Help with petrological provenience

[Michael Lever]

Hi all,

During field work in far north NSW, an Aboriginal elder briefly showed me the collection of lithics that they had collected over the years.

Most of the lithics weren't much but I was excited to see what passes my duck test of a greenstone axe head.

Likely a blank, but possibly used as is. 

I didn't have more than a few seconds to look and take happy snaps on my phone.

The item was found while the said elder was 'chipping' (weeding) cotton fields in the area of Yetman NSW, some 20 years ago.

I did assure the elder I would look into the possibilities of determining where the material of the item came from.

My own enquiries have hit a blank wall. Can anyone suggest free resources for this?

Cheers

[Shaun Canning]

Isobel McBryde’s work on greenstone hatchets would be a good place to start……..

 

Wil-im-ee Moor-ring: Or, Where do Axes Come From?

 

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1835-9310.1978.tb00666.x/abstract

 

Regards,

 

Dr Shaun Canning
Managing Director and Principal Heritage Advisor
M	0400 204 536
E	Shaun....@achm.com.au
Australian Cultural Heritage Management
Adelaide | Brisbane | Melbourne | Sydney | Perth
P	1300 724 913
W	www.achm.com.au
Find me at LinkedIn

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[colin....@ozemail.com.au]

Thought Yetman rang a bell! The piece doesn't strike me as greenstone, at least Victorian. Has it been burnt, or just a hard life? You could also look northward, to the gray stone of Mount Isa. There is a PhD on mapping distribution that might also help. You might also look to local sources that are common on the outposts of the western slopes on the eastern Riverine Plain of central NSW. I would have offered to compare to my XRF sampling in the MD Basin, but not going that far north. Maybe ask Val at Australian Museum.

All the best

Colin

Sent from my iPad

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[Michael Lever]

Im well aware of Isabel McBryde's work and the first thing that came to mind was whether this piece might extend her distribution range further north than Broken Hill. The problem with her work is that her petrological determinations were all undertaken by thin slice. This is overly invasive by today's standards. I was hoping someone might know of a set of Xrf scans providing a comparative background for a (hopeful) Xrf scan of this piece.

I really don't recall if the piece looked as burnt as it does in the photo - or whether this is distortion. I had about a minute to gasp at the piece, get permission for a few happy snaps, before it went back in the bag.

What aspects of it look less Victorian? I'm intrigued.