Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,456
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Post by Sabre52 on Jan 31, 2009 13:57:23 GMT -5
Howdy folks, Working for the Agricultural Dept, I was often able to get permission to access private ranches to scout about and see what rock goodies I could find. Mainly I was looking for rocks but as you know, where there's rocks, you often find lots of Amerind stuff too. Anyway, here are a few pics from my collection. Thanks for looking....Mel a Riker of tiny points from all over. Most well under one inch in length. Some folks call these bird points but really, these are normal sized arrowheads and most the large ones you see are often dart or spear points as they're too heavy for tipping arrows. Knife blades of obsidian and basalt from NE. Calif. The big arrowhead is some kind of ceremonial point about 4inches long. At one point I was able to hunt a ranch owned by a college buddy near Clear lake, Calif and there was also a resort there that allowed private property collecting. Lots of the points there are leaf shaped and nasty looking with toothed margins: Some misc big artifacts including an agate crescent, a big jasper lance point my dad gave me and a couple of Texas points. The bottom center flint piece I found just last week while on a walk here on the ranch. Finally, my favorites, paleo points all more than 6-8000 years old and used mainly as atlatl dart points. The white ones and the green one are from a buddy's cotton field in the bed of ancient Lake Tulare in California's central valley. The big obsidian one lower left is from Christmas Lake Valley, Oregon. The top three are from my friend's ranch in Pope Valley, Calif. ( good poppy jasper there too) and the broken one upper left is a Borax Lake Point, only one I've even found a partial of, from a walnut orchard near Clear Lake, CA.
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Jan 31, 2009 14:24:17 GMT -5
Nice collection Mel!
How do you determine the age of the points? Their design is similar to the more recent ones in other photos. Is it just the location and/or depth?
Chuck
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,456
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Post by Sabre52 on Jan 31, 2009 16:47:26 GMT -5
Howdy Chuck, Of course age is kind of an unknown unless you have a stratified site, obsidian hydration dating if of obsidian etc, but the paleo stuff shown here is from an area where there's been a lot of research done so you can kind of tell what you're getting. At the Lake Tulare site there are more modern points too and even paleo stuff that's been resharpened etc but the old points from there have a thick patina, differ in technique, and are found in conjunction with permineralized bones that are almost fossilized. Plus, my buddy, the cotton grower had a massive collection with many well represented identified paleo point types. Big massive pieces with wide bases too that obviously were either spear or dart points, not arrowheads. Now at other sites where you just make finds from hunting losses or hunt stream banks, aside from actual testing of the obsidian, it would be darn hard to tell a spear point from a dart point unless it was manufactured with some well known technique and form ie. Folsum, Clovis, Gypsum Cave etc....Mel
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Saskrock
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since October 2007
Posts: 1,852
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Post by Saskrock on Feb 1, 2009 16:56:07 GMT -5
Great collection, thanks for sharing.
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Post by Lady B on Feb 1, 2009 23:10:36 GMT -5
What a magnificent collection, Mel! I envy you so many of your myriad experiences. Collecting these, and being able to garner info on their historical significance/age - that is simply wonderful!!!!
Thanks so much for sharing, not only the pix, but your knowledge as well!
Kate
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Post by bobby1 on Feb 2, 2009 9:53:17 GMT -5
Mel, Beautiful and interesting stuff! I grew up??? on a farm in the Tulelake Basin and my dad was a farmer there since 1934 so we found a lot of arrowheads and spear points as well as mortar and pestles, grinding rocks, bowls and such. A close freind of my dad's was a surveyor for the BLM and he had thousands of arrowheads and such. Did you ever read any of Carroll Howe's books on the indigenous Indians in that area? They were very informative on the Paleo Indians and their various tools. Bob
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Sabre52
Cave Dweller
Me and my gal, Rosie
Member since August 2005
Posts: 20,456
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Post by Sabre52 on Feb 2, 2009 13:02:47 GMT -5
Bobby: Yep, I have Howe's "Ancient Tribes of the Klamath Country" in my library along with a few others. I gave away most my Indian library to an archeologist for her reference collection before I left for Texas. Books weigh a ton *L* and I had too many to pack. Figured she'll get more use out of them as most were California oriented. My dad got the big lance point he gave me near Tulelake because he used to deer hunt some areas up that way. Good petrified wood and agate near there too. It is great country for arrowhead hunting all right. Lots over by Davis Creek too. One of my college Profs worked for BLM too and like you said, that's a job that yields a ton of arrowheads if you don't mind breaking the law a bit. He put me onto the Fort Rock Valley/Christmas Lake area for hunting points. One of the reasons I didn't hunt except on private property was, in California at least, the Antiquities Act enforcement folks are taking arrowhead hunting real seriously now and judges are levying some serious fines and sentences for law breakers. A buddy of my was busted for wandering off a private ranch onto Govt land up by Pit River and had a collection worth over 100k confiscated, was fined, and narrowly escaped jail time. I thought it was kind of a dirty trick because he was hunting the ranch with permission and it was not fenced (only cattle guards) and he was not aware he strayed over the border. Bad luck for him that a ranger happened to be watching him through binocs. Oh well, thank God Texas is arrowhead hunter friendly and most is private land *S*...Mel
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Post by Hard Rock Cafe on Feb 2, 2009 14:34:34 GMT -5
Thanks Mel! Good explanation, as always. :-)
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MidNight~Rocksi3
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since January 2008
Posts: 1,716
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Post by MidNight~Rocksi3 on Feb 2, 2009 14:43:56 GMT -5
Oh man that is a beautiful collection! I sure do like looking at them.. hard to believe they are that old.. they are in great shape! and you do a helleva job with the way you display them.. Great pics!
*smiles* Roxy
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,681
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Post by Fossilman on Feb 3, 2009 20:45:39 GMT -5
Great collection!!!! Hope you have these insured!
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franzibear
starting to spend too much on rocks
Let's rock
Member since October 2008
Posts: 139
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Post by franzibear on Feb 3, 2009 21:17:10 GMT -5
Well, you certainly put my finds to shame. Mostly novaculite points from central arkansas. Unfortunately, WAY more of my points are partials rather than whole. Still, it's a pretty material. Yeah, and Texas is the absolute center of pay-dig sites in the country--the only place I know of where such commercial ventures are legal.
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bushmanbilly
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2008
Posts: 4,719
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Post by bushmanbilly on Feb 16, 2009 12:58:08 GMT -5
Nice points, and thanks for the info on bird points.
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