How i spent my summer

[tims]

This is my current sorting station for washing and sorting misc. stuff excavated from my yard. It's just the tip of a very weighty iceberg.

Anyway, found several neat fossils and probable artifacts today. Was losing sun so only the first couple of pieces got usable pics.

This piece is thin and relatively light but i'm pretty sure it's fossilized. Maybe avian?

And i'm thinking this could be an axe:

There were several other interesting pieces that i'll photo tomorrow if the sun decides to come out.

[orrum]

That is a preform or some call it a biface. It's a thing that could become a ax, spear, knife or point etc. They just got rid of excess weight.

[Garage Rocker]

'Excavated from my yard'. THAT, I think, is where the wife draws the line.

[Fossilman]

Nice scores for the summer months....

[Deleted]

Sept 22, 2016 8:21:01 GMT -5 Garage Rocker said:

'Excavated from my yard'. THAT, I think, is where the wife draws the line.

You THINK?

[Sabre52]

Dang, you got Texas sizes gophers where you live *L*.....Mel

[tims]

Bah, my phone ate my last 30 or so pictures. Anyway, luckily my excavations have been limited to the perimeter of the property so far.

 

Trying to work this 50' stretch from both ends but it's slow going.

Got pictures of what looks like a little knife and a scraper but they're awful pics, i'll have to wait for some sun and shoot them outdoors. These are pretty bad tablet pics too but I'm itching to get an opinion. This thing doesn't look naturally formed but I am clueless what it would be for:

Any guesses?

[jamesp]

I had a property close to a big river. It had a peninsula running perpendicular to the river with a flat area about one acre.
The only land above the floodplain for 1200 acres. Practiced some archeological digs. Rich in artifacts, sandy soil, easy excavating.

[jamesp]

Looks like a classic quartzite scraper. No doubt about it, Native man made this.

[fernwood]

How large/hard is that last piece?

Have seen similar specimens identified as types of kitchen tools. Used for cutting and grinding within the small pocket. Sort of a cut the herbs/bark and then grind it.

[Erich]

That's a real nice find and I'd be stoked to find something like that. You might have stumbled on an old campsite, probably more artifacts to be found in the area.
And being away from the house prevents ya from working the Honeydew list. :0

[tims]

Sept 25, 2016 10:21:30 GMT -5 fernwood said:

How large/hard is that last piece?

Have seen similar specimens identified as types of kitchen tools. Used for cutting and grinding within the small pocket. Sort of a cut the herbs/bark and then grind it.

It's about 3" long and the pockets are 1/2" - 3/4" diameter ... I'd call the material a bumpy chert and it's quite hard, a nail doesn't seem to scratch it. The pockets are slightly discolored with dark stains. The pockets aren't completely smooth; you can still feel little bumps in the stone.

Sept 25, 2016 12:53:56 GMT -5 Erich said:

That's a real nice find and I'd be stoked to find something like that. You might have stumbled on an old campsite, probably more artifacts to be found in the area.
And being away from the house prevents ya from working the Honeydew list. :0

I know there are more goodies in the area, but it's my back yard so no escape from house work These are out of sunken piles of misc. rock that were collected decades ago and were left by my aging grandparents and subsequent tenants to sink back into the ground. They used to be in neat piles and displayed on wooden tables but the tables have long since disintegrated and now it's a scavenger hunt.

Here's a better shot of the one with divots:

A couple bone pieces:

Leaves:

A fish?

Snail

Thanks for looking.

[tims]

Forgot these baculite segments, they look polished in the centers but I think this is their natural state: