Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Flintknapping => Topic started by: interloper on November 02, 2011, 10:43:20 am

Title: sa points
Post by: interloper on November 02, 2011, 10:43:20 am

Hey i live in south africa found these points at the beach when a massive dune shifted.They were lying in a hole between sanddunes on what appeared to be ancient forest soil because it was realy dark an littered with dead treestumps.anyway just want some thoughts on the material and style and age. 

Title: Re: sa points
Post by: Tower on November 02, 2011, 12:56:41 pm

South Africa. There's no tellin how old they could be. There's stone tools there over 2 million yrs old in africa. One looks like a quartzite , no tellin from the pics. Could be once in a lifetime find.

Title: Re: sa points
Post by: soy on November 03, 2011, 05:54:56 am

Neat find :o can't wait to hear the what, when, and were on that stuff!!!

Title: Re: sa points
Post by: JW_Halverson on November 03, 2011, 03:07:08 pm

I'd recommend you contact your local archeology people.  Try the nearest university.  There may be a pretty decent site where you picked those up that can add to the store of knowledge of our ancestors. 

You look at these tools and think of how they were used to survive and THRIVE.  Those people at times lived on the ragged edge, probably more often than not were only one bad season away from starvation.  But they brought off the next generation who begat the next generation, and so on.  Suddenly those tools mean a whole lot more than just a neat artifact I can put on a shelf, those tools had a share in building our world as it stands today.   I'm not suggesting we all hold hands and sing "We Are The World" just yet, but think about how we all owe a debt to those unknown ancestors who just busted those rocks with care and concern for his children's best shot at survival. 

Thanks for sharing the pics, they are great!

Title: Re: sa points
Post by: CherokeeKC on November 05, 2011, 11:24:44 pm

Awesome find!  I would love to come across something like that

Title: Re: sa points
Post by: interloper on November 10, 2011, 12:58:21 pm

I took them to the museum in my town and the resident historian said they were middle stone age around 40000 to 70000 years old. :) He said the material is quartzite and the red one is heat treated silcrete.I never thought id ever find something that old and historically signficant,il defnitely be going back to look for more.   

Title: Re: sa points
Post by: JW_Halverson on November 10, 2011, 09:54:07 pm

Amazing, absolutely amazing.  Thank you for sharing with us.

Title: Re: sa points
Post by: Tower on November 10, 2011, 10:05:52 pm

WOW!  That's what I love about this thing we call knapping. At one time it was called survival & before that it was what allowed us to grow from an animal to man. Top of the food chain! Through the WILL & good graces of the Creator above. Truly its the worlds oldest profession.