Stone Ax

[Don Lewis]

Found this walking a small stream that runs right through town.

 

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[DirtyHandsCleanPoints]

Found this walking a small stream that runs right through town.

Dang man congratulations that’s a really good find. I’ve been on the hunt for a grooved axe for years. I have a lot of really nice hard stone axes but the grooved still eludes me.

 

[DirtyHandsCleanPoints]

Found this walking a small stream that runs right through town.

Post some more pics of you can the guys on here will enjoy it when they get around to it. Is it fully grooved all the way around and what’s the bit end look like?

 

[Don Lewis]

Post some more pics of you can the guys on here will enjoy it when they get around to it. Is it fully grooved all the way around and what’s the bit end look like?

 

[Don Lewis]

 

[Don Lewis]

Sorry about all the other pictures. Not sure how I messed that up. Yes this has a groove all the way around. You never know where you might find a stone ax or an arrow head. I was very surprised when I spotted this ax. Just didn’t expect to find anything along this stream. You have to wonder how many people walked right by that stone ax over the yesrs.

 

[DirtyHandsCleanPoints]

Sorry about all the other pictures. Not sure how I messed that up. Yes this has a groove all the way around. You never know where you might find a stone ax or an arrow head. I was very surprised when I spotted this ax. Just didn’t expect to find anything along this stream. You have to wonder how many people walked right by that stone ax over the yesrs.

Yeah it’s definitely an easy one to pass by for the untrained eye glad you scored it that would be a year maker for me. Here’s a few of mine and a polished Celt

 

[Don Lewis]

Yeah it’s definitely an easy one to pass by for the untrained eye glad you scored it that would be a year maker for me. Here’s a few of mine and a polished Celt

You found some real beauties there. Congrats!👍

 

[ToddsPoint]

This is very interesting. I have one of these like you posted. It was found in SW MO in a creek where we were quarrying knapping flint. I never knew what it was and didn’t realize it was a finished artifact.
I learn something new every day on Tnet!

 

[CreekSide]

This is very interesting. I have one of these like you posted. It was found it in SW MO in a creek where we were quarrying knapping flint. I never knew what it was and didn’t realize it was a finished artifact.
I learn something new every day on Tnet!View attachment 2146561
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Mississippian period had a one bit ax but I’m assuming it also worked great for a hoe

 

[DirtyHandsCleanPoints]

This is very interesting. I have one of these like you posted. It was found it in SW MO in a creek where we were quarrying knapping flint. I never knew what it was and didn’t realize it was a finished artifact.
I learn something new every day on Tnet!View attachment 2146561
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Dang them are some twins I’m in north western corner of Arkansas not too awful far. see a lot of similarities between Missouri artifacts but I haven’t seen another flint axe that’s a sweet one. I’m not positive what all my others are made from but it’s some kind of hard stone.

 

[Older The Better]

That’s a good one, I’m always looking for axes, so far just a bunch of rocks sticking in the dirt. They look like something with what looks like a shaped edge until I dig them out a bit and they quickly become rocks

 

[ToddsPoint]

Mississippian period had a one bit ax but I’m assuming it also worked great for a hoe

I have two mill creek hoes and they both have phytolith gloss on the bits from working plants. This thing has no gloss on the bit but I did notice the highest ridge on the small end is very polished. I think it was hafted somehow.

 

[CreekSide]

I have two mill creek hoes and they both have phytolith gloss on the bits from working plants. This thing has no gloss on the bit but I did notice the highest ridge on the small end is very polished. I think it was hafted somehow.

Maybe they are the transition from the ax to the Celt which would probably date somewhere around middle to late archaic

 

[ToddsPoint]

Maybe they are the transition from the ax to the Celt which would probably date somewhere around middle to late archaic

You might be on to something. These flint “axes” would likely have been jammed in a hole in a tree branch handle. Similar to the way a Celt was hafted. Maybe a cruder predecessor? These things are new to me and I’ll have to dig deeper. They’re not something we have locally.

 

[Nwohseeker]

Nice looking ax. What's up with the modern looking point sticking out of the vertebrae?

 

[dognose]

nice axe find
congratulations

 

[DirtyHandsCleanPoints]

You might be on to something. These flint “axes” would likely have been jammed in a hole in a tree branch handle. Similar to the way a Celt was hafted. Maybe a cruder predecessor? These things are new to me and I’ll have to dig deeper. They’re not something we have locally.

Luckly I’ve spent a lot of time researching axes and especially in my area and we’re only a handful of hours apart so should be similar information. But about 2 miles from my house there was a bluff shelter excavation in the 30s by a feller doing a whole project on bluff shelters along my main local creek that is basically a smalll river all year long. The closest site to my house provided over 200 artifacts including grains still preserved, woven baskets, points and pottery re studied the finds in the 80s and we get an image of a perfectly preserved hafted axe in same style as mine and all of mine have came from the same creek as the bluff project. They were almost certainly multi tools for digging but absolutely cut wood as well as whatever else they used it for. As a carpenter I can tell you I use a hammer for 100s of things other than hitting a nail.

 

[DirtyHandsCleanPoints]

You might be on to something. These flint “axes” would likely have been jammed in a hole in a tree branch handle. Similar to the way a Celt was hafted. Maybe a cruder predecessor? These things are new to me and I’ll have to dig deeper. They’re not something we have locally.

The report does mention the cordage and material would have rotted way after “thousands of years” in the ground that lands us somewhere in the late archaic id say. Can’t prove it though

 

[gettothepoints]

That’s incredible