Celt, Stone Item Number: 2895 from the The Burke: University of Washington
Stone celt.* Fide donor GTE: Stone celt. Jade, serpentine and other tough, fine grained stones were used for making celts, chisels and adzes for all wood working and for cutting and dressing skins. Boulders cut in two, smoothed on one surface and grooved, are found on old village sites and camping places. These are most always of greenstone, of jade and serpentine. And when they occur in many flat worked pieces of a coarse silicious sandstone with one or more beveled edges which just fit the deeper grooves in the boulders which would seem to indicate very clearly that these were the knives or saws by means of which the boulders were cut in convenient sized pieces to be worked on: the slightly concave grindstones into tools. The people of the present day have little or no knowledge of this art or manufacture. The grooves show a convex a flat or a concave goove along the bottom but more often is the convex surface apparent. Some of the tools thus cut are finished throughout their length while others are rough splinters merely brought to a cutting edge. In most of the celts and chisels, one or more grooves are plainly visible where the section was cut from the stock piece. Greenstone was universally used for cutting tools and in the following catalogued specimens (2882-2898) the term jade is used to describe those that from their weight and hardness would appear to be of that mineral, although a chemical analysis would be necessary to determine their material structure. *Information is from the original accession ledger.
British Columbia Canada North America Pacific Northwest Plateau