Re: Cable inclines

[G.Lambert@unsw.edu.au (Geoff Lambert)]

"David Martin" <d_martin@mountains.net.au> wrote:


>Does anyone know what "chert" is, and what it was used for?

What is "chert"? 

The most prevalent type of artifact found on a prehistoric site is a
chert flake. Chert is a coarse type of siliceous rock (a form of flint
or chalcedony), which was the primary raw material used by the
aboriginal inhabitants of many places for the manufacture of a wide
variety of tools including projectile points (spear and arrowheads),
drills, knives and scrapers. Chert occurs naturally under specific
geological conditions in bedrock formations, where it can be "mined"
or extracted in chunks or nodules. Chert nodules were hammered and
flaked into the rough outline of a "biface" or preform, and then
finely flaked into a finished tool such as an arrowhead. In the
process of making a biface or a finished tool, hundreds of small waste
flakes are removed and discarded. Archaeologists frequently first find
a scatter of these chert waste flakes (debitage), an important clue
towards documenting a site. The waste flakes themselves sometimes have
razor-sharp edges which were simply an expedient tool for cutting or
scraping, so it is important for the archaeologist to carefully
examine the edges of each and every flake. Detailed archaeological
excavation of a large camp site or might result in the recovery of
thousands of chert flakes.

And also, accoring to
http://www.northcoastjournal.com/mar98/3-98.environ.html

CHERT = County of Humboldt Extraction Review Team 

Geoff Lambert