A small turtle back scraper, made out of a chert nodule. I found it on my farm. I noticed it a few days ago and finally picked it up today.

The rounded spot on the right was pecked and then ground out to hold the maker's thumb. There are scratches where a smaller rock was moved back and forth, to deepen the hole and produce some grip on the smooth chert.



The upper right side is steak knife sharp. Flakes were knocked off on both sides and the edge was ground too. The bottom edge had a series of shallow flakes knocked off and then was ground to hold the side of the maker's index finger.

The ident for the index finger is deep enough that the index finger would not touch the item being scraped. The scraper was used enough there is the start of a polished area going down from the sharp edge in what looks like a triangle with a small square on the edge. The polished area looks lighter grey in the picture.



The fairly straight edge on the left, is the steak knife like one.



It may be a small flesher.

Keith

Not exactly right because they were smelting copper around 3500 bp in North America (Lake Superior region) and making projectile points from them.

This small piece of chert is similar to yours Kieth. It's old. I picked it up on some private property in NM known to have been settled before the Apaches showed up. I suspect it was a multi purpose tool. Used to cut meat as well as a fleshing tool. I have been told that often a simple flake was used as a blade but this was deliberately shaped. I think it could also be a preform.

Old Copper Culture artifacts from the Great Lakes were cold hammered to shape. There is no evidence of smelting.

Yes, it's the same basic tool. Once the sharp edge was lost, with a little grinding of the edge or the knapping off a few flakes, the scrapers were sharp and ready to use again.

Keith

Has anyone found any interesting Native American artifacts recently? If so please post them.

I am still unable to walk, so I haven't found much this year.

Keith

I don't know if "smelting" would really be the correct term, If they were merely melting native copper (like nuggets), then that would be understandable. However, if they were smelting ores containing copper compounds like sulfides and oxides, then I would find that truly amazing. The reason gold and to a lesser extent silver was being used in Mesoamerica is because those metals a often found in their native state. The only other metals that are occasionally found that way are the platinum group metals and copper. All other metals require some pretty advance understanding of technology in order to recover from ores.

Very nice collections! Thank you all for sharing.
Here's a piece a friend found on his wife's family farm.