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Finds in Delaware

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snedeker:
We have three features that have contained metates (grinding stones) and two had the mano (the part held in the hands) lying close to the metate.  I hope we can find out what they were eating.    We are going to try out a new analytical technique, starch grain analysis.  Sort of like pollen analysis, base plant starch "grains" are preserved in some cases. Made Long carbohydrate molecules. 

Here's one just as it was found.   Under it was a chipping cluster or something including several hundred flakes of all argillite.  A material only found along the Del River near Trenton in these parts, 80 or so miles to the northeast.

Dave

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richpierce:
I'm guessing mostly maize in that timeframe.  Keep us posted!

Knocker:
Thanks for sharing Dave.  Until tonight, I thought Argillite was only found on the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia.  Is the Trenton Argillite black like the Haida Argillite?  Is it still quarried?  The Haida keep it for their exclusive use here in the Northwest, and they still create incredible art with it.  There is a good Wikipedia site on Haida Argillite if you are not familiar with it.

Keith

snedeker:
THats great, I had never heard of the Haida argillite.   The NJ stuff is a tan/gray color. It doesn't look to me like it is all that great a material, but it was traded far and wide.  I don't know if it is quarried now but I douht it.

Dave

Pat B:
Cool stuff, Dave. Keep it coming! ;)

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