Messed Up An Artifact.

[Ahnlaashock]

I was hunting for decent material, rolled over a chunk, spotted a crack, and knocked a large plate off.  I was standing there hitting it, when it occurred to me what I was seeing, and what I had done. 
I knocked half the face off an ancient core, that has blade scars side by side, over the entire face, that ran some of them more than eight inches, side by side.  I saved the part I had not destroyed, and the work had to be so long ago that the crack had not formed yet, because every scar ran the full width of the face. 
Anyway, four miles from Mastodon park, someone made serious sized blades off this core, and the blades were big enough to have made Clovis style tools, pretty long. 
Someone tell me how bad I messed up?

[Ahnlaashock]

Found in a sassafras grove.  Exactly where I would go if I needed a long straight shaft, capable of flexing without breaking. 
Dr, Morrow says it looks Clovis.  Figures I would finally find something, good, and then I would break it, deliberately, not realizing what I had in my hand. 
I need someone to kick me right about now. 

[JW_Halverson]

At this point, you make a blade from the piece you knocked off, put the rest on the shelf.  Take the piece you make out in the woods near where you found the stone and use it. 

Makes you wonder why someone would knock off a bunch of high quality blanks and then just walk away, leaving the rest of the stone.  My theory is that the person that made the blanks probably knew of dozens of sites where he could pick up material....why tote it around from place to place?  Kinda like us buying one tool from Sears and leaving the rest...you can always go back and buy what you need the next time.

[Adam]

For what it's worth, you were looking for and found materials just the same as someone in ancient times.  I think it's much better that a knapper like you found it rather than have it be lost during a construction project or something like that.

[Mohawk13]

I agree with Adam. What ever you make from this will have a direct connection to the past. Nice find to begin with...

[caveman2533]

They most likely took the best part and left the rest. I have seen core like that of PA jasper. where the  abo guy left nothing but a thin layer of good rock.  I would not lose any sleep over it. It is a core that was out of context and not likely  to be accurately ascribed to any culture period.  Many rocks when hunting flint have abo flakes knocked off of them, While it is neat to find and see and think of the connection, you have not done any great sin.

[Ahnlaashock]

I told Dr. Morrow she could have the core.
The piece that came off basically was so cracked it fell pretty much into pieces.  The top had a skin fracture, so the platforms came off also. 
You know how this stuff is.  It is never the same shape.  I was 5 feet from the road, bucket getting heavy, and I made one last stop, two hours in.  On auto pilot, I found a beautiful artifact, picked it up, and deliberately broke it. 
Was in the sassafras grove, right where I would go if I needed to make a spear.  I wonder if it wasn't left right there to be used as needed. 
I am going to try to collect all the pieces I can.  Don't know if it will help, but it might make me feel a little less stupid right now. 

Now, someone tell me how they did it, please!  How do you drive inch and a half scars 8 inches straight across raw Burlington.  On a straight face, with very little curvature? 

The other thing here too, is that if they walk down the ridge, the creek at the bottom takes them straight back all the way to the Kimmswick dig, about five miles away.  Too far to pack a big chunk I think.  This may have been a regular route also.   If they walk ten feet in any direction, they could pick up another piece, but how many pieces can you drive those kinds of blades off of?  I don't think anything i have found would support that.  Apparently, when they worked it, it was fresh, without all the cracks.   
The crack was not there when they worked it, for sure. 
Anyway, I am rambling!  I still feel like an idiot. 

[TRACY]

Do you think woodland peoples would have left good material lay whether it was previously used by earlier civilizations? I wouldn't beat yourself up about it and get back to knapping

[PrimitiveTim]

Think about the fella who worked with it.  You think he would be upset if you hit a flake off of it.  If anyone finds any of my rock after I'm gone I hope they knap with it.  That's the purpose of rock.  Pieces like that are pretty common.  I found an ancient piece of cooked jasper and made a small point from it. It was probably the most interesting thing I've knapped.  I felt that connection with the past.  Don't feel like an idiot!

[Ahnlaashock]

I wish that was true.  I would feel better. 
Dr. Morrow is coming by, or having someone else come by to look at what is left.  She considered it not to be an every day find. 
I am still waiting for someone to tell me how you drive 8 inch straight blades off a piece of Burlington straighter than those you see off curved cores, with parallel flake scars.  I already know it would take freshly exposed stone, without the cracks that were present in the piece when I found it. 
Even with fresh stone, can any of you drive 8 inch 1.5 inch wide blades with parallel sides in Burlington?  On an almost flat face? 
Someone tell my how you drive 8 inch dead straight blades. 

[JW_Halverson]

Well, start with an unbroken line of master flintknappers passing along lifetimes of experience to their apprentices, generation after generation for thousands of years.  Now arrange to be one of those generations. 

Frankly, I am amazed at the level of workmanship modern knappers have achieved considering how so many techniques had to be rediscovered. 

[Ahnlaashock]

The discussion on Paleoplanet, about the Solutrian issues, has a video linked by a man who makes a very compelling argument that Clovis was an East to West, Northeast to Southwest expansion.  He is hard to argue with, at least for me. 
I there are several papers linked also, where others try to tear his findings apart.  Their words ring entirely hollow.  Even I already know more about knapping than they do.  That is not my point.  My point is that these questions are still not answered, and anything that actually is diagnostic, would seem to still be of importance. 
I found the preform last fall, and started looking.  Then I found this one.  It may sound strange, but I am like a kid in a candy store, or on Christmas morning.  I wish I had found this interest at a much younger age.  I believe I could get lost in the study, and stay there.  Is this stuff addicting? 

[JW_Halverson]

I hear ya, brother.  Youth is wasted on the young!  I look back and realize almost 40 years of my life was spent poorly. 

[Ahnlaashock]

I can't say that.  I had kids from 17 to 50, living at home.  Not wasted, just on another mission. 
I recovered a lot of the face, and a big piece off the top. 
Now I am chomping at the bit to hit some fresh Burlington.  The fresh I thought I had found, seems to be more limestone than chert. 
To the person that asked if I thought the Natives would have left a good chunk, I live in flint knapper paradise.  Every year, when I dig my garden, there is more thrown out.  You would think it grows.  Where this piece was found, if you turn in just about any direction, then walk ten feet, you have a new piece to examine. 

[JW_Halverson]

Every year, when I dig my garden, there is more thrown out.  You would think it grows.  Where this piece was found, if you turn in just about any direction, then walk ten feet, you have a new piece to examine.

   
Have I mentioned I hate you?