| 5 thumbnail scrapers | -Inverleigh, VIC |  |
The collection contains 5 thumbnail or discoidal scrapers, all of which are approximately 2-3cms in diameter. They got their name because they resemble the size and shape of a human thumbnail.
Thumbnail scrapers are produced from a core. It is made from a flake, with either one or two working edges that have usually been retouched. Apart from the distinctive thumbnail scraper, many scrapers are irregular in size and shape but they still conform to a consistent and distinctive tool type.
Scrapers are generally located across Australia and were an important part of the South East Australian small tool tradition. They also are part of the Eastern Regional Sequence.
Implement Type distribution chart
(McCarthy, 1976: p95)
Most of the thumbnail scrapers in the collection are made from chert. It has been suggested that the thumbnail scraper and other scrapers were probably hafted onto wooden implements making them easier to control due to their small size.
Man scraping a wooden implement
(McCarthy, 1976: p32)
Scrapers were mainly used for woodworking duties such as, cutting branches and vegetation and for goughing and planing wooden implements. But because of their versatile size and ability to be hafted, scrapers would have been used in many utilitarian activities and would have been an important part of the Aboriginal stone tool kit.
