Today I went out on a plein air painting excursion with my painting students. A man in the class chose a spot on a natural waterway that runs along plantation drive at what is called Rattle Snake Bayou. This same shallow waterway runs behind my house, and before the levee was built ran into the sharp bend of the Mississippi which is now Lake Lee

Early American Indians probably inhabited this area. The whole point of this description is about a rock that I found there. It was a strange C shaped wedge of flint. I thought it might have been a point that broke and was never finished. I put it my pocket. When I got home I showed it to Eric and as I held it between my thumb and second finger, I noticed that my first finger fit smoothly into the inside curve of the C and the outside curve of the C was razor sharp between my second finger and thumb. Protruding from that area was an area that was sharp at one time but was worn from scraping or cutting something. It fit my fingers so perfectly. It was a precision tool. So perfectly shaped by an ancient toolmaker. This finding might not be so significant except for the fact that the last time I was in Lubbock, I found a Bone tool from the Clovis period 40,000 years ago that fit perfectly into my hand. It was a somewhat cylindrical shape that curved outward in the center of my palm as an angle on the side accommodated the grip of my thumb and another on the other side for the grip of my first finger. Protruding from that was a wedge shaped point. I think these may have been used to clean the meat from animals and had to be able to be gripped without sliding from the oily fluids of the animal. I have also found a grinding stone, both parts and a fossilized animal bladder of some kind that held fluids and has holes at the top where a cord was strung through it.

I consider these items as gifts from my ancestors. They are gifts that remind me of the thousands of generations that survived to create the person I am and the people around me. Holding them in my hand gives me a sense of pride in their intelligence and ingenuity. It causes me to ponder their struggles and hardships; yet they survived to create the generation that now lives on.