New Archaeological site I'm working on

[snedeker]

well, I got out the report on the other one I had mentioned in the summer.  Now we are writing up a site along the Schuylkill River near Reading PA, they were obtaining and processing quartzite from riverbank cobbles, 24,000 artifacts (ya know, 23,500 waste flakes and 500 other things)  90 spearheads/knives/arrowheads, constant occupation from 10,000 BC - AD 1600.     Most of the shaped formal tools are chert, flint and jasper, while the quartzite occurs a lot as utilized flakes and preforms.  there is one period (Late Archaic) in which they made quite a few of the points out of quartzite) Unfortunately, its all mixed in the same plowzone.

Dave

[D. Tiller]

Hmmm! Think ya can pick up some cobbles in the stream by any chance? 

[snedeker]

I'll see if I can find some next visit.  Its pretty grainy stuff though.

[D. Tiller]

I saw a video on Tallahata Quartzite being knapped on Youtube and it looked like it was prety grainy too but it worked well. See what ya can do with it and let me know since I would like to try a flake or two.

[cowboy]

Interesting! Could ya post some pic's of the artifacts?

[snedeker]

the stuff is in the photog. dept now.  Some pics soon.  The indians know what they were about, didn't they.  Quartzite is a metemorphosed sandstone.  Thre must be traits associated with that were attractive for certain purposes.  Paleoindian sites are often found close to sources of it, yet all the paleo diagnostics (the fluted points) are of fine cryptochrystalline cherts.  They seem to have like Qzite for the flake tools.  Guys around 3000-1000 BC didn;t care and made a lot of points from it.

I wiill be going out there with a qeologist and geomorphologist to check out the setting.  I'll  get some cobbles.  Might be a few weeks.

Dave

[D. Tiller]

No problem! We tend to be a pretty patient group here.  Now if you can put up with us bugging you every ten minutes with questions like "You got the rock yet?" or "Hows it work?" you should be ok! 

David T