Shapes

And if it was not for the similarity of shapes ...

A sense of duty

I was just wondering why I keep posting. It must be because of a sense of duty. The duty to share what one finds. Is that what it is ?
For the third time, I cleaned my studio of stones. Too many. Overwhelming. I caught and released them in nature sending them with good wishes. I kept a number of trays, a collection of what I consider the best examples of tools and figure stones.
I became frustrated feeling like I was in kindergarten learning a new language. That somewhere I was missing the ability to understand, that logic and intuition were not enough, that maybe a sense was missing.
For a while, I gave myself the instruction :" No more stones inside the house! Just look !". This lasted for a couple of months.
But now they are back!

Ah! if it was not for those beaks....

It it was not for those faces....

3 of a kind

This is in response to Ken Johnston's latest post  and comment on the rarity of repetitions of shapes in rocks.
http://www.portablerockart.blogspot.com/2013/05/certainly-not-habit-of-nature.html
As I was sorting out  a tray of cherts, those three shapes stood out.

A rugged bunch

How can you explain something you do not understand?  you can't.
These look like nothing much. What? a bunch of chert pieces, nothing more.

(These were mixed with the other stones shown before.)

And yet...among those, I found this beautiful profile...

More on this one and others later.

I suppose (3)

9. I don't have a word for these shapes.

10.One side thinned , smoothed out

11.One side carved out, often at a 90 degrees angle.

12.One side broken

13. Rounded,smoothed

14 .Large- those fit in the palm of my hands/versus the big majority of the rocks fits between 2 or 3 fingers

15. Very small.

I suppose (2)

                                                       4. " Thins" ( my word for them). Thin and flat.

                            

5. Very sharp points.

 

 

6 Notched flakes.

7. Burins.

                                                                        8. Blades.

.

I suppose...

So far I had picked up what as on the surface and just a little under. Two months ago, I dug deeper, 8 to 10" down. To my amazement, I thought I had found, I suppose, a treasure trove of stone tools. Each rock felt in my hands like it had a purpose. The experience felt like as if I had been  locked in the storage room of an orchestra. I had looked at the instruments over and over for a long period of time and knew they were instruments without knowing what purpose they had nor what they could do.
I designed categories of shapes I saw over and over. Nothing scientific by any means. Just observation.
1. Triangles

2. Triangles with a flat base

3 Diamond shaped