Posted on 07/07/2005 8:56:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
BRIDGEPORT TOWNSHIP, MICH. -- A Saginaw County man thought he was simply digging a basement for the house he would eventually build on Snowy Lane in Bridgeport Township.
But the hole Arthur A. Shaft opened up in 2000 turned out to be an archaeological dig of sorts, too.
The Saginaw County Historical Society last month confirmed that the object was a barbed stone ax head left behind by Indians 3,000 to 5,000 years ago.
"I was amazed _ I thought it was just a couple hundred years old," Shaft, 52, a General Motors Corp. retiree, told The Saginaw News for a Tuesday story. "I'm not even sure who lived here then. Was it a caveman?"
It's more like that Shaft built his house on a site occupied by descendants of Indians who arrived in Michigan up to 12,000 years ago, said Jeff Sommer, the historical society's curator of archaeology.
Sommer, who identified the ax, said it probably was used by an extended family of migrating Indians that hunted and gathered food at some sites and collected resources at others. Whoever made the ax likely spent several tedious hours shaping it with another rock before polishing it with sandstone, he said.
Indian artifacts turn up often in Saginaw County, although Shaft's discovery _ a "barbed" ax, with nubs flaring out from the groove in the center _ is "a unique artifact," Sommer said. "We don't have any of this style from any good archaeological contexts," he said.
Sommer determined the age of the ax by comparing it with similar pieces whose age is known. Like most artifacts from that period, the ax was well-worn.
"People weren't throwing away their good, usable materials," Sommer said. "Most of what archeologists find and what people bring in was garbage. ... Once in a while, people bring in things like this ax, and it's really kind of a surprise to see it."
Shaft said he hasn't decided what to do with his discovery. "For now, I've just got it stashed," he said.
ping
It is AlGore's ax. He invented it.
BTTT
Quick !!
Make a cast of it before it thereatens the local indians with NOT being the first Americans (Kinnawick Man)
HOOOOOO WEEEEEEEEE!!!
Who retires at 52?
There's no such thing as an ax that's "thousands" of years old. A real scientist will tell you it's MILLIONS of years old. Stone age. Go ahead and run the tests. You'll see.
[The Saginaw County Historical Society last month confirmed that the object was a barbed stone ax head left behind by Indians 3,000 to 5,000 years ago. "I was amazed _ I thought it was just a couple hundred years old," Shaft, 52, a General Motors Corp. retiree, told The Saginaw News for a Tuesday story. "I'm not even sure who lived here then. Was it a caveman?"]
Dunno. Are there any caves in that county?
Well there's always ebay.
Don't be ridiculous.
A real scientist will tell you it's MILLIONS of years old. Stone age.
Only if that's what the evidence actually indicates. Which it doesn't in this case.
Go ahead and run the tests. You'll see.
They did. You're wrong.
Pretty much anyone who can.
I retired 6 years ago at 54.
bttt
I own George Washington's original ax.
The head has been replaced 6 times and the handle 14....
But it's the original ax.
Me at 53.5
It must have been buried inside his lock-box.
I bet this mans basement becomes larger than he had originally planned now. If anyone can find a pic of this Axe please post it. The article didn't have one. It sounds like more of a weapon to me. What an interesting and unique find.
Here are some of my favorite artifact finds from North Texas. 
Get a grip. We've got evidence of evolution here. Make it OLD. Real old. Think how many millions of years it took all those molecules to assemble themselves into an intelligent being who could create an axe head, all under the influence of little more than natural selection and random mutations. It's the "scientific" way.
Hmm.
I used to have a 200-year old hammer. It was my grandfathers. The head had been replaced numerous times and the handle had been replaced umpteen times but the hammer was 200 years old.
Okay, I know, I know, that's a really old joke. But it was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title.
Ha! You type faster than me.
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