Loading…
7
Figured stone tools at a site near Tucson were just rocks, a knapping demo at a fair changed my whole take
Back in March I went to a dig site outside Tucson with a friend who volunteers there, and I flat out told him the chipped stones in the trays looked like junk gravel from my driveway. Two weeks later I watched a guy knap a point at a heritage fair in Mesa, and in about 15 minutes I could see the exact same flake scars and striking platforms on his fresh point as on those "rocks," which made me admit I had no idea what I was looking at. So how do you all learn to spot real tools versus geofacts, is it just hours of handling them or is there a good book or class for a total beginner like me?
1 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In1 Comment
ruby_henderson3624d ago
Man, watching that knapper work must have been like getting glasses for the first time. But here's what gets me: if a fresh flake scar looks the same as a million year old one, how do you tell the difference between a rock that got chipped by a truck tire and one a person actually made on purpose? Does the angle of the flakes or the way they stack up give it away, or is it something you only pick up after years of handling the real stuff?
3