Cave Bone

[sarahsue]

Found this bone in a cubby hole inside a cave at my farm. Its over 4 inches long. Seems to be polished by use. The gnaw mark seems to be more recent.

[Hoss]

Could have been a handle

[Lindenmeier-Man]

I believe Hoss is correct . Would like to see the alternate ends .

[sarahsue]

Here are the socket ends......

[Lindenmeier-Man]

So old , looks near fossilized. Looks to me like the pic on the right, was the haft end. Might look in the cave hole you found it in , dig in a ways and see if a blade is in deeper. Would be fantastic to have the whole ballgame !

[SDhunter]

Have you found other artifacts in that cave? Looks promising

[Lindenmeier-Man]

The cave sounds like the perfect shelter ! Got to be artifacts...

[Lindenmeier-Man]

SD
The oil boom still going up there ?

[SDhunter]

I think you would absolutely find artifacts in that cave based on your description. You will probably have to dig though.
Minot. Uffda.
The oil boom has significantly decreased with the lower oil prices. They can’t afford to extract that oil unless the prices go back up, which I hope they don’t. We don’t have oil here in SD.

[11KBP]

Very interesting find. From your image the bone's surface appears to have numerous striations running along the length of it.

[sarahsue]

Yeah I don't know what those lines are about, could be natural.

[11KBP]

Yes they could be natural. I sure wouldn't mind seeing a well focused close-up of those lines.

[sarahsue]

Thanks for looking at that bone and your insight guys. I will check that pocket again the next time I am up there, and take a picture or two. I took some pics when I was digging up there the first time, as I had a screen and a bucket. But lost them when my last computer crashed. The problem with the cave is there is a steep bank about 30 feet leading up to it, and there is very little room on the ledge at the opening to dig around. But there is a large flat spot before you head up the bank to it, and I think that might be the spot for artifacts. There are some Hopewell mounds about a mile away. But most artifacts I have seen from caves, and rock shelters, are mostly Archaic. Thanks again for your replies. I am heading down to my cabin farm this week to poke around, that site is full of chert and artifacts. Never found a flint chip in that cave, just that bone, because I remembered someone talking about checking the ledges and pockets inside of caves.