Full grooved axe

[Windustsearch]

Here is a full grooved axe that Prototype Services has;

"My grandfather laid drainage tile in N.Indiana since the '30s and found tons of stuff, literally. He only kept whole objects. His home was in Monticello Indiana, so any finds would be a short distance from there."



These are usually attributed to the mound builder cultures, Hopewell and Adena. They date from around 3000 BP to contact times. Once the stone has been selected, a harder rock is used to sharply peck small fragments away to shape the piece. This process takes many hours, usually 40 or more. Some examples were then polished using sandstone or other abrasive rock slabs. If the stone is homogenous and dense enough to withstand shattering during use these could have lasted the user a long time. Some are 3/4 grooved, some have multiple grooves, some have a hole drilled on one edge to seat the handle.

Nice artifact Prototype.

[Prototype Services]

Forgive my ignorance, but were there mound builders in that area?
I wish I could sit over beers and talk about this stuff for hours or days. Any idea of a value, beyond sentimental? I have a couple more things he gave me when I was young I will try to find and get pics. I wish I could get the rest of his collection. It should be in a museum, but will probably end up in a landfill.
Thanks for looking at this.
Dave

[Windustsearch]

I am not sure about the value, probably less than $200. Seems like I've seen artifacts like that for sale in the $50-$150 range, maybe more for the polished ones.

Each state or geographic area will have further classification beyond "Mound Builder." Without some reports from that area I couldn't guess. My state has more than a half dozen of those cultural sequences with named cultures. The whole theory behind that classification system has been in doubt since Binford and other processualists, but is still used. In some cases it works very well, like late prehistory in the midwest and southwest, but beyond a couple thousand years it really has no value.

As for Mound Builders, there is definate differentiation because the spatial disposition is large, covering many different environemental areas. It runs in a wide band, north and south from the Gulf Coast to the Great Lakes.

I think you should definately try to get ahold of that stuff, it definately does not belong in a landfill. Plus, private collectors often curate these things better than a museum.

[Prototype Services]

Again, thanks for the info. I have been around parts of N.Indiana, and it is flat as a board and mostly farmland. I have never heard of mound builders there, so am curious.
Sad part is Grandpa is not a collector at all. He just picked up the stuff laying on top of the ground when digging ditches for the field drainage tile, later plastic tubing. He tossed anything broken, and he admits to only keeping a small percent of stuff he saw or picked up. He has a lot of animal shapes knapped out of flint, some of those mysterious "fishhooks", and other stuff. I rmember eagles and snakes for sure. He personally picked up every piece in his "collection".
He just dumped them in shoe boxes, etc and stuck them in his basement. He did have a table made with a glass top with a bunch of the "ceremonial" shapes displayed. I shit you not there are hundreds of pounds of points stored away, and none of the family but me is interested in them. They may already be gone.

Dave