Photo 8
This tool has wear pads where the thumb and index finger came into contact with it. It appears to have been used much like a modern pool cue chalk by inserting a stick or bone and then rotating the tool. The hole is wide on the outside and tapers to a point inside the tool. I wonder if it could have been used to sharpen something like an antler tine.
photo # 8 , I think that it was used to hold the top end of a pump drill stick to keep the stick from burning or cutting into the hand and that is where the extensive wear and the hold being bigger on the surface and smaller as it wore the rock down. I have a similer stone and that is what I use it for.thanks ben
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I've got many of the same type of tools that you picture. You've done a great job of displaying them.
On of my hammers even has markings where the designer marked it for their fingers to be placed.
Oh and a further note...I think I found big foot. LOL (hairy arm in photo)
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I enjoyed your site, especially since I'm from central Ohio and once had a summer cabin on the north bank of Buckeye "Ocean".
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I have come upon several pieces with bore holes such as this one. One I found last weekend has been burned though it doesn't appear to be a pipe,there isn't any holes other than this one in the center of this piece.
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Yes, another fire starter stone.
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This appears to be a spindle rest, or whatever name you use for the rock that sits on top of a wooden shaft and spun with a bow to make a fire.
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I do not believe that it is a spindle rest . It could have been used in an opportunistic way but then again any rock could. I do not believe that the thumb and forefinger are ware marks; it simply would not make any since. How long would you have to hold a thing like this to make ware marks? Do you NOT think that the concave surface would be worn through long long long before any finger marks were warn into it?
think about it.... If a person were using this item as a drill rest spinning a tool to create fire or work other material would not the grinding of the tool destroy the rest long before a finger could even slightly polish the surface of the same material? let alone alter its shape at all.
And if it were a intentionally made tool the concave feature would have been worked into the middle not one corner.
Just my opinion
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