Four Native American Woodland Period Ground Stone Celts / Adze Heads

Native American, Woodland Period. Four ground stone celts, ungrooved blades that were once hafted as axes or adzes. They were made by pecking and then grinding, and each has a smooth working bit at the broad end that tapers back to a rounded poll. Three have the familiar teardrop or bullet outline, worked in speckled, granular stones in tones from oatmeal to sage green. The fourth stands apart: it is cut from a fine-grained, charcoal-gray stone into a flat, near-rectangular blade with a gently curved edge, and that tablet-like profile may suit adze work. The smallest of the group, a stubby triangular blade, would have suited finer woodworking. In everyday use, tools like these felled saplings, hollowed out dugout canoes, and shaped timbers for houses. The celt is one of the most common ground stone tools from Woodland-period North America. Making one took real labor. A maker roughed out a tough, fine-grained cobble by flaking, refined the shape by pecking it with a hammerstone, and then ground and polished it against sandstone and water until the surface was smooth. Without the groove of the earlier Archaic full-grooved axe, the blade was set into a socket in a wooden handle or lashed in place. Turning the bit parallel to the handle made an axe, and turning it at right angles made an adze, so the same basic form could do either job. Item # 199463

Estimate:$350

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