireplace that had collapsed. That old fireplace had several hoes that had been used to build it. They didn't care. It was a rock, and it fit in that spot in the fireplace!

GatorBoy · Feb 22, 2013

Haha... that's a new one. I've seen grinding stones as flower garden decorations and big projectile points glued to mailbox posts.

Scotdixon · Feb 22, 2013

You better go back! There are always more...

rock · Feb 22, 2013

Ok I will post my table frame for you. It is full of the best ones I have found. I did find a digging tool last week probably hand held. I havent found any whole points yet in the spot I go to. There is hundreds of flakes and broken tools all on the ground scattered. I have found some real nice ones last yr but not this yr. Maybe next winter will be better. With all the rain most are under water and I cant get to them. Check these out.

TimeWaster · Feb 23, 2013

I just sit and wonder about the quality difference in materials through history. I will find a quartz piece made from a very high quality piece of quartz that flakes a lot like chert. And in the same area, I will find a lot of what you have here. Obviously flaked pieces, but from not so high quality quartz. My theory has been that when the early native amerericans were more nomadic, they didn't have a lot of choice but to try and flake what they could find. I guess times had to be way harder the farther you go back, and they did with what they had.
But, then again, go all the way back to Clovis and you have good material and artisan workmanship everywhere.

rock · Feb 23, 2013

Well that is true on the quality on the pieces I have. Not very good quality at all. But if you figure what they had to work with in this area you would understand. The only type of stone I can find is slate, schist, quartzite and the lithic of choice this type of quartz. No flint or chert where I find these. It would of had to be traded in if it was there. I havent found one piece of flint.

TimeWaster · Feb 23, 2013

That is the way it is here too Rock, I have found one piece of chert in all the years of looking around my house. Quartz is just rough stuff to work with. So they had to be just forced to work with it from time to time I think.

rock · Feb 24, 2013

Just think after all those yrs of having to work with quartz if they ever found flint and flaked it how good the artifacts would come out when they were done. I would think you would have to be an expert to work a piece of quartz for a point or tool.