Jumbo HBL Chert Core — Vesselquest

In early May of 2010, I headed up to the northeast section of Lac Seul for a weekend archaeology trip to visit the site designated as EcJw-1. While walking the shoreline and visually examining the ground, something unusual caught my attention. A large rock with a somewhat large, circular inclusion (looking a bit like an eyeball) was poking out of the ground. Most of the rock was embedded within the shoreline soils, but the surface of one side was exposed. For a second it was as though it was staring up at me!

I loosened the soil around the rock and was able to get a better look at it. Upon closer examination it became apparent that I had just made a very cool discovery. The stone was actually a very large (jumbo) cobble of Hudson Bay Lowland chert. With the dirt cleaned off it was clear that this was a very large core that had been used as a source for making lithic tools.

The outside surface (with the circular inclusion looking like an eyeball) has a darker brown shade which represented the exterior patina (outer cortex) of the cobble. The interior of the core is a mottled lighter shade of brown almost the colour of MacIntosh toffee. This type of chert has a high silica content making it an excellent raw material for flint knapping stone tools. As measured the current dimensions of this artifact are 16.5 cm (length) x 15.4 cm (width) x 8.8 cm (height) and it has an over weight of 2,295 grams (2.29 kilograms).

The remnant pattern of flake scars across multiple surfaces of the core indicate that material had been removed. Therefore, despite its very large size, the original cobble was even bigger! (possibly double in size). It is likely that this artifact was highly prized by Woodland cultural groups who visited and used this site. A very cool discovery! To view a 3-D scan of this artifact click on the link “jumbo HBL core” courtesy of Lakehead University Anthropology department.