Hi yall, what did I find?

[Cherthead]

I found a piece of what I thought was granite, in a small food plot on my property. I picked it up because it was out of place. The little plot has a lot of rock that is orange to light yellow, soft and splits like slate. After washing it off, I spent 10 minutes or so trying decide if it was natural. I handed to my wife and she got excited. I've found all kind of artifacts on my property but nothing this big. I think my plow broke the piece off one side as it has no patina.

[Cherthead]

Back side

[willjo]

Looks like some of the rhyolite points i find on the Georgia side of Savannah River. Some of the rhyolite i find is poor quality and the flaking scars have deteriorated off like that piece.

[Cherthead]

Hi willjo, thank you for the reply. I'm 6 miles from Savannah river, (Clark's Hill lake), between Turkey creek and Stevens creek. The pics below are what I thought was rhyolite. This is the kind of rock I find in my plot. I also find bright grey with black lines. The bottom pic is a outcrop of rock on my property, that looks like the same rock as the big artifact above. Its about 50 yards from the food plot and 50 yards uphill from a creek. I'm going to have to breakdown and buy the rock sampler kit thingy from usgs.

[BoilerMike]

Is the one on the right what’s left of a heavily resharpened projectile point? Almost looks like edgework along distal (pointy) end, if that’s what it is. It would certainly do the job if hafted to a shaft.

[SGT.Digger]

That rock looks like it’s been fired/cooked so should be more in the area. Looks sandstone

[willjo]

Here is what i was talking about and they may not even be rhyolite

[Cherthead]

Hi SGT.Digger and thank you for the reply. I have found a lot of points, scrapers etc on my property made from a variety of stone. I cant scratch it with my fingernail and Forum copper wire leaves a streak. Does anyone know what it may have been used for? It seems to big for a spear, its 6" long, and 1/2 pound. I also noticed its biface. I have found lithic material that I need to post in the correct forum for help identifying.

[Cherthead]

Hi willjo, I think I've found a lithic, weathered on the outside like the point on the right, (nice point btw, looks old). Up close, some of it has tiny pores and the edges of broken pieces are scalpel sharp but brittle. I've never found anything made from it. Under that picture is a grey piece of what I think rhyolite is. From what I understand, I think the dark bands are from an ancient volcano in NC. The last pic is a close up of the broken side of the large artifact above.

[Cherthead]

Hi BoilerMike, I couldn't figure out to answer you in the same box. I found that little orange point right next to the piece in picture. I turned up alot of the material in my food plot. There is a lot of chips, flakes and such.
edit to add, the edges are sharp with little to no weathering and doesn't show any signs of use.

[Looks2Much]

I’m sorry, but the big rock is not an artifact. It’s just a rock that’s vaguely reminiscent of a few known point types. But it’s nothing more than that. The other pieces appear to be pieces of debitage to me, one of them might be, as someone else mentioned, a heavily resharpened blade/point.

im not trying to be crass, I’m just calling ‘em like I see ‘em.

[Cherthead]

I’m sorry, but the big rock is not an artifact. It’s just a rock that’s vaguely reminiscent of a few known point types. But it’s nothing more than that. The other pieces appear to be pieces of debitage to me, one of them might be, as someone else mentioned, a heavily resharpened blade/point.

im not trying to be crass, I’m just calling ‘em like I see ‘em.

Hi Looks2Much, I know what are saying and you may be right. I bring home what I believe to be an artifacts all the time. My wife looks them over and gives me a opinion. If it wasn't for her, there wouldn't be any counter or table space left. I thought this one was just an out of place rock until I rinsed it. The stem looks ground or napped, more on the unbroken side. Both sides of the stem slope to the right, one side looks more natural. On the unbroken side, there is defined shoulder on the right. I've found this type of rock on my property but, this is the only piece that comes close to resembling an artifact.
edited to add, the orange banded rock is debitage from the same place the big rock was found. I found the big rock among the debitage of orange banded material, it scattered all over small food plot. The big rock is the only one of this kind of rock I've ever found in this plot, (it stood out of place).

[BoilerMike]

Maybe something picked up, smacked a few times, and abandoned? I suspect there’s a lot of those “abandoned preforms” around where material was collected and knapped, that often go unrecognized because outside their context there’s nothing distinguishing them from a natural rock found somewhere else. Maybe they were never worked enough to become a formal preform? Maybe preform isn’t even quite the term to use for a piece that was abandoned very early, I’m honestly not sure. You might start to feel there’s something interesting about the spot if you start to find a lot of them. For example, I’m suspicious the rock to the left of the point may have been modified to an early preform like something on the right. Maybe after seeing how lopsided it was there was no reason to continue. I’m trying to learn more about knapping but I’m not a knapper, so those with more experience could say whether this theory is baloney or not.

On the piece that might be a point, check out how closely it resembles some on the bottom 2 rows of this link. Maybe a Morrow Mountain? Some of these pics are rough pieces that look less like a point to me than what you found.

https://www.projectilepoints.net/Points/Morrow_Mountain.html

[Looks2Much]

Hi Looks2Much, I know what are saying and you may be right. I bring home what I believe to be an artifacts all the time. My wife looks them over and gives me a opinion. If it wasn't for her, there wouldn't be any counter or table space left. I thought this one was just an out of place rock until I rinsed it. The stem looks ground or napped, more on the unbroken side. Both sides of the stem slope to the right, one side looks more natural. On the unbroken side, there is defined shoulder on the right. I've found this type of rock on my property but, this is the only piece that comes close to resembling an artifact.
edited to add, the orange banded rock is debitage from the same place the big rock was found. I found the big rock among the debitage of orange banded material, it scattered all over small food plot. The big rock is the only one of this kind of rock I've ever found in this plot, (it stood out of place).

Again, I’m not trying to be an ass, I just think a lot of the posts in this thread are giving you a false sense of what’s real. Think about it, could that piece cut or pierce anything? Also that break on one side is much newer than the rest of the surface. My buddy and I call these “fakers” and we marvel at the ability of Mother Nature to create known point shapes. Any time I find something I’m unsure of, I think about it logically as a tool designed to perform a task, a large point is generally thought to be used as a knife and if it would have no chance of cutting something than - the odds
are low that it’s an artifact.

[BoilerMike]

Hey Looks2much - you may very well be right. But if you’ve spent much time on some specific habitation sites, you tend to find a lot of used up tools and things that look hafted and worn out or unfinished, often obvious but not always made out of the highest quality material or workmanship. Part of an assessment is whether an item in question was selected from an area where modification is likely. If you look at cherthead’s only other post on page 2 you can see examples of his other finds from his property, which is located between two creeks. There’s a pretty broad range of technologies, amounts of use, and materials among the definitive artifacts he’s found. It’s clear that he’s on a good spot and has something of an eye for noticing signs of work or when something is atypical for his property. That is the main thing that’s making me not immediately discount the first picture in this thread, though I would probably have left it myself - especially if I randomly saw it outside any association to other artifacts.

I’ve found pieces with obviously worked stems connected to business ends that are more club or hammer-like. Unfinished, or are there a lot of undescribed, expedient tools out there that have so little standardization and collectors’ value that we often just see them as natural noise? When I look at the pegboard in my garage, there are tons of tools with handles, and not all are for cutting or piercing. Some are for filing, brushing, smashing, etc. I even have a handle connected to jaws that lock a pinch of steel wool for abrading. I personally believe it’s true that we don’t recognize most modified pieces, though the tricky part is how we cut through that noise without being overwhelmed by false positives.