Bottle neck scraper

[tomf]

Here are a few bits and pieces I recently picked up in the vineyards.

Most interesting (to me) is the neck of a brown glass bottle worked into a scraper.
Also a Mendocino Concave and couple of (more or less) uniface knives , the smaller one is unusual as the unworked side is cortex .

[tomf]

Fire season has started.

Napa, California.

[Josie]

Nice finds Tom. Obsidian is beautiful material. Stay safe from the fires! Looks close in your pic.

[tomf]

Thanks Josie. Not purposely hunting, just stuff I've stumbled across when dog walking in the vineyards.

I forgot to add something for scale to my pics. First of the uniface blades is about 3" (more than twice the size of the other, which is small-ish at 1.25")

That fire is about 3 miles away. Too close, really. Several choppers (including the Chinook) and a fixed wing are fighting it from the air. Wild country back there with no access. Wind is blowing in the right direction, luckily for us. Still I doubt I'll sleep much tonight.

[Josie]

Wow, be careful. Prayers for your safety! That’s so scary.

[Cecilia]

Wow. So that’s what obsidian cortex looks like….

Great contrast: Nature’s Glass/Man’s Glass!

[tomf]

Obsidian rinds have a lot of variety. Some thick and gnarled, others - like this example - are thin and relatively featureless. Also hydration and exposure will build a new rind over time on cleaved surface, though it won't have the same characteristics of the original cooled magma cortex. This is the layer that is measured for hydration dating. Eventually it all turns to perlite, they say.

[Cecilia]

Thank you! Disce aliquid novi quotidie ! (I think that’s Latin for learn something new everyday!)

[SurfaceHunter]

Pretty cool finds Tom. Does California burn year round?

[tomf]

These days, it feels like fire is almost constant. Same land burning over and over. Not something you want to get used to. We prepare for evacuation - box valuables and station the trailer - as soon as the grass turns brown and won't relax till the first winter storm.

[Hal Gorges]

Like the glass scraper, never found any glass...

[tomf]

Glass is about the only thing I find that I can precisely place in time. The cruelest time for indians in California. I think these artifacts are special.

[clovisoid]

That is a cool glass tool, most of the time they are just broken modern bottles but you are in one of the areas where stone technology overlapped with glass waste.

The zigzag line of knapping is cool, they might have been thinking about making a point. (That's bifacial set up for the most part.)

What's the point in the first post? (Glass pictures, and then a little paleo looking obsidian point.)

[tomf]

Thanks for the comment. I have found a few bits of worked historic glass over the years. Always very basic scraping tools, never an point, sadly.
There's only a decade or two that most likely produced these artifacts. Powerful things, I think.

I believe the point is a Mendocino Concave. 5,000 -2,500 B.P.
Middle Archaic, according to ppnet, but I think they actually ran quite a lot later. Late Archaic at least. There are several varieties. This one is wide with shallow base. It's a little over an inch long (forgot to add scale ref).

[Benji]

Nice finds tom....cool bottle scraper too.....the pic of the fire and smoke is awesome.....stay safe

[Missouri Breaks]

Always great to see finds from not too far away as the crow flies. That small blade has that nice sheen cortex. Magical stuff.

[paohrocks]

Nice finds, keep safe

[Havenhunter]

Lived in Northern CA in the 50s and the rainy season was predictable & bountiful. No matter how brown summer was and the heat who fry an egg on the sidewalk, come Oct. or early Nov it would pour!
I almost returned to CA to retire but sure am glad the taxes and real estate prices kept me away! Your fires are absolutely terrifying.

[south fork]

Nice finds I hope the wind keeps blowing the other way so smoky here from all the fires . I have cows goats and sheep grazing all around the house trying to get to dirt out for a couple hundred feet .

[Glacial Pebble]

Nice finds Tom, I hope they can get a handle on those fires out there.