Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Last finds in June

Last week on Thursday I had some spare time after work and decided to go out searching for Indian artifacts. I went back to a sandy place I had searched earlier in the week, I had carefully scoured most of the place but there were a few small areas that I had not explored, and we had had some rain since my previous visit. The places I had not thoroughly searched were mostly low spots where I had not noticed a lot of chips and flakes from tool maintenance and manufacture, but given enough time I will search absolutely anywhere near where Indians might have lived, there is always the chance of a find. The first low spot I checked was really sandy, I saw this peeking out of the grassy earth.
Finds like this, as I have said, are so exciting. I feared that it would be broken but this time I was lucky again, it was amazing watching the triangular blade and tip emerge from the soil.
I think this might be what is called a Snook Kill projectile point, dating from the late Archaic. It appears to have been made mostly with percussion flaking. I think the material is hornfels. This is among my best finds ever. In a different spot I noticed this:
I was amazed to pick it up and find it to be a "Turkey Tail" point, my first like this. It is very thick and made of rhyolite or felsite. Here are all my finds from the evening, there are a couple of quartz arrowhead fragments, and a nicely made scraper made from a very fine material, also a few clay pipe pieces, from Colonial times.



1 comment :

  1. Holy smokes Chris! What a day you had to make up for the "broken streak".

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