What is it.

RGINN

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Oct 16, 2007
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Not another 'think I found an arrowhead' post although I do enjoy those. This is an inherited piece that my grandpa found near Coos Bay, Oregon, and the only artifact he found on that trip. He never offered any opinon on it, which was unusual for him. I always supposed it was a drill, but might be wrong since I'm not familiar with native artifacts in that area. Here's a couple of views if anybody has another idea about it.
 

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I would assume it is a drill as well. Is there any noticeable wear on the edges, or either end, to give clues as to how it was used?
 

A completely used up turkey tail?
 

I agree with Gator. It looks like a resharpened Adena or turkey tail. If you want to hear my far out sight.... It looks like a serpent effigy tool. If it were up to me to give this fine artifact a title, I'd call it a snake head drill. It's one heck of a nice piece!
 

It appears to have been made just this way, and not re-worked. The tip of the larger end is flat, and that looks to have been left that way. Not really a lot of evidence of wear, so it could have been made then lost right away. It's from the northwest so I doubt there's any connection to Missippian culture. As far as being some type of knife, it's a little flimsy for that. It always kept my attention because my grandpa always had an opinion and explanation for every thing he ever found, (and his opinions on artifacts would p*ss you off, or make you laugh, or make you think he could be right) but he never said anything about this one, other than 'I found this in Oregon'.
 

The Fulton Turkey Tail is archaic at its beginnings.. I'm not saying I know what you have but I will say I don't think it's a drill and I do believe it's a knife I also don't believe it started out looking the way it does now.
It's nice whatever you want to call it
 

See if you have a type called Boggy Branch-Type 1 in the area it was found. If it was found in this area that would be it. Its nice
 

that seems to be a Wahmuza variant, an early archaic point very associated with Oregon. 7 to 9,000 year old....
 

Here is the Klickitat aka.. Dagger from Oregon.
Historic.. 300-160 yrs bp

Klickitat.jpg
 

no, those are pretty small most are an inch or less. I have a few myself.
 

I looked up Wahmuza points and it does look like some type of variant. The area fits. Hard for me to say if it's been re-worked, but lookin at it under a lens that could be. I've pretty much ruled out drill and lean towards a type of knife. It's a little flimsy but that serrated edge does say it was used for cutting. I would prefer my knife to be a little thinner along the cutting edge, but if this was re-worked many times it probably was a little thinner originally along the cutting edge. Thanks for the input y'all.
 

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