The site
I am going to start by stating the two most controversial parts to my findings. This is where I loose the academics. The strata I am finding these tools in is below the glacial debris left from the last glacial maximum and all the tools I find were made by pecking, grinding and chipping. I do not find any evidence of lithic reduction by knapping. All the tools I find look to more Paleoloithic than Neolithic. Not possible? Read on!
I found a campsite. An ancient campsite. A campsite with, what looks like, all the lithic tools that were used in everyday life. The tools I find at this campsite are in pristine shape. They are distributed in organized groups and most show clear evidence of usage.
From the sheer volume, quality and distribution of the tools I find I believe this site was inhabited for a very, very long time and their time at this site ended abruptly.
My analysis of these tools indicates that the people who inhabited this site and made and used these tools were artists and craftsmen. They had incredibly fine motor skills and remarkable visual acuity. They lived in a well established, organized group with a rich symbolic culture and they travelled and or traded over large portions of North America. They were individuals with a sense of pride in what they possessed. Their tools were an important part of their individuality. They had the time and the resources required to not only sustain their life but to thrive in their environment. The material they chose and tools they made clearly show their skill and individuality.
I live in south western Alberta, Canada and due to oil exploration the geology of the area is very well documented.
According to the Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 583,
The Interior Plains are underlain by flat-lying Upper Cretaceous sandstone and shale thousands of metres thick. Its surface morphology is characterized by vast expanses of flat and very gently rolling surfaces cut by melt-water coulees and major river valleys that are 50 to100 m deep (Beaty, 1975).
It is an interesting location being right at the beginning of the interior plains and on the terminal edge of both the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets that formed during the last glacial maximum. My location is circled in blue.
I live next to the Oldman River which is a major river in the area. I find these tools as they are being exposed in the soft, sandy strata that is being slowly eroded away on the coulee banks and the trails that I walk daily with my dogs. Coulees that were created primarily by the melting of the Laurentide ice sheet.
The tools I find have been historically labelled glacial erratics because they do not belong here. The local geology is primarily sand and sandstone.
I found a site where there is an incredible diversity in the geological makeup of each piece of rock I pick up. No two pieces are alike or appear to be from the same parent material. Even though each piece is unique in its geological structure and geographic origin I find repeating groups of similarly sized, shaped and featured rocks. These are repeating, complex, multi angular shapes with the same features and marks in the same areas regardless of the geological material they are made from.
Repeating features like size, shape, striations, concave groves, a well defined balance point and residual material and staining are often repeated very accurately from piece to piece.
I believe this needs repeating…I can show you a site where you will find rocks that were individually selected from every direction and then these “chosen” rocks were dropped off in the same area at the same geologic time organized into groups that repeat in shape, size and complex features.
When I look closely at how these repeating shapes were formed I see classic, lithic tool marks like pecking, flaking by chipping and grinding marks and features like striations, polishing, concave grooves, residual material and staining. These marks and features are often very easy to feel and see. I have critically looked at literally thousands of these cobbles and I have thousands of pictures that, I believe clearly shows what I am seeing. The pictures do not however show the subtle nuances of features like polished areas and balance points that you feel and see when you hold one of these tools in your hand.