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| Adze |
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| Hand adze found while weeding. |
A view from the Painted Pony Resort outside of Rodeo, New Mexico's most western town.
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Saturday
Digging in the Desert
With guests in residence inside cleaning is not an issue and there is time to tend to other work around the resort. The runway was showing signs of weeds and had received herbicide about a month ago but dead plants and newly sprouted weeds needed removal, so a day was spent removing a variety of weeds that were trying to take over the 2 runways on the property. Tumbleweeds are the most aggressive and pervasive but quickly yield to an herbicide mix (4% glyphosate with 0.2% 2,4D). Even with dead weeds runway weeding is all hand work done with a scrapping motion of the shovel since machines tear up the runway surface. Operations started early and with shovel in hand weeding started at the south end of the runway and moved north. Some clouds kept the temperatures moderate but since weeding is a fairly monotonous activity requiring very little mental activity engaging in other mental activities helps with the task. I used the opportunity to look for evidence of habitation along the runway. The area had not been walked in awhile and rains frequently uncover new evidence of the previous inhabitants. Several partial metates were found and a single projectile point, but the most interesting piece found was a hand adze. Not ground like other early axe heads frequently found but chipped and shaped into a usable tool that fits nicely in the hand. Created out of a fine grained greenish gray sedimentary rock the tool is just another gentle reminder that people have been digging plants around here for several thousand years and a day spent cleaning the runway is not a big deal.
Labels:
adze,
digging stone,
painted pony resort,
san simon valley,
stone tool
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What you have found is so interesting and the monsoon sure helped you discover this. Wonder what you will find next?
ReplyDeleteThis will go nicely with the collection in the main house. I tried it out during my weeding but would rather use a shovel and stand up.
ReplyDeleteNice to get a bonus for weeding!
ReplyDeleteI also came across 2 partial metates (flat grinding stone and basin metate), a broken projectile point, and found an old work area. The work area had chipping and flakes centered around a hammerstone. Carbonized earth in the area suggests an early habitation site.
ReplyDeleteTumbleweed [Russian thistle] likes places that have been disturbed. When we moved here > 10 years ago, there were tumbleweed starting to grow where the phone company ran their tool to place phone line. I think we conquered that. I occasionally find a tumbleweed trying to start and get it out by the roots. I do however have every OTHER kind of weed. Some pop right out once we've had 0.5" rain and the earth is softer. We have NOT had 0.5" rain since mid February and before that last September.
ReplyDeleteTumbleweed is a constant headache but the mixture I use will start them wilting within an afternoon. Unfortunately, I still have to remove the dead weeds.
ReplyDelete