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LEXLOTHOR — Obsidian Spearpoints
Published: 2009-01-22 21:14:43 +0000 UTC; Views: 1375; Favourites: 30; Downloads: 26
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If you like this photo you may like others in this gallery: [link]This is yet another artsy thing I do. I have been hand making stone projectile points for over thirty years. This prehistoric art is called "flintkapping" after the English craft of chipping gunflints for flintlock muskets.
As a student of anthroplogy I took a particular interest in Palaeolithic stone tool (lithic) production. Over the years I have made hundreds and hundreds of stone tools. So that future archeologists will not confuse these with Pre-Columbian artifacts I sign and copyright (c) and date every thing I make.
After utilizing mahogany obsidian from Oregon for decades I actually visited Glass Butte in central Oregon a few years ago and brought back hundreds of kilos of the stuff. I actually use some of these volcanic glass blocks in a rockery in my garden!
photo (c) John P. Alexander
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Comments: 25
Hey, there! I have a queston: are you capable to make stone tools like Homo habilis, erectus, neanderthal or paleolithic type? Or you even try it? 
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I thank you for your interest.
I am an anthropologist. I have practiced the art of flintknapping for 35 years. Yes, I can make all of the Palaeolithic stone tool types that you mention.
I take commissions, but such a project could be rather expensive.
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Lovely. Seems to make for a hazardous garden though
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The blocks of obsidian under my Japanese maple are all rounded off and smooth.
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Whew. I wasn't sure if you were *really* discouraging trespassers!
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Very nice assortment of projectile points. How many wounds did u suffer from the shards? I have a few cuts from knapping myself. Also, I wear eye protection. Live and learn.
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I haven't done much flintknapping the past few years. I started doing it in 1975. Actually a smashed fingernail from a hammerstone when I first learned to do it is the worst injury I have sustained in all these years. I have gotten quite proficient in manipulating sharp objects without hurting myself.
I have hundreds of projectile points on hand. Perhaps I should post a few more pictures of my lithic work.
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Yes, I know, I smashed my fingers hammering on cores too! You should add more points (thumbs up)
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I took a lot of shots of various spearpoints at the same time I posted the obsidian points. I never got around to posting them. many of them are white glass points 6-7 inches long.
Very few people on DA have commented on my projectile points. Almost all of them are crafts people of historic reinactors. I looked at your own site. Do you do native reinacting?
My research every year takes me to Ft. Bridger, Wyoming. They have the Mountain Man Redezvous there every year, but I have deliberately avoided Labor Day weekend because there are no accomodations left in Uinta County when thousands of people in buckskins show up. The recreated trading post is open all year at the Ft. Bridger historical site, so I get a hint of what it is all about.
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I started off with a liking for Native American History. Have collected numerous projectile points, stone, bone tools and other implements. I found flint-knapping a challenging ancient art, although suffering wound(s) in the process. I have spoken with other reenactors at the Alafie River Rendezvous in Florida, who attend events in Wyoming, (Ft.Bridger) and like the event. Have thought about visiting myself someday. When I was bitten by the "buckskiner bug," many years ago, I started out as a Mountain Man. I still have the buckskins/ or attire I made. Still fascinated with the history of the Western Fur Trade and the tales of the Western Mountains.
I still dabble in Western Fur Trade crafts and ideas from that time period.
My mainstay now is the Eastern Fur Trade, in the 18th and 19th Century. I have done Some Native American personna, especially like the "Indian-Influenced Woodsman," or "Marginal Man." They were considered "White Indians," who dressed and acted as their Native American Kinsmen. Many people are not aware of these individuals in history. Simon Girty, in the Ohio Country is one such "Marginal Man."
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I have been looking for Eocene aged fossils in the drainage of the Green River in Wyoming for 20 years. This means that I have walked on or set eyes on many places and landmarks that are famous in the history of the mountain men. The original Burnt Fork rendevous site is on the south edge of the Bridger Formation. I see the snow topped Uinta Mountains there every summer.
As an anthropologist I did quite a bit of study on the Paleolithic archeology of North America. Because there are lake bed cherts in the Bridger Formation the local tribes came to the area to collect cherts for flintknapping. The desert is littered with millions if lithic fragments. There are places where one can encounter a core every few yards. I have found one Cody point and a paleo knife. Of course, as a Federal permit-holder I am required to hand these over to the BLM and file a report. I have left in situ thousands of lesser finds.
I have authored several books that include historical accounts of the early contact period in French Canada. Only one has yet been published.
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Simply amazing information. I would really enjoy reading about the encounters with the Native Americans in French Canada. I have several publications reference trade in the Great Lakes region. Here in Florida, many rivers and streams yield evidence of habitation. I have dove the Suwannee River and found many Archaic projectile points, scrapers, drills, bone/animal material and other tools. At some of the sites, ancient Dugong bones have been found. I believe the Ancients were feasting on this creature, along with other animals. It is intriguing to piece together and attempt to unravel what the Ancients were doing in their daily lives. I guess I have a little Anthropologist in me too. It is a shame that exposed artifacts cannot be touched and have to remain in situ. Things have to be done within the context of laws. I'll bet that the Unita Mountains are awesome to view.
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I have written much of a novel about a French witch who escapes the witch hunts in Europe by disappearing into Canada in 1642.
To please my former publisher I cut up the novel into little short stories and parceled them out into four volumes. I intend to put them all back together as a single volume and find a new publisher. There is quite a lot of reference to the fur trade, fishing and native copper on the Great Lakes in the 17th Century.
When I managed the Fossil Mammal collection at the American Museum of Natural History I saw all of the Florida artifacts that the Frick Laboratory had collected incidentally to the fossils from several spring sites in Florida. These included preserved Archaic arrow shafts. BTW: dugongs are a species related to the Florida manatee that are only found in the Indo-Pacific.
I've spent one night in a summer cabin high in the Uintas. Over 20 years I have watched the permanent snow fields on the peaks almost disappear because of several prolonged droughts.
As an anthropologist I endourse the Antiquities Acts that protect archeological materials on Federal lands.
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Intersting info. Fossils are probably the most common in florida. The the deposits contain numerous marine fossils. Dredged areas abound with these fossils. The older/ higher elevations seem to reveal the oldest marine fossils, along with that of extinct mammals. I almost overlooked a large shark tooth, wedged in a fissure in the Suwannee River. Amazing what can be found. The book on the Eastern Fur Trade sounds interesting.
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Dang John P. Alexander guy that's pretty impressive, that's precisely the level an size i wanna get into. You'll have to show me the tricks for the trade. I'm at the arrowhead level right now, check out my gallery. But those are nice.
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You've mastered the craft my friend! One I hope to pick up soon.
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THANX.
I have been doing this since 1975. Its not something that can be learned obernight. Be prepared to bleed. I don't know any flintkapper without scars to show for it.
Judging by your page, I think you may find the subject matter of my new novel interesting:
[link]
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beautiful work i do some obsidian work but the biggest i have managed is arrowheads. i actually have used obsidian blades for skinning and butchering game they work excellent.
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THANX.
I have been flintknapping for 34 years. These pieces were all made in the 80's. I've made PaleoIndian spearpoints out of plate glass that are 10" long. I may post some more point pics in the future.
I looked at your gallery.
I have illustrated a series of historical fantasy novels. One of the background plots is a canoe journey through the Great Lakes by an immortal French witch in the 1640's. Several illustrations related to this will appear in Books II and III. I am an anthropologist, so this is carefully researched.
The illos from the published first volume are in this gallery: [link]
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Hehe... I have an obsidian piece we took from the obsidian quarry in Easter Island. Amazing stone !
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THANX. I have made artifacts out of many forms of obsidian. The most interesting was a block of green obsidian from the Valley of Tenochtetlan in Mexico.
You may find some of my photography to be of interest.
[link]
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