A Rare Under Appreciated Tool

[Hal Gorges]

From Hontoon Island Volusa co. Florida..This is a wooden pestle, undoubtedly made from a hardwood, possibly pine..On one of my trips I came across this diver over in De Land on the St. John’s river, well he had this wood piece he told me about, fast forward...It was untreated and turning to dust..This was a case for the cow, no messin around with Duco on this guy...that was forty something years ago and it still looks the same..Other photos are pestles from The court of the pile dwellers, Key Marco Florida, Cushing had the Same drying out problem, Thanks for lookin

[flintguy]

Wow. Now that's a new level of artifact. Amazing. Funny how modern the one looks in the picture that is still in good shape. You wonder how their everyday objects might have appeared if preserve in great shape. The craftsmanship.

[Cecilia]

Duh…. what is “cow” you used to treat wood? Bovine hoof-glue? Geez, it’s good wasn’t me that found, especially 40 yrs ago—- I prob’ly woulda just dunked whole thing in shellac!

I saw a drawing once that illustrated use of big pestle shaped like this suspended from low-hanging, flexible tree branch. Of course, can’t remember now which book, but does that sound at all familiar? I do have this other great book about Key Marco given to me recently that I will pull out, look for this fella Cushing’s account of dealing with wooden artifacts!

(and, I just thot you were a Point Man! …Ha!…but think you not Tree Man, dear Hal, coz must point😜out, our prolific pines are softwood, and that hardwood guy prob’ly some kinda oak. We have “scrub” oaks Georgia can get pretty thick…)

[Hal Gorges]

All Cushing had in the field was a method of slow drying on wet sand, it was a long time before thos pieces wer shipped north, probably Oak , Whatever you say, 😊.

[Cecilia]

Cow is Elmer’s! And Cushing didn’t have any…too bad. (Remember putting Elmer’s on palm, letting dry, peeling off one piece? Could see imprint lines, swirls …. Great Stuff!)

[Artifascination]

I believe that might be a pre baseball bat or captain caveman’s club! Cool piece Hal!

[Hal Gorges]

Ha😄 you might be right Ryan.

[Hoss]

Nice artifact Hal! good on you for saving it and stabilizing the wood.

[paohrocks]

Very cool relic Hal. Glad you were able to save it!

[antmike915]

Something you don't see everyday (or every other day). Excellent post 👌

[Hal Gorges]

Thx.Mike, Them boys in Texas and Louisiana ought to be finding some stuff, storms are moving South West of us this year so far.

[tomf]

Terrific artifact, Hal. Glad you've preserved it. Can you tell us how old it might be?

[tomf]

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/flarch/collections/bullen/

[Hal Gorges]

Hontoon was a Late Mississippian site with an amazing amount of carved objects, birds, animals etc ..Just like Key Marco 250 miles to the south,approximately same time periods , practicing southern death cult rituals.

[gregszybala]

Another cool and different artifact, thanks.

Hal, do you ever sleep?

[Hal Gorges]

Do catnaps count 🙂

[tomclark]

THAT is INCREDIBLE!!!!

[Hal Gorges]

😊

[Darby Dave]

Are you sure those are pestles? I'm sure they would work as pestles but they look exactly like wood carving mallets to me. Do a search for "wood carving mallet" and you'll see what I mean.

Did they happen to find any dugout canoes or wooden sculptures in that area?

[Hal Gorges]

I have no way of knowing exactly what it was used for, seein as how the surface is obliterated and all the clues along with it..I can think of twenty different uses🤔 including building houses and driving pegs, ...Every lake and river in Florida has 🛶’s up the wazoo....Cushing called em Pestles at Key Marco....Canoo making in Florida was primarily accomplished with fire and shell adze’s an all together different setup..Hey, thanks for lookin Dave.

[Lone Star]

That is way cool. Thanks