Red Instead and More

Well, I was thinking about the last two posts.

I mentioned the Yellow Hammer Stone, compared it to that one in Rhinebeck.

And then I saw the photo of a water bottle next to the stone in Rhinebeck - which appears much larger in comparison. And what in my mind is more of an anvil stone - known as a nutting stone or a cup stone:

"Variously known as "cupstones," "anvil stones," "pitted cobbles" and "nutting stones," among other names, these roughly discoidal or amorphous groundstone artifacts are among the most common lithic remains of Native American culture, especially in the Midwest, in Early Archaic contexts. They have received little study, perhaps because edged tools and weapons have more intrinsic interest to collectors, but closer study of them might reveal something of domestic practices and toolmaking technology (Cupstones of Adair County, MO by Adam Brooke Davis. 2002). http://missourifolkloresociety.truman.edu/cupstones.htm

The Yellow Hammer Stone on the Big White Quartz Boulder is similar in size to this Red Handaxe that I found in a pothole of a parking lot in a small floodplain by a brook large enough to supply waterpower to mills to the north and south.

It seems to fit easiest in my left hand...

I noticed that I put my thumb on the depression on the top of the handaxe.

Well, if I turn the stone upside down, I find a comfortable position that way too, and can easily imagine using the stone like hammer to drive stakes perhaps....

And in a comfortable position another way, I can find an abrader edge for some good sized poles perhaps....

Looking for the Red Stone, I came across this little stone that came from under the power lines, where the ATVs are grinding down the earth to levels I soon expect to find dinosaur bones in.

An abrader, I thought when I first saw it...

But there's a depression there too;

Might it be a cap stone on a fire starter too?

And just by coincidence, I had put some incense in a shell and wanted to put it on something fireproof before lighting it...