End Scraper

An end scraper is a small flake tool with a steep, rounded working edge (the bit) at one end. Most are made on medium to large flakes, often slightly curved in side view, and are trimmed to a triangular, rectangular or rounded outline; some writers call them thumb scrapers. The underside is usually the flat, unflaked face of the original flake (Bell 1980; Morrow 2016).

The bit was made by striking a row of short flakes from one face, usually at the end opposite the striking platform, which leaves a thick, steep edge that resists breaking. The sides were often trimmed and the butt thinned so the tool would sit in a handle, such as an L-shaped piece of elk antler on the northern Plains. Fine-grained and heat-treated cherts were preferred (Morrow 2016).

Use-wear studies and ethnographic accounts show that most were used to scrape and soften hides; some also worked wood, bone or antler. Each resharpening removes about 1 mm, so heavily used scrapers become short and stubby, and the bit edge can be visibly rounded and dulled (Morrow 2016). The key trait is a steep, convex scraping edge retouched from one face across the end of a flake.

Length 17.0–42.2 mm (complete specimens, n = 17); width 13.0–29.0 mm (mean 20.3 mm, n = 27); maximum thickness 4.3–12.9 mm (mean 7.6 mm, n = 10); bit angle mean 64 degrees (Brink 1978, Smoky site, west-central Alberta). Late Paleoindian to Early Archaic end scrapers from the Hardaway site, North Carolina, are larger: length 24.7–63.9 mm (mean 44.7 mm), width 19.2–45.1 mm (mean 31.3 mm), thickness 5.9–20.0 mm (mean 9.9 mm) (n = 26, UNC Research Laboratories of Archaeology catalog). Bell (1980) gives 20–60 mm as the usual length of Oklahoma scrapers.

Found across North America. Especially plentiful on the Plains and in Texas at sites where bison were hunted and hides processed (Bell 1980; Texas Beyond History).

Identification tips: Look for a flat underside, a steep edge chipped from the top face only at one end, and trimmed sides that taper toward the butt. Smoothing or rounding along the bit is wear from use.

Similar types: Side Scraper has its working edge along a long side, not the end. Spurred End Scraper is an end scraper with one or two small, sharp projections at the corners of the bit. Edgefield Scraper is a named Early Archaic hafted scraper with a notched base. Hafted end scrapers reworked from broken points keep the point's stem or notches and can be dated by that point type (Morrow 2016). Gunflints are square to rectangular, about 25 by 30 mm, and came with European firearms (Boen and Williams 2022).

Naming: Also written endscraper; also called thumb scraper (Brink 1978; Morrow 2016). Bell (1980) describes the classic form as spoon-shaped.

Dating evidence: Common in Paleoindian assemblages. In Kentucky, hafted end scrapers made from reworked points are common on Middle and Late Archaic sites, and bone beamers largely replaced chipped scrapers for hide work in the Early Woodland (Pollack 2008). In Texas, small end scrapers mark Late Prehistoric Toyah bison-hunting sites.