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ysabetwordsmithThis year in Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'll be posting questions from the new 2024 questionnaire that I made. If you like the questions, feel free to follow along. You can post your answers in a comment below, or make a post in your own blog and link to it in a comment.
Question 7: What is the strangest thing you've ever found?
I won't say that this is the strangest thing I've ever found, but it is an unusual object that I can easily show you and talk about.
This is a paleolithic multitool. I'm in central Illinois, which used to be prime hunting ground for First Americans, and it's not rare to find artifacts in a yard or field. This picture shows the convex side up, which means that was the "inside" of the flake. (Chert breaks with a conchoidal fracture like glass, so the rounded side is the inside.) It was made by knocking a flake off a larger core, which allows you to make a lot of blades from one stone. Then it was retouched to create more refined work surfaces.
This is why I call it a multitool: it can be held in different grips, so that different parts of the edge point forward, with at least three functions: saw or serrated knife, awl, and scraper. One of the points was probably longer and sharper when new, but it's still possible to feel where a couple of them extend farther from the base. This is a primarily a right-handed tool based on shape, but could be used in the left. It doesn't look like much at first glance, but as you handle it, you get a feel for how it's meant to be used and how versatile it is.
This is the back side. It has kind of an odd angle with a ridge toward the right side, the butt of the tool. This is actually the side where most of the working was done -- when you hit a chert flake like this, the little round chips break off the underside of where you hit it. So most of the serrations visible from the convex side began here. There is just a tiny bit of shaping that shows similar notches here, and that may have been reshaping to sharpen an older tool after the initial edge dulled.
I don't know the whole story behind this. I don't know whether it was lost or discarded. I do know that it was old and close to worn out when it parted company with its user. I don't know exactly how old it is. I do know that it's not typical of what we normally find around here, which is a lot of sophisticated bifacially knapped arrowheads and spearheads. This is sophisticated in a different way. The basic style is considerably older; it doesn't have a ton of shaping all over it. But it's far from a simple, unretouched flake and it's not a single-purpose dedicated tool like most stone tools either. Multitools are rare because they're so tricky to make well.
So I think this is a gizmo. It's bleeding-edge technology made by some genius knapper who was experimenting with different ways to shape stone and what it could be used for. They found a way to combine multiple uses into one small tool, rather than three -- it's small enough that I can just barely wrap my thumb and forefinger around the edges, and I have small hands. I suspect that this belonged either to the knapper, a close relative, or someone smart enough to bargain for an unusual but very useful tool. It's not typical camp equipment, and most people don't want to carry strange things.
I'm holding a nerd's invention from thousands of years ago, and that is just so awesome. :D
Question 7: What is the strangest thing you've ever found?
I won't say that this is the strangest thing I've ever found, but it is an unusual object that I can easily show you and talk about.
This is a paleolithic multitool. I'm in central Illinois, which used to be prime hunting ground for First Americans, and it's not rare to find artifacts in a yard or field. This picture shows the convex side up, which means that was the "inside" of the flake. (Chert breaks with a conchoidal fracture like glass, so the rounded side is the inside.) It was made by knocking a flake off a larger core, which allows you to make a lot of blades from one stone. Then it was retouched to create more refined work surfaces.
This is why I call it a multitool: it can be held in different grips, so that different parts of the edge point forward, with at least three functions: saw or serrated knife, awl, and scraper. One of the points was probably longer and sharper when new, but it's still possible to feel where a couple of them extend farther from the base. This is a primarily a right-handed tool based on shape, but could be used in the left. It doesn't look like much at first glance, but as you handle it, you get a feel for how it's meant to be used and how versatile it is.
This is the back side. It has kind of an odd angle with a ridge toward the right side, the butt of the tool. This is actually the side where most of the working was done -- when you hit a chert flake like this, the little round chips break off the underside of where you hit it. So most of the serrations visible from the convex side began here. There is just a tiny bit of shaping that shows similar notches here, and that may have been reshaping to sharpen an older tool after the initial edge dulled.
I don't know the whole story behind this. I don't know whether it was lost or discarded. I do know that it was old and close to worn out when it parted company with its user. I don't know exactly how old it is. I do know that it's not typical of what we normally find around here, which is a lot of sophisticated bifacially knapped arrowheads and spearheads. This is sophisticated in a different way. The basic style is considerably older; it doesn't have a ton of shaping all over it. But it's far from a simple, unretouched flake and it's not a single-purpose dedicated tool like most stone tools either. Multitools are rare because they're so tricky to make well.
So I think this is a gizmo. It's bleeding-edge technology made by some genius knapper who was experimenting with different ways to shape stone and what it could be used for. They found a way to combine multiple uses into one small tool, rather than three -- it's small enough that I can just barely wrap my thumb and forefinger around the edges, and I have small hands. I suspect that this belonged either to the knapper, a close relative, or someone smart enough to bargain for an unusual but very useful tool. It's not typical camp equipment, and most people don't want to carry strange things.
I'm holding a nerd's invention from thousands of years ago, and that is just so awesome. :D
(no subject)
Date: 2024-05-01 07:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-05-02 09:00 am (UTC)It's also likely that someone was travelling to the summer or winter camp and dropped it. Also, we're close to the trails of tears (plural). As it's well worn, that means it was used a lot so thinking it's a nerd invention seems not as likely. Someone used it a lot, as you point out.
It's small. Women's hands. Or this was a training tool.
Either way super cool. Luckeeeee.
Thoughts
Date: 2024-05-02 10:01 am (UTC)Oh, that's interesting. I've never seen anything similar, and I've always looked when I had a chance. When I was growing up, our neighbor to the north had a collection of probably hundreds of different tools that he found in his field. And we like museums.
>> It's also likely that someone was travelling to the summer or winter camp and dropped it.<<
Possible. There are just so many tools found around here.
>> Also, we're close to the trails of tears (plural). <<
I'm well north of that.
>> As it's well worn, that means it was used a lot so thinking it's a nerd invention seems not as likely. Someone used it a lot, as you point out.<<
Possibly? I know multitools exist, but they're not common, because they're hard to make. And then they're not popular because most people want usual things. But once you try one, you realize how convenient they are, especially for carrying, so I could see it getting used a lot.
Another possibility is that, being rare because of hard to make, it's also rare because expensive -- something you'd trade for a master knapper to make. Except that it doesn't have the finesse I'd expect from that. I've seen amazing tools, blades so thin they're transparent.
>> It's small. Women's hands. Or this was a training tool.<<
Women, older children -- or the fact that most people used to be smaller and this was way back. But my bet would be a woman's tool, or a two-spirit, someone who'd be doing a lot of different domestic tasks. A hunt-follower maybe, if that tribe had women or boys who trailed the hunters to process what they killed.
When this thing was new, it would've been sharp enough to cut the hide off an animal, the point might once have been enough to poke holes for the lashing thongs, and the less-sharp part for scraping. Small hides, though, you want a much bigger surface for big game. But it'd be perfect for things like raccoon size.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2024-05-03 12:32 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2024-05-03 03:15 am (UTC)Now if such a tool had been found in situ there would be context -- the layer of soil would give an approximate date, and any other artifacts might hint whether it was a nerd's tool (because nerds often collect other odd things) or a rich person's purchase from a master knapper (if found with other high-end items) or something that's uncommon because it was pretty much only used for long-distance hunts (if found with only other normal hunting gear). Kinda makes me wonder if there's a jumbo version for big game though.