Archaeology in the Pecan tree holes, ESA and chopper basics.
Of the artifacts that were picked up during the digging of holes for the pecan trees in the new orchard, the large chunky ones pictured below most likely belong to the Early Stone Age or ESA for short.
The ESA in Southern Africa covers a period of millions of years down to a couple of hundred thousand years.
The earlies and crudest of the tools manufactured during the ESA are called choppers because they were utilised mainly in a chopping action.
They are very simple tools manufactured from bashing a few flakes off one side of a pebble, to produce a sharp edge.
A pebble is used because it is made from fine grained competent rock that has survived an extreme number of beatings and bashes as it has been slowly rounded by being pounded from rock to rock in a river or other moving water.
The unmodified end is smooth and rounded and fits nicely in the palm of the hand (the rough patches on this one is later iron oxide coating that has occured after it was discarded and been buried under the sand for thousand of years).
In this photo can be seen how removing a flake of stone on opposite sides produces a sharp point and edge.
Choppers are not held between the fingers and thumb, but rather in the palm of the hand with the fingers curled round, this is called the power grip because it sacrifices power for dexterity.
This is a far more primitive grip seen utilised by apes and also in humans with impaired coordination or brain function.
I have always found an interesting topic, archaeological work, in fact in my family there is an archaeologist and an anthropologist and they run a marine museum, a relevant topic.thanks @gavvet.
so invermative @gavvet thanks for sharing:)
thanks for information @gavvet ,
great work sir,thank for sharing sir @gavvet
My little one is very interested in archaeology. She enjoyed your post very much, as did I. Thanks for the great explanation.
hello dear is there a way to contact you something about weku im available on steem chat with the same name soufianechakrouf and on discord too!
Knappings are quite common here in NM. While I find them very interesting as well as historical value, they don't command a lot of interest in buying community. I have been very busy in community activities, particularly a play I am directing, so I haven't posted very often. I do have knapped rocks and arrowheads that have been collected over the years from the area. Perhaps I will post them sometime soon
This is brilliant - where in SA are you farming?