"It is felt that (Paleo-Indian) choppers were used for heavy-labor, such as felling trees or dismembering carcasses."-------1990, Richard Michael Gramly, "Guide To The Paleo-Indian Artifacts Of North America," page 13-14.
    "(Description of a chopper from the Horner site) A triangular-shaped, smoothed, basalt river cobble 47 mm thick has a series of large spalls removed along one edge to form a sharp ridge, which demonstrates light pounding or chopping use."--------1987, George C. Frison & Lawrence C. Todd, "The Horner Site, The Type Site of the Cody Cultural Complex," pp. 269-270.
       "These (European Paleolithic choppers) are pebbles or blocks which exhibit an asymmetric cutting edge obtained by the removal of at least two large flakes from one face."--------1993, Andre Debenath & Harold L. Dibble, "Handbook of Paleolithic Typology, Vol. One, Lower and Middle Paleolithic of Europe," p. 126.

 
CLOVIS CHOPPER
COLBY MAMMOTH KILL SITE
NORTH CENTRAL WYOMING

    The Colby site is a mammoth kill and meat processing site dating to approximately 14,000 years ago. The site is located on private property in north central Wyoming in the Bighorn Basin. It was excavated between the years 1973 and 1978. The excavations produced the bones from at least seven mammoths that were probably not all killed at the same time. The Colby site is most famous for the discovery of Clovis culture artifacts that were found in and around the piles of mammoth bones.

   The Colby site excavations produced four Clovis type projectile points, two choppers, one sandstone abrader, thirty flakes and at least one edge retouched utilized flake, plus one or two bone tools. The largest tools discovered on the site are the choppers.

     Stone choppers have been in use around the world for millions of years. At Olduvai Gorge Mary Leakey described five different types of choppers. These heavy duty tools have been found on Paleo-Indian and some later period sites all across North America.

    Various descriptions  refer to choppers as being made from cobbles, cobblestones, river cobbles, river boulders, pebbles, blocks, and pieces of stone. Choppers are heavy duty tool forms that generally have at least one strong, ninety-degree or less, cutting edge. They are easily made with a hammer stone by striking off usually two or more flakes.

     The Colby site produced two choppers. The smaller of the two was found in bone pile number 1. It was made from a round water worn river cobble measuring approximately 3 3/8 inches (8.5 cm) wide and 5 1/8 inches (13 cm) long. The edge was formed by striking off one end with a percussion blow to form right angle edges. The edges of this chopper were dulled from extensive pounding.

     The largest of the two choppers that was found on the Colby site is illustrated in this report. It was found near bone pile number two. This chopper was made from a piece of granite that was split from another stone. The break produced a sharp edge on all of its sides. The widest convex edge is worn from heavy chopping use. It's believed that this tool was probably used during the butchering process of a mammoth. This chopper measures 8 1/2 inches (21 cm) long, 7 1/2 inches (19 cm) wide and 2 3/16 inches (5.5 cm) thick.

    Choppers represent one of the simplest and most common tool forms ever used by humans. Based on modern experiments, choppers have been found to be highly efficient butchering tools. Although they represent one of the crudest types of tool forms they will always be exciting discoveries, especially when they are found with piles of mammoth bones.

"REFERENCES"

1971, Leakey, M. D., "Olduvai Gorge, Vol. 3, Excavations In Beds I And II, 1960-1963," p. 4.
1986, Frison, George C. & Todd, Lawrence C., "The Colby Mammoth Site, Taphonomy and Archaeology of a Clovis Kill in Northern Wyoming," pp. 91-114.
1987, Frison, George C. & Todd, Lawrence C., "The Horner Site, The Type Site Of The Cody Cultural Complex," pp. 269-270.
1988, Tattersall, Ian, Delson, Eric & Couvering, John Van, "Encyclopedia Of Human Evolution And Prehistory," p. 133.
1990, Gramly, Richard Michael, "Guide To The Paleo-Indian Artifacts Of North America," pp. 13-14.
1993, Schick, Kathy D. & Toth, Nicholas, "Making Silent Stones Speak, Human Evolution And The Dawn Of Technology," p. 159.
1994, Debenath, Andre & Dibble, Harold L., "Handbook Of Paleolithic Typology, Vol. 1, Lower and Middle Paleolithic Of Europe," p. 126.
1999, Collins, Michael B., "Clovis Blade Technology," p. 192.

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