Post Category : Glossary Special Finds
Stone Drill
By Reid Graham on May 11, 2016
This week, we showcase a stone drill. That’s right, you guessed it, this type of stone tool is used to drill holes in things. Like knives and projectile points, drills are worked on both sides to create sharp edges and a narrow tip. Unlike other stone tools however, drills are very narrow and thick, and often are diamond shaped in cross-section. This design makes the drill stronger, and less likely to break. In Alberta, stone drills are often either long and straight, with a bulb or a “T” shaped base. More often than not, you find the broken end of drills, because they snapped off while in use. The stone drill bit would be attached to a long wood handle using sinew, rawhide, and pitch, and then spun to create the circular motion for drilling. This could be either done by hand, or using a small bow and string to spin the drill.
We found this stone drill while working for Sundre Forest Products in 2012, in the Foothills west of Red Deer. The artifact is made from a brownish-gray chalcedony, and also shows evidence that it was heat treated. The drill has small “potlid” fractures, where irregular pieces of the stone popped off. This type of break happens when a stone is quickly heated and cooled.
Related Posts
By Fallon Hardie
February 3, 2023
Lanceolate Bifaces of The Interior Plateau, BC
Spear Points in the Forest In the summer of 2022, archaeologists Braedy Chapman and Fallon Hardie conducted archaeological impact assessments (AIA’s) on emergency wildfire rehabilitation developments. These developments were constructed to manage the spread and impact of wildfire throughout the Interior Plateau of British Columbia. Long stretches of forest have been scraped or bladed to
Keep Reading
By Angela Younie
April 21, 2022
Glossary Series – Beaver River Sandstone
Beaver River Sandstone is a stone used for flintknapping that was found in two major quarries near Fort McKay in northern Alberta. It can appear in all shades of grey and brownish grey, with small embedded crystals of medium to dark grey quartz (called “inclusions”). Depending on where it was quarried, it can range from
Keep Reading
By Alyssa Hamza
February 7, 2022
Glossary Series – Fire Cracked Rock
Fire Cracked, or Broken, Rock (FCR or FBR) is a type of artifact found at many archaeological sites in Alberta. It is created by heat cycling a stone (eg. heating it up and then cooling it off). If the stone is cooled very quickly, it can fracture, or even explode! Repeatedly heat cycling a rock
Keep Reading