Odd tool

[BoilerMike]

From some angles this almost looks like a point. I believe it is not a point because of how crudely it’s flaked and the odd triangular cross section. But it also looks intentionally worked to this shape, much more so than the other flakes found around it. I don’t know if it could be hafted because of how thick it is at its thickest part. Any idea what its purpose was or whether it was hafted?

I also can’t tell whether it has a broken base that might’ve tapered down more, or whether that’s just the shape of the flake that was somehow modified on the other sides.

Any insights are appreciated, you guys are awesome!

NC Arkansas

[Hal Gorges]

Looks like what I call a saw type tool, and it has two working edges, a coarse one and a finer one.

[antmike915]

Looks like a multi-purpose tool

[willjo]

Nice piece

[Artifascination]

That’s a neat piece for sure!

[UpNorth]

Nice find... unique for sure..👍

[Cecilia]

Hmmm... a bi-blade with each blade bearing own set of different, uniformly sized and shaped teeth.....who’s crude?! Lol; that’s the best part of still being on artifact-honeymoon: 🎵Everthin’s beau—tiful!🎶

[HBird]

An artifact honeymoon? Lol that’s a good one CC I like it

[Narrow Way Knapper]

Looks like it's made from an overshot flake. Classic example, except I've never seen one with serrations like that. Cool find!

[Narrow Way Knapper]

Overshot flakes usually occur by chance for me. So I can assume other people have had similar results. Some people believe that Clovis technology used overshot flakes on purpose. I'm a little sceptical about that, but those boys were in a whole different league from me.

[SDhunter]

Can you explain how an overshot flake occurs?

[Narrow Way Knapper]

Yes, when a heavily ground, isolated platform is in-between two very long parallel flake scars and the surface of the preform is almost perfectly convex. I can expect an overshot flake as a possibility.

[BoilerMike]

Thanks for the comments - very insightful.

So if it’s a saw type tool, then edge is toothy on purpose. That’s interesting. I mistook the coarse teeth as just the byproduct of, for whatever reason, working the sides down to that shape.

In that case, having different tooth counts on each side might explain why it’s it’s got that asymmetrical triangular cross section. It looks like the steep edge better supports longer teeth and is used to make a coarser saw edge with deeper notches. The other side looks like it initially had the same tooth count, because the big notch channels from both sides line up in the middle. But then there was another level of fine flaking that gives it a higher tooth count per inch.

If those assumptions are correct, then I think that makes a lot of sense. Enough that I think this probably isn’t the first time someone thought to do that.

Hal - have you (or anyone else) ever seen a saw type tool that had that triangular cross-section and two different cutting edges like this before?

[Ron Kelley]

Hey Mike, To explain the triangular cross section: It's a unifaced tool. They only worked one face of the flake.
Unifaced tools are some of my favorite ancient artifacts.