I think I found a stone tool on Sunday

[EFerrari]

walking near a newly turned field.



It's been worked on three sides of the top. The two longer sides have been flaked to a sharp edge. I can't tell what it might have been, maybe a scraping tool.




It fits in your hand nicely although, that third (shorter) side is flat on both surfaces and could have accommodated a handle.



The sharpened edge goes right around the point, although the point is not sharp now.





`

[Denninmi]

1. Could be. I guess it might take an expert to tell you for sure.

Some rocks can fool people, I guess. We've found a few stone arrowheads here from time to time. People need to remember that they, too, will go this route. If Homo sapiens survives, some day they'll be digging up Ipads and toaster ovens and dvds and try to figure out what they were.

[EFerrari]

4. Iirc one way you can tell if a rock has been worked on is the little cone-shape breaks that happen

when someone chips flakes off. Water doesn't do that in the same way, not as liquid or as ice. That's impact and a lot of similar cone-shaped breaks (there must be a term for that) isn't something that rocks do to each other. That's someone trying to shape a rock.

My little anthro and less geology ends right there, though.

[johnnytoobad]

9. HELLO ye of many posts-- the term is "knapping" .hope that helps.

[EFerrari]

10. Hey there, johnnytoobad, thank you.

I went back to the site to look around and there are a few other objects that look interesting. The one I brought back to my studio looks like a small grinding surface. I have to look up how to tell if a surface has been worn by human activity and not some other way, like by water, because I never did know very much about it.

This surface wasn't struck in the same way as the sharpened edge of the other piece. Given the pock marks on the top surface, it looks like someone took a tool about 1/2 inch in diameter to pound with -- about the size of a nail sink. I don't know why you'd do that unless you were crushing small seeds or something.

But there are three other places that show smoother wear, where there aren't pock marks but more like gouges made over a longer period of time by bigger, rounder tools. And those places aren't symmetrical or consistent with the sheen or smoothness you'd get from water. So.

Fun

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. looks like a chopper

used for things like smashing bones. hard to put an edge on granite that would be sharp enough to use as an ax. It looks like a throwaway, used a few times and then discarded. the ones they kept had much more detailed shaping.

[EFerrari]

3. The sharp edges are sort of amazing because

they look like one edge but when you run your finger along them, they feel scalloped.

It was in a field that is up away from the dry creek bed. The gardener threw a bunch of rocks out of the field before he planted his stuff in late April and this was one of them.

The folks that lived around here were in pretty small groups, moved with the seasons and traveled light. This bit of land was probably well traveled because it's at the base of the foothills and had water running through it. It's also about a day's walk from 2 rivers which are about a day's walk from the bay.

I'm sort of surprised we haven't found more of these things but this is really the first year since we've been here that a field of any size was turned.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. yep, not something they would want to tote to the next site

It only takes a few minutes to find a rock of the appropriate shape and knock off just enough flakes to get an edge.

what a cool find

[jwirr]

6. That looks like an old arrowhead to me. We have found many but my son in law does not want us

to keep them because they belong to the person who made it. Native belief. On second thought it could be too big for an arrowhead. The sharp point made me assume that.

[EFerrari]

7. It's about the size of a kitchen utensil. Which it might have been. :)

[johnnytoobad]

8. looks like it could be a knife----

I have found many similar tools. regardless, if the edge has been "worked" it was definitely used as some kind of tool. Hold it and imagine the people who used it and the struggle life must have been.

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. Every rock near me is a stone tool.

Some are hammers, and some are hammers serving other functions.