cobble multi tools

[hammerstone99]

I thought these were kind of different don't think i've seen any posted on here. Found one a few years ago and didn't think much of it then I found another one this year. I don't know what else to call them. They both show impact use on one side and a cutting chopping edge on the other, kind of like a mini hatchet. What do you think? any one got any??

and the other

 

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[GatorBoy]

Those are really cool! I don't know where you are but they seem like they would be perfect for breaking then shucking shellfish. that has me wanting to go through some of my finds to double check.

 

[RGINN]

At first I started to dismiss them as just rocks, but I looked closer. Kinda cool, and don't know where they were found, but for some reason they come across to me as being very, very old. Maybe not, just my first impression.

 

[GatorBoy]

I agree. I am literally going to go through my finds. I think I may have a couple

 

[hammerstone99]

We have no shell fish im from the west. As far as age most of the sites were occupied several different time frames. anywhere from close to paleo (i think) to transitional. I think most of it is around mid to late archaic. ya I might have dismissed the one as a rock other than where I found it made me look close at it and the impact damage is obvious, plus I had found the other one and it kind of rang a bell.

 

[GatorBoy]

Good eye! It's great to be in tune with your site to the point where you are learning from it.

 

[GatorBoy]

What's your best guess as to what they were used for?

 

[Harry Pristis]

Didn't Louis Leakey claim a couple of decades ago that he had found Olduwan Tradition tools somewhere out West? His claim at the time was discounted as not worth much. He was elderly at the time, having done pioneering work in Africa -- at Olduvai Gorge (hence Olduwan Tradition).

Tools similar to these may have gotten Leakey's juices flowing. The tools seem more Olduwan than anything else.

oldowan - Google Search​

 

[hammerstone99]

right on harry you are a treasure trove of useful info!!!! they look similar. Not sure what their use would have been gator.
heres another bigger one I found on the same site.

 

[Harry Pristis]

right on harry you are a treasure trove of useful info!!!! they look similar. Not sure what their use would have been gator.
heres another bigger one I found on the same site.

If I had found that chopper in a North Florida river, I would expect to find elephant bones . . . and other convenience tools. It appears that mammoths were ambushed at river crossings where mobility was reduced.

Paleoindians used large, simple tools like this to disarticulate mammoth parts (such as tusks) in Florida. What would early people have a need to disarticulate in your area?

 

[GatorBoy]

Thanks so much for the view. Impressive! Yes if that were found near me I belive mammoth or mastadon remains would probably.not be far away.

 

[larson1951]

fryin' pan frank from texas has some of those
i think he sent me one.....maybe i can find it

 

[Harry Pristis]

Okay, it turns out that this happened 50 years ago. Here's the story on Louis Leakey from Wikipedia:

Calico HillsMain article: Calico Early Man Site
In 1959 Leakey while at the British Museum of Natural History in London, received a visit from Ruth DeEtte Simpson, an archaeologist from California. Simpson had acquired what looked like ancient scrapers from a site in the Calico Hills and showed it to Leakey.
In 1963, Leakey obtained funds from the National Geographic Society and commenced archaeological excavations with Simpson. Excavations at the site carried out by Leakey and Simpson revealed that they had located stone artifacts which were dated 100,000 years or older suggesting a human presence in North America much earlier than estimated.[SUP][38][/SUP]
The geologist Vance Haynes had made three visits to the site in 1973 and had claimed that the artifacts of Leakey were naturally formed geofacts. According to Haynes the geofacts were formed by stones becoming fractured in an ancient river on the site.[SUP][39][/SUP]
In her autobiography Mary Leakey wrote that because of Louis's involvement with the Calico Hills site that she had lost academic respect for him and that the Calico excavations was "catastrophic to his professional career and was largely responsible for the parting of our ways".[SUP][40][/SUP]

By no means do I think 'hammerstone99's tools are geofacts. They are unlikely to be 100,000+ years old, but who knows what Louis Leakey would have thought of them!

 

[flintdigger]

We find a few around here at times but not very often. In Texas we call that a Whopper Chopper .

 

[hammerstone99]

As far as what kind of animals they would have had to disarticulate in my area I would assume the same old paleo animals camels, buffalo, ect. never heard of any remains of mamoth/mastadons in the area. most of the archaic game would have been desert sheep, buffalo, deer. at least thats what I have seen in all the rock art in my area. thanks for all the info though, thats why I love posting stuff on this site.

 

[Edmundruffin]

right on harry you are a treasure trove of useful info!!!! they look similar. Not sure what their use would have been gator.
heres another bigger one I found on the same site.

Not being a party pooper or just a pooper. You have a handfull of ancient dung. See it started as a rock, someone not too long ago picked it up to take a few wacks to see if it was knappable, if that's a word. The shift in patina should do a double face slap as to the age of the knapped area. Perhaps someone threw it down near of on a site. It is not a chopper, it is classed as a "leverite".

 

[hammerstone99]

not to be a pooper but that is not patina it is a rind(or thats what I call it anyway). I find quite a few artifacts made of this and they all look like the knapped part so go figure, but you could be right what do I know? rock was formed millions of years ago and was knapped a few thousand years ago so "patina shift" ya I guess you could call it that.

 

[GatorBoy]

That Was interesting

 

[Tnmountains]

Hammerstone The round flint ball was used in knapping, Fantastic find. I have a few. They have been documented here in knapping kits. It was used for pressure flaking. It can grab and pop a flake. I can post a similar one if you wish. Love seeing the tools. Most that size are used up. Nice finds.
HH
TnMtns

 

[Tnmountains]