Disintegrating rock

[Tam]

To any of the geologist out there I have a question .
A few of our finds are
a.) chert
b. ) on an Early Archaic camp and up...
My question is if Chert being a sediment rock is prized for its strength why do a few of points start to look like they are disintegrating back to soil/ sand .
Looking at it up close it becomes very what I would discribe as porous. I can tell some are heat treated
so would that reverse the original molecular make up and cause this ?

[Hoss]

It may do that because of where the cherts are bedded. For instance Chert can be found in just a nodule and be pretty good grade rock but often chert is bedded in host rock like limestone and sandstone. If the ancient knapper used some lower grade chert that was from a limestone bed I could see the limestone eroding over time perhaps giving an appearance of disintegration. I could be wrong . I am not a Geologist.

[Tam]

That's a good answer , it almost looks like limestone now .
Thank you Hoss 👍

[Tam]

I think that's a great answer because they almost look like limestone now . These are such crude examples but you can see the one my husband affectionately calls his cyote poop point is like limestone .

[Tam]

[tomclark]

On small points, patina can go completely through the material in a "relatively" short time. On very old points made of coral and chert, especially if in wet strata, they can degrade to the point were the work is hard to see, especially on tools. Beach sites here that hold Paleo and Early Archaic often produce chalky, degraded points and tools. Yes, like limerock!