Main Discussion Area > Cave Men only "Oooga Booga"
Mussel shell bannerstones
JackCrafty:
I'm enjoying this conversation quite a bit!
Asphaltum is variable stuff. I've got four different batches from four different sources (maybe more) and all are very similar when heated but different when cooled. Some is very brittle and some not so much. But none is less brittle than straight pine rosin unless you have a large lump (larger than a prune). The larger lumps will bend slightly before breaking, especially in hot weather. In cold weather, it breaks without bending and is very hard. I think the indigenous people probably mixed the asphaltum with animal fat but I haven't tried that because I don't want to ruin the pieces that I have in case I'm wrong.
I've used asphaltum to haft a few altatl dart points and a knife and it was frustrating trying to get the asphaltum to flow without bubbling. It cools fast and the assembly must be quick. The more you use, the easier it is to apply. It also stains everything and is messy. Again, the native peoples must have mixed it with something or obtained the asphaltum in a gooey state.
When I was a kid, we took a trip to Mexico and I heard rumors of people chewing asphaltum like gum. The roofers down there were always repairing seams and cracks in the roofs with pure asphaltum. I tasted some and it was terrible. But who knows? Maybe the asphaltum was chewed before it was applied in ancient times? Maybe saliva alters the asphaltum and keeps it gooey?
Dalton Knapper:
I'm just asking here because I have no direct experience, but what about when resin is mixed with other ingredients such as deer droppings (thus incorporating the broken down plant fibers) to increase the elasticity? The amalgam is surely more strong with the add-ins than pitch alone? I have no idea how much, but I know a pitch mixture with other materials was used as a binder for mounting points. Perhaps it is a different situation and I am just posing the question since it seems like adding another more flexible material to pure pitch strengthens it.
JackCrafty:
Never had much luck with adding fiber (like droppings) to pitch to make it more flexible. It should work, as any engineering text on using fibers within concrete will tell you, for example. But I just can't tell the different when using the pitch/fiber mixture on points. I have noticed that the fibers will make the pitch a little stiffer (less runny) when working with it in a melted state.
Wrapping + pitch, on the other hand, is a very effective combination and has distinct strength advantages over either pitch or wrapping alone.
swamp monkey:
A couple of weekends ago I visitd with Larry Kinsella. If you are not familiar with him, he has a website called megalithics. There is a lot of good information on there. He does experimental projects in archeology. He indicated you could scratch the black material on the stone bannertones and shell composite bannerstones, to smell the petroleum it was made of.
On a related topic, I have a message to a curator regarding Sizes for the shell disks. I also have asked how do we know the difference between marine and freshwater shells? I am curious how do we know what we know.
swamp monkey:
I found a few more Indian Knoll KY shell weight pix posted by Larry Kinsella on Paleo Planet. He also had image of some of the atlatl antler handles and antler atlatl hooks associated with bannerstones. Six different sets of segmented shell weights were discovered. Five sets were directly associated with an antler hook.
I received some dimensions for some of these segments and have since cut out a pattern and marked up some shells. I will post progress as I have it.
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