Knights & Knaves Alehouse

Wheggi wrote:Wait a sec: you guys mean to tell me that you go walking around in the woods and find arrowheads used by indians a hundred years ago just laying around? I always figured them to be hard-to-find artifacts, not something you could go out and collect like sea glass.

- Wheggi

In Florida they tend to be located in certain areas near natural outcroppings of flint (terrestrial finds). Also you can find them in the rivers if you look carefully (some more easily then others, there are a couple in North Florida that are supposedly loaded). I have never found a point (though my sister is dating an avid point hunter who has found probably over 1000). I have found alot of pottery sherds, camel teeth, contact period glass, extinct animal bone, etc. diving the rivers (not really looking, and just off the surface, not fanning). But I'm not a collector personality and don't really have a good eye for it anyhow. I'm sure California is loaded with points and artifacts.

Here is a pic from one of the display cases of my sister's boyfriend (all from rivers). Pretty typical for a serious collector type.

Wheggi wrote:Wait a sec: you guys mean to tell me that you go walking around in the woods and find arrowheads used by indians a hundred years ago just laying around? I always figured them to be hard-to-find artifacts, not something you could go out and collect like sea glass.

- Wheggi

Oh yeah. There are lots of farm fields in Indiana which can be walked right after the soil is turned in the spring and once you get an eye for it, well, you know 'em when you see 'em. Huntin' Points is what the practice is called here.

francisca wrote:

Wheggi wrote:Wait a sec: you guys mean to tell me that you go walking around in the woods and find arrowheads used by indians a hundred years ago just laying around? I always figured them to be hard-to-find artifacts, not something you could go out and collect like sea glass.

- Wheggi

Oh yeah. There are lots of farm fields in Indiana which can be walked right after the soil is turned in the spring and once you get an eye for it, well, you know 'em when you see 'em. Huntin' Points is what the practice is called here.

Same here in Kansas. We have a small piece of river-bottom ground that has a slight rise to it which gives it a raised vantage point clear down to the river nearby. There's a older man in my home town that has found dozens if not hundreds of arrowheads all along that raised piece of land.

tacojohn4547 wrote:Same here in Kansas. We have a small piece of river-bottom ground that has a slight rise to it which gives it a raised vantage point clear down to the river nearby. There's a older man in my home town that has found dozens if not hundreds of arrowheads all along that raised piece of land.

Yeah, Kansas and western MO are great places for arrowheads. When I was in Scouts, I even found a couple of lanceheads (the kind the Oto and Osage used for hunting buffalo and deer) around the Fort Scott area.

Some of these points can go for big bucks if they aren't damaged and rare. We are talking $1,000s and higher.

AxeMental wrote:Some of these points can go for big bucks if they aren't damaged and rare. We are talking $1,000s and higher.

Yeah especially if you find a spear point.

AxeMental wrote:Angry Wizard, what types of points are you finding out there (any nice looking flint, Paleo, Holocene, inquirey minds want to know) ? You said you were looking on the ground. Have you done any river diving to look for points (any good rivers near you)? I always preferred the luster of points polished in water vs. those found on land.

So whats your best find, if you don't mind sharing?

PS I always worry I'll run into some pot growers field when I'm out hiking in the off trail back country and "disappear". One of the reasons I don't do that much anymore, and a great reason to carry a handgun with you (assuming you can in Texas).

wholly cow man, i really doubted anyone here would do this noise too.. my best find would probably be a corner tang... i have a ton, i mostly dig for them.. there everywhere down here where i live. even on the surface.

I have been doing it a long time, and i have dug some DEEP holes.. heres one of my cases, i have 3 or so, an all kinds of other stuff...heres also a pic of a mano an metate.. ( a grinding stone and the grinder.. kinda like a mortal an pestal)

and those are some nice ones yall got in the pics.. who found that smoking sediellia in that pic Dungeon dork?

THE ANGRY WIZARD wrote: and those are some nice ones yall got in the pics.. who found that smoking sediellia in that pic Dungeon dork?

My friend google images found it today.

DungeonDork wrote:

THE ANGRY WIZARD wrote: and those are some nice ones yall got in the pics.. who found that smoking sediellia in that pic Dungeon dork?

My friend google images found it today.

AHH.. well, thats a knife.. not a spear point.. thats a real common misconception.. i thought you found it, i was like WHOLLY HELL! that's a super smoker!
Oh, and axemetal.. those are some nice Florida pieces.. real nice!

Yeah, the he's got alot of his points published in many books.
You have a nice collection there. He was just visiting this weekend from Telehassee with a few points he found in an outcropping along a river. One looked very nice, he mentioned it would have been worth a good sum (in the 1000s) except for a small chip which made it worth like $50 maybe. The chip missing probably came off during hunting when the point hit bone. Its funny how that to me would make it seem worth more.

So you just dig holes in the ground to find points? Surely you have some way of knowing where to dig? Also, how do you avoid damaging the points with your digging tools?

AxeMental wrote:Yeah, the he's got alot of his points published in many books.
You have a nice collection there. He was just visiting this weekend from Telehassee with a few points he found in an outcropping along a river. One looked very nice, he mentioned it would have been worth a good sum (in the 1000s) except for a small chip which made it worth like $50 maybe. The chip missing probably came off during hunting when the point hit bone. Its funny how that to me would make it seem worth more.

So you just dig holes in the ground to find points? Surely you have some way of knowing where to dig? Also, how do you avoid damaging the points with your digging tools?

well.. i follow the general rule of " where theres water.. there were people.. " .. i have been doing it for a long time, and i just kinda know how to find the camps now days.. i dig basically there kitchen, and were they were living... i use a small little swing pick called a Paleo Pick.. i have hit a few, but i take out large chunks of dirt at a time.. so its a little harder to break them.. im actually going out to a new spot tomorrow i have yet to dig... so maybe i will find some good stuff.. il let yall know if i do any good.

Good luck Angry Wizard. Yep take pics if you find anything.

i was working on locating a new camp today.. i found it.. but it has been flooded out... BUT there is some stuff to dig left.. found this one Nolan.. its Early Archaic.. so about 8000 years old.. its a heart breaker with the tip gone.... she was only about 6 in deep.

wicked!

DungeonDork wrote:wicked!

thanks.. shes a biggie..