Aurora1959
Jr. Member
Interesting explanation for those 200,000 year old "artifact" sites turning up in North America. Also, reading the whole paper (https://mn.gov/admin/assets/stone-tools-of-minnesota-part1_tcm36-247478.pdf) might be helpful to newbies wondering about "effigy" stones, rocks with holes, and the old "it fits so perfectly in my hand" phenomenon.
"Another common category of purported artifacts occurs in the form of naturally chipped or flaked pieces. These are a bit trickier than the other presumed stone tools described above. Chert and similar raw materials were used the world over to make chipped stone tools. The same properties that make these materials workable for humans also make them susceptible to chipping and other modifications by natural forces. Chert nodules or fragments can be broken by the pressure exerted by the weight the rock and sediments covering them; popped apart into random cubes, wedges, and potlid spalls by freeze-thaw cycles; and banged together in landslides and fast-flowing streams. The sharp corners and edges on these fragmented pieces are especially vulnerable to additional chipping and damage that can closely resemble lithic use wear or intentional human retouch. The simple act of trampling, whether by humans or any other large animal, can create what convincingly appear to beworked edges. Crudely chipped flints began to attract much scientific attention in the Old World toward the end of nineteenth century. Called eoliths (“dawn stones”), they were used to argue for a hominid presence in England dating back to the Pliocene (5.3 to 2.6 million years ago). A French archaeologist named Marcellin Boule argued in 1905 that these stones were not artifacts and that they were the product of natural processes. Shortly thereafter, Samuel Hazeldine Warren (1905) conducted experiments and essentially confirmed Boule’s case that the eoliths were natural. One would think (or at least hope) that the whole eolith debate was settled a century ago, but sadly, this is not the case. Naturally fractured and secondarily “retouched” pieces are commonly found in concentrated gravel deposits (Figure 1.6). Unfortunately, cherry-picking the chipped rocks that look the most like genuine artifacts from such deposits has a long and storied history. The preponderance of evidence is that this is precisely what has been done at Calico Hills, California, where chipped stone “artifacts” are purported to be as much as 200,000 years old (e.g., Duvall and Venner 1979; Payen 1982.
"Another common category of purported artifacts occurs in the form of naturally chipped or flaked pieces. These are a bit trickier than the other presumed stone tools described above. Chert and similar raw materials were used the world over to make chipped stone tools. The same properties that make these materials workable for humans also make them susceptible to chipping and other modifications by natural forces. Chert nodules or fragments can be broken by the pressure exerted by the weight the rock and sediments covering them; popped apart into random cubes, wedges, and potlid spalls by freeze-thaw cycles; and banged together in landslides and fast-flowing streams. The sharp corners and edges on these fragmented pieces are especially vulnerable to additional chipping and damage that can closely resemble lithic use wear or intentional human retouch. The simple act of trampling, whether by humans or any other large animal, can create what convincingly appear to beworked edges. Crudely chipped flints began to attract much scientific attention in the Old World toward the end of nineteenth century. Called eoliths (“dawn stones”), they were used to argue for a hominid presence in England dating back to the Pliocene (5.3 to 2.6 million years ago). A French archaeologist named Marcellin Boule argued in 1905 that these stones were not artifacts and that they were the product of natural processes. Shortly thereafter, Samuel Hazeldine Warren (1905) conducted experiments and essentially confirmed Boule’s case that the eoliths were natural. One would think (or at least hope) that the whole eolith debate was settled a century ago, but sadly, this is not the case. Naturally fractured and secondarily “retouched” pieces are commonly found in concentrated gravel deposits (Figure 1.6). Unfortunately, cherry-picking the chipped rocks that look the most like genuine artifacts from such deposits has a long and storied history. The preponderance of evidence is that this is precisely what has been done at Calico Hills, California, where chipped stone “artifacts” are purported to be as much as 200,000 years old (e.g., Duvall and Venner 1979; Payen 1982.
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