The History of Glass Buttes
Glass Buttes, OR, is interesting both anthropologically and geologically because it is a place people have journeyed to continuously for 14,000 years and still do to this day to collect obsidian. This has been a destination because the obsidian that can be collected at the surface and near the surface with a little digging.
Obsidian is used to make spear tips, arrow heads, knives, scrapers, essentially all manner of cutting instruments. In the stone age, the edged weapons and tools that could be created with obsidian were critical to survival of early peoples because they depended on these weapons for defense and hunting as well as the tools for processing hides used to make shelters and clothing.
Testing on blood residue found on ancient tips collected at Glass Buttes has revealed interesting details of what the environment was like many thousands of years ago. Did you know that camels originated in North America and then migrated to the deserts of the Middle East by way of the land bridge that existed between present day Alaska and Russia. Blood residue from the tips collected at Glass Buttes include blood from camels.
Spear tips and other tools are made from obsidian by flaking off small pieces a little at a time until the shape of a spear tip or arrow head takes form. The art of creating the tips is called flint knapping and practiced today by enthusiasts and Anthropologists.
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| Obsidian collected at Glass Buttes in 2016 |
Obsidian is used to make spear tips, arrow heads, knives, scrapers, essentially all manner of cutting instruments. In the stone age, the edged weapons and tools that could be created with obsidian were critical to survival of early peoples because they depended on these weapons for defense and hunting as well as the tools for processing hides used to make shelters and clothing.
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Modern day spear tip created in 2016
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Testing on blood residue found on ancient tips collected at Glass Buttes has revealed interesting details of what the environment was like many thousands of years ago. Did you know that camels originated in North America and then migrated to the deserts of the Middle East by way of the land bridge that existed between present day Alaska and Russia. Blood residue from the tips collected at Glass Buttes include blood from camels.
Spear tips and other tools are made from obsidian by flaking off small pieces a little at a time until the shape of a spear tip or arrow head takes form. The art of creating the tips is called flint knapping and practiced today by enthusiasts and Anthropologists.
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