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  • ARTifacts

    I call them “ARTifacts because that’s what they are… art.

    I primarily use traditional techniques: knapping, pecking, polishing, etc. Since I believe in being honest, on 4 of these ARTifacts (I won’t say which ones) I admit that a grinder was used to get the rough shape, then I finished the shaping process with pecking/polishing so the end result looks legit.

    I really love making these. In many ways it makes me feel closer to the ancient people who made them so long ago than handling actual artifacts! I think it’s because even though I’m not holding something that someone held so long ago (as you are when holding an actual ancient tool) instead you are actually doing what they did. It’s as if the act is the artifact… not the actual stone.

    I also think it has given me insight into sooooo many things that I would never have had if I hadn’t been going through the process of recreating them. Over the course of many hours of pecking/polishing/knapping thoughts seem to spontaneously appear in my brain and they have an “Ah ha!” quality to them.

    For example I can imagine that, say 6,000 years ago, when someone was walking a trail through the woods they knew they were approaching a settlement not only because they might have smelled smoke for burning wood and cooking food, but they also would have heard the constant “peck, peck, peck…” of people making tools. That pecking sound must have been a staple of indigenous life. It takes so long (maybe 20 hours?) to make even one stone axe and if there were multiple people all making tools at once the sound must have been ubiquitous. It must have been nearly 24/7.

    Now, in modern times, that sound is not a regular part of our regular experience. I’d wager my neighbors probably want to shoot me at this point but whatever. Their dog barks all the time so we’re even. I bet people back then got used to it though. It’s analogous to people who live in the city today that barely hear the cars and sirens (and all too often gunfire) outside. It's becomes background noise to them. Then when these people come to a place like where I live the incessant din of crickets, wood frogs and peepers is maddening to them. I barely notice them at all and when I do it's lovely. I bet indigenous people were able to sleep right through the “peck, peck, peck, scrape, scrape, scrape…”

    It’s also clear to me that, as the saying goes: “It takes a village”. There is no way one or even a few people could make all the axes, chisels, adzes, plummets, pestles, net weights, PPKs, braided rope, woven baskets, fish hooks, spear shafts, cloths, etc etc. Each one is a skill in and of itself and took a lot of practice become expert at. There was certainly division of labor. I wonder how that was decided? Did some people just naturally gravitate towards one skill or was it forced upon them in some way? Family tradition passed down through generations? I bet there were lots of factors.

    Anyway, as usual I could go on-and-on but maybe I’ll do that later in some other post.

    I hope you like looking at these. Any thoughts or criticisms are welcome. Don’t hold back. If something seems off LMK. I want to get these things right.

    PS: All of these or going in an educational display at a local heritage center.
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    Last edited by Atlantic City; 03-18-2023, 07:50 PM.

  • #2
    Fish spear made of deer bone, hook made of antler and a slate spear and ulu
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    • #3
      A frame to help explain the stages of point attrition
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      • #4
        Wampum made from locally found quahog shells. The beads are not finished yet. I made the groove in the slab of stone and use it to make the beads round and of the same diameter.
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        • #5
          A couple knapped points (keokuk.. NOT a local material but oh well), a couple foreshafts (one with home-made pitch pine resin) and a hafted knife to show that not all "arrowheads" were projectile points.
          Attached Files
          Last edited by Atlantic City; 03-18-2023, 06:10 PM.

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          • #6
            Plummets. There is one actual ancient artifact shown here! The plummet in the middle of the first photo and on the left in the second photo is an actual ancient plummet found in Massachusetts.
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            • #7
              Good stuff Atlantic, camp background noise should have been heard for miles
              2ET703 South Central Texas

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              • #8
                Another thing I like about these ARTifacts is that they look and feel like real artifacts did when they were actually used. Take the plummets for example: The real one is pitted and worn from centuries or even millennia under water. The one I made (and I tried to find a piece of granite that was similar in color and composition to the original) looks like the real one did when some Algonquin person first made it and fished with it!

                I should have also mentioned that I rub the ones I made down with tung oil to bring out the color and beauty of the stone. The real plummet looks paler because I obviously wouldn't do that to a genuine artifact. If I did the colors would be nearly identical.
                Last edited by Atlantic City; 03-18-2023, 07:43 PM.

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                • #9
                  You've been a busy bee. 🐝 Nice, informative displays. Those beads look great. How are you drilling the center hole?
                  South Carolina

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                  • Atlantic City
                    Atlantic City commented
                    Editing a comment
                    With great difficulty! I was amazed at how hard Quahog shell is.

                    I first began drilling with a small keokuk drill (pic #1) hafted into a 6-7" wood handle. It didn't work well. Progress was made but it was sloooooow and the shells are so dang hard I had to resharpen the drill often. Not efficient in any way.

                    I tried smashing a quartz cobble and using the sharp, pointy edges but that didn't work well either. As hard as quartz is, the results were too haphazard and the quartz would inevitable shatter.

                    Then I was walking along a local river where actual artifacts have been found (not by me unfortunately) looking for river cobbles to make grooved net weights out of when I kept stumbling across dead horseshoe crabs. I noticed that their tail spines were very sharp and had serrations on them. I immediately thought "I bet native people used these for fish spears!" I mean, why not? They are perfect for the job, abundant in spots around here, and require no alteration. They're just ready to go.

                    I took a few home and hafted them into a bamboo shoot - voila! A razor sharp, hard-as-nails (well, almost) drill. Once the bead is round enough I set in a hole I drilled into a block of wood and get to drilling. In the photo with my son (I still can't get used to his new haircut. It was down to mid-back a week ago) the shell is whole but, again, I don't drill the hole in the bead until it is almost complete.

                    If I were to use a bowto spin the bamboo shaft it would be easier than just spinning it by hand I'm sure and I plan on trying that someday. I bet it would speed-up the process and be easier on the skin of my palms. It usually only takes 2 or 3 horseshoe crab spines to get the hole all the way through the bead but I can easily collect spines by the dozens. I'd say about it takes 15-20 minutes max to complete the hole. With a bow I bet I could reduce that by 1/2. Add a Bannerstone for weight and stability to the bamboo shaft (I have lots of thoughts on banner stones) and I bet I could get through the shell in 5.

                    I wonder how many organic tools such as horseshoe crab spines were used by indigenous people that have simply biodegraded and so we just don't realize how common they were in ancient tool kits? I bet A LOT.

                    Great question. It's figuring out stuff like this that makes "experimental archaeology" so much fun.
                    Last edited by Atlantic City; 03-19-2023, 07:42 AM.

                • #10
                  That's a great collection of ancient art. Thanks for sharing these.
                  Michigan Yooper
                  If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall for Anything

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                  • #11
                    Sorry. The pics ended up in a second post
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                    • #12
                      You can tell my kids have a Jewish Mom. When I showed my plummet to my son he looked over from his video game and said "Cool. A dreidel" and went right back to playing Minecraft. I furrowed my brow and said "Pfft! It's not a dreidel" and walked out of the room. But upon further consideration...

                      Last edited by Atlantic City; 03-19-2023, 06:17 AM.

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                      • Hoss
                        Hoss commented
                        Editing a comment
                        video does not work

                      • Atlantic City
                        Atlantic City commented
                        Editing a comment
                        New link. Should work now. Bare with with me. It's my first ever YouTube video! I'm a luddite.

                    • #13
                      Atlantic congrats on the work you've done, really cool and impressive
                      Location - Eastern Massachu

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                      • Atlantic City
                        Atlantic City commented
                        Editing a comment
                        Thanks, man. Maybe someday we'll run into each other given we are from the same neck of the woods.

                      • awassamog
                        awassamog commented
                        Editing a comment
                        I'd love to, I'll send you a msg

                    • #14
                      I liked reading these your words, I will take some of them with me.
                      Do your neighbors think you're crazy too? lol​
                      In chimalli in macahuitl

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