Author Topic: Archy site I've been working on  (Read 14026 times)

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Offline snedeker

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Re: Archy site I've been working on
« Reply #15 on: August 09, 2007, 10:35:50 am »
Some of the tools had preserved residues of pine.  I had been wondering why, and then the idea of hafting hit me again.  I bet they were using pine resin to secure hafting set ups.  So we've got possible evidence of gut haft wrap, pine resin, adn I would imagine they used sinew for some things.

I'm writing the synthesis section now and it helps to gab about it.  My chronological interpretations are going to be challenged by the conservative group.  Classic Kirk projectile points of the eastern US in the Early Archaic period (8,000-6,800 BC) are supposed to have serrations on the edges.  However, my buddy and here note that in nearly 30 years of looking at sites and artifacts in out particular subregion, we have NEVER seen a serrated specimen.  Often, they are on fine quality stone and have been kept used, reused, resharpened, reworked.

This site saw mostly hide scraping activities, and they seen to have used old worn out points and scrapers.  Yoiu wouldn't want a serrated edge for scraping.  All the reworking alters the shape of the point, or instances making the once corner notches look like side notches or even stemmed.

We found that a lot of things called bifaces, that are often though of as preforms for points, were hafted and used as scraping tools too.  Tied on with rat gut. 

Thank you for letting me ramble.

jamie

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Re: Archy site I've been working on
« Reply #16 on: August 09, 2007, 12:07:24 pm »
dave i just got into a heated argument on monday with an archaeologist about some material he had. one guy said they had knives and another said they were preforms. i said who cares and unless you were there to ask the guy who made them what they were for you'll never really know. i have a box of rocks that gets used for anything. ive used hafted points to cut nocks into another arra. to me you truly cant say what something is specifically for because its multi purpose in the woods. i know its nice to catorgorize things in this modern world but i dont think an abo would have. a lot of the preforms found in this area were traded from new york and maine. so having to carry preforms would of been a lot easier than carrying big chunks of rock back to camp when it was 40-100 miles away. then when you got back you made what ya needed. peace

Offline Coo-wah-chobee

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Re: Archy site I've been working on
« Reply #17 on: August 09, 2007, 01:23:18 pm »
  Dave................thx fer goin' forth on this. I have ta agree with Jamie, ya will never really know what they were bein' used fer. I luv the way anthros and arch's insist on their conclusions which in many cases dont make sense.They get grants by sayin" its not a pot (cant say that no $) but a funerary object blah-blah-blah" fer example. Happens here all the time when artifacts are found. Earlier man was not wasteful and didnt live in a "throwaway" soceity as we do. Things as Jamie said had multi purposes I suspect,makes sense and earlier man seems ta be very pratical,  but see this is again a guess since we weren't there. Very interestin, thx again............bob

Offline snedeker

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Re: Archy site I've been working on
« Reply #18 on: August 21, 2007, 10:30:58 am »
the news is in from the raw material sourcing statistical study.  The site stuff most closely matches two sources of chert, one of which is a silicified shale not really knappable.  I figure that means they got the stuff from a source close to that but not the actual one we sampled.  They pretty much sopped using this fine brown chert around 3500 BC, I figure they must have had to dig for it and later attitudes suggested it wasn't worth it.

DBernier

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Re: Archy site I've been working on
« Reply #19 on: August 22, 2007, 04:33:45 pm »
Hey Dave this is great info. Love the pictures. I kinda agree with Jamie in that Good bi faces/preforms are a very usefull way of toting your tools, I have some of my own bi-faces and they are or could be  nice knives as well as great scrapers. I have a couple of artifacts--bi-faces that when repositioned in the hand several times that all of a sudden it fits like a glove and you have a hand ax or scraper. No I haven't tried mine on hide yet but on bows and club handles etc they excel. I think we were smarter back then than maybe we give ourselves credit for. Like this thread.

Dick

Offline Coo-wah-chobee

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Re: Archy site I've been working on
« Reply #20 on: August 22, 2007, 07:07:10 pm »
 Hmmm....I agree Dick. Otherwise we woulnd't be here  ;D..........bob

Offline richpierce

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Re: Archy site I've been working on
« Reply #21 on: August 28, 2007, 04:09:24 pm »
Another possibility for the use of rodent tissues to fasten points is the use of tail tendons.  Anyone who has skinned trapped critters with long tails has seen the long white tendons that run from the root of the tail to the tip.  These are pure collagen and can be pulled with pliers and you have long thin sinew perfect for lashing small projects.  Could very well be gut; I am just mentioning another possibility.  There is a lot more gut than tail sinew.

Offline snedeker

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Re: Archy site I've been working on
« Reply #22 on: September 10, 2007, 10:57:37 pm »
thanksk for that inco pierce.  We may do some experimental work with tail versus gut