An interesting chip of quartz from my home dirt

At the risk of this blog becoming an "arrowhead blog", here is another example of an obscure piece of quartz from Woods Hole MA. It comes from the clay being removed for new construction at my house:

Of course it might have come from the shallow overburden of topsoil and be from the recent past, and since large equipment has been banging around in here, this man-made item could have been made in the last few months but there is some surface staining and enough flake scarring on all surfaces to suggest this must be a deliberate artifact. It is a delicate piece and the edge is still sharp - a very unusual piece of quartz.

A well developed "bulb of percussion":

Other flake scars and stains on the surface:

So you tell me.

Another arrowhead from Rhode Island

Reader Josh sent these photos. Comments would be welcome.

Opacum Land Trust (Sturbridge MA)

  The mystery of the stone piles and structures that dot our countryside will be the program at the 6th annual Opacum Land Trust fall dinner happening on September 18th (2019) at the Barn at Wight Farm in Sturbridge. Doors open at 5:30 pm- enjoy your favorite beverage, bid on our silent auction (featuring local treats, treasures and activities), meet and mingle with Opacum volunteers and supporters, and find out more about the important conservation work of your local land conservation organization…

…Following dinner will be a program by Dr. Curtiss Hoffman about his extensive research on the mysterious stone structures found across our region, featured in his newest book Stone Prayers: Native American Constructions of the Eastern Seaboard.

Join us to hear Dr. Hoffman discuss this highly debated topic.  Autographed copies of his book will be available to purchase.

Tickets for the event are available through September 8th at https://opacum.bpt.me/

 or for more information, visit www.opacumlt.org  or call 413-245-1175. Proceeds from this event support the conservation work of Opacum Land Trust.”

http://www.thecitizenchronicle.com/southbridge-cultural/stone-mysteries-explored-at-the-opacum-land-trust-dinner/?fbclid=IwAR3BVRCdEjZAUTPoG1ibv1ktEm_2vxNaGttPpBOm9iSjA4aZ-V-OAk4ZBU8

More quartz fragments from the Woods Hole Islands

I believe this piece of quartz is flaked:

If you accept that, then let me draw out the discussion a little and speculate that this is a broken tip from an arrowhead. At the upper left is a "tip" that is worn and rounded off. Here is a view of the other side, with the "tip" pointing upward:

Do you see what I see? A groove from the lower edge up towards the tip. In fact there is also a shallower groove with the same orientation visible in the first picture above. 

Lets take a look at the broken edge:

So what do you think? Looks like part of a Clovis point. Back then, this area was above sea level and the "hole" and "gut" would have been valleys. Excellent spots for an ambush?

Early summer arrowheads

August is a tough time for me when it comes to finding stone tools. It's been hot, vegetation covers the ground. The air is a little cooler today, and I'm sure there will be hot days ahead- buty I am looking forward to fall. Here are some of my most recent finds, from earlier in the summer.

A walk in Rhode Island yielded a handful of fragments. Par for the course.

This quartz stemmed point is a typical southeastern Massachusetts find. It was fun to spot. I think this is hard hammer percussion flaking, meaning that it was flaked by hitting it with a rock. This results in a crude look (to me) but it nevertheless took a lot of skill to make these this way out of this material.

I also found a nicely made quartz scraper nearby.

That's all I've got to show. I thought this tiny turtle was cute. I hope everyone enjoys the rest of the summer.

TV recommendations

From Norman Muller:
This is probably old news to you, but I just watched two episodes of "Native America," a four-part PBS series on the religious and cultural beliefs of the indigenous peoples of North and South America.  Apparently it was televised last year.  To me, it is very well done and clearly presented.  I saw it on Amazon Prime.

From Tim MacSweeney:
I just watched the first two episodes of 1491 from the Aboriginal TV network, for free at their Facebook page. 

Norman Muller writes:

A friend of mine sent me two photos yesterday of a 100 foot wall at the Oley site in PA that cuts across a rocky wetland.  The wall many also have a manitou stone leaning against it. See image below.  The wall is about 100 feet long and not connected to other walls.  It reminds me of a wall on the side of a mountain in Rochester, VT, that cuts across a wet area (2nd image).  It, too, is unconnected to other walls.  Both examples fit.a pattern, and I'm wondering if you and others have recorded similar examples in your travels.

A Little Walk (Westbrook CT)

Looking West

    I did get to take a little walk recently, under the trees with a cool wind blowing in from Long Island Sound, vaping CBD for relief of my arthritis-like symptoms and a second PICC device implanted in my arm for this Lyme Disease that just won't go away. It's a place I've posted about before, within Curtiss' CT Cluster #7, the Hammonasset East, I do believe...

Looking East

More:
 http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2019/07/revisiting-stone-turtles-in-ct-cluster-7.html