Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Something

Well, Bob Miner: I've got a similar pair of stones - only together because of the similar rosy color.
They were found ten miles apart, the hand axe in a pothole in the pavement on a little floodplain along Steele Brook in Watertown CT (turned into a "Plaza" in the 1960's) while the other one was found in a flower bed by an old Gothic Victorian house on Main Street Woodbury CT.
There's a "definitely human made edge" on that smaller stone, I've been told by many - at artifact identification day or at the Pow Wow (or in my dining room with Peter and Norman once).
When I've asked what the stone might have been used for, I've always been given the same answer:
"Something."

3 comments :

pwax said...

Then let me try again:
It has a nice edge, clearly used to cut but not chop. Quartz would shatter if struck against something hard but that edge looks useable for cutting something soft like grass or meat.
Are there any stains worth mentioning? Got any friends with an electron microscope? The question would be: what kind of edge wear is detectable?

pwax said...

I should mention: that's an awfully pretty rock. Let's call it a rose quartzite celt - and be done.

Tim MacSweeney said...

I had the stone with me last night at the local Fair and showed it to my friend Jeff Kalin of Primitive Technologies. He's a "replicator" and you may have seen his work if you've ever been to anyplace listed here: http://primitivetechnologies.com/Sites/sites.html He said the edge is perhaps from repetitive shaping work, probably using fine wet sand, using this something to make something else, probably of some similar material...