Just Another Wednesday

Chert flakes (mostly)

I'm collecting up some rock samples in the workshop today to send to a friend in the US who is going to shoot lasers or neutrons or something at them.  The neutron bombarded rock releases radioactive emissions which tell you what elements are contained in the stone.  If you can get signatures from rocks at a bunch of known sources then you can potentially match up artifacts found elsewhere with the quarries that they came from.

Port au Port chert core

Other than that, I've got a few reproduction jobs on the go, but they are all gifts, so I can't really talk about those until they are delivered.  I saw a cool piece of modern flintknapped art that someone brought to The Rooms to get more information on, but I don't have permission from the owner to post pictures, so I can't really talk about that yet, either.  It might be a neat story in a few days, if it turns out to be what I think it is.  There was also a pretty stunning discovery in the Province recently, but the Provincial Archaeology Office will be publicising that when all the details are ready to report. So that's something to look forward to, but it doesn't really help make today's post anything other than a list of things that I'm not writing about.

Photo Credits: Tim Rast