Help Reading Lithic Impact

[Mud Hawk]

Hey Guys/Gals,

This is what I would guess is either a flake core or core/hammer combo. The pictures are set up (1-6) to easily refer to a picture and a zone within that picture (a,b,c,d).

I have my guesses where certain flakes have been taken out as well as certain areas that show battering. I would ask the community to help identify:

1) Impact type corresponding to a picture/zone.
2) What they were trying to accomplish that created the impact type.

I figure this might be a good resource for future members and will help clear up a few things for me as well!

Cortex/Bottom


Dorsal


Ventral


Edge 1


Edge 2


Top


Thanks in advance all...

[Mud Hawk]

I am thinking 1 C/D signs of battering and 3 B flake removal with early termination. 1 A bulb of force. Am I correct so far?

[uniface]

Really good pictures, Mud -- better than mine are. But I'm having too much trouble "visualising" it in the round to comment.

What I do see is that it's a piece of tabular chert that's been subjected to a lot of battering (gazillions of step fractures). All other things being equal (and they never are), they would indicate use as a splitting wedge (piece esquilles). If so, both a thinner edge (or edges) and the opposite side (s) would show this unless there were a right-angle opposite edge that was pounded with something like a wooden maul.

Ain't much,but it's all I got

[Mud Hawk]

Thanks Uniface, you gave me more to ponder... I never thought about the possibility of being struck with a softer material. This was by no means a sly "ID" post. I know it has been utilized by Archaic Natives (95% of identifiable/commonly accepted finds are mid to late Archaic).

I will post a youtube video in the next two days for a clear idea of its 3D form. I truely want to learn more about reading impacts in lithic study.

[uniface]

I'm figuring it's obvious that it's on the small side to have been a hammerstone.

Then again, in that era, it could possibly have been a strike-a-light. Broadpoint people made some nice ones. They look like hafted scrapers on broken points but the working edge is blunt and stepped like that from hitting it with a chunk of pyrite to produce sparks.

Or at least that's the sense people have traditionally made of them.

Once you get past boring old points there aren't too many "canned answers."