Some Native American Artifacts

reply to post by stompk


An ax? I never thought of it that way, cool thanks for the info!

Thanks to all the kind comments, ironicly when I mentioned how it would be nice to learn how these things were made, and posted the thread,

Oneshot1 started a thread on Ancient Life Ways in the survival forum,where this member is starting to explain how these items are made!! Check it out if interested

I am still hoping that an expert can try and put a timeline on when the points in my collection could have been made.

reply to post by Realtruth


You just beat me to the joke, "I am not sure if the shiny one with the date on it is really an arrow head, look at the date on it?"

But seriously, when holding these things I imagine hundreds of years ago, some man sitting around a fire, talking and laughing as he makes his hunting arrow points. To hold something that connects us to so long ago is thrilling.

Great find !

I saqw a very old navajo making an arrowhead near winslow in AZ he used a dear antler to make the cutting edge i was amazed how expert and fast he had done it, he told me when someone finds an arrowhead in the desert if you kneel next to it it can tell you its story i never did try because all i ever saw was hopi pottery and would never touch it, he also told me where you find the arrowhead is were the prey lay or disguarded and all that is left after many hundreds of years is the arrowhead everything else has been eaten or decomposed to leave them on that spot.

if you ever travel along Highway 40 past meteor crater the next turnoff is called two guns right on the canyon diablo it is abandoned now underneath is a cave that cuts off into thin narrow passagways which allegedly go off towards an underground base near winslow, anyhow a story that gets told a lot is the story of that cave and how the apache used to raid navajo settlements and steal women, the navajo would persue but the apache would vanish, one day a mother and son searching for berries in the canyon diablo witnessed the apache go into the cave at two guns and ran to tell the navajo party chasing them, the navajo apparently covered the entrance with bushes and wood and set fire, the apache where said to have killed their horses and used the blood to try and dowse the fire, now im not sure if the story is just a legend, what i do know is that in the 60's the owner of two guns reopened the cave and was supposed to have put on display a lot of human skulls and bones he found in the cave, two guns back then was a small zoo on route 66 but now as i said it is abandoned and accesable.

Warning if you go to see the cave there is a mountain lion lives in the area so dont go alone and be careful. when you get to two guns just climb down into the canyon its pretty easy and the cave is right under the site..

reply to post by JacKatMtn


i am an archaeologist, so i thought i might give you a little more info on what you got, just from looking at them. I am not completely familiar with east coast archaeology, but i have done a little work there in the past. so...

what you generally have there are probably Archaic Period (6,000 BC -
1,000 BC ), and are usually characterized by their stems and side notching at the base of the points. The larger stemmed ones are not actually arrow heads, but more likely spear points that were used in conjunction with an atlatl, as that Native Americans do not adopt bow and arrow technology until a littler later in the Woodland Period. The smaller points and the pottery most likely date to the Woodland Period (1,000 BC -1300 AD).

Pottery isn't adopted by Native Americans on the east coast until generally around the end of the Late Archaic into the Early Woodland. The smaller points are most likely arrow points, since they are much smaller. Pottery also signals the change is subsistence patterns from hunting and gathering to a more sedentary way of life, and the introduction of agriculture.

check out this book, it has lots of stuff about your area.

Dent, Richard J.
1995 Chesapeake Prehistory: Old Traditions
New Directions. Plenum Press. New York.

Scweet finds, I have a collection also on shelves and in case's and boxes and piled on this desk even hehehe, mostly personal finds of mine but also some fine Anasazi pottery I bought(handle one vessel made by those peoples and you are hooked for some of your own unless you have no soul hehehe). There is alot to be learned from ancient americans and how they moved through their world, Thanks for the look...Please re-think giving to any museum or Uni. they will be stored in a cardboard box and NEVER seen again, better to give to a good friend....The longer stemmed ones on right side are Savannah Rivers, late archaic to woodland, 5000-2000 years before present, the small triangle is a Clarksville, late pre-historic, 1000-500 bp., the diamond shaped critter in bottom row is a Morrow Mountian, Middle archaic, 7000-5000bp., the little triangle dude up top row left looks Dalton/Alamance ish which date to late paleo to early archaic, 10,000 to 8200 years ,but could be some type of triangle???... Your pottery shards are the early type, cant remember the name. Sand was used as temper for pottery, when fired it would strengthen the vessel. Crushed Shell and fired crushed pottery was also used by some culture's to temper the pottery....Another Glorious Day to Excel...Oh the bigger blade on left is a preform, they would make a bunch of these to make carrying easyer then as needed pressue flake into wanted shape, they were also used as is for a "quick" knife.

[edit on 11-10-2007 by Oneshot1]

In an archeology class I took in college everyone tried their hand at knocking out arrowheads. Ever since then I have had a big respect for the Stone Age folk who were able to do good arrowhead and spear work. Of course, there was no TV to watch in the evenings, so they had a lot of time to practice and get good at it.

Still, it takes a surprising amount of "artistic" skill to figure out which rock to work on and exactly how and where to hit that rock to get it to flake off just right. After an hour or so, my hands were all cut and bruised, I had bits of rock in my eyes, and the arrowheads I made just looked terrible. If I were to use them to hunt, I'm sure I would have starved to death in no time. Fortunately, some of my distant ancestors must have figured it out, or I wouldn't be here today.

Try it yourself! I would recommend wearing good gloves and protective goggles, though.

nice collection, i used to have a few pieces from the banks of the missouri river along the ND/SD border. i had a hand grinder and my prize piece was a groved maul head. lost them in a move once, very unhappy.

nice collection though, always a reminder to keep looking around

reply to post by parrhesia


No Fair! I grew up in Muskoka...never found any...
I do however have a couple of small beads I found in the Orillia area, that are stone,and very intricate that I found at our farm house when we lived there.

reply to post by xianh



Thanks for the information!!

Wow, just thinking that some of these items might be from thousands of years ago and could still be used today if needed. Talk about quality

I will try and find a copy of that book !

Originally posted by Oneshot1
The little triangle dude up top row left looks Dalton/Alamance ish which date to late paleo to early archaic, 10,000 to 8200 years ,but could be some type of triangle???...

10,000 that's a shocker, that one's base is different in that it looks to be ground smooth instead of being left sharp after flaking.

I have other shapes which are interesting but incomplete/broken, I will try and get some of these images posted in the near future.

Since there was some interest in these things, I took a pic of other pieces which have not quite made the trip through history as well as the first pics.

There are other materials and shapes in this one.

Heavey grinding on the base's is one of the sign's of it bring a paleo point... The 3rd and 6th ones top row are more Daltonish looking ones... middle row stemmed critters look to be Adena, late archaic to woodland, 3000-1200 before present...The other's...???? very nice just the same and Thanks for showing your finds, alot can be learned from the broken one's even , like was it broke in use? or after, was damage caused by impact(blade hitting somthing, or snapped from mis-use). Those broke Daltons and Adena's tell you that the site they came off of was used by man for around 10,000 years off and on by many different culture's last passed through, must have been a great spot to live, Lots of water, game and good furtile land. Just about anyplace you look in America you will find Indian artifacts, river valley's, stream banks, plowed fields, construction sites, man-made lakes, ridges, mesa's, hill tops, anywhere there is turned earth there is the chance of finding relics...Thanks again for the look..... And reallly....Think twice about the donation to any Museum or Uni.... Given to a friend that will value them for your memory... Not stored in a cardboard-box never to be seen, and then crushed to dust in 20 years when more storeage is needed...

reply to post by Oneshot1



I may have to rethink the donation deal after your description of what could happen to them.

I have the perfect area for finding these types of items, very low traffic, little development, mountains, a river,

Wildlife galore and since I love my little piece of land I would be foolish to think that I discovered it.

It must have been a frequent stopover for the native Americans.

Sometimes I wonder who really enjoyed the good life...

Simple pleasures

Are they not the best..

Yes JacKat those simple pleasure's are the best......A good camp site 5000 years ago is mostly still a great place today, and homes and yards now cover alot of ancient sites, it's very common for folk's to find relic's in their gardens.

Nice collection.
Personally i mostly have fossils from the cretacious and older.

sorry if its a bit large, but i found this while the land was being cleared out to build my house. Before my house was built the entire area was woods. And if it is a native american artifact, whoever left it, almost had to have came in from a river that is about 3 to 4 miles from where I found it. ALso, the only close by place I know of where this type rock can be found.

Not sure what it is, I guess a fishing weight or heating stone?? I have no idea, but it makes a nice display on my table. I found four obvious arrow heads as well made out of the white colored rock in the same area I found this thing.



[edit on 30-10-2007 by SCtrey99]

[edit on 30-10-2007 by Jbird]

SCtray 99...That is a Pendant, it doesnt look like it was made in that shape, Just a picked up river stone with a hole drilled in it (flint drilled), there is a thought that the Abo'z would pick up a common stone to drill and wear to sorta kinda remind them of where they are, in place and in time or maybe something important happened and they wanted a reminder of that time... I have a few and have them posted here somewhere's... Thanks for the look...