Old Tool

[Rob Bodenschatz]

So earlier this week the weather was nice so I decided to go for a hike along the creek that flows through our property. I get down to the creek & see a guy standing there with a bucket.

"What you huntin'?" I ask.

"Rocks"

"Well move on upstream buddy. These are my rocks." I say nicely.

My interest is piqued however so I walk over to see what kind of rocks he's looking for. He tells me he's looking for Indian rocks. Apparently, the Lenape tribe was active along our Mingo Creek and he likes to look in creek beds for rocks that Native Americans used for tools. He gives seminars at local schools about them and shows off what he finds.

Well, probably to kiss up to me so he could hunt in my creek (not really, he was a nice guy), he gave me one that he just found. Here it is:

60452

60453

You see where they carved out a piece of the rock for the thumb and smoothed out a spot for the fingers to rest. It's hard to see that in the pictures but the tool fits real nice in my hand. He told me Indians probably used it as a pestle. You know, like mortar & pestle.

I thought it was cool that this stuff could be found right in my backyard. Guess this counts as a neander tool.

[Bill Houghton]

How to sharpen a stone tool? Start the debate!

[Chuck Hamman]

Rob,
You sure have my interest piqued. That's a great find! What part of Pa are you in? I'm 30 miles east of Pittsburgh.

-Chuck

[Rob Bodenschatz]

I'm on the other side of the state Chuck. Close to Philly.

[Jim Becker]

Rob, that's a very kewl thing to find. The Lenape tribal area apparently was quite large as this area in Bucks County was also part of the "stomping grounds". In fact, the mountain behind my home was a favorite spot for the Lenape tribe according to some historical writings I recently read.

[Tim Malyszko]

That's really cool and a nice find.

When I was a kid, they were putting in a new golf course a few miles from my house and in the process, the contractors started uncovering a bunch of arrowheads and old hand tools used who knows how many centruies ago by the original Native American's in the area. We use to walk up and down that course once the crews left looking for the stuff, but only stumbled across the occassional arrowhead.

That's is really a neat part of history you have there.