Jasper Core/hammer?

[edhepp3]

So I think I found something pretty cool here...
Found this on a cobble bar of a Willamette River tributary, about a mile from confluence, while I was fishing, not really even looking for anything! Please correct me if my terminology is wrong, but I think this is a jasper core from which flakes/blades were removed. It may possibly have also been used as a hammer.




What do you think?
Ed

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Ed, I think I would spend some time there or upstream. That piece looks interesting.

[painshill]

I agree Ed
It looks like a polyhedral blade core that has seen some considerable water-tumbling... and it does look like it was used for some percussion tasks after being used to strike flakes. I have several examples of cores that were subsequently used as tools and also tools that were subsequently used as cores. I like these little demonstrations that nothing was wasted.

[clovisoid]

Very nice piece.  There weren't very many groups making larger polyhedral cores like that in your part of the world, rare find.

[edhepp3]

Thanks for the replies. "Polyhedral core" is definitely helping me find more info in my online searches. This river sees major seasonal variances in flow, with some changes to main channel and a lot of material redistribution in flood years, so it really feels like a needle in a haystack search for anything out there. I did look around a bit after finding this, concentrating on higher areas of inside-bend bars with smaller substrate where current doesn't move things around so much. There is a lot of lithic material, especially this same type of red/yellow jasper. Most of it is well worn from river tumbling, but I found a few pieces that had fairly sharp edges, though nothing especially flake-like. The main river's a real grinder, so maybe I'd be better off exploring some old back channels that see little to no flow. One muddy highbank I poked around in had some nylon rope and a plastic sheet sticking out of it a few feet down form the surface, so I figured that wasn't a place to put much effort!