Sharpening Grooves
Looking at sharpening grooves in worn into a canyon wall in Southeastern Utah
Sharpening grooves in the sandstone wall of a canyon, near ruins in Butler Wash.
I thought this was interesting.
These lines in the rock are “sharpening grooves” worn into the wall of the canyon near the Monarch Cave Ruins (Butler Wash, Utah). This group of them are worn into the canyon wall at the downstream end of a block of ruins.
So…at the downstream end of the ruin complex, the people would use the cliff wall as a hone for sharpening their stone implements. I’m guessing that the narrow, linear grooves were for tools such as knives, while the shorter, scoop-shaped was for broader tools, such as axes.
Some of these were above my head height. I wonder if those were used for sharpening hafted weapons, such as atlatls and spears.
Grooves like these show up at archeological sites all over the world.