Recording Quarries
A quarry may be anything from a rock outcrop that has been quarried once to a highly prized and carefully managed source which may have been quarried over generations and to which access was tightly controlled. In general, Indigenous people preferred particular kinds of stone when making artifacts.
Very fine-grained stone not only makes the sharpest artifacts, but is also the easiest to knap successfully. Chert, mudstone, silcrete, quartzite and chalcedony were all preferred materials for stone artifacts and thus also for stone artifact quarries. Checklist for recording stone artifact quarries Record the following:. the material form of the quarry (Is it a rock outcrop? River cobbles?); the site location (e.g. is it on a hilltop?)
Beside a creek or river? On a slope?);. the particular features of the quarry (e.g. can you see pits from quarrying activity? Are there flaking or knapping floors there? Are there other imported raw materials at the site? Can you see flake removal scars on boulders?); if there is surface artefactual material, what the artifact density is; whether there are other stone artifacts present.
If so, what are they? What is the percentage of cortex on these artifacts?. If the site is an outcrop, an estimate of the percentage that is worked; any potential sources of damage to the site; if known, the distance to isolated artifacts or sites in the vicinity.
If it is a survey tree, note the surveyor's mark. If possible, you should also try to attribute an origin to the scar: is it definitely Indigenous? Probably? Possibly natural? If you think that the scar is natural, note down what features might have caused the scarring (e.g. a fallen branch, lightning strike, poor/rocky soil, vehicle activity, etc.).
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