Very Well Worn Uniface Scraper

[OntarioArch]

I hope the significant wear on the business end of this scraper shows up in my amatuer pics! The flake scar ridges are worn way down, way smooth, compared to most of my other Onondaga chert pieces. The flake scars look abnormally shallow!
I am guessing this artifact was a lot longer during its useful days: it's hard to get a good grip on it now, and a good grip must have been essential for the years and years of scraping it must have gone through. The broken face has a nice patina on it - an old, old break I would say.

So, are uniface scrapers like this one generally believed to be Archaic or older?

 

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[tomclark]

Schweeeet.

 

[11KBP]

So, are uniface scrapers like this one generally believed to be Archaic or older?

Uniface scrapers like yours have been used from Paleo to Late Prehistoric times.

 

[uniface]

To clarify a bit, scrapers -- as a too category -- have been used from Paleo on. But not every identifiable group did, and the & places.

Your particular example is what's called a Duckbill scraper. In general, these are Archaic.

FWIW

 

[quito]

Nice one.

Don’t know Why you say well worn?

Looks like nicely resharpened to me. Well used maybe.

 

[11KBP]

To clarify a bit, scrapers -- as a too category -- have been used from Paleo on. But not every identifiable group did, and the & places.

FWIW

True, I can't speak for regions outside of the Great Plains region ...let me restate my comment.

In the region of the Great Plains uniface scrapers like yours have been used from Paleo to Late Prehistoric times.
I know of no identifiable group who did not use them in this region.

 

[arrow86]

Nice find , still looks razor sharp

 

[OntarioArch]

Nice one.

Don’t know Why you say well worn?

Looks like nicely resharpened to me. Well used maybe.

It's just that the flake scars look shallow to me.....and the ridges look rounded over.....maybe I have not seen a REALLY well worn scraper. Yes, the leading edge is still sharp enough to cut.

Anyone got a good pic of significant wear they can post ?

 

[quito]

It's just that the flake scars look shallow to me.....and the ridges look rounded over.....maybe I have not seen a REALLY well worn scraper. Yes, the leading edge is still sharp enough to cut.

Anyone got a good pic of significant wear they can post ?

found this one Monday. It’s a bit worn. Can even see a little of the spur left. Many of these I find have the point on the bit.

 

[welsbury]

It's just that the flake scars look shallow to me.....and the ridges look rounded over.....maybe I have not seen a REALLY well worn scraper. Yes, the leading edge is still sharp enough to cut.

Anyone got a good pic of significant wear they can post ?

This is a little scraper from NGB that shows wear

 

[OntarioArch]

This is a little scraper from NGB that shows wear

I guess it does!

 

[MosesOfTheSouth]

It's just that the flake scars look shallow to me.....and the ridges look rounded over.....maybe I have not seen a REALLY well worn scraper. Yes, the leading edge is still sharp enough to cut.

Anyone got a good pic of significant wear they can post ?

while not a scraper, the working end on this adze shows significant wear to the point the flake scars are totally worn smooth. sorry for the sideways pictures.... if you open the picture then click on it again, it will open in a window right side up.

 

[joshuaream]

Great pictures of a cool artifact!

I am guessing this artifact was a lot longer during its useful days: it's hard to get a good grip on it now, and a good grip must have been essential for the years and years of scraping it must have gone through.

These narrow scrapers are limited in size and width in a couple of ways. If they are too long, the torque from how they are being used will be too much and they can snap (probably gouging whatever you are working on.) If they are too wide, it takes too much force to pull, and you risk snapping them. You can play with those limitations a bit by making them very thick, or with different materials, but usually hide scrapers end up being that size or smaller. (There are many other types of scrapers that can be different sizes.)

For hide prep, these scrapers need to be relatively sharp, when edge rounds over a bit they just don’t work as well. So edge rejuvenation important. (Which means they were likely worked down quickly.)

The other thing is that these scrapers were often hafted, so the handle did the work of holding the bit at the right angle needed. Pinching it with your thumb and fingers wouldn’t work well for a deer or bison sized animal. And those hafts tend to be something where they could swap out these scrapers as needed for replacement and resharpening. You can see some antler short examples, or long examples on google.

 

[chase2]

Here is a well worn example.

 

[quito]

Jeb Taylor found through replication studies that the halfted what we call thumb-scraper only lasted about 30 minutes after being resharpened several times.

If I remember correctly, it was also his opinion that these short ones we find are often just exhausted big ones.

They were often halfted in fashion similar to this elk horn scraper with a metal blade.

 

[gilmerman]

Some great finds by some of our members and an excellent explanation by Mr. joshuaream.

 

[unclemac]

you can see the antler points on that one, i love that

 

[uniface]

Belated typo fix: as a TOOL form. Not a too form. Sorry.

That said, not to pick at this, but I've never seen a Paleo duckbill in a site report, FWIW. Neanderthal (forum handle - forget his real name) has reiterated that point several times in the past, elsewhere, for what That's worth (very knowledgeable guy).

 

[RedRiver]

She's a bute.

 

[MAMucker]

That’s a show piece!