Uniface with use wear?

[Older The Better]

Found this today. The material is amazing, sharp, fine as glass, semi translucent. It is a large flake similar to ones you see edge retouching. I would say this doesn’t look as much retouched as it looks like use wear. Any interpretations are welcome. I might add it’s buried fairly deep 18” up on a bluff under a slight overhang so I don’t think it’s any kind of chatter.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[CreekSide]

Looks like a flake knife late Woodland liked them. I have 100s of them. Nice material

 

[Older The Better]

That’s great, about what I’ve got the site dated to, anywhere from Cuestas hopewell to historic.

 

[antmike915]

Definitely looks like it was utilized, at least once.

 

[Older The Better]

I was wondering, the way the edge looks, if it wasn’t used to shape wood? Seems similar to crushing damage, I don’t think you’d get that cutting meat. I guess it could come from hitting bone.

 

[newnan man]

That is a nice one.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

I was wondering, the way the edge looks, if it wasn’t used to shape wood? Seems similar to crushing damage, I don’t think you’d get that cutting meat. I guess it could come from hitting bone.

I thought it was interesting that “wear” would reflect on BOTH sides of the edge like that. It’s interesting for sure. They must have had a good source of that material nearby.

 

[dognose]

It could be a form of a bladelet. albeit not a shape most commonly found.

There are some sites that have produced many of these bladelets and others produce none.

here is a column focused on the form most commonly found.
Archaeology: Hopewell 'bladelets' multifunctional, from carving tools to souvenirs

Food for thought.

 

[Older The Better]

I had wondered if I could relate it to a hopewell bladelet. I have recovered several pieces of similar form, it’s starting to look like a specific technique… maybe a wider cousin to the bladelet?

 

[MAMucker]

It certainly would make a handy cutter of some sort. Hard to nail it down exactly. But, I say it has bladelet look to it. Maybe snapped in half?

Tesarodoreo makes a good observation about the wear being all on one side though.