Tools

[bsit1361]

Same trip as the points. First is a peice of soapstone with some interesting scratches on the flat area. Was hoping somebody might have a guess as to what its from. Also found a rough celt/ax. Found a great big chopper/hand ax and another weight. Thanks for lookin.

 

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[Felinepeachy]

Ya know, I just love finding tools. Those are great finds. WTG!

 

[bsit1361]

Me too. Got old tackle boxes filled with em.

 

[tmodel]

from what i have heard and seen of other peoples artifacts i think photo # 1 may be a sharping or polishing stone for needles, hair pins and maybe some of the smaller als. Terry

 

[bsit1361]

Was thinking that too but would soapstone be good for sharpening?

 

[tmodel]

most any stone that is harder than what you wont to sharpen will do the job maybe not as fast. they might have used sandstone to shape things and then soapstone to polish if they could get sandstone. Terry

 

[bsit1361]

Pretty much everything is harder than soapstone but around here it was utilized for all sorts of stuff. We have a prehistoric quarry right down the road at our scout camp.

 

[tmodel]

sounds like soapstone is softer than i though from hearing people talk. i have had a piece of soapstone in my hand. i think you are right on, on the rest of your finds. Terry

 

[Th3rty7]

Nice group of hardstone tools. I'm not really sure about that first piece, but imo it has sort of a pottery trowel look to it.

 

[joshuaream]

The first piece looks like the lug (handle) off a soap stone bowl. That is what the archaic groups used before the had pottery in some areas. The other tools are nice.
http://pecksplacepublishing.com/bk_eastern_perspective_on_archaic_soapstone_bowls.html

 

[bsit1361]

Thanks everybody

 

[bsit1361]

The first piece looks like the lug (handle) off a soap stone bowl. That is what the archaic groups used before the had pottery in some areas. The other tools are nice.
http://pecksplacepublishing.com/bk_eastern_perspective_on_archaic_soapstone_bowls.html

I think you are probably right its just the scratches found on the smooth surface dont seem to go along with being the inside of the a bowl or jug. I guess we will never know

 

[joshuaream]

The scratches are common on all the bowls I've seen. They had to use flake tools to scratch out the inside of the bowls. It's a nice find, there might be more pieces of it around there.

 

[bsit1361]

Thanks Josh. Whar do yall think bout the ax? Maybe an ax preform or used the way it is. The other 2 axes I have are pecked.

 

[tmodel]

OK so i got caught up in the scratches and did not look at the second photo good enough.. piece of soapstone bowl with scratches from the making of it. for the scratches to show that good, it may have got broken before they finished the bowl and got to use it. Terry

 

[joshuaream]

OK so i got caught up in the scratches and did not look at the second photo good enough.. piece of soapstone bowl with scratches from the making of it. for the scratches to show that good, it may have got broken before they finished the bowl and got to use it. Terry

Terry,

That could be the case.

Joshua

 

[joshuaream]

Thanks Josh. Whar do yall think bout the ax? Maybe an ax preform or used the way it is. The other 2 axes I have are pecked.

I'd go with axe preform. It was probably quicker to chip out the blank if they could, and then finish with the classic peck and grind somewhere else. One of those chips might have saved them 30 or 40 individual pecks (or more), and made the blank lighter weight to carry back.

I used to hunt a field near a hornstone quarry (a cave) in Indiana. Outside the cave was a huge midden of cortex flakes where ancients would break the nodules down to size and trim off the "fat" that they didn't need to carry back to their village sites. If there was a flaw and the stone broke, it would also be better to know that at the quarry than when you had carried it home.

 

[bsit1361]

Thanks again.