Quartz artifacts from Rhode Island

 I haven't posted anything here in a long time. I've got a lot of finds to post and I hope to get back to posting here again more regularly.

These photos are from an evening in June. It was a Friday after work, which is a favorite time for me to get out and look for stuff. I feel like I have good luck on Friday evenings, and a good find is a great way to start my weekend. On this particular evening it had rained hard and I wanted to go to a place I know where there is lots to find. Other people search for artifacts in this place as well, so I was happy to get there and see no fresh footprints. Most of the stuff I find at this site is broken, with many or most of the artifacts likely having been discarded during the production process. I did find a lot of broken stuff on this occasion. In this photo there are artifacts ranging from crude bifaces that were likely preforms or discarded production pieces, to fragments of finely pressure flaked tools. Over 99 percent of the artifacts I find at this site are made from quartz.

 

I saw this interesting looking broken edge and snapped a picture. It looked pretty big, I thought it might be a big flake or perhaps a broken tool. 

 

But, it wasn't broken. The shape of this, I would call a Levanna. It doesn't show any pressure retouch to the edges, or any use wear, as far as I can tell. Perhaps this piece was not satisfactory to the maker and was discarded.

 

 I found these crude, thick bifaces too. I think things like this are really interesting. I have seen them described as preforms, and "choppers." There is a lot of marine shell at this place. I wonder what kinds of tools were used to open clam shells?

I took this photo on the way out. It was getting dark, thunder could be heard in the distance. We had so much rain in June and early July. I wish we had had that rain in the spring- but I made the most of the weather anyway. This photo is so representative of the last many months for me- a handful of artifacts tucked into a Covid mask from my pocket.

 

Here is that nice big artifact cleaned up at home. I'm not even sure I can call this a projectile point. It's really pretty, though.

 

It's thin, too. It's hard to find something like this, in this size, in this disturbed setting.

Here is the best of the day's finds, cleaned up. It was a good and lucky day for me. I hope everyone is having a great summer and staying healthy.