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  • Got Soapstone?

    Well this is a post for Red to be able to share his recent find and to look at others. My pieces are from different areas where I live here in N GA. I have quite a few properties I am able to look on and once in a while find a piece of Soapstone so here are mine. Also I found a quartz point today that I put on one piece. That certain piece has a drill hole on it which probably is a repair hole from ancient times. I hope others will jump in on this post and show their finds. Thanks everyone. Click image for larger version

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ID:	335753 This 2nd piece shows some drill holes as well but none go all the way through. I have others but cant find those pics. I have given some away in the past.
    NW Georgia,

  • #2
    A few pieces of my soapstone Click image for larger version

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    South East Ga. Twin City

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    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
      Editing a comment
      Interesting pieces whats the nodules used for?

    • willjo
      willjo commented
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      The four pieces at top of photo was a cache and the three egg shaped pieces have dimples on each side. Don't know what they were and only ones like that I have found.

    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
      Editing a comment
      interesting on the dimple ones. I have dimple stones but they are quartzite and were hammers

  • #3
    SH those are cool I like the drilled hole...showing repair technique? Those pieces look lot more finished than mine...Nice little quartz point ...good find man
    Last edited by redrocks; 12-04-2018, 08:10 AM.
    SW Connecticut

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    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
      Editing a comment
      On the point I found it in the Adena field but that property use to get plowed the farmer has been working that property for 50 yrs.. Looks to be a Morrow Mountain which is much older than the Adenas I find. It was hiding in a patch of scrap cotton I just happened to notice it was a different color of white reached in and pulled it out. Going to let mother nature work on that field for a few months before I go back again. Quite sure I picked them all up for now.

    • redrocks
      redrocks commented
      Editing a comment
      Yw man...good post you started I like it...and some of these brothers got some nice. Examples....hope they keep coming. Man good score on the point...how in the world did you see it in the cotton? Nice

    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
      Editing a comment
      The color was different from the cotton it just looked out of place so I reached and was glad I did

  • #4
    More pics of my only piece Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_20181203_234517.jpg Views:	1 Size:	45.3 KB ID:	335836 Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_20181203_234316.jpg Views:	1 Size:	49.5 KB ID:	335837 Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_20181203_234133.jpg Views:	1 Size:	57.4 KB ID:	335838 Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_20181203_233838.jpg Views:	1 Size:	66.4 KB ID:	335839 Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_20181203_234343.jpg Views:	1 Size:	51.9 KB ID:	335840 Click image for larger version  Name:	IMG_20181203_234455.jpg Views:	2 Size:	53.5 KB ID:	335841
    SW Connecticut

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    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
      Editing a comment
      Very nice doesnt look brittle I have 1 piece that I keep in a frame due to its brittle and softer than normal. Yours looks to have a drilled spot I wonder why they drilled the bowls maybe to release some heat towards the top. I think most of these bowls were kept near a water source due to the weight of them. Probably cleaned the animals by the water then just cooked them in that same area. jmo

    • redrocks
      redrocks commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks man...I got one piece and I love soapstone now.. hahaha. .,I think the hole is natural. .,read what Charlie wrote about inclusions.

  • #5
    Nice piece of a soapstone bowl
    South East Ga. Twin City

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    • redrocks
      redrocks commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks man I just got an appreciation for soapstone and how cool of an artifact it is

  • #6
    The snake gorget with drawing Click image for larger version

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    South East Ga. Twin City

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    • redrocks
      redrocks commented
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      Wow that's a superb artifact...Nice....man that's rare

    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
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      Nice piece Johnny

  • #7
    Atlatl weights from N. California personal finds from private property .

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    • redrocks
      redrocks commented
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      That's cool stuff...post the pics when you can

    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
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      Those are interesting pieces Ive never seen that type of weights before but you have been doing this a long time, thanks for sharing

    • south fork
      south fork commented
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      That type is found in the pacific north west BC but those came from N. California .

  • #8
    My wife and I have been lucky with soapstone. Many pipe forms and blanks. A complete shallow bowl blank, worked into basic shape, pried off a ledge, but never finished. A shallow broken dish with lug, and scores of sherds.

    And this thing. Better then 1/3, but less then 1/2 a bowl, by my rough estimate. I imagine it will always be one of my favorite finds, though she did the finding, I just kept telling her to go back and find more.

    Very hot day in May, bout 25 years ago. No luck in a scorching field, we retired to a beach, which involved a long walk from the car. I sat on a shallow embankment topped with grass, laid back, and that was it for me. I'm done for the day, thank you.

    It was a very low tide, and several dozen people, in family groups and alone, were spread out in the mud flats, clamming while the tide was out. My wife wandered off into the edge of the mud flats and came back with a soapstone piece with the lug end. "What's this?", she asks. "That's a soapstone bowl", I said. "Go find the rest of it". Just like that, as if that was an easy thing to do, and no, don't expect any help from me. I'm done, remember, lol. Shortly after, she brings a second piece, which I promptly snapped into place. "By God, you're getting there!" By the time she brought a third piece over, I finally got up, walked over, just in time to see her find a fourth and fifth piece.

    And that's all she wrote. But, although it had fallen apart, it was plain to see an ancient hearth lay exposed in, and at the edge of the flats. Very cool thing to see. While scores of people clammed around us, we were looking at a place perhaps ancient peoples had enjoyed a clambake centuries earlier. We returned the next day and dug in and around the exposed hearth, but found no further pieces.

    A couple of things to note. Body rot. This is what happens when steatite containing iron impurities resides in a marine environment for centuries. And the blackness of the bottom, and lug. From cooking in a fire I imagine. The larger section consists of three pieces which I glued together, and a piece of the opposite rim. A smaller piece of the bowl bottom also could not be reattached.

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ID:	335958 Lopsided lug:

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    Rhode Island

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    • redrocks
      redrocks commented
      Editing a comment
      Wow Charlie that story bout your wife finding 5 pieces is awesome. ..I guess you guys did real well with soapstone alright! That came out good the way you glued it together. Man that bottom and lug is really blackened ....I can see a lot of lines from the tools used to shape it .. Nice good post and examples Charlie
      Last edited by redrocks; 12-04-2018, 06:09 PM.

    • CMD
      CMD commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks, Red. I still get a kick remembering how blasé I was over what was a pretty exciting, and rare, event. She was finding it only about 20 feet to my right, but I was too beat to get up and help, lol. Yeah, it came out OK, Elmer's glue, still holding after all these years!

    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
      Editing a comment
      Great story Charlie and very nice find to. I like the handle on it.

  • #9
    Here's an outcrop in Rhode Island where you can still see the attached bowl forms:

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    And here's a blank or form of a shallow bowl I found in a field years ago....

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    Rhode Island

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    • redrocks
      redrocks commented
      Editing a comment
      Wow that's a sweet find man...tooling lines and tractor scars. lucky it was that big.....I guess they rough shaped bowls .. somehow disconnected from outcrop...and brought them back to csmp and finished em?

    • CMD
      CMD commented
      Editing a comment
      Yeah, that appears to be exactly what they did. This steatite is fairly good quality. Sometimes it's a mystery why things were not finished. I imagine once shaped on the outcrop, they used wedges/chisels to cut the form from the outcrop.

    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
      Editing a comment
      Ive found pieces of the raw stuff in the fields before but never paid much attention to them but will be looking harder now on after seeing yours.

  • #10
    I was told by a collector from SE Ct., who hunted this farm, that a great many soapstone bowls were found there. This one is made of an extremely high grade of steatite. It has several areas of inscribed lines on the exterior, the zig-zag lines being a classic design element:

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    And here's a little guy, from North Carolina:

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    Rhode Island

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    • CMD
      CMD commented
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      Thanks, Dennis.

    • redrocks
      redrocks commented
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      Thanks charlie...I hope your right about me finding more

    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
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      Nice that would be a sweet find to stumble upon a finished whole piece.

  • #11
    Ear spool on the left is soapstone the incised piece is part of an atlatl weight maybe ? N. California finds from private property.

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    • CMD
      CMD commented
      Editing a comment
      Wow, I like those!

    • SurfaceHunter
      SurfaceHunter commented
      Editing a comment
      Looks like a rattle snake tail? Nice ear spools

  • #12
    Dennis those are mad cool man ....sweet finds thanks for showing them
    SW Connecticut

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    • #13
      A piece of a platter or bowl ? I'm having problems with the uploader I wanted to show the other side with wide deep vertical lines . I just took these photos one uploads the next file to large ? Maybe you guys are lucky lol .

      Comment


      • CMD
        CMD commented
        Editing a comment
        Nice, and what you're describing is an ongoing problem. Many of my older photos, which loaded in the past, are now too large. It is too bad...

    • #14
      That carving is awesome. What a cool piece
      SW Connecticut

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      • #15
        Soapstone beads from the central sierra foothills N. California .

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        • SurfaceHunter
          SurfaceHunter commented
          Editing a comment
          Very nice pieces you have found. So far for me it has just been bowl frags but I will take what is found. Thanks for showing yours.
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