American Indian Artifact Finds


You will see that these are not all that obvious. It takes a trained eye to recognize if a rock has been worked, or if it is naturally or incidently chipped or shaped.

I am fascinated with the history and the pre-history of the land where I live. When I find just a hint of their workmanship I feel honored.


Agate tool/scraper/piece of something
I found this piece while collecting agates near Lake Superior in the Silver Bay area. It always looked curious to me, yet it sat among my other agates for some time until I started taking a closer look at it. Eventually I posted pics of it on a forum to get other opinions and the overwhelming consensus was that it is an artifact of some kind. Possibly a thumb scraper or maybe more likely a piece of a tool that was broken.



A chip of jasper
I found this piece sitting just inside the drainage pipe at the edge of my yard. The drainage was replaced a couple years ago and the whole area around it had been dug up.
A trained eye can see that much of the surface of this piece has been worked. It is likely a piece of some kind of artifact but unfortunately there is not enough there to guess what it might have been. If only this piece could tell us its story..



Sharp piece
This one was found near the same drainage mentioned above. As the dirt washes away on the slope rocks collect along the edge of the drainage. It is hard to tell from these photos due to the lighting, in hand this piece looks intentionally worked and sharpened. There is a distinct sharp edge with chips along both sides (meaning it is a bifacial piece). It is broken, however. I would guess it may be part of a blade.



Graver
I found this in a local farm field with permission. It is likely a graver which is a simple tool that can be used for cutting or engraving materials.



Utilized flake
I found this piece in a local farm field. It appears to have been used as a scraper. It has some very slight edge retouch and there are many near parallel scratches all radiating away from the sharp edge.




Scraper
I found this piece in a farm field near the cannon river (with permission). It has flaking and edge work consistent with a scraper tool.







Spokeshave
Found in a local farm field with permission. This piece has fine sharpening along an indented surface and could have been used for stripping bark off of a spear shaft.




Uniface scraper






Thank you for looking. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to e-mail me Eric Smestad




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