"...and a Hard Place" Anvil no. 2

[meetmaker]

The old adage "caught between a rock and a hard place" aptly describes a technology of stone tool making. An anvil certainly fills the bill as a " hard place". Anvils have a low profile in collections. Nomadic peoples would use use any stone laying around rather than carry a heavy stone camp to camp. In camp some stones may have lent themselves to specific uses better than others. The Anvil pictured is an unassuming artifact that has a couple interesting features. A surface find in an agricultural setting exposed by construction it is roughly shaped as a three sided pyramid sitting on a slightly convex base. At three pounds ten ounces it likely is not a portable artifact, but just heavy enough to not bounce when in use. It is uniformly stained with iron oxide, a result of being in ground worked by steel plows. There are a few small recent scuffs, nothing old. It must have spent its dirt time just below the plow zone, twelve to fifteen inches deep. The tip of the pyramid would be the work area. The first three photos are of one side, viewed three quarters up and from above. Please notice the battering, that area is not stained rusty. The original color of this granite is very light with small dark inclusions. The battered area is grey, the color of Upper Mercer Chert, molecular sized bits embedded in the surface resisting the staining. The weathering of this stone is obvious. Being that the weathering is uniform I suspect this was smooth, maybe even ground and buffed. The first photo if viewed closely a line can be seen running horizontally close to the base. The last two pics are an attempt to show the difference in texture between the base and the rest of the anvil. There is a distinct line of weathering marking the circumference of the base. It could be said the base is even and smooth where as the sides are very rough from the exposed hornblend inclusions. This boggles the mind. How long did this sit, unattended, how many thousands of years before being plowed under!!?? The erosion on the exposed sides is extreme, more than can be attributed to wind, rain and snow. The dropped foliage of spruce, other conifers, even oak can make an acidic leaf mold. It is postulated that this was gradually buried in just such a mold. Not much to look at, this artifact fits well in a collection as part of the equation of flintknapping.