Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Arrowhead hunting in Concord: flakes... maybe a hammer stone... and a plausible blade reconstruction

Chris's posts often make me go out arrowhead hunting, in shame I have not spent more time looking. With the new plowing and rain it definitely was time to go have a look. I found flakes, most of which were not too interesting after I picked them up:
 (quartz)
 (brown slate-like)
(blue argillite)

Chris commented that he had probably picked up and discarded several hammer stones. Here is a pretty good candidate from this same field- where there are no naturally occurring rocks.

If that is a hammer stone, maybe it was attached to a handle.

I went back the next weekend after more rain. Found more flakes:
 (a type of black rhyolite)
[When I picked up this little rock, it was the broken end of a larger piece. It would have been something long and thin. And in this same spot I have picked up other long thin pieces of black rhyolite, that I keep at home. Would there be a match???]

 (another type of black rhyolite)
I am told one kind of black rhyolite comes from Saugus and another from Westwood (it probably is not so simple). But this is clearly different material from the previous.

Here is most of some kind of scraper. Don't know the material but I have one complete Stark point made from it.

And here is a plausible blade reconstruction from when I got home.The tip on the right was sitting in a basket at home.
The flaking, edge work, material, and dimensions all match.

3 comments :

Chris Pittman said...

Those are great finds! I went out last weekend to 4 of my favorite Massachusetts spots and did not find even one single broken piece. The piece that you identify as a scraper certainly looks like a crude Stark point in those two pictures but I assume that in hand it is different.

pwax said...

I believe it is a Stark point - right enough. But it is not for a projectile. Much too thick and not pointed (there is damage to the side of the tip but you can see it was not a sharp tip).

pwax said...

The real treat is to reclaim a "hearbreaker" by putting the pieces back together. It is a treat I get for hunting the same field for na long time.