Obsidian Scraper

[Missouri Breaks]

 

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[uniface]

Pretty artifact !

If obsidian was all they had to use, if there's a high-angled edge on it, it probably was, or could have been. But obsidian is a last-choice material for scraping tools because it's so brittle. When they could find glacial cobbles of chert, even though they had to search long and hard for them, they cracked these and made scrapers of them : they held an edge.

Looks like it was a knife (low-angled edges), FWIW.

 

[Missouri Breaks]

Thanks for that feedback. This site was obsidian heavy as far as cutters go. As the years progressed I realized there were basalt ones I’ve pictured. Some of the basalt in the group pic are some other kinds of tools, maybe for hides etc. When I was a kid I realized the non obsidian (chert, jasper, quartz) ones must’ve been tools so I picked them up. In the last ten years I’ve been getting more academic about it all. The two pointy small ones are knapping tools I think and there’s basalt ones as well. They also made bone knappers I’ve found as well. What fascinates me was the fact they knew just the right material to overwhelm the material intended for a given piece. It wasn’t all simply bone and antler like is commonly stated.

 

[uniface]

Nice job. You're going about it the right way. Just don't keep them all in a cigar box. Paper towels & gumbands,or little zip bags (even better) keep the edges the way they were when they were put down for the last time, preserving use wear for study & understanding.

 

[Missouri Breaks]

Funny you mention the cigar boxes. When I was a kid I kept my best points in a box my grandparents had brought me from a trip to Turkey. Still have the box and have used the same old cigar boxes my grandpa kept his finds in. I’ve graduated to safe storage with lots of padding. Certain ones get their own little case etc.