Well-Preserved Stone Tool Recovered in Western Canada

SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA—According to a CBC Canada report, a stone tool known as a grooved maul was recovered from a suburban strawberry patch in western Canada. “It’s got the nice groove going all the way around, it’s got some wear on its end,” said Karin Steuber of the Saskatchewan Archaeological Society. “It probably would have been hafted to a handle and would have been used as a hammer,” she explained. This type of tool would have taken a long time to make, and would have been an important part of a toolkit. The grooved maul was employed for more than 10,000 years, but researchers are not able to date this example. “Somebody could have made this 8,000 years ago, left it behind, and then 3,000 years later somebody picked it up and continued to use it as well,” Steuber added. To read about ancient clam gardens constructed by First Nations peoples thousands of years ago, go to "World Roundup: Canada."