Archaeologica.org

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Certain things were fairly obvious.

First, there are probably 100 million tons of rock in that stretch of the creek. They are EVERYWHERE. But very few show any signs of having been worked. When you see Charlie posting picture after picture you might be tempted to think that these things are all over and that is not the case.

Second, there is a lot of raw material and just to get a primitive edge does not take much effort. Obviously, for stones that have multiple flakes removed there is a lot of technique and knowledge involved but we made a completely usable edge in one try and it cut through a tree branch fairly easily. So, as long as there is a supply of chert around there would be no incentive to carry these things. When you need one, make one.

Third, they do work on wood and probably would work fine on bone/flesh. One can imagine fish being cleaned on the banks of that creek 20,000 years ago with just a stone scraper.

Sounds like a productive day.

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Two of the pieces we picked up today seemed to have "thumb notches" flaked out of them. That certainly helped the grip.

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You're gonna have a brand new perspective on these pictures when Charlie posts them. That's neat. What's up for tomorrow and how long are you staying?

Tomorrow's my last day. I fly out early Friday morning.

I agree about the perspective. I imagine you'll see similar stuff at Topper.

When is that?

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Minimalist wrote:Two of the pieces we picked up today seemed to have "thumb notches" flaked out of them. That certainly helped the grip.

That's exactly what I see on some of the material here too.

I'll be interested to see the results of the bipolar reduction.

Manystones wrote:

Minimalist wrote:Two of the pieces we picked up today seemed to have "thumb notches" flaked out of them. That certainly helped the grip.

That's exactly what I see on some of the material here too.

I'll be interested to see the results of the bipolar reduction.

A package arrived from Cogs this morning and several of the pieces he sent to Charlie showed thumb notches. Oddly, some of them seemed to work better for lefties as opposed to righties.

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Minimalist wrote:A package arrived from Cogs this morning and several of the pieces he sent to Charlie showed thumb notches. Oddly, some of them seemed to work better for lefties as opposed to righties.

If I remember rightly previous studies have generally shown a ratio of approximately 1:5 in accordance with the current trend in population for left handedness.

That black one is obviously the product of human agency. Nice.

Me holding a pre-clovis tool that Charlie had just flaked off a piece of flint 20 seconds earlier!

Note, if you can, the lack of secondary flakes which would have been needed to shape the whole blade. We tried it later and proved to ourselves that we did not have the necessary technique.