Two triangular arrowheads from southeastern Massachusetts

Here are a couple of finds from last year, that I hadn't posted. This triangular quartz arrowhead was easy to spot. I could see that it was damaged.

It is fairly well made, with nice edges and a symmetrical shape. It's missing the tip. I find many more damaged points, than whole ones. But any find is a good find for me.

This was not far away. The material looks interesting, and the part visible above the ground appeared undamaged.

But, this one is missing the tip too. I think the material is felsite.

Certainly better than going home empty-handed as I do so often (including the day on which I am writing this). These are very representative finds from this part of Massachusetts, in my opinion.

Gansett Sites

 Went for a walk in Woods Hole (up Mast Rd) and saw a small piece of woods with a rock above the surface:

 

There's got to be some rock piles up in there  - I thought. As it turns out, every low bump you see in the above or below pictures is a rock pile (eg at the foot of the tree above). That's what rock piles look like most of the time around here - not large monumental cairns. 

I have now found small sites at several points along the edge of the Golf Course. We can suspect that the whole area was once rock piles. There are more, further east.

More quartz artifacts from this year

 These photos are from a nice weekend day at the end of May. I went to a favorite place in southeastern Massachusetts and was really pleased to see this projectile point, fully exposed, waiting to be picked up.

 

This is what I would call a Squibnocket Stemmed point. Others might simply call it "small stemmed." The material is typical. This one is somewhat unusual in that it has one shoulder. I have found a few like this.

I left this place and drove south into Rhode Island, to another place I know. The conditions weren't great but there were quartz flakes visible here and there. I bent down to pick up a barely exposed flake, and was surprised and elated to see this pop out of the ground. This was right after I picked it up. That clean bit on the left side of the base is the only part that had been peeking out of the ground.

I really like this shape, with the square stem. I don't have many like this and it's unusual for me to find one that is not broken.

 

I found some other fragments too. Another lucky day.

Quartz artifacts from Rhode Island

 I haven't posted anything here in a long time. I've got a lot of finds to post and I hope to get back to posting here again more regularly.

These photos are from an evening in June. It was a Friday after work, which is a favorite time for me to get out and look for stuff. I feel like I have good luck on Friday evenings, and a good find is a great way to start my weekend. On this particular evening it had rained hard and I wanted to go to a place I know where there is lots to find. Other people search for artifacts in this place as well, so I was happy to get there and see no fresh footprints. Most of the stuff I find at this site is broken, with many or most of the artifacts likely having been discarded during the production process. I did find a lot of broken stuff on this occasion. In this photo there are artifacts ranging from crude bifaces that were likely preforms or discarded production pieces, to fragments of finely pressure flaked tools. Over 99 percent of the artifacts I find at this site are made from quartz.

 

I saw this interesting looking broken edge and snapped a picture. It looked pretty big, I thought it might be a big flake or perhaps a broken tool. 

 

But, it wasn't broken. The shape of this, I would call a Levanna. It doesn't show any pressure retouch to the edges, or any use wear, as far as I can tell. Perhaps this piece was not satisfactory to the maker and was discarded.

 

 I found these crude, thick bifaces too. I think things like this are really interesting. I have seen them described as preforms, and "choppers." There is a lot of marine shell at this place. I wonder what kinds of tools were used to open clam shells?

I took this photo on the way out. It was getting dark, thunder could be heard in the distance. We had so much rain in June and early July. I wish we had had that rain in the spring- but I made the most of the weather anyway. This photo is so representative of the last many months for me- a handful of artifacts tucked into a Covid mask from my pocket.

 

Here is that nice big artifact cleaned up at home. I'm not even sure I can call this a projectile point. It's really pretty, though.

 

It's thin, too. It's hard to find something like this, in this size, in this disturbed setting.

Here is the best of the day's finds, cleaned up. It was a good and lucky day for me. I hope everyone is having a great summer and staying healthy.

Cape Cod Museum of Natural History

 

An exhibit devoted to conventional archeology. The museum owns a few nice points but, off-hand, I would say their collection - as displayed -  is not as good as mine or Chris Pittman's.

I went to the museum hoping to see the mammoth tooth. They have changed the signage which used to say the tooth was around 12 thousand years old. Now it says that it is from the "Pleistocene" which ended around 12 thousand years ago. Much better!