Treasure Hunt: March 2010

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIFACTS

ASSORTMENT OF ARIFACTS
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ARROWHEADS -- MODERN REPRODUCTIONS

SIDE NOTCHED DART POINTS

MODERN REPRODUCTIONS
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Tuesday, March 30, 2010

NATIVE AMERICAN PEACE PIPES

PEACE PIPE
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Monday, March 29, 2010

FIND OLD COINS WITH A CHEAP METAL DETECTOR

So you bought your cheap metal detector, now, what the heck do you do with it? Many, many groups of people taken up metal detector hunting every year - and just as many give up within weeks. Why do you think it is that people give up metal detector hunting so quickly?

The reason is pretty simple, people that start metal detecting as a hobby think all they need do is find a good cheap metal detector, buy the metal detector, switch on the detector, head over to the nearest beach, field or old abandoned building and you will find all kinds of and tons of metals, coins, and rare items.

The thing is, sadly, it doesn't work like that. Metal detecting is a great hobby but it can be a hard one to do successfully. It can take years of frustration, trial and error.

Owning a decent detector certainly helps. However, I've known people with some top of the range machines who have quickly given up. That means that equipment isn't the only reason that you will be successful. You need to have good equipment, but you also need a few more tools to be successful in metal detecting.

One thing you need to do before you make it successfully, is do your due diligence. That means knowing more about where you are going to hunt helps. For those that quit too early, if only they'd done just a little bit of research before going out in the field. Doing the right preparation will make all the difference in the world. There is no greater thrill than pulling a 200-year-old coin out of the ground - except unearthing a 600-year-old coin!

First, obtain an old map from 50, 100, 150 years ago or older. You can buy them online. Just put "old maps us" or "old maps uk" in your favorite search engine for a list of suppliers. Then get a map of the same area. One that is modern and shows all the new detail and development. Then look at both side-by-side. When seeking out your map, try to pick areas of possible historical significance, or those that have had reason to have traffic from old days.

Look for areas on the maps that coinside and have not changed much over the last 100-150 years. You'll find lots of such areas. It's amazing how tracks, or shortcuts from destination A to destination B, which often appear to be temporary and modern, have actually been around for a hundred years. And if they've been around a hundred years (because they appear in both the old map and the new), chances are they've been there for 200 years or 300 years. This is the kid of area you are looking for.

Field boundaries are another area to look at. They might change slightly as land is bought and sold over the years. But basically they remain the same. I have found some of the oldest coins and artifacts in such fields. These areas may not be found in heavily developed areas, but places on the East Coast of the United States offer great opportunity.

When you've identified the areas that are the same, or nearly the same, in both the old map and new map, mark each area with pencil.
This will be your target areas to search. Now go and physically check each. Spend a day, or two or more doing this. Find out about the land, the ownership, and make sure you are not illegally searching the property. If you do not obtain the correct permission, you could be stealing. The owner of the land is the owner of the items on that land.

At the same time, keep your eyes open for areas that appear to have changed but in fact have tiny sections that have escaped development over the years - perhaps too small to identify from the maps. These pockets, tiny pockets will usually show up as little areas that maybe could not be developed, and are often areas with trees, and shrubs.

So don't give up metal detector hunting. If you only ever follow the tips above, great finds will come your way. Take that cheap metal detector that you just got a deal on, make sure you have a good map and a strategy laid out, and go have some fun!

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Sunday, March 28, 2010

STONE INDIAN DRILLS

Above images: Drills or Perforators

Flint drills or perforators are a common type of artifact that is found throughout all sections of Oklahoma. They are made from a silicious material such as flint or chert and vary considerably in size and form. There is much variation in size and they range from about 20 mm to 150 mm. Most examples, however, fall between 40 mm and 80 mm. They are all characterized by a slender, pencil-shaped section representing the point and shaft of the drill. The base or mounting portion is subject to considerable variation. Projectile points were sometimes reshaped to provide drill-shaped points and some items classed as drills were certainly used as projectile points. Hodge (1907:90) illustrated a human skull found in a mound in Illinois with a drill imbedded in the temporal area. Generally, however, these artifacts were used as drills or perforators for various kinds of material -- skins, leather, wood, shell, bone, and stone. Specimens that have been used for drilling or perforating stone, as in perforating a stone pendant or drilling a pipe stem, will display smoothed areas on the sides of the tip or drill shaft. Most of the specimens used for this purpose were mounted in a wooden shaft which served as a spindle for a bow drill or similar implement. In drilling stone such as slate, the drill point becomes damaged and worn from the drilling pressure and must be resharpened from time to time to serve efficiently; consequently, it becomes shorter and shorter with usage. Many drills or perforators were probably mounted in a short wooden handle and served as an awl or perforating tool for softer materials. Many specimens, of course, could be hand-held and would serve satisfactorily without the need for any mounting.

The typology of stone drills is not well developed and few terms are used in the same way by different writers. One rather common term in use is the "pin" drill which has no special shaped base section (Figure 5a). Another useful term is the T-shaped drill which has a T-shaped base to facilitate handling or mounting (Figure 5b). Another type, termed by Orr (1946) the ensiform drill, after its shape, is commonly considered to be a stone pipe drill (Figure 5g). Other variations in the stem or bases are illustrated in Figure 5. Perforations made with stone drills are usually conical in cross section and display concentric rings or striations along the bore produced by irregularities of the drill shaft (Figure 5d). Most perforations made in stone were made by drilling from both sides of the object, resulting in an hourglass shaped cross section. Frequently, the maker's judgment was off when drilling from both sides and the two cones from the drilling process are slightly offset making an irregular perforation.

Stone drills appear to be represented in about all of the archaeological assemblages found in Oklahoma. They are most plentiful in the eastern section of the state associated with the Archaic or Woodland periods. Although present in later time periods as well as in the Plains Villages, most of the latter drills tend to be smaller in size and of less sturdy construction.

Friday, March 26, 2010

STOCKTON DART POINT

Stockton Dart Point
Convex base

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Thursday, March 25, 2010

NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIFACTS

Scrapers: Above images

Flint scrapers are common artifacts that are represented in all of the archaeological assemblages found in Oklahoma. They were used chiefly for the preparation of hides and skins for clothing or bedding but were also used for the working of wood, bone, or other softer materials.

Scrapers were typically made from flakes without modification except to produce a scraping edge. A number of flakes were removed from the end or side of the flake to produce a thick wide-angled scraping edge. This thickened edge provided greater strength to the scraper bit and was less likely to damage the surface of the skin. Edge wear is very characteristic of scrapers and they must be occasionally resharpened in order to serve effectively. Consequently, scrapers became shorter and shorter in length with continued usage and resharpening. In fact, many of the scrapers found on sites were probably thrown away as they were no longer functional. Many of the scrapers found are large enough that they could have been held in the hand and used without any mounting. It seems probable, however, that most of them were mounted in a short wooden or bone handle. The finding of such mounted specimens, however, is extremely rare.

Scrapers are commonly divided into two broad types -- end scrapers and side scrapers, depending upon which portion of the flake was used to form the scraping edge. The end scrapers are typically spoon-shaped with one flat surface from the original flake, and the other a convex surface with the edge trimming at one end. Sometimes the convex surface has been more carefully shaped, possibly to facilitate some form of mounting.
Broken bifaces were sometimes trimmed and utilized as scrapers, and broken projectile points may have been trimmed to produce a scraper from the salvaged fragment. The side scraper was also made on a flake, but the side was used and this produced a longer and usually straighter scraping edge. The side scrapers are more variable in form and were probably hand held rather than having been mounted.

Scrapers vary considerably in size but most of them range between 20 mm and 60 mm although both smaller and larger examples are common.

One characteristic of the early Paleo-Indian type scrapers is the presence of small graver spurs (Figure 6a) which occur at one or both sides of the scraping edge. These do not always occur, but the presence of the graver spur is typical of the older type of scraper.

A type identified as a hafted scraper is also found. These were usually made from broken projectile points (Figure 6i-j). The hafted scraper is commonly associated with the Woodland periods in Oklahoma.

Scrapers are found in all of the archaeological assemblages in Oklahoma and are especially plentiful at sites where bison hunting played an important role in the economy.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIFACTS

Dalton Blade
Early Archaic Period
Estimated value $300.00

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Sunday, March 21, 2010

NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIFACTS: PERSONAL FINDS

Top Frame
Middle - Late Archaic Periods 5000-2500 B.P.
B.P. meaning before present
Found Amite County Mississippi, 1950's-1970's
Center Piece Paleolithic Knife-Scrapper
3" x 2 1/2", 10,000-9,000 BP
Found Hernando County, Florida, 1998

Middle Frame
Copena Projectile
Hard Chert
3 1/4" x 1 1/8"
5,000-2500 BP
Found NW Alabama

Bottom Frame
Middle Archaic, 7,000-4,000 BP
Found Amite County, Mississippi 1950's - 1970's
Center Piece Megalodom Shark Tooth 2 x 1 1/2"

Click on above images for much larger image

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