8,000-year-old ax at Prater's Mill is cool but common
Touching and sharing history through a 4-pound stone
An 8,000-year-old ax from the archaic period, one of the earliest periods in North American cultural history, has been in Dilbert Bryson's grandfather's possession since the 1940s. Jess Kile found it at Lake Frances, just across from the Prater's Mill property in Varnell, Ga., according to Judy Alderman, president of the Prater's Mill Foundation.
After Kile passed away, Bryson decided to donate it to the foundation last fall while he was volunteering at the mill.
"We have always known about the slave and Indian graves here. But we didn't have any of the artifacts that have been found on the property from years ago," Alderman said.
Since the ax arrived in her office in October, Alderman has had it properly identified and said she enjoys hearing people's reactions when they touch the ancient grooved surface.
"To us, touching history is just cool. One woman told me that touching it had very special feelings for her. She said she was connecting to the person who made it and everyone that used it," Alderman said.
In November, Alderman brought the ax to Jim Langford, president of the Coosawattee Foundation in Calhoun, Ga. The organization is focused on archaeological preservation, research and education in Northwest Georgia.
Langford said the ax weighed about 4 pounds and was approximately 7 inches long and 4 inches wide. It would have been used as a tool by the area's earliest Native Americans for chopping trees and other woodworking activities.
The Archaic Period is characterized as a time between 8,000 and 2,000 B.C. when "hunter-gatherers learned to exploit a wide range of animals and plants and began the first steps to their domestication."
The development of tools such as the ax would fit into one of those steps.
"It can do a lot of damage because of its own weight," Langford said.
Although Alderman is excited about the donation and intends to share the artifact with local schools and keep it on public display during the mill's annual events, Langford said the piece itself is a fairly common item.
"I have probably seen 40 or 50 of these in my lifetime. It is not something you find every day, but it is not so rare that it might be featured in a museum, other than to show it as an example of this type of tool," he said.
Even though the archaeological find isn't something to be airlifted to the Smithsonian Institute or Museum of Natural History, Langford still suggested that the foundation supervise how the ax will be shared with the public to prevent it from being dropped or stolen.
"They should keep it secure. Some people have unrealistic expectations on what it must be worth and might try to steal it and resell it. But its value is in its educational uses, not monetary," he said.
But touching is definitely allowed and encouraged.
