Broken knife or pointy rock? Laurens County, SC

[Coy]

Found the bottom and put it in the Maybe Bucket, like a year later found the top. No idea how I managed to match the two, just dumb luck. I was more sure about the bottom before I found the top. Now I'm not so sure it isn't a pointy rock.

Interestingly the pieces weren't found in the same area (you can kinda tell from the patinas).

Thoughts?

[Kentucky point]

From what I see, these are just pointy rocks, but from the other post where I think you found a piece of broken celt, there are artifacts to be had where you are, so keep looking!

[CMD]

Might be a low grade quartzite, but broke in manufacturing, and discarded....

[redrocks]

I call that a clicker. When they click together. ..specially a year apart. artifact or not. . That's cool! Here's my best clicker.... pottery rim sherds found a year apa rt

[Coy]

That's awesome, I'd kill to find something like that. Are you holding out for the rest of it? Haha

[redrocks]

Thanks ...I'm hoping to find more.....but it shows up in the river silt at low tide here and we're frozen.... Keep at it ull find more pottery

[Ron Kelley]

This one is natural. No flintknapping on the rock.

[CMD]

Well, I think the guys saying natural are likely onto something. Still, I’d like to take the opportunity to explain why I thought it might have been broken in manufacture, and discarded.

Basically, I went by your third photo. That was the photo that made me think, hmmm.

And I said hmmm, because I have decades of experience finding partially finished pieces, made out of the crappiest lithics imaginable. In photo 3, the sparkles made me think quartzite, but might also be one of your rhyolites. Or neither.

Anyway, when I saw the third photo, I thought of the first piece seen here. It’s a quartzite artifact, but the maker never finished the job, for whatever reason. Crappy quartzite, though most of us up here like quartzite points. I do. But this might not pass muster for many. It might be left behind as a rock. But, point being, it’s my experience recognizing absolute crap lithics, and the rudimentary work of an unfinished piece, that recognized this was an artifact. Actually, one of the first pieces I found, in 1991, when I stumbled across what was to become my personal “field of dreams”.

The second piece here is also low grade quartzite. It’s a preform stage for a Middle Archaic Neville point. I imagine this too is so poor, and inconclusive to many eyes, that it too might be left behind by many collectors. Just another example of how some pieces are borderline, and fall into the category of being artifactual through experience recognizing such poor lithics, even when little to no real flaking is evident

All this is just to say, when I see a piece like yours, coy, I may linger more than some, and consider it possible, simply because it reminds me of artifacts like the first one pictured below....That said, of course it could be natural.

But, if you compare my first photo below, with your third photo, maybe folks can see why I paused and thought it possible I was seeing a rudimentary piece, poor lithic, discarded. I could have left this all unsaid, it’s only an opinion, and I’m likely the one mistaken, but I thought I would take the opportunity to explain why I initially had a different opinion....

[Coy]

Wow incredible read, much appreciate you sharing your insight. What made me pick it up in the first place is, I've got some really crap examples of what are very clearly arrowheads made from poor material like flint that aged poorly - a lot like you said. They have the same kind of wave/stair-step marks on them as this piece, though they're more obvious because they have stems. I'll keep this fella in the Maybe Bucket... probably JAR but most of what's in the bucket is JAR anyway.

[CMD]

Keep it because it matched, a rare occurrence whether artifactual or not. Don’t confuse my long winded-ness for wisdom, lol. A lot of our agricultural tools where I hunt are made from sandstone, which can’t really be knapped, but they did shape them to some degree nonetheless. But, often borderline, as some of the agricultural and stone quarry tools that William Fowler, the man who pioneered archaeological research here, identified, were judged to be natural in a more recent inventory. So, in other words, tough calls some time. Esp.if it’s materials that are inherently unsuitable for knapping.