Any artIfact hunters in here?
I have been hunting Native American artifacts for years now.
For some reason this type of hobby fits the entrepreneur mindset.
Any other artifact enthusiasts here?
The farm that I grew up on in northwest Ohio was at the convergence of a river and a creek. It was believed there had been a native village there. We found A TON of artifacts over the years. Arrowheads, stone hatchet heads and pieces of tools and interesting stones. We even found an iron cannon ball.The nearby town also had a fort in the early 1800’s.
Between farming and flooding, many things made their way to the surface over the years.
One time we took what we had found into a specialist and he classified it for us. He was quite impressed. He said some of what we had was prehistoric, the one article was presumed to be some sort of deity or something they worshiped.
Dad kept it in an old tin cigar box in the living room closet with the rest of the stuff.
That may explain a lot of the jinxes I’ve had over the years. (JK)
2 Likes
Ohio has a great past of Native American history.
The main group was the Iroquois.
That is awesome you have family land with ancient Native American ties.
You should get back into looking for the forgotten artifacts.
Looks like you have a great area to search.
I never really looked for them. I always found them by accident or by me screwing off. Dad used to make me and my younger brother go out and hoe weeds out of the crops whenever we got on his nerves (which was a lot, BTW) LOL
My brother-in-law has done whatever he could to get out of spending time with us at family get togethers and he walks the crop rows. He always comes back smelling like weed, but man, he finds some really cool stuff. LOL
@KMP I definitely love searching for good stuff down here in the Charleston area…I’ve found arrow heads, musket balls…and I’ve found 50lbs or more of pieces of broken indian pots…I found a piece of a cannon ball down in St. Augustine while on vacation…but the sharks teeth around Summerville are where it’s at…there everywhere and huge I’ve got some the size of my hand…heres some picks of some indian artifacts we put in shadow boxes next to the fireplace
2 Likes
Beautiful pieces in that case!
Pottery is awesome to find, especially when they have designs on them.
I also have many sharks teeth and fossils from digs in my area.
1 Like
What do you know about that top one? I assume it’s an arrow head?
Cool 
1 Like
The top one is called a bird point which is essentially a small arrowhead.
Used for smaller game animals.
The bottom one would have been a spear tip used for larger game.
1 Like
@KMP we had a drought here about 12 years ago and the manmade lakes dryed up for like 3 monthes or more…the pottery was laying all over the place and all you had to do was get a permit to collect it…ended up with a bunch of good pieces.
2 Likes
That is a once in a lifetime opportunity…
How old are they? Roughly?
Those two pieces are roughly 1000 years old.
Early Woodland Period.
2 Likes
My in-laws live in Eddyville, KY on about 40 acres or so. About ten years ago my father-in-law and a friend were doing some skid steer work where he was putting in a round pen to train cutting horses. He found quite a few arrowheads, an axe, pottery, and I think even some kind of ceremonial piece. He has a bucket full of the stone chips leftover from where they made the arrowheads and tools. He still finds stuff to this day although not as much. It’s mainly because the horses and cattle are tearing up the area and then the rain washes the dirt away. He talked to a local researcher and he said it was likely a place they frequented to hunt. It’s on a small hill that overlooks a creek. We were down there once and our daughter who was 6 at the time found two arrowheads. One is a real nice one. I’ll post some pictures later on.
I was doing a bunch of dirt work and leveling in our yard and find a small piece of arrowhead. I could see where it broke and was clean so I know I missed most of it. I looked for a few hours but couldn’t find the rest. The serrated edges on that small piece are super sharp. I’m always looking at a small local river (more like a creek) when we take our dog down to play. The river is probably ten feet deep and raging during the spring so is constantly changing but you can walk 2/3 of the bed in the summer. People find all kinds of stuff down there and also when the farmers till the fields. I personally haven’t found much except for some broken pieces. I did find some kind of old petrified nut or something. It almost looks like a petrified hickory nut or something. I also found a fossilized tooth that I think is from a deer.
I’ve always heard there are artifacts everywhere. The example I heard was look at all the stuff humans have left behind over the last 50 years. Granted, the population is much larger now but imagine how much people have left behind over the last 200k years.
It really is an amazing feeling finding something that is likely thousands of years old and wondering who used last it and for what. I always picture someone sitting down and spending hours creating it or wondering if it actually took down a deer or something.
There was an article in a local paper here a few years back where a curator of the Department of Anthropology at the Smithsonian Institute was commenting on a cache of artifacts that were found on a farm here years ago. He said it was the most skillful work of stone flaking that has yet to be found in this country. (that could’ve changed by now though) The cache of artifacts were thought to be from the Hopewell culture which was 100 BC to 300 AD. The river I mentioned earlier runs right through the farm where all of the artifacts were found. There were a lot of different tribes around the area.
Sorry for the long type. Even just hearing about different artifacts is pretty neat.
Good thread.
2 Likes
If you found a couple legit chips (flakes from knapping) in your yard, there is def more.
Flakes usually are an indication of where knapping and tool making occurred.
Your property may be located on an ancient camp site!
All of the stone chips were found on my in-laws property in KY. I live in IL but did find a small piece of arrowhead in when leveling my yard a few years back.
The full size arrowhead is one our daughter found at my in-laws. She also found another one with a probably 1/4 of the tip broke off but my wife has it in her classroom right now.
I’m not sure what the rock thing is. I really think it’s a type of petrified nut or something. I posted on a fossil site a few years back and nobody knew. I believe the petrified tooth is either from a deer or bison.
2 Likes
I grew up in the Ozark mountains of northern Arkansas. My grandparents had a dairy farm. Anyways the milk cows would stay in a lot close to the barn mayb only a 20 acre lot but so many cows on it there was no grass. I walked that lot everyday for years as a kid and found a pocket full of arrowheads every time. Really found alot after a good rain. So many arrow heads on that place sometimes the cows would get them stuck in there hooves and my grandma would find them lodged there while milking in the barn. I literally have boxes and boxes of them at my parents house. At least I hope there still there
1 Like
Also found various other artifacts too.
Howdy, I caught the bug about five years back.
I have some fun stuff from the creek down the street from my house. Lots of artifacts from all periods. The Gault Site is less than an hour from my spot, although I have not found any clovis stuff…yet. lol
Here are a couple of nice Ensor points from a couple of years back:
We had a minor flood just day before yesterday so I am looking for some time to get out and have a look.
P.S. Very cool pottery sherds you have there. We don’t get hardly any of that around here as far as I know.
4 Likes
