burnt flint

[Fla.Hillbilly]

Out looking today only found a small piece of pottery. But I did find a chunk of flint that has been fire scorched. I have read yall mention this a few times. Questions is what is the meaning "purpose" with the burnt, charred flint? Is it something I should be keeping my eyes open for?

[willjo]

I find it that has been in a fire, and it heat treats the material and makes it easier to knap and sometimes The heat changes the color of material

[Hal Gorges]

There’s a couple of ways flint gets that burned look..Like Willjo said, heat treatment......Or it was dropped in a campfire, or the results of a forest fire..I don’t think there’s any special significance attached in an artifactual way..But I could be wrong...The only burnt flint I’ve ever found were a few fire cracked/ popped points..

[Fla.Hillbilly]

Ok, It was found at the waters edge at my lake site. I will take a pic tomorrow and post it. See what ya think.

[tomclark]

Wildfire-cracked..

[Hal Gorges]

🤔hmmm..The ole boy lit the prairie to chase the mammoth into the trap..The fire turns, flames roaring, snapping at his butt...He flees dropping his dart...The other hunters laugh..He hangs his head in shame..The mammoth shakes his head and snickers.....Just another day in the life of a Paleo hunter..

Sweet one Tom.

[tomclark]

Up behind/near a mall new port richey also near the confederate salt works. Now total park lands.

[painshill]

Worth pointing out that heat treatment to improve the knappability of lithics is a process that requires control of both time and temperature. Most usually it involved burying the lithics in sand and heating the sand by fire. it's not the case that simply putting lithics into a fire will necessarily give the desired improvement.

Over here, I have hunted on a Neolithic site that has accumulations of 'burnt' flint cobbles, but which are cracked from having been quenched in water. There seems to have been some kind of processing going on... perhaps fat rendering or extraction of pigments and other materials from plants. Up until fireworthy pottery became common, it was usual to heat stones directly in a fire and drop them into water to transfer the heat.

[Fla.Hillbilly]

Ok so here are a few pics of it. It was found within inches of the water. Water level is a bit low right now, But there is a shallow shelf that gets washed at by airboats and waves from the wind coming across this lake. Which artifacts come out of.

[Ron Kelley]

At deer camps and bear camps we always made a firepit with rocks. Occasionally we chose a wrong rock and it would blow apart.

[ApacheNDN]

Too many ways fora artifact to get burned. I wouldn't think there is any significance in what you found. I have dug a few firing pits before. Th pits themselves were about a foot or so deep, the bottom was a layer of charcoal then a deep layer of sand with chert, large pieces ready to be spalled, then another layer of charcoal. That being said I don't think they would've treated such a small flake, and any remains of the treating process would go away during the knapping process. And the primary place I found the features was a quarry site.

[outlaws15]

I have noticed that when I grill I put down tin foil first. I pick up rocks to hold down the four corners and a couple along the sides of the foil.
The rocks turn color. I toss them back down in driveway. Possible that might just be from a more recent time camp fire. Just a thought.