Plate Calcedony

[quito]

On our way to the rapid city gem and mineral show, we went through the badlands and the Buffalo Gap grasslands of South Dakota yesterday. We stopped to do some rock hunting. It was kinda cool to see the plate chalcedony just coming out of the ground. There is also a big slab laying there shaded by a plant. This is the material the badlands knives and few other things are made of. It is pretty tough to work, and we see few pieces that have been worked further than an edge on one side. If I were home I’d post some artifacts made from it again.

Not very often these badlands have any green. Never seen it so lush in all the years I’ve been here. The sweet clover bloom is like nothing I’ve ever seen, it goes as far as you can see everywhere out there. Wish I had my bees out here.

 

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[tomclark]

Great post! That stuff forms between layers/voids in limerock forming "plates". These pieces were all found on Paleo-Early Archaic site and all have been "checked" for use as you can see the knock offs. Here, it's ancient reef at the surface. We call it Ledge Flint, though it is chalcedony, cryptocrystalline quartz. Here it also has a lot of reef fossils in it and some of it '5ywe also call it baybottom chert

 

[newnan man]

Great post! That stuff forms between layers/voids in limerock forming "plates". These pieces were all found on Paleo-Early Archaic site and all have been "checked" for use as you can see the knock offs. Here, it's ancient reef at the surface. We call it Ledge Flint, though it is chalcedony, cryptocrystalline quartz. Here it also has a lot of reef fossils in it and some of it '5ywe also call it baybottom chertView attachment 1732239View attachment 1732240View attachment 1732241View attachment 1732242View attachment 1732243View attachment 1732245

I've seen some awesome Florida points made from Baybottom chert. I have some in my yard from a construction site in Pasco County. I could never be sure if it was broken by early man or by equipment. It all has a aged look so I thought maybe Florida NA's were whacking it.