Post Category : Glossary

Wedge

By Reid Graham on May 31, 2017

This little guy is a wedge, or sometime as it is sometimes known as its french name, pieces esquilles. These tools are thought to have been used to split organic materials like wood and bone, much like an ancient stone chisel. One of the sharp sides of the wedge would be placed against the material that you wanted to split, and you would hammer the other end with a stone to drive the wedge through it. Since this little tool would literally be caught between a rock and a hard place, using a wedge would often create bipolar flake scars. You will also often see crushing and lots of hinge fractures on the tops and bottoms of these tools, where the edges are being crushed against the hammerstone and the material being split. As a result, wedges often have a short and squat rectangular body shape.

This particular specimen is made from a very coarse grained quartzite. Based on the reddish hue of the stone, it may have even been heat treated to improve the quality of the material. It was found near Wabasca-Desmarais, on a high ridge that overlooked a broad stream valley.

Related Posts

 

By Megan Williams

June 1, 2023

The Quarry of the Ancestors

Alberta Oil sands The Alberta oil sands has seen it’s fair share of media attention over the last few decades! Unfortunately, most of it has not been positive… In this blog, we are going to discuss an amazing archaeological discovery from the Alberta oil sands, and how these findings have shaped our knowledge about prehistory

Keep Reading

By Tim Allan

May 1, 2023

Finding Tertiary hills clinker in alberta

Needle in a haystack Tertiary Hills Clinker is a natural rock that is formed when coal seams burn underground and melt the surrounding sediments. Lightening and forest fires can ignite exposed seams of coal, which burn hot enough to turn clay and sand into a near-glass like material that is suitable to make stone knives,

Keep Reading

By Angela Younie

April 3, 2023

How are archaeological sites buried?

So much dirt! One of the most common questions we are asked is: “how are archaeological sites buried?” and “Where does all the dirt come from?” It doesn’t make sense for layers of dirt to be covering the world deeper and deeper over time, right? Well, that’s because it’s only part of the story. Did

Keep Reading