Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Colofornian; blam
No way- that's a deliberate pattern of percussion flaking you see there and is wholly reproduceable by modern flintknappers- but the odds of getting that lucky via Momma Nature are very very slim. If it was ever used there would be obvious and undeniable use wear on the bit end as well, and this one likely has it unless it was a cache item stored for later use that got lost, or had been reserved as "sacrifices" as sometimes happened to tools used by Great lakes indians who thought they could placate lake spirits with gifts.

More modern North American celts / axes are found on the web site below ae made in a combination of ways, most made entirely or finished by a pecking and grinding method as opposed to just being made exclusively via percussion- but it's interesting and informative:

AXE ME NO QUESTIONS

28 posted on 12/17/2004 12:01:20 PM PST by piasa (Attitude Adjustments Offered Here Free of Charge)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies ]


To: piasa

And percussion flaking andesite is not easy as most posters on here seem to think. I could probably bang a similar one out in 30-60 minutes, given the right hammer stone, but most people wouldn't have a clue how to even start.


32 posted on 12/17/2004 12:06:03 PM PST by Betis70 (I'm only Left Wing when I play hockey)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies ]

To: piasa
the odds of getting that lucky via Momma Nature are very very slim.

very, very slim, which is still astronomically higher than the odds of say, the sophistication of my DNA or my eyeball alone, evolving, eh?

43 posted on 12/17/2004 12:32:23 PM PST by Colofornian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies ]

To: piasa
deliberate pattern of percussion flaking

If science can talk about "codes" within parts of our bodies and within nature minus acknowledging a code-maker, then I think we can start talking about a lot of archaelogical discoveries across the board that may appear to have been of human origin, but were simply of natural origin.

Increasing complexity, after all, is the standard earmark of scientific discovery. That is the condeded pattern.

So, mark this equation: Any rudimentary object is the potential ancestor/parent of increasingly complex objects. The totally unsophisticated can morph into the sophisticated, as long as your recipe has "enough" time (whatever that is).

So, 500,000 years for nature to work on an axe head? Oh, a few scratchings are a piece of cake in comparison to the wonder and awe of the worksmanship of our own bodies!

What? You don't believe my description about your unsophisticated, multiple great-grandthing as your original ancestor? All ya need to do is take a leap of faith like most normal scientific evolutionists, preaching at a university pulpit near you!

48 posted on 12/17/2004 12:43:34 PM PST by Colofornian
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson