Stone tool Hoe? Hand ax?

[Opps Ifoundit]

Found this one many years ago in the same waterfront garden in the San Juan Islands WA as my last stone tool post. I always saw it as a hoe or a shovel. Notice how it's been worked all the way around, but the blunt end is worn down from its use. fits nice in your hand! Measures 6" x 3 1/2". Anyone know how it was used?

 

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[GatorBoy]

Interesting piece..it looks just like ones guys I know in North Carolina call a hoe.

 

[rock]

Im not a good crude hoe type of person but Im leaning toward natural on that one. It is on the border line for me to go either direction on it. Not saying it isnt but Im not saying it is either.

 

[scepter1]

Have any artifact hoes ever been found in the San Juan Islands?

 

[Opps Ifoundit]

Thanks for helping figure it out guys! If it's something or not.
I'm not sure if any hoes have been found there. I might have thrown this in the rock pile while gardening that day if I hadn't already found other artifacts there. It was within about 50' of the stone tool in my last stone tool post. I hear the natives didn't live in the islands, they just came seasonally. The small stream of water makes it a great place to beach the canoe and big field right there. If it is a tool it might not even be that old. Because an old timer around 90 years old that lived nearby told me in the 1970's that there was still potlatches there occasionally even when he was a boy. So that would have been around 1890's? Found this local short video explaining how Northwest Native American Agriculture resembled permaculture.
PNW Native American Agriculture resembled permaculture (ancestral skills forum at permies)

 

[GatorBoy]

I suggest you research your specific area on the internet.
Look at artifacts found there.

 

[unclemac]

Part of my family is from Shaw. Time was when you could walk the beach there and it was almost impossible NOT to find a point...oddly enough, usually obsidian too. While your stone could easily have been used to did with, hoes are not really in the tool kit of these peoples as they were not farmers. Most digging tools would have been made of wood, especially cedar as it was plentiful and used for almost everything, (including the bark). Having said that I still would be looking at that rock from time to time saying "hmmmm"....

 

[jackflashz]

Part of my family is from Shaw. Time was when you could walk the beach there and it was almost impossible NOT to find a point...oddly enough, usually obsidian too. While your stone could easily have been used to did with, hoes are not really in the tool kit of these peoples as they were not farmers. Most digging tools would have been made of wood, especially cedar as it was plentiful and used for almost everything, (including the bark). Having said that I still would be looking at that rock from time to time saying "hmmmm"....

unclemac - can you post some of those obsidian points?

 

[rock]

I saw a hoe today found in my area. It was a rectangle shaped flat stone maybe 6 inches long probably woodland period. The only thing is it had a notch on each side on one end. If it werent for the notch I would of called rock on it. Some were quite crude but I guess they did the job.

 

[unclemac]

unclemac - can you post some of those obsidian points?

no, I didn't "inherit" those points...we all found them as a family and but them in a jar...one of my cousins wound up with the jar. After that I learned to keep my points to myself...here is a nice obsidian "cascade" type knife point I found but not from the island....

 

[jackflashz]

Nice Cascade ! Too bad on not 'inheriting" those points. The only thing I can find on Obsidian being found in the San Juans is that they are really rare.

 

[unclemac]

Nice Cascade ! Too bad on not 'inheriting" those points. The only thing I can find on Obsidian being found in the San Juans is that they are really rare.

we were told by a local all those years ago that there was a source on one of the islands, but i don't remember which one.

 

[scepter1]

we were told by a local all those years ago that there was a source on one of the islands, but i don't remember which one.

University of Washington archy told me that obsidian artifacts found in Washington is material/artifacts brought in from central Oregon, and that's why they are rare.

 

[CrazySlasher]

I think natural.

 

[unclemac]

University of Washington archy told me that obsidian artifacts found in Washington is material/artifacts brought in from central Oregon, and that's why they are rare.

for the most part for sure, but there are other sources...

Obsidian Source Locations and Tools

 

[rock]

I think natural.

OK then.

 

[NC field hunter]

You had it figured out before you even posted. It is a crude hoe. It's not as crude as many I've seen. Nice find!

 

[Opps Ifoundit]

The girls in the kitchen just burst out laughing when I told them what you said it is. What's so funny? I don't get it. lol

 

[Opps Ifoundit]

Hey unclemac! We used to beach the boat over at Shaw island back in the day to get away from Lopez for awhile. Back then there was nuns running the ferry dock and the only store. So if you bought beer you were buying it from a nun! Now that's different. Very quiet peaceful Island. The people keep it that way.

 

[scepter1]

When I was 18, I was as deckhand on a purse seiner, fishing the San Juans. Those nuns didn't card you if you came off the fishng boats...