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[Cognito]

I have this vision of primitive man making a tool and using it until it is no longer fit for service and then making another one. Inventory management is an Industrial Revolution concept!

Actually, they were probably making tools for use nearby and at more distant locations where there was food, etc. but no material. If you're going to make a few tools for food processing somewhere else, you'll sit down and flintknap a bunch of material thereby getting lots of flakes, some lousy tools, some broken ones and a few gems. Pack up the nice stuff, leave the rest of the crap and boogie. You may drop a few of the gems on the way or just put one down and never pick it up. We generally find the left-behind stuff or the broken tools. The true gems are rare. The items shown on this site are the end result of looking at thousands and thousands of rocks.

[Cognito]

Bischoff (USGS) and Sharp (Berkeley) attest the authenticity of the pieces I've provided them for analyses. Not sure if you could get more critical eyes.
Carbonate coats don't happen overnight.

Congrats, Charlie! You really can't get any further up the geological food chain than those two guys.

[Minimalist]

If you're going to make a few tools for food processing somewhere else, you'll sit down and flintknap a bunch of material

I guess I'm having a hard time giving them credit for that much planning.
However, if the stone shows marks of use, it answers my question and should dismiss the idea that these are natural formations. Nature could not form a rock and then show only wear and tear on the sharpened edge.

[Charlie Hatchett]

t's not a question of authenticity, Charlie. It's a question of whether or not these pieces show signs of use on the sharpened edge.

I have this vision of primitive man making a tool and using it until it is no longer fit for service and then making another one. Inventory management is an Industrial Revolution concept!

Ahhh. I see what your saying, Min. Let me review the stuff, and see what I come up with. It may not have been as necessary here as Calico. This appears to have been a camp, whereas Calico appears to have been a quarry, of sorts.
But then Cog mentioned something about bones, which I've never heard of in the Calico quarries.

You think you might have a couple of bones, Cog? Has Fred ever found any bones?

Your stuff is definitely knapped...the flake channels and bulbs of percussion are no brainers. But then, I've had a chance to actually look at the pieces physically, and the working isn't as apparent in the photos.

Has Fred had a chance to look at your pieces? Btw, for those of you that haven't had a chance to review it, here's the official Calico website:

http://calicodig.com/

[marduk]

Marduk, that's a potato!!

hang on, now you come to mention it

it does have that potatoey feel to it
but it still looks like its been shaped into a vaguely anthropomorphic figure
doesn't it

its ok charlie
it goes well with your fish
She wasn't wasted either...yummmm

[Charlie Hatchett]

its ok charlie
it goes well with your fish
She wasn't wasted either...yummmm

...yummm, fried 'taters and fish!! Sounds English to me.

[Charlie Hatchett]

Nature could not form a rock and then show only wear and tear on the sharpened edge.

If you'll go back and look at the distal view (business end) of the Texas pieces, you'll see the wear and tear on most. We need to get some distal views of Cog's stuff up.

[Charlie Hatchett]

Congrats, Charlie! You really can't get any further up the geological food chain than those two guys.

Many thanks to Frank Harrist, David Campbell, Steen-McIntyre, and Malde for hooking me up with Bischoff, who, in turn, hooked me up with Sharp.

[stan]

Fraaank! Where are you?

[stan]

I don't know much about knappng, but these tools you guys are
posting look as though they could be made in a matter of minutes.
Easy come, easy go?

So I'm wondering if they were meant to be used over and over to the extent that they would show much wear.
To answer my own question, I suppose that if they were carried long distances to places where there were no materials for toolmaking, their value would be greater and they would be retained for further use.
These would be the "gems" mentioned by Cognito:

and a few gems. Pack up the nice stuff, leave the rest of the crap and boogie. You may drop a few of the gems on the way or just put one down and never pick it up. We generally find the left-behind stuff or the broken tools. The true gems are rare.

So...to follow up on Min's suggestion, it seems that the "gems" are probably the ones that were actually used, and probably repeatedly (if not broken), and that those are the ones that would most likely show the signs of the aforementioned use.

I recall seeing micorophotos of blades which supposedly indicated the type of material they were used to cut or scrape...bone, hide, wood,
fibrous plants, etc.

[Minimalist]

I recall seeing micorophotos of blades which supposedly indicated the type of material they were used to cut or scrape...bone, hide, wood,
fibrous plants, etc.

Good point, Stan, that would be a clincher too. "Nature" could not make a stone and then use it to butcher a mammoth! While the Club will undoubtedly try to dismiss the stones as geofacts, it seems to me that evidence of "use" would have to be clear evidence of human activity. What better evidence of use than finding blood or hair on the edge?

[Cognito]

Hey Min. What I am saying is this: At the Calico site there are significant outcroppings of chalcedony and chert. This material was the material of choice for making tools. In the Lake Manix formation there are only a few spots where these outcroppings occur and suitable material can be found. HOWEVER ...

Those outcroppings are not near food sources. Calico lies five miles west of Lake Manix. The food was at the lake and surrounding areas as animals moved through the region. It would take a careful group a couple of hours to get to the lake and the same time to return.

The tool makers were "quarrying" tools for use elsewhere unless you can kill something and bring it back to camp rapidly. Think about it, if you kill something really big, you don't have much time to carve it up and haul off the pieces before the predators show up ... and in this case we are talking dyer wolves, sabers, etc. As like Marduk: get in, do maximum damage, and get out. Leave the leftovers for others.

Yes, I have often wondered why Calico is located on the side of a hill, up from the lake five miles. Answer: it was safer from predators. And yes, it requires some advance planning to be "making the rounds" to different locations, but you will find that is the foraging pattern of Neanderthals as well as other ancients. Forage near home but return to camp by nightfall.

[Minimalist]

Why not just grab as many raw rocks as you can and bring them back to the safety of the camp to work on them?

[Cognito]

Why not just grab as many raw rocks as you can and bring them back to the safety of the camp to work on them?

They camped where the rocks were located. Calico is in a relatively safe spot where chalcedony and chert is in abundance. My site is at the top of a hill overlooking the lakeshore where there is chert, petrified palm and chalcedony in that order.

For example, there is another spot where chalcedony is in abundance near the lakeshore, but the area is a low-lying semi-peninsula. There isn't much in the way of artifacts to find there. In that area you would probably just grab rocks and run since, if you hang around too long, you'll become some predator's meal ...

"Ah, pink and tasty. Not much fur!"

[stan]

Here is a photo of some wear analysis AND organic fragments, which I did not realize would last so long!
It's a large picture. Go to link at bottom for details.



http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/98/19/10972