Gouge

Object Name:

Gouge

Creator:

Unidentified Wabenaki

Date:

6,000-8,000YBP

Material:

Stone

Dimensions:

H-1.3 W-4.75 D-0.25 inches

Description:

Gouge. Fine-grained, medium- to dark-colored, igneous rock such as basalt. Pecked and ground; surface is fairly smooth. Fully grooved, groove gradually deepens from hafted to cutting end. Sides flare toward cutting edge, which is much thinner than hafting end. Ridge running down underside side making profile triangular at hafting end, hump toward the middle. Hafting end chisel-like and heavily battered. Large notches caused by use along edges, cutting edge relatively smooth, few flake scars seen may be of recent origin.

Provenance:

One of several tools that were on loan in the 2008 exhibition (and later donated), "Hopkinton's First People," with the following label: "These stone woodworking tools were found in West Hopkinton in the early 1930s, during a WPA project to pave Route 127. They were given to the lender's father, who was then a Hopkinton selectman. The full-grooved gouges are thought to be the oldest of this form made by Native American Indians, and could have been made as long as 8,000 years ago."

Subjects:

Woodworking, Indians of North America, Indigenous peoples, Construction, Road construction

People:

Rice, Neal James

Place of Origin:

West Hopkinton, New Hampshire

Item Number:

2009.0041.02

Accession Number:

2009.0041

Type of Material:

Objects

Copyright Statement:

For information regarding copyright, permissions, and reproductions contact the Hopkinton Historical Society

Credit Line:

Given by Don Millie Rice, in memory of Neal J. Rice

Participating Organization:

Hopkinton Historical Society