Yesterday's Flake Knives and Hammerstones

[smokeythecat]

These were from the same area I got the big point. Hammerstones are hard to find. I found three. They are about the size of golf balls. The one on the left is a hard limestone, the two on the right quartzite.

The flake blades are nice. These haven't been washed yet. They were used by various groups as basically "razor knives".

More to come...

 

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[Huzzah!]

Great Hammerstones! Any chance you could get up a few more pics of them? I always find myself looking at hammerstones on here...

 

[smokeythecat]

Thank you. I saw two more broken ones but left them. Here you go.

 

[Huzzah!]

Very cool--THANKS SMOKEY!

 

[MAMucker]

Nice!

 

[smokeythecat]

Wait till you see the rest. I'm going have to buy tires for the truck soon!

 

[Tdog]

View attachment 1738799

Don't mistake this one for a biscuit! Good finds Cat.

 

[smokeythecat]

Tdog, sitting together, they look EXACTLY like biscuits! I had thought of that earlier today. Check out these two pics. The limestone one, notice the sheen? That's not oil. That's from where the original owner used it so much he shined it up from finger use! Also note how it had been held to peck with! (Now I want a biscuit )

 

[smokeythecat]

Two more today, but not as nice!

 

[Nedhawks]

Question for anybody that can help. How do you know that you have found a hammer stone? What am I looking for on the rock when I find a nice seeming hand boulder?

 

[MAMucker]

Study these grinding and pecking stones that Smokeythecat submitted in this post. Notice that these excellent examples are well utilized.
- There is visible grip polish where it would be hand-held. These thumb and forefinger patches are a bit shiny and stained.
-Then of course there is the material loss at the flattened, rounded and ground (no staining), rough-up surfaces. These can be battered edges as well.
-The dramatic differences in surface wear and color will be identifiable.

 

[smokeythecat]

As MAMucker said. Of course, where you find them is important. What else is there? Any points? Flakes? Knives? Is there history of natives in the area? But that "pecking", the holes they way the are, and around the edges only, is critical to identification.

 

[Tdog]

Question for anybody that can help. How do you know that you have found a hammer stone? What am I looking for on the rock when I find a nice seeming hand boulder?

We're talking about knapping hammers here too (to avoid confusion) so they're going to be non-hafted and used single-handed to perform lithic reduction in creating a biface or to further refine an existing stone tool. Use wear and battering (or pecking) will be evident. They vary in shape and size but biscuit shaped, barrel shaped and potato shaped are pretty common. Many folks believe that nutting stones are hammers with the divots being an ergonomic feature for gripping. This is a pretty good barrel shaped one of mine made of quartz (up top in pic1).

 

[smokeythecat]

I haven't found any actual barrel shaped ones. I have about 300 items from the three trips. No way to really photograph all of them, it's just not practical. I had to chuckle to myself when I realized that in one little area where the hammerstones were found, a fair amount of the flint HAD ALREADY BEEN HEAT TREATED hundreds if not thousands of years ago, and left! I was wondering why it was so colorful. Duh!