Archaeology dig in Spain yields prehistoric ‘crystal weapons’

I've made an obsidian blade with a single stroke.
It was sharp enough to shave with.
It was perfect for cleaning small game.

Nice!

Neat!

I wonder what if anything gave these crystals more meaning than decorative.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: Box of Rain

I think this is the nicest spear head I have ever seen, It would be good for on e throw, you miss you make a new head.

Its a dagger. The maker would never risk throwing it. It was made for plunging into flesh by hand.

difference between daggers and knives

They were laughing their a** off as they made these knowing in the future folks would find these and go "WTF"

originally posted by: LSU0408
a reply to: seasonal

That would be pretty tough to make... I wonder if these were used specifically for sacrifices, etc...

Maybe you need spirit weapons to.hunt spirit animals in the afterlife?

There was other archealogical evidence to show that exotic colors wer popular for knife blades. Some were found with zebra stripes and being bright pink in color. My guess is that as every teenager had to have one, they were the equivalent of mobile phone covers in the present day.

originally posted by: seasonal
a reply to: LSU0408

I wonder how long it took to make this spear head? Maybe the craftsman that made it could crank them out every 15 minutes.

I would love to have one hanging on my wall. But it seems these are rare, I would think they were ceremonial.

Some dude probably made them to impress one or more ladies. It's the same old story.


If not, they would probably not be sturdy enough for everyday use, but I'm not familiar with crystals and how brittle they may or may not be.

My guess is ornamental - they had plenty of spare time in those days, without the Internet.

I want one!

a reply to: GreyWebby

Me too, welcome to ATS.

a reply to: seasonal

Thank you!!

If crystal breaks on the first use (or first few), but it is highly effective for that one use (or a few), then a warrior might carry that as his emergency "silver bullet". He probably would do most of his fighting with normal weapons that won't wear out, of course.

But you have to remember, when you're in combat you only get one chance to live. It's not a video game. No "extra lives".

And only professional soldiers are worried about getting through battle after battle after battle. It's different for our every day "tribal warrior" who will likely only see combat a few times in his life. He's more of a civilian/soldier.

I've cabbed a lot of stones, and can't imagine how tedious this would have been without modern lapidary equipment. And these blades are beautiful.

Howdy! I am a flintknapper, I work with a lot of glass and obsidian. I have made tools from quartz but they seem to be crumbly and inferior, unless you found something very high quality. These quartz crystals in the op are some of the purest I have ever seen and I bet they are razor sharp. Now, these quartz crystals, if you notice on the bigger blades, only seem to flake across the piece not down it. I have heard that highly pure crystals have a structure that only lends itself to unidirectional flaking.

I am going to try and upload a vid of a glass knife that I made using only stone and antler tools. The blade that is. I use my dremel on the wood lol, I have done a couple handles primitively and I don't want to do that anymore. I think a good handle would have been more valuable than the blade, luckily the glue I use is made of pine resin and the blade can be removed and a new one attached.

a reply to: punkinworks10

Hello my friend!

The points you linked to seem like modern "Ishi" style points. The others look like glass pedernales points from Texas or something similar. Could you link to your source for the pic? I would love to read it. If Iberians were making Ishi style points independently and earlier that would be pretty dang neat.

That's what's left of Spain ... Archeology of a country that once was. That once was a nation-state with a claim over Gibraltar. Now a bunch of losers playing the british colonialist free-trade game in a fallen Europe. Will it return to be part of the caliphate of Cordoba, as during early 2nd millennium? From wikipedia: "al-ʾAndalūs, possibly, Land of the Vandals"

originally posted by: Flanker86
That's what's left of Spain ... Archeology of a country that once was. That once was a nation-state with a claim over Gibraltar. Now a bunch of losers playing the british colonialist free-trade game in a fallen Europe. Will it return to be part of the caliphate of Cordoba, as during early 2nd millennium? From wikipedia: "al-ʾAndalūs, possibly, Land of the Vandals"

Seriously? That's what you get out of this thread? Dude, you need a new hobby!
Back on topic, quartz points are not that unusual in an Eastern Woodlands context, though they are always a score. And a buddy of mine does crazy knapping in glass. He uses old tv picture tubes as a source of material.

originally posted by: Lithicalus
a reply to: punkinworks10

Hello my friend!

The points you linked to seem like modern "Ishi" style points. The others look like glass pedernales points from Texas or something similar. Could you link to your source for the pic? I would love to read it. If Iberians were making Ishi style points independently and earlier that would be pretty dang neat.

Good call lithicalus,

My bad for not doing due dilligence, those arrow heads are in fact the work of Ishi. I got the pic from a arrowhead collectors blog, so i assumed they knew what they were talking about.
I thought they looked an awful lot like modern native american points.
I did find several other references on quartzite points and blades from iberia, ill try re retrace them.

a reply to: Lithicalus

Not crystal, here are some actual solutrean points, i think these are from spain.





This style survived into the bronze age in parts of africa.

a reply to: punkinworks10

Now those look more Solutrean! Ishi was really something else.

a reply to: seasonal

These arrowheads are of a different material. End of story. I'm amazed in this modern world how people see more into things than they are.