Crude Lithic Gallery
Flame-Tip Points
These points are pretty crude, the left-most one made of mudstone/argillite, is from Woods Hole Mass., for comparison. The other two are of varieties of schist, found in the context of the old lakeshore. Note similarity with flame-tipped choppers below, from the same context.
Untyped Point
This schist point is pretty crude, but clearly a point. It is the closest to an "official" arrowhead that is not an exotic lithic.
Spear-Thrower Counterweights
These appear to be counterweights, of the style called "bowtie". Top row items of granite/basalt, bottom row has schist and ground slate.
Crude Blades
I never could decide about the leftmost slate one, the granite one was pulled directly out of a pile of similar granite flakes mixed in with the gray clay at a construction site on Rt 2A in Acton. This is a pretty classic example of George Carter's "blade and core" technology, but primitive in a New England sort of way.
Crude Hand Knives
These two views of a ground stone "neolithic" knife, show a very different style of item. From a cornfield in Acton, near the location of the stone animal effigy.
These two items are of granite and schist, from the Elm Brook area near Hanscom field. It is extrememly intriguing that such crude items can be found near each other, with the same pattern of flaking. These kinds of tools are pretty common in our woodlands, but who would notice? Careful study of the flake scars shows that there is a design present. I call them "eggdrop knives".
Crude Hatchets
Left Picture: these are both of schist, the top one looks like a war club head and is from the lakeshore context, the other is from near Ripley school. Right picture: these appear to me to be designed and flaked. The shoulder on the lower one is a common form of hafting for larger items.
Crude Stone Axe
This is included because, although crude, the hinge flaking is clear. Note the broken off tip characteristic of a discarded axehead. Also note the similarity with "exotic" axehead.
Crude Choppers
This large oval chopper is from the lakeshore context, made from a hard fine grained granite. The edge view shows a sinuous edge formed by spaced unifacial flaking.
These granite choppers are very similar and of the same style as the "flame-tipped" points above.
Charm Stones
Top row: small colorful rocks shaped like small pyramids. These look manufactured to me.
Bottom two rows: it seems everytime I see a colorful rock fragment, it is formed as a notched oblong. These feldspar crystals break naturally this way, but the notch is deliberate and these items are common. They may have been decorative.
Tri-Forms
In the lakeshore context it is common to find these "triform" items. Top row: a possible adze, possible chisel. Bottom row: two hammers. These are vaguley celt-like.
Large Side Scraper
From the same place in Acton as the crude blades, this is the same shape as the common side scraper around here, but bigger, made of slate, and so worn out it is almost lost to view.
Oldowan Style
Can somebody tell me who around here would have been making "Oldowan" style pebble choppers? This also is from Acton. Such items are not accepted as artifacts, but are assumed to be natural. In Africa they are assumed to be man made. An amateur observes only that this is a round cobble that has had three flakes removed from one end.
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