My post is in response to Igotideas' post of 4/21/2016. Some years ago I posted a pic of an item that I was convinced was an artifact for two very good reasons. #1 - I found the item in the area where I have recovered numerous points and the area is littered with lithic material. #2 - the item fit my hand perfectly. As you can see from the following:
If you'll look at the 3rd and 4th pics you'll see what appears to be a notch at the end that looks like a wear spot. Since this fit my hand so well I deduced that this was used as some sort of hammer or chipper stone. However, I posted this find on this website and ask for opinions and boy did I get them. Was I ever disappointed because everyone, without exception, told me it was a "River Rock." Now I have been searching for and collecting prehistoric artifacts for nearly 15 years but I couldn't take "sometimes it's just a ROCK" as an opinion. So I took it to a state archaeologist who turned it over in his hand, held it just like in pic #4 and says to me "Hey - That's a real nice River Rock." Well that took me quite by surprise so I showed him the notch in the end and he says "Yea I saw that but there's no way we can say that was manmade. While it is remotely possible that someone in the past used this rock to hammer or chip, there is absolutely no way we can prove that." So, disappointed as I was, I bowed to superior expertise and professionalism, not just in the state archaeologist but in the members of this site that had offered me their opinions when I asked for it. I still have that "rock" in my collection to remind me to be humble because there's always someone out there that knows a lot more than I do and in this case " a lot more someones."
If you'll look at the 3rd and 4th pics you'll see what appears to be a notch at the end that looks like a wear spot. Since this fit my hand so well I deduced that this was used as some sort of hammer or chipper stone. However, I posted this find on this website and ask for opinions and boy did I get them. Was I ever disappointed because everyone, without exception, told me it was a "River Rock." Now I have been searching for and collecting prehistoric artifacts for nearly 15 years but I couldn't take "sometimes it's just a ROCK" as an opinion. So I took it to a state archaeologist who turned it over in his hand, held it just like in pic #4 and says to me "Hey - That's a real nice River Rock." Well that took me quite by surprise so I showed him the notch in the end and he says "Yea I saw that but there's no way we can say that was manmade. While it is remotely possible that someone in the past used this rock to hammer or chip, there is absolutely no way we can prove that." So, disappointed as I was, I bowed to superior expertise and professionalism, not just in the state archaeologist but in the members of this site that had offered me their opinions when I asked for it. I still have that "rock" in my collection to remind me to be humble because there's always someone out there that knows a lot more than I do and in this case " a lot more someones."
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