Some good 2018 memories

2018 was another tough year for searching for arrowheads. In recent weeks I have spent hardly any time searching. Looking back at the things I found this year, I do have some nice memories. Here are the results of three good days from back in May and June.

On a Friday after work I visited a favorite spot. The weather was perfect, I was in a good mood and I have very many times had some luck on Friday evenings, starting my weekend. This one was really easy to spot.

Totally exposed and just waiting to be picked up.

I like the asymmetrical shape, with one strong and one weak shoulder. The shape of the base is somewhat suggestive of the Orient Fishtail type but I have found several quartz Lamoka and Squibnocket Stemmed points at this site.

There were some other fragments out there to find too. Pretty good for a short walk.

One morning after some heavy rain I stopped by another favorite spot. It didn't take long to spot this quartz stemmed point. This place has produced many Lamoka, Wading River and Squibnocket Stemmed points, mostly quartz with just a few made of argillite or quartzite.

This is a nice complete point, still sharp. It is small but thin and nicely made.

This was nearby.

It is the same shape as the other one, but thicker, a little chunky. The material is gray, a sort of smoky quartz. There is damage to the tip.

As usual, there were some broken points to find also. It is a good feeling to search for arrowheads and actually find something.

The best 2018 find I have to show is not even mine. It was found by my friend Dave, at a site he discovered. Earlier in the spring I had found some nice stemmed points made of interesting materials at this site, which I posted about here and here. Dave had found a big broken blade but not too much else this year. That all changed when he happened to see this. But was it damaged?

This beautiful Neville point is made of a striped felsite that I believe comes from Mattapan. I also have a nice Neville in this material from this site but this is the best point I have seen found there. This is about as nice of a point as someone in Massachusetts is likely to be able to find, in my opinion. I was happy for Dave and it was fun seeing this come out of the ground. Neville points appeared about 8,000 years ago, they seem to have been most common 6,000-7,000 years ago.

I hope everyone has a great New Year and finds plenty of whatever they are looking for in 2019!