I live in the state of Maine. I spent time painting water scenes along Maine's rocky coast. With good eyes one can easily spot arrowheads lying about, some with almost perfect symmetry. These symmetrical points are associated with the Red paint people. They are beautiful and easy to identify.
In the image above, carefully observe the napping patterns on the surface of the stone. You can get familiar with the surface of a worked stone. This period began some say, as early as 10,000 to 7000 years ago. You want to get familiar with napped surface and edges to be able to identify them in the future.
One day while painting on the beach, I began to notice other tool shapes as well, like curved scrapers, serrated edges, awls, adzes and chisels. After getting comfortable identifying many tools, I began to notice animal forms napped into the stone that were associated with the function of each tool. For example, here (below) is a drill with the image of a bird head that mirrors it's intended use. You can see how comfortably the stone below fits in my hand. There is a bird head and beak following my thumb to the left. Also, if you look at the outline of the stone in its entirety, you can see the 3D image of a song bird flying in the opposite direction with its wing extended (it's head is in the upper corner facing my wrist).
In the image below I have highlighted the bird head and its long beak in red, that would be used as a drill. The song bird is highlighted in blue with its smaller beak to be used as an awl. These stone tools with animal embellishments are everywhere. They are easily found in your garden, along hiking trails, etc... Really anywhere. It would be most helpful to find a stone of your own and start to explore.
Another common animal form is the bear. In the stone below you should be able to see a bear head and the overall shape of a bear claw. Try to imagine how a bear uses is claw effectively. The bear is giving you direction to how employ the tool.
In the picture below I have highlighted the profile of the bear. The image of the bear bears (pun intended) a clear resemblance to the human hand. One of the wonders of discovering these stones is that you can find myriad forms within the same tool. In this one, for example, there is the outline of a bird flying with it's beak pointing Left reminding you that if you need to drill there is a pointy beak to use. An ancient swiss army knife!
I hope you can find a stone near you that catches your eye. Hold it in your hand. Feel how it fits. Sometimes you can feel the makers hand as you hold it (everything then was built bespoke!). You can find the different grips that go with the function such as axe, adz, scraper, and drill, etc. The tool will feel ergonomically correct. If the tool feels big for your hand it is possible that the person that made it had bigger hands. This exercise can help you connect with the person that made the tool, imagine their ingenuity, and open your mind to the possibility of art etched into the surface the artefact.
Feel free to look back on the stones presented here to look for more animal characters, there will be different types of birds, some sitting on their nest, or birds of prey and always look for the buzzard. You may find the beaver, porcupine, rabbit, deer, and may even see a woolly mammoth! Keep your stone around you, looking at it from different angles and different lighting. Explore the surface in the early morning or evening when the long shadows are cast. Low angle natural light is when these stones like to talk. There is so much to see. I hope you join me as we continue this observational study of the Maine totem stone.
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