A Work in Progress/Attleboro Red

[CMD]

I'm hoping these few photos will suffice to show something most of us either don't collect, or don't find. At least not quite as illustrative as this ovoid pebble. Nice grade of red felsite. Maybe Attleboro Red, I'm not certain. Found today on an otherwise nonproductive, but very enjoyable hunt with a friend. It's a pebble, showing a tiny patch of cortex on top, first photo, then bottom side in the second photo, showing cortex. Long axis profile in photo 3. Look closely in photo 3 to see patch of cortex on top. Photo 4 short axis photo, showing ovoid shape of the pebble. I did not appreciate when found, because, after all, we're out there hunting points. But I think it's a nice example of a work in progress, a stage in the manufacturing of whatever. It broke in manufacture. But it left a good educational piece, a study piece. Which our resident knappers will likely appreciate and understand better then I. I'll say it's Attleboro Red felsite, obtained as a glacial pebble evidently. But posting as an example of a stage. Part of the educational process of artifact recognition. Beginners might not initially recognize something like this, which is nonetheless artifactual. Probably seldom collected, but today it was the only piece found, and hence a I was lucky enough to not toss it, lol.

[Kyflintguy]

Your right a lot of folks wouldn't have even looked twice at that, but it definitely frustrated the h*** out of some Na before he chucked it along with some expletives lol. Just wasn't going to happen. Definitely an artifact with a story though.

[Hoss]

That certainly is a hackley looking hunk or felsite Charlie. They certainty tried to get that reduced. The crudeness of that stuff amazes me.

[CMD]

I had this in mind when I posted this. From the out of print Artifacts of Prehistoric America by Louis Brennan. We struggle mightily at times to explain natural from modified to beginners. But if you line up the stages, from pebble to point, people can begin to see. It would be good to create a photo sequence of pebble to point for novices to see. To understand and recognize true human reduction. That is a beginner's biggest problem. Being able to discern human reduction from natural formation. If any administrator has a better section to put this, feel free. I had decided not to add it to another thread I had going, and put it here under material, when I realized it was more illustrative of "how a rock becomes an artifact".

[CMD]

That certainly is a hackley looking hunk or felsite Charlie. They certainty tried to get that reduced. The crudeness of that stuff amazes me.

Oh, oh. Attleboro Red is getting a bad rap, lol. Well, many nice pieces actually. But you can only expect so much from grainy volcanics. Here's a decent large patinated blade of Attleboro Red. Personally, I love all the felsites from Ma.

[-=METACOM=-]

Nice artifacts, that second one is huge, must have been cool to find. That material looks really tough to work, just a guess... I'd love to find one made of that.