Collecting native artifacts and arrowhead question

[mikez2]

1 hour ago, clambellies said:

Gregwa nailed it.  If you want to see what insitu arrowheads look like eroding out, go to Y T and do a search for Coastal Mass Artifacts.  I've uploaded a 5 minute video of some of the points that I found along Mass beaches and marshes.  F B has a great NE forum called New England/Northeast Native American Artifacts  Where collectors post pics and info of their latest finds.

That's the group I like too.

FB keeps suggesting a bunch of other groups but they're usually too big and too poorly moderated and too oriented to the areas where the hunting is easier.

We have to work harder for the stuff that's left around here.

 

I still haven't found anything good in streams or on the coast. 90% of everything I find is in farm fields. The rest is random spots where erosion has exposed them.

[Jeff270]

35 mins ago, mikez2 said:

What you described I call "getting the search image" in your head.

Once you get that search image, your brain subconsciously recognizes even the tiniest corner of what your looking for.

And you don't turn it on or off once you aquire it.

That's why I spot points walking down a trail to go look for snakes.

Or spot an old bottle in stream gravel while looking for trout.

Or a tiny section of the coil of a snake while walking down a trail to go look for points.

All of those search images were acquired. At one time I would have walked right by those things.

It's amazing how quick it happens after you find your first one.

This reminds me of spotting deer!   My wife can't understand how I can spot a deer 20 yds in the woods while driving down the road.  I just see them!

[mikez2]

8 mins ago, Jeff270 said:

This reminds me of spotting deer!   My wife can't understand how I can spot a deer 20 yds in the woods while driving down the road.  I just see them!

Yup.

Another example is the hawks perched along the highway. On road trips my boys and I count the hawks for the fun of it. 10 - 15 redtails is typical for the ride up to my parents place in Maine.

Whenever someone else rides with us, at first they think we're faking. They can't even see the ones we try to point out to them. Eventually they see enough to admit we're not making it up but usually they can only spot the easy ones on their own. 

Often times, later on, those same people tell me ever since that ride, all of a sudden they see hawks everywhere. 

[bob_G]

10 mins ago, Jeff270 said:

This reminds me of spotting deer!   My wife can't understand how I can spot a deer 20 yds in the woods while driving down the road.  I just see them!

Me too!   My wife says the same thing.  Sometimes when we're out picking mushrooms, I'll see a portion of a deer in a stand of small trees and point it out to her. After a few minutes she'll finally see it.

She say " how did you ever notice that?"

I'll reply I've been hunting deer for over 50 years.

[bdowning]

Saw an interesting video online recently from the Brewster Historical Society. It was short and shows a number of artifacts found in and around town. Helpful to see these things in either museums or online before seriously conducting a search.

 

Ive found a couple of broken projectile points in Brewster in a very public area where i least expected to see them. Wouldn't be my first choice for an artifact search but sometimes you get lucky.

 

Ive also found flint projectile points in the midwest but that was like fish in a barrel. It was in a well known ancient flint quarry used for eons by native americans. The stuff was literally scattered all over the surface, most of it flintknapping and flake discards. 

[zak-striper]

I bet if one reads some (history) books on Massachusetts Indian tribes, trying to focus on where they settled, where their travel routes were, or where the location of any big battles occurred, you could probably greatly increase your odds by being able to better focus where to look.

[richie c]

My dad found a sabre tooth tiger fang and that same year a very nice spear point. Dad was supposed to retire but he couldnt seem to stop working. For a few yrs he worked at a private GC in Mon Co. and thats where the fang and spear point came from along with hundreds of shark teeth that were just laying in piles along a man made irrigation pond.

[Sudsy]

5 hours ago, gregwa said:

Once you learn what you have to be looking for thing start to poke out at you. Its called disassociation.

I've brought a sharks tooth with me when I've gone looking for sharks teeth.

Drop in on the beach, and study it for a moment - now they're easier to sort out from the rest of the debris on the beach.

Same principle, never knew it had a name "disassociation"

[Sudsy]

27 mins ago, richie c said:

My dad found a sabre tooth tiger fang

For a few yrs he worked at a private GC in Mon Co

 

Awesome !!

What county was the fang?

I'm in Monmouth near Big Brook. Sharks teeth and Belemnitella tubes are common, anything mammalian not so much.

Edited March 17 by Sudsy

[richie c]

4 mins ago, Sudsy said:

Awesome !!

What county was the fang?

I'm in Monmouth near Big Brook. Sharks teeth and Belemnitella tubes are common, anything mammalian not so much.

I've been at your place

[bob_G]

1 hour ago, zak-striper said:

I bet if one reads some (history) books on Massachusetts Indian tribes, trying to focus on where they settled, where their travel routes were, or where the location of any big battles occurred, you could probably greatly increase your odds by being able to better focus where to look.

In the town of New Braintree, right off the side of the road,  there are two granite monuments dedicated to battles with Native Americans.  Next time I'm out that way I'll photograph them.

An interesting footnote, my friend's favorite artifact area is but a half mile as the crow flies.  So you're probably right zak, this area is rich in artifacts.

[bdowning]

Read up on King Phillips War (the book by Tougias and Schulz gives battle locations, many pretty specific). Numerous sites all over Mass and RI. 

[mikez2]

6 mins ago, bdowning said:

Read up on King Phillips War (the book by Tougias and Schulz gives battle locations, many pretty specific). Numerous sites all over Mass and RI. 

I don't think battle sites are very productive for Indian artifacts. Possibly metal detection would be the way to go there. 

 

Town and village locations are the most productive. Those were usually found close to source of freshwater, and more less level ground, above the typical flood and often in sheltered, south facing exposure. 

 

Of course that also describes the first places the colonists settled and cities and towns subsequently grew.

Countless archeological sites lie under developed areas.

 

Around here, you have to take what you can get for sites to hunt. That's one of the challenges. 

Of course the biggest challenge is the stuff is buried underground. Digging isn't much of an option, except maybe on private property. 

That's why we hunt agricultural fields. The plow turns the stuff up. Unfortunately, competition is fierce. Nowadays, for me anyway, the most common thing I find are the footprints of the guy who got there before me.

[zak-striper]

57 mins ago, bob_G said:

In the town of New Braintree, right off the side of the road,  there are two granite monuments dedicated to battles with Native Americans.  Next time I'm out that way I'll photograph them.

An interesting footnote, my friend's favorite artifact area is but a half mile as the crow flies.  So you're probably right zak, this area is rich in artifacts.

 

Indian tribes lived there for approx. 9,000 years. That's amazing. There must be a lot of evidence of their time there.

 

[mikez2]

13 mins ago, zak-striper said:

 

Indian tribes lived there for approx. 9,000 years. That's amazing. There must be a lot of evidence of their time there.

 

The whole coastal area of southern New England was inhabited for at least that long.

There are areas even older that are now under the sea.

I remember reading or hearing an archeologist saying there was most likely significant archeological sites in every town in Rhode Island. 

I believe that would also apply to the towns in southeastern Ma.

 

Edit: Just realized new Braintree is not coastal. I'm an idiot. Nevermind. 

Edited March 17 by mikez2