Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Two points: Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Two points: Upper Palaeolithic and Mesolithic

    I found an arrowhead a couple of weeks ago....this is as good as I can find and then it is only one or two a year for me. This one is likely late Mesolithic; hence the crude manufacture. I love it when flint is so thin that it is translucent; shows the skill of the knapper. Sorry that the pictures are on their side....not sure why as the originals are upright ?!!

    So unlike you chaps, I do not get to see lots of beautifully bifacial pressure flaked points (I manage one every couple of years) .... But I do stand a reasonable chance of a Palaeolithic point. So the second of my finds in the last few weeks has been what I think is an Upper Palaeolithic (spear) point. After being struck from the core the large flake was subsequently snapped twice (uniformly) from the distal edge, to create the point. Clever people those Neanderthals....they knew their stone
    Last edited by Sunny; 01-05-2017, 05:53 PM. Reason: Move photos

  • #2
    The Neanderthal spear point (approx. 40,000 years old)
    Last edited by Sunny; 01-05-2017, 05:54 PM.

    Comment


    • #3
      Very cool relics!
      Hong Kong, but from Indiana/Florida

      Comment


      • #4
        I don't know about these two.
        Please don't get me wrong because I admit I am no expert.
        The first one seems possible to me. If this is a purposeful reduction flake Click image for larger version

Name:	image_23685_LI.jpg
Views:	50
Size:	234.9 KB
ID:	237180 And this one I see absolutely no human intervention what so ever. Click image for larger version

Name:	image_23689.jpg
Views:	51
Size:	123.5 KB
ID:	237179 I hope that I am wrong Sunny. Maybe you or Roger can help to educate me more on items of this time period.
        Bruce
        In life there are losers and finders. Which one are you?

        Comment


        • #5
          Bruce Sunny is in the UK Points are made much differently there than in North America
          TN formerly CT Visit our store http://stores.arrowheads.com/store.p...m-Trading-Post

          Comment


          • 2ndoldman
            2ndoldman commented
            Editing a comment
            Matt I have seen most of Sunny's posts and I do know where he is located. I have been very impressed by his posts regarding the finding (and piecing back together of) those hand axes.
            In this case though I am having a tough time seeing any human manipulation of those two items.

        • #6
          Hi Sunny. Thank you for showing your finds. I certainly know next to nothing about paleo or meso points from Europe or Great Britain. So my comment should be taken with a "grain of salt" or even less. But I must ask under what conditions did you find those artifacts?

          Comment


          • #7
            Hi Chaps,
            It's good to get everyone thinking and examining these things closely.

            I think it might help with some additional photos and discussion, to add light to my suggestions.

            The brown coloured point is the reduced (snapped off) remains of the distal end of a flake. If I add some photos to help illustrate. In the first photo you can see another large blank at the top, from which a similar point has been removed (snapped off), with the distal end of the flake completely removed. I have positioned the point below it to show where it would have been roughly sat on its own original flake.

            In order to produce the point, the Neanderthal chap first struck off the large diffused flake and then snapped off the distal end - discarding the butt end & bulb. The distal end was then snapped once again down one of its edges, to create the second facet and the sharp point. If you look at my third additional photo below you should be able to see how the two snapping actions created the resultant point.

            The photo in the middle illustrates the roughly consistent thickness of these flakes; featuring the discarded bulb/butt end and the utilised distal end.

            You have to remember the technology was - for its day - the height of excellence in producing projectile points.
            The thin end of the distal flake would have been seated into the shaft of the spear as the 'tang'.

            I hope that explains my thinking

            Comment


            • #8
              Here are some more pictures of the same point alongside another blade, that was not quite as large as the one used to create the point, but you can see here the ventral and dorsal faces of the two pieces and how each relate to the other.

              The bigger flake in the picture has been reduced (its distal tip has also been removed), leaving behind the butt end; which I think has then been further modified to create a side cutting point. To do this the bulb itself has been snapped off and the distal stub has been pecked to create a small spike; best seen in the second photo on the upper edge.

              These photos also show where the spear point was created from.

              Comment


              • #9
                Originally posted by 2ndoldman View Post
                I don't know about these two.
                Please don't get me wrong because I admit I am no expert.
                The first one seems possible to me. If this is a purposeful reduction flake Click image for larger version

Name:	image_23685_LI.jpg
Views:	50
Size:	234.9 KB
ID:	237180 And this one I see absolutely no human intervention what so ever. []{"data-align":"none","data-size":"full","data-attachmentid":237179}[/ATTACH] I hope that I am wrong Sunny. Maybe you or Roger can help to educate me more on items of this time period.
                Hi 2ndoldman
                Hopefully the additional photos in my posts above will have covered the brown coloured flint point; which I think is a technology called Châtelperronian which was common in France around 40 thousand years ago; but is rare in Britain as for most the period were covered in ice.

                The much younger grey flint point (which may be late Mesolithic/early Neolithic) has very fine retouch down both sides of the point and some around the notch (which you have circled). At the time this was made they had not yet developed/adopted intrusive pressure flake techniques. Retouch was confined to the very edges.

                The tip of the point is gone; one might imagine through being fired. The soil this came from is a slope that is sandy and is being ploughed for the first time; having historically been kept as pasture. For that reason I don't see any plough damage :0)

                Comment

                Working...
                X