Intriguing back yard find

[kurts]

As my home is situated on alluvials, I normally encounter well-worn gravels on the plot, so this caught my attention immediately. At first glance, it appears to be microcrystaline quartz with a mineralized layer on various faces:



However, taking a closer look I found this on one edge (with other edges distinctly cleaner). As this land was previously an orchard, I'm not surprised to see evidence of plows left on stones. But this feature seems to indicate careful and repetitive working of one particular edge. While it's not the obvious tool/artifact, it's still rather intriguing--what do you think? The stone in question measures approx. 6cm x 4cm x 4cm, and fits quite nicely in one's hand.

closeup of the one edge--the rest are very clean with mineralization extending to each junction.


Here is a view of the same edge from the opposite face. I find it interesting at the prevalence of chipping on one side. Does that suggest this stone was repeatedly struck from this direction?

[apollopaul]

i can't help but that is very interesting .--------------paul

[nose2ground]

those definitely look like intentionally chips to me, but I am no expert. What I can't stand about finding such things - never know if they started one and stopped, or was that what they intended and it's use we don't really know? Surely Native Americans experimented, and they had to learn on something.

Of course, what I keep telling my better half is that she found another piece made by Ed - "special ed" that is. Not that this is what you have by any means, and she never finds it to be funny - don't know why.

[arappaho]

Kurts, I have been looking at this thing for a couple of days now
and "intriguing" is a good word for it.
Some of the flaking in Pic 2 looks like it could've been man made
and some of it doesn't. One problem is that something heavy enough to crush that edge could "possibly" have done that.

And what kindof tool would it be? Scrapers are usually worked
from one side only like that, but your reverse side pic doesn't
really show a good worked edge. And it's concave, so it would
be like a spokeshave for smoothing spear or arrow shafts or
something. Or maybe it was used for cutting, like a knife.

And what is the material? You said the material was unusual for
that area. It could've been brought in. In the first pick it looks
like a blocky piece of chert. In the second pic it looks like almost
pure chalcedony? The material is right for use as a scraper or
cutting tool.

Just wanted to share my thoughts on your enigma. Sorry I
couldn't be of more help.
Joe