Stone Miniature Chisels

Another new artifact type from the Kaien Siding project is what we have called the miniature stone chisel. Three exceptionally small, finely finished green stone and possibly basalt chisels were recovered from GbTo-54. These are highly polished on all surfaces and taper toward the distal tip (see below).

All were made by incising or sawing along the long edges to groove then snap the stone, and then the point was made by grinding facets. GbTo-54:188 is complete. They must have been hafted into handles to allow fine manipulation as they are much too small to hand-hold. Functionally, they would have served to carve fine lines or relief in detailed work; perhaps some of the 100 antler bracelets or the inferred goat horn bracelets at these sites. The working tip of :188 is less than 1 mm wide, and much thinner. To our knowledge, no other comparable artifacts have been noted for any Northwest Coast assemblage.

Detail of tip :188 on the ‘narrow’ face.  Rotated to 90 degrees, the working bit is almost straight and less than 1 mm wide.Yes, those are fingerprint ridges in the background, that show just how tiny these tools are!  This microscopic photo shows the multi-facetted tip of GbTo-54:3106.