We had some discussion about “denticulate” tools in these threads:
http://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/general-discussion-gc5/what-did-i-find-gc11/206510-anyone-ever-seen-anything-like-this
http://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/general-discussion-gc5/what-did-i-find-gc11/203837-some-said-bear-effigys-i-think-not-what-are-these-very-rare-indeed
I mentioned on one of those threads that I had a Neolithic African denticulate. It took a little while to find what box I had it stored in, but here it is:
The lithic is the same as in Ron’s and my Neolithic axe examples posted recently… a high quality flint mottled with red and grey non-geologically referred to as silex. It seems to have been a popular choice of material in the Saharan and Subsarahan regions of NW Africa for quality tools. In addition to outcrops in various places it can be found as cobbles on the beaches along the coastline and I believe this item was made by refinement of a slice from bipolar reduction of a cobble rather than from a knapped flake.
It’s pretty much unifacial, with a shallow D-shaped profile in cross section. It also tapers off at the distal end. In both cases, I think that’s the result of heavy polishing:
The proximal end must have been hafted horizontally. Note that the dorsal surface has some shallow grooves running laterally. I’m sure that those are the residual channels of lateral flaking scars which haven’t been fully polished out. They’re not from use-wear as far as I can tell:
These are not common tools and have not reliably been assigned to a function. You couldn’t use this one as a saw with a vertical hafting orientation. There wouldn’t be enough support. You also couldn’t use it as a hand-tool for sawing for the same reasons. The use-wear on the teeth also doesn’t indicate that function unless it was used on something very soft like fruit or vegetable materials. Also, why put the teeth all the way round the perimeter (apart from the base)… even round the distal end?
As I mentioned previously, some people assign these things as “fish scalers” but I’m not aware of any protein-residue analysis to support that. Here’s a modern fish scaler of simple design:
[Fish scaler by “Challenge Plastics” from the “Beyond the Banks” website]
This particular example (not the plastic one!) came from a Neolithic site near the coastal area of the Algeria/Morocco border which might support the fish-related usage and also my belief that it was produced by bipolar reduction of a beach cobble. They have also been found inland… but such sites are often near a lake that has long since disappeared, so that doesn’t negate the fish-scaler hypothesis.
Any other ideas?
http://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/general-discussion-gc5/what-did-i-find-gc11/206510-anyone-ever-seen-anything-like-this
http://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/general-discussion-gc5/what-did-i-find-gc11/203837-some-said-bear-effigys-i-think-not-what-are-these-very-rare-indeed
I mentioned on one of those threads that I had a Neolithic African denticulate. It took a little while to find what box I had it stored in, but here it is:
The lithic is the same as in Ron’s and my Neolithic axe examples posted recently… a high quality flint mottled with red and grey non-geologically referred to as silex. It seems to have been a popular choice of material in the Saharan and Subsarahan regions of NW Africa for quality tools. In addition to outcrops in various places it can be found as cobbles on the beaches along the coastline and I believe this item was made by refinement of a slice from bipolar reduction of a cobble rather than from a knapped flake.
It’s pretty much unifacial, with a shallow D-shaped profile in cross section. It also tapers off at the distal end. In both cases, I think that’s the result of heavy polishing:
The proximal end must have been hafted horizontally. Note that the dorsal surface has some shallow grooves running laterally. I’m sure that those are the residual channels of lateral flaking scars which haven’t been fully polished out. They’re not from use-wear as far as I can tell:
These are not common tools and have not reliably been assigned to a function. You couldn’t use this one as a saw with a vertical hafting orientation. There wouldn’t be enough support. You also couldn’t use it as a hand-tool for sawing for the same reasons. The use-wear on the teeth also doesn’t indicate that function unless it was used on something very soft like fruit or vegetable materials. Also, why put the teeth all the way round the perimeter (apart from the base)… even round the distal end?
As I mentioned previously, some people assign these things as “fish scalers” but I’m not aware of any protein-residue analysis to support that. Here’s a modern fish scaler of simple design:
[Fish scaler by “Challenge Plastics” from the “Beyond the Banks” website]
This particular example (not the plastic one!) came from a Neolithic site near the coastal area of the Algeria/Morocco border which might support the fish-related usage and also my belief that it was produced by bipolar reduction of a beach cobble. They have also been found inland… but such sites are often near a lake that has long since disappeared, so that doesn’t negate the fish-scaler hypothesis.
Any other ideas?
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