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DALTON ABRADERS Abraders are common tool forms that are found on practically all Stone Age sites, in one form or another. The Olive Branch site produced an abundance of abraders in every sector of the excavation. Although the Dalton people at Olive Branch had locally available Thebes-Sandstone they chose instead to use a coarse hematitc variety that is found farther to the south along the Mississippi River near Wickliffe, Kentucky. The abraders from Olive Branch have grooves cut across their surface in varying widths from 1 to 15 mm wide and they vary in depth from 1 to 12 mm deep. Abraders are tools that were used for smoothing surfaces. They were probably used more extensively on wood than anything else. A fine grain sandstone may also have served, in flintknapping, to dull an edge of a preform to prepare a platform for striking off a reduction flake.
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