Stone tool type
Hammerstone
Hammerstone13,000 - 300 B.P.Used by Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian, Plains Village, Ancestral Puebloan, and nearly every other cultural group in North America.5 reference photos
Key facts
- Age
- 13,000 - 300 B.P.
- Cultural period
- Used by Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian, Plains Village, Ancestral Puebloan, and nearly every other cultural group in North America.
- Size
- Small to Medium
- Shape
- Handheld percussive stone tool used for direct or indirect percussion.
- Glacial period
- Late Pleistocene to Late Holocene
More from the Paleo, Archaic, Woodland, Mississippian periods
Description
A hammerstone is a naturally rounded or intentionally shaped stone used for striking, pecking, cracking, or flaking other stones or materials. They often served as the primary tool for knapping projectile points and bifaces, breaking bones for marrow extraction, pounding nuts or seeds, or shaping wood. Hammerstones are usually made from durable stones such as quartzite, granite, basalt, dense sandstone, chert, or river cobbles. Unlike mauls, hammerstones are handheld and not hafted.
Size
Typical sizes range from 5 to 15 cm (2 to 6 inches) in diameter, depending on the intended use. Shapes vary but are often rounded, ovoid, or slightly flattened. Many hammerstones show distinct wear patterns such as pitted surfaces, battering scars, crushing marks, and step-fractures. Some have one or two concentrated “pecking zones,” while others are evenly worn around the entire circumference. Weight typically ranges from a few ounces to over a pound. Fine-grained stones were used for delicate flaking, while coarse stones were used for heavy pounding.
Distribution
Hammerstones are found across all of North America in virtually every archaeological context. They occur in the Eastern Woodlands, Great Plains, Southwest, Great Basin, Pacific Northwest, Arctic/Subarctic, and Canadian Shield regions. Their distribution includes campsites, quarries, villages, rock shelters, kill sites, and lithic workshops. Because they were used in the production of stone tools, hammerstones are most common near raw material sources such as river cobble bars, chert outcrops, and quarry areas.
Additional information
Hammerstones were essential for stone tool production, including the manufacture of projectile points, scrapers, knives, drills, celts, axes, and adzes. They were also used for crushing pigments, cracking nuts, breaking open bones, loosening roots, and shaping wood or bone. Their extreme durability makes them one of the most commonly recovered artifacts. Archaeologists can often identify specific tasks by examining impact scars, pitting, and wear. Hammerstones were sometimes recycled; broken ones could be used as flake cores, and spent cores could then become hammerstones. Their ubiquity makes them key indicators of prehistoric tool-making activity.