Re-Chipped Jasper Example

[OntarioArch]

Here's a good example of what I believe is a re-chipped jasper point. Too bad; not much jasper in my collection and I do not display this piece.
Note the area inside my drawn circles: the patina is distinctly different inside the flake scars along the edge, compared to the patina more toward the center of the blade. My photos could be better: patina difference quite obvious to naked eye, in natural light.

How could a piece of flint buried in the soil for a few thousand years develop differing patinas in a pattern like this? (hint: it couldn't.)

 

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[sandchip]

I've had finds like this, otherwise perfect points that I am confident had not been touched by modern human hands. As farfetched as it may sound, I think that a harrow disc happened to roll precisely along that part of the blade edge, causing that little stretch of pressure flaking. Odds of hitting the Powerball, but given the right positioning in the soil relative to 50 years of harrowing, it's very possible.

 

[uniface]

Most of the uniface tools from the Adams Site (Christian Co., Ky. -- Little River Paleo complex) show this, which led revisionist archaeological "interpreters" who were not overly famiar with the ideosyncracies knapped chert can display (to say the least) to write them off as legitimate artifacts.

That there was no conceiveable way that later, Archaic people (almost nonexistent at that site) could have dug them up, fiddled with their edges and re-buried them to produce that result does not seem to have bothered them (or even been thought of).

Flaked surfaces vary according to how they were produced (hard hammer, soft hammer, pressure), or can vary.

FWIW

 

[Tdog]

I'm a believer that later cultures found previous culture's tools and "fixed'em" or modified them. Your find may be in this category as the knapping looks intentional to me rather than incidental. I have also found, within 6 feet of each other, the top and bottom of a quartz knife where each piece had patinated so extremely different that it couldn't be recognized as being the same piece except for the "no-brainer" perfect fit. My hunting buddy recognized that as we were looking over our finds near the end of that day. Even when they were in the same elements, they patinated differently.

 

[Tnmountains]

If we find them so long after the fact I am sure they also found them frequently. They were destined to be knappers from birth why not fiddle with a different type when found. Find and repurpose is part of survival .
In my opinion they had to see the cultures buried under their feet.

 

[uniface]

But that's just it, H. They couldn's see what was IN the ground beneath their feet (as opposed to ON it) any more than we can, surface hunting. At Adams, some later people would have had to dig them up to find them to modify. And, like Shoop and other fluted point sites, nobody lived there after them -- the ecosystem changed too much when the holocene kicked in.

Sure, there was later, expedient re-use of older artifacts. But the jasper point, IMHO, shows rough flake surfaces created by forcefully whacking off large flakes, with soft hammer (wooden billet) edge work (silky smooth).

 

[dognose]

Interesting discussion;

When looking at one side verses the other it looks like a different style of random flaking with percussion edge retouching.

 

[Older The Better]

I am clueless as to the nature of your site but I’ll say I took a field class and saw just how rapidly geologic processes can work when the professor pointed out a farming implement eroding out of a cutbank 15’ below the land surface. There’s lots of ways a former land surface can be buried or exposed through time… but like I said you know your site and I don’t maybe you’ve already accounted for this.

As far as re using points from past cultures I definitely believe it too. It makes you wonder how many say Clovis points have been scooped up and Modified beyond recognition… maybe their rarity has a tiny bit to do with them being found for 10,000 years.

 

[OntarioArch]

Thanks for your interest in this piece and thanks for your insight. But I should have added to my OP that this piece came from a collection I acquired: I did not 'find' it. So it was in the hands of another collector for years and years.

 

[OntarioArch]

And I'm not sure this piece's morphology resembles any known Type: maybe a "Wade" ....made in greater southern Ohio.... from PA jasper....... traveled to NY at some time?

 

[OntarioArch]

This piece has been confirmed by Paul Frey to be a 100% modern repro. Its morphology matches no other Types, and metal residue can be seen under a 'scope - along edges and in the notches. It was made with metal tools, likely a nail!

I will use it as a study piece so that I can recognize metal residue in the future.

 

[Tnmountains]

Great work finding out it is a fake. A microscope or even a jewelers loop can tell you a lot sometimes. Glad you solved this post.

 

[H.P.]

points several thousand years old picked up by later Indians were ofttimes reworked..It true..