norman
country-financial
March 29, 2024 5:55 am
Your hometown Newspaper since 1987.
Search
Close this search box.

Learning Stone Tool-Making Skills At Lost City Museum

Retired Nevada Department of Transportation archeologist Joe Moore prepares to use an antler “hammer stone” to knap a large piece of obsidian.

By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

The Lost City Museum in Overton returned to its living roots last weekend when traveling archeologist Joe Moore led a hands-on demonstration on how to manufacture stone tools from flint and other materials.

Moore, who is retired from the Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT), travels the country nearly six months of the year giving classes, demonstrations and lectures on flintknapping, the art of making arrow heads, projectile points, hand axes and other tools. His expert ability has been honed over decades one tiny chip, one small flake, one ancient tool at a time.

Moore has been passionate about stone tools since the 1960s and 70s. He found some Colombia River Gem Points while working on his archeology degree at Idaho State University and became hooked on flintknapping. He was lucky enough at that time to meet the famed Don Crabtree, considered to be the “dean of American flintknappers,” and the art of tool making became his life

“What I’m trying to do as an archeologist is to reconstruct an ancient lifestyle,” Moore said.

The gregarious white-bearded Moore kept a crowd of interested onlookers enthralled at the Lost City Museum last Saturday as he explained the knowledge and facility he uses to make razor-sharp implements out of materials gleaned from desert locations. The things he makes were once the everyday tools of ancient humans.

He said evidence has shown flintknapping was used throughout the Paleolithic Age, about 99 percent of human history, to make stone implements. Over millennia the art developed and matured until it reached a zenith in the Mesolithic Age.

Many of the arrow heads, spear points and other items Moore exhibited in his lecture he created from black obsidian and white chert. He also displayed hunting implements he made from other materials including blue glass.

“You can make these from anything that breaks with a Conchoidal fracture whether it’s flint, glass, vitrified clay or something else,” he said while holding a half-shaped arrow head. “The cone made by a BB shot through a window is an example of a Conchoidal fracture,” Moore explained to the class. “Everything I do (when making a tool) is based on the idea that I’m taking that cone, flattening it out and laying it across the face of the material I’m working on.”

Moore chuckled when he noticed the bewildered expressions on some of the class who were not only listening but also attempting to make their own flint tools as Moore talked.

Jeff and Andrea Meckley of Logandale were two of the more than 55 people who attended Moore’s lecture. The local rock hounds, who were “geting some pointers on how it’s done,” were awed by Moore’s skill and knowledge.

Moore said there are two basic steps to making a flint tool. The first is to produce a rough shape with a percussion tool or “hammer stone.” A hammer stone might be a rock, a large bone or piece of antler.

Moore-made percussion tools displayed in his presentation included antler pieces from a moose, an elk, a deer and a heavy piece of hardwood.

Participants watched closely as the archeologist deftly knapped a slender incredibly sharp flake from a larger shard of obsidian using a heavy piece of caribou antler. He then demonstrated its keen edge by easily slicing a heavy piece of rawhide.

Class members met with varied success while attempting to mimic the adroit, sharp blows of the expert Moore.

The second step in tool making is pressure flaking in which small chips or flakes are knapped off an intended tool to control its sharpness, thickness and shape.

Once again Moore awed the class by quickly pressure flaking an edge sharper than a scalpel on a piece of obsidian.

The archeologist’s appearance at the Lost City Museum was funded by a grant, according to museum director, Kathryne Olson. This was his first time giving a local demonstration and it is hoped he can return.

“We were very lucky to have him here,” Olson said. “He is really an expert at the art and a wonderful lecturer and teacher.”

After leaving Moapa Valley, Moore said he plans to travel throughout the west visiting local, state and national parks giving demonstrations.

Print This Article:

Share This Article:

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Screen Shot 2023-02-05 at 10.55.46 PM
2-21-2024-fullpagefair
4 Youth Service WEB
2-28-2024 WEB Hole Foods St Patricks
No data was found
2023 WEB BANNER 2 DEFAULT AD whitneyswater
Mesquite Works Web Ad 10-2020
Scroll to Top
Receive the latest news

Subscribe To Our Weekly Newsletter

Get notified about new articles