Knapping slate

[smbore]

over the many years of my wandering I've found a few of these in chipping beds/camps i always figured they were a Platform fer something and i happened to find this blirp i found interesting... pecking and small wear lines ....

[outlaws15]

Is there a chance that that pecking is modern? I'm only saying cause of the lighter color.

[smbore]

its basically sand or dirt in the peck marks.

[outlaws15]

Cool, didn't know that. Thanks

[Mattern]

That is a good question! Though I have seen and found pecked objects as old as Archaic, and the bottom of the peck dimples look fresh. I know it doesn't make sense but it is fact. K

[Hal Gorges]

It looks like an anvil stone to me.👍..I don’t got one 🙁

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Darrel, That's a cool artifact. Perhaps an anvil stone as Hal suggests. Perhaps used like my Bison Hide to support the point being knapped as your first photo suggests. The scratches: Perhaps the edge of the knapped point was abraded on this slab. Abrading has always been an important part of flint-knapping.

[clovisoid]

Interesting piece, how thick is it? That left side and corner look really well formed. Aside from portability and "lap comfort" I imagine an anvil stone would be pretty hefty. If it's thin, it might be too fragile.

The Anasazi & Hohokam used Slate Palettes, and I believe the Fremont Culture had some similar items. Any chance those are broken preforms?

[smbore]

there interesting to me.. it's a fremont piece i think it to brittle to be a preform. i have another one i swear has glyphs on it. i posted it on here n no one could see what i was. if you could see the other pieces my cousin found you'd be a believer it was a tablet. unfortunately she died and I haven't had contact with her husband to get a pic of it.

[smbore]

[clovisoid]

Palettes are typically pretty thin. Preform in the sense that it wasn't finished, but it would already be thinned out.

I see some shapes there, this is my fat finger on an iPhone screen, so not an exact tracing. Paper and charcoal is a good way to get a "rubbing" which shows designs better.

[smbore]

those are parts of what i see. i got ya now on the preform..

[smbore]

[Josie]

That’s interesting. I live on what is called the Carolina Slate Belt. I’ve been collecting slate and placing on the edge of the fields because some pieces seem artifactual. I’ve never thought of an anvil. But that makes sense. I do have two that I believe were used as a hoe and others that look like the edges were worked into something, scraper perhaps. Also, I find slate shaped into a thick triangular shape. Perfectly triangular. Definitely not for a beginner like me to be finding, so I don’t know what they are, if anything. Now I have to go look at my piles on the edges of the fields and think anvil, maybe. 🤔

[Cecilia]

😳🤭

[smbore]

lets see them.

[Cecilia]

O man, o man, I have prolly 1/2 dozen slate “plates”. Some thick, and sure looked worked… I thot when first understood maybe some my rocks artifacts, they could be metates. (Yeah, no tell-tale distinctive dip, and sure don’t live Texas…) But, gonna go gather up…. Yay! Slate, not Quartz!

[smbore]

post em....