Drill functions?

[wiseshanks]

Lately I've seen a lot of posts on drills. They got me thinking about the function of a drill. Many drills were made from "scratch." i.e. For the sole purpose of being a drill. My question however deals with drills made from a pre-existing point type (Ex. Darl drills, Dalton drills, etc.). A lot of "drills" I have examined are beveled and sharpened and resharpened. This is where I have come to make the assertion that too many examples of drills are nothing but sharpened down points. Excluding examples of edge wear on a drill, what makes a drill a drill? Is it possible that many "drills" were still used as projectiles?

[Mojave]

Damaged projectiles were frequently reowrked into other tools like scrapers, perforators, drills, etc. Beveling is evidence of blade rejuvenation.
I suppose some points we call drills were used as projectiles. I dunno.

[blueovalfever]

well as a bow hunter....the purpose of the point is to inflict as much damage as posible....archery depends on blood loss and organ damage..... a drill would poke holes but not do as much damage as a point would.....

[wiseshanks]

I wonder where they drew the line then whether a point was too spent to use as a projectile? When we see holes they drilled in objects, say a pendant of some sort, I wonder how long it took?

[drdave514]

They probably hafted it onto a shaft and then spun it with the palms of their hands, like starting a fire, and I bet it didn't take long at all to drill a hole in something.

[Mojave]

I think it depends a lot on how much lithic material they had available. If they were far from a good source they used objects longer than if they were right on top of a quarry.

[arrow719]

I believe most drills started their lives being points and knives.

[wiseshanks]

What if they came across a material that was harder than the material the drill was made of? Remember the good ole' Mohs hardness scale we all learned in science class? I guess what I need to do is try to knap a crude drill and test it out on various materials. It'd be a good write up. I know this is unrelated to Native American technology, but something that comes to mind on this topic is the site of Puma Punku in Bolivia. The megalithic structures there were made of granite and diorite. The only material harder is diamond. It blows my mind every time I read about it. That being said, I just don't know how well flint/chert drills would have held up against slate and fine grained materials which make up some artifacts. I guess the one thing we never seem to grasp is the fact that the time scale of the ancients was different than ours. They had a lot of time to work on something that we find mundane today.

[arrow719]

I have a pendant made of quartz. I always wondered how they drilled the hole because the material of the pendant was surely harder than the drill. Maybe they pecked it from both sides to get it roughed in then used the drill to finish the whole.

[NeoGeo]

I have been waiting for this topic to come up.I don't have alot to offer,but I am eager to hear what every one thinks.