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Colleagues,
I have recently obtained two old "human
artifacts" from the badlands in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada.
For one of these, we have no idea what it is. Can you help?
ITEM 1. The object is made of iron and well rusted. It
does not appear to have been factory made, but rather, constructed by a
blacksmith. From the "front", it is tear-drop shaped and quite
symmetrical. When viewed edge-on (from the "side"), it is flat (5 mm
thick), except at the bluntly pointed tip where it gradually tapers over a
distance of 5 mm. When viewed from the front (so the tear-drop shape can be
seen) it can be seen to be hollow in the middle (again with a tear-drop shape);
the "sides" or "rim" of the object measure anywhere from 9
mm wide at the bottom of the "drop", to about 6 mm wide near the
tapered tip. The pointed end of the artifact is tapered and with a bluntly
rounded point. The metal in this pointed area is less rusted for 10-15 mm on
both sides (front and back) suggesting it has been tempered differently (?). I
don't have a scale, but would guesstimate it weighs about 1 ounce.
So what is it? We are assuming it is in fact something
the early paleontologists used in the field as we very rarely find old domestic
garbage out in the badlands. It was not found in an old quarry, so its age is
problematic. However, the oldest quarries in the vicinity are
1916-1917.
Some ideas we've had:
1. A digging tool. It does fit nicely in the hand, but
the crews had plenty of digging tools. There are no indications of the item
being hit repeatedly by a hammer as one might expect for a digging
tool.
2. A piece of horse harness or similar equipment?
Perhaps a rope could be passed through it, or a rope passed through and then
knotted. All fine and good, but the pointed end could jab into the horse. And it
is of light construction, not something meant to bear a lot of
weight.
3. A piece of wagon equipment?
4. A bottle opener?
5. A tool for cleaning horses hooves/metal
shoes?
6. A screwdriver? While rusted, the tip does not seem
overly affected so it is believed the original shape of the item is unaffected
by rust. If true, it would make a poor slot screwdriver. We have lots of
evidence for the use of wire and nails in the field by the early expeditions,
but not of screws.
7. Part of a handle of another, bigger tool? This seems
unlikely as there are no attachment points or threaded areas
present.
ITEM 2. As many of you know, I am examining old
unidentified quarry sites and the garbage therein (newspaper, glass, tin, etc)
to help identify who was in the quarry, what year, what was collected, etc; see:
TANKE, D.H. 1999. RELOCATING THE LOST QUARRIES OF DINOSAUR PROVINCIAL PARK,
ALBERTA, CANADA. (ABSTRACT). JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY, 19(3):80A. I
have had great sucess using this methodology in conjunction with old
photographs, letters, fieldnotes, etc. In a Levi Sternberg quarry from 1935 I
was stunned to find a different kind of paper artifact, in this case the wrapper
off of a stick of gum! This artifact is made of wax paper, is bright pink in
color and is virtually identical (even with the serrated wrapper edges) to the
tinfoil wrappers seen on WRIGLEY'S JUICY FRUIT, etc stick gums found today. The
only difference is that the wrapper is a little longer. Would any of the
oldtimers on the list have any recollections as to the brand/flavor? This trivia
question has come up. I've contacted Wrigley's Gum recently, but still no
reply.
I would appreciate any thoughts list
members may have. I return to the field soon, so may not be able to reply for
some time.
Darren Tanke, Tech. I
Dinosaur Research Program Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology Drumheller, AB, Canada and Senior Editor, Paleopathology and Recent Dento-Osteopathology Bibliography; see homepage at: http://dns.magtech.ab.ca/dtanke |