Five Year Old Discovers Ancient Stone Tools

Archaeologist responds to find By Betsy Levinson Tue Apr 22, 2008, 04:09 PM EDT Finding stone artifacts that are approximately 4,000 years old is not just rare, it’s never happened in Littleton (Massachusetts), said Martin Dudek of J. Milner Associates, an archaeological consulting firm on Great Road. “I’ve never seen stone axes that are found on private property,” said Dudek after confirming that five-year-old Dalton Blake dug up two Native American tools in his grandmother’s backyard earlier this month. Dudek said artifacts like those are usually found in collections, historical societies or farms. “They are well known tools; they are not a unique class of artifact,” said Dudek, “but digging them up in a backyard is very rare.” He said finds like Dalton’s are increasingly unusual along small streams since the sediment has shifted over the last centuries and most artifacts are now found along the mouths of big rivers or the ocean. “Many were found in the 1800s to early 1900s from those that walked through fields,” he said. He said he noticed from the photo of Dalton that ran in the April 10 Littleton Independent that the tools were probably in subsoil, or class B soil that is geologically below the surface. C soil is glacial till, he said. “Often, tools are found in subsoil, or mixed in what is known as a plow zone,” said Dudek. “Dalton may have dug deeper than the surface soil.” Dudek gave forms to register the site to Andrea Curran, a friend of Dalton’s grandmother, Donna White. Curran brought Dudek the artifacts after White, a historian, revealed to her what Dalton had found. “I was in awe,” said White when Dalton ran to the house saying he’d found ‘a rock in the shape of a man.’” Dudek said the Nipmuc natives were living in the Littleton area at the time, and could have been the site of a hut or “tool use area,” or it could be related to a burial site. “It is a valid possibility,” said Dudek. Dudek said the state historical commission would come out and catalog the site if White were to register it. Dudek said the natives used stone tools such as the axe “at least until the European explorers arrived,” citing other stone implements such as hatchets and machetes. Dudek is proud of Blake and his find. He said he first developed a love for paleontology at age 5, so he can relate to Blake’s excitement.