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Unique Texas Artifact

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  • Unique Texas Artifact

    As some of you know, I also collect meteorites and associated materials, so anything that ticks the artifact box and the meteorite box really does it for me. I said a while ago that I would post some information about meteoritic material being used for artifacts… got distracted… but in the meantime I thought you might like to see this. It’s unique, as far as I know.




    This small scraper is made from a piece of meteoritic impact glass (so, not a meteorite as such) known collectively as “tektites”. They are found in various parts of the world, but this particular material occurs only in Texas in forms known as “bediasites”. You could easily mistake them for small obsidian nodules of the kind known as “Apache tears” if you didn’t have any experience in meteoritics. They were formed during an impact 34.5+/- 0.1 million years ago. Unaltered bediasites have previously been recovered in archaeological contexts, but this is the only known tool knapped from the material.
    I am indebted to Guido von Berg for the following information and also for his kind permission to use the pictures above:
    “Tektites were not often used as a raw material for artifacts due to their limited quantity in comparison to other material. This was the result of the mostly small volumes of tektite glass specimens, which provided only a few opportunities to manufacture usable tools. To aggravate the situation tektites had to lie visible on eroded surfaces in order to make collection possible for early men. The low number of artifacts produced from tektite glass in the numerous inventories of Stone Age culture tools shows that tektite glass was not directly collected to produce tools in particular. Those existing reflect rather odd pieces, being worked incidentally and completing the variety of ancient flint or quartzite raw material.
    A little artifact made of a bediasite tektite was found beneath a rockshelter near Basketmaker at Pecos River in Texas within an assemblage of flint artifacts consisting of typical blades, points and scrapers. The artifacts were found under an eroded breccia in 1963. This accumulation of artifacts indicates a camp of Native Americans that was used for a short time. The artifact of bediasite tektite glass was the only piece of tektite origin. It surely was picked up on a hike and then made to serve as a tool. The 3.2 x 2.4 cm big rounded piece shows a carefully retouched working edge in the form of an end scraper after flaking the pebble edge. Use markings on the working edge also speak of its use in every day life. The surface is slightly weathered and rounded and shows traces of patina similar to the flint tools of this site. The collection of artifacts found at this site belongs to the archaeological period of 1,200 B.C. thus to a very early period of American prehistory. The described piece is the only bediasite tektite known before now that had been made into a tool.”

    [The artifact is in the personal collection of Guido and his brother Dr. Axel von Berg. They reside in Spain]
    I keep six honest serving-men (they taught me all I knew); Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.

  • #2
    Thanks Roger.
    Searching the fields of NW Indiana and SW Michigan

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    • #3
      Very neat and unique artifact, Roger. Thanks for sharing the photo. As you know, I also maintain a meteorite collection. Years ago, I purchased a small specimen of the Bonita Springs meteorite, simply because it had been found in an Indian mound in Florida in 1938, and it enabled me to combine my interests as well.
      Rhode Island

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      • #4
        I know the chances are very low for me to find a cool tool as the one above, but I enjoy familiarizing myself with different types of material ancient peoples may have used. Thank you for the post! Sandy

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