Alibates Flint Quartz

During a survey of the Alibates Flint Quarries with Bob, Chris, Paul Katz and Arlene Wimer in August, 2009, I came across this fragment of flint with quartz inclusions along one edge. It was one of the more amazing pieces of Alibates flints I've seen, after going through thousands of pieces at the Panhandle Plains Historical Museum over the past few years.

It is not an artifact as such, but surely if such pieces were encountered by the original excavators they must have have thought what came to my mind...this could make a hell of a nice piece!


This is another view along the quartz edge, showing the almost amethyst like qualities of these crystals. What a beauty! (Click on the pictures for a larger image...}

Here we see the pale blue banding of the flint along one side which blends seamlessly with the translucent crystals on top.

A slightly different view of the same piece, with a centimeter marker to give it some measure of it's size; it was a fistul! In retrospect a picture of the otherside was unfortunately not taken, largely due to the excitement we felt at this discovery.

Paul, who did the original survey of the site and which we were rechecking with GPS readings, and Arlene, the Ranger who accompanied us on this survey, both acknowledged never seeing such a piece before. And since the policy at this monument is strict in that nothing can be removed from this National Monument, it was handed over to Arlene, hopefully for display at the headquarters. Everyone should get a chance to see this beauty!