Indian artifact hunting

[Mij]

For example: when you find a piece, lets say the one I showed, are you able to decipher whether it come from “clovis people”? I know I need books to learn but its fun to study how and when this artifact was used. Time stamed sort of? How close can we narrow this down to a story or culture?

Just my opinion, but Clovis is not a people. It’s a place. Clovis NM. The tools get there name because of where that particular style of napping was found. When these peoples that developed the style, came to North America they interacted with many other natives and taught them the style. Each group than taught others they interacted with. Hence the spread, and presumably because of its superior design to previous designs it became for a while the go to blade. The basic design is then sub divided into other categories, fluted n unfluted, ext. So when folks speak of Clovis they are basically talking about a style of blade. JMO.

 

[Brad69]

We have a handful of rock shelters on our property...they've been looted for a hundred years but I still find cache blades on occasion...the second pic is the rock shelter across the road from us...It's huge lol...

Flat old Indiana amirite???? lol

Don’t let the secret out they think the whole state is like the flat land.

BTW
You will get in big trouble if you do it the wrong way. Do not even look at one on public land.

Southern Indiana couple accused of looting American Indian artifacts says they 'try to be good people'

Even though Jim Schuppert describes himself as an amateur archaeologist, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources calls him a looter who's pillaged archaeological sites along the Ohio River in Harrison

www.wdrb.com

 

[indiucky]

Don’t let the secret out they think the whole state is like the flat land.

BTW
You will get in big trouble if you do it the wrong way. Do not even look at one on public land.

Southern Indiana couple accused of looting American Indian artifacts says they 'try to be good people'

Even though Jim Schuppert describes himself as an amateur archaeologist, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources calls him a looter who's pillaged archaeological sites along the Ohio River in Harrison

www.wdrb.com

I photographed, with the date, and keep the photos of the two screens and broken shovel I found at our shelter before we bought the land...when I was hauling that stuff down the cliff to be hauled off to the dump there in Branchville I wanted to have proof that even though that sh*t was on my property, it wasn't me that put it there...

It was a nerve wracking 6 hours lol.....

Kenny F. (that's his big shelter) said when he bought his land in the early 70s the backhoe used to dig was still there...the owner said Kenny could use it to flatten everything back...which he did..

what's funny is there is now a run off that has carved a little stream through that 40 year old refuse pile...Kenny found a 6 inch blade the other day...just sitting on top of the dirt lol....

 

[Hoosier Carry]

Don’t let the secret out they think the whole state is like the flat land.

BTW
You will get in big trouble if you do it the wrong way. Do not even look at one on public land.

Southern Indiana couple accused of looting American Indian artifacts says they 'try to be good people'

Even though Jim Schuppert describes himself as an amateur archaeologist, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources calls him a looter who's pillaged archaeological sites along the Ohio River in Harrison

www.wdrb.com

I came across that story from the news.
- What belongs to the government is the gov’s(check)
- What belongs to me is the gov’s(check)
- Dont touch rocks that belong to the gov(check)
- The kid I grew up with all through school that explored the treasures of the fields with me, now tells me dont touch! Those belong to the King.

Hindsight, I wont play in the dirt with my kids and have fun because the King and his armory wont allow it. (Check)

 

[indiucky]

Just my opinion, but Clovis is not a people. It’s a place.

I heard an archeologist once opine, "Clovis isn't a people but a technology...if you see a farmer in Africa plowing his field with a John Deere tractor you don't say, "ah...look...a member of the John Deere culture".....

Clovis didn't mix or teach any other natives their skill....by the time the of the Bering land bridge crossing the Clovis were long gone...wiped out by a catastrophic event...along with 40 percent of the mega fauna here...

No Clovis above the "black mat"...just beneath it....

 

[indiucky]

Dr Stanford out there "shaking the tree" lol...

 

[Hoosier Carry]

I heard an archeologist once opine, "Clovis isn't a people but a technology...if you see a farmer in Africa plowing his field with a John Deere tractor you don't say, "ah...look...a member of the John Deere culture".....

Clovis didn't mix or teach any other natives their skill....by the time the of the Bering land bridge crossing the Clovis were long gone...wiped out by a catastrophic event...along with 40 percent of the mega fauna here...

No Clovis above the "black mat"...just beneath it....

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All very interesting. If I would have took school seriously, I would love to have been studying archeology.

 

[Mij]

Didn’t open the link but

David J Meltzer: Search for the First Americans
St. Remy press, 1993

Lar Hothem: First Hunters; Ohio’s Paleo-Indian Artifacts
Hothem House, 1990

And of course the book I showed up thread, all good works. I would have to agree with the archeologist speaker.

 

[Leadeye]

I've had to warn guests about the box turtle shells, when they find them, which is easy, and want to take them home. The DNR will turn them inside out like a sock if they catch you with them. Friends usually go home with turkey feathers.

Always wondered about the turtles and their protected status, around here you can't go a day without seeing at least one.

 

[Magyars]

Always wondered about the turtles and their protected status, around here you can't go a day without seeing at least one.

Native Americans refer to N.A.as Turtle island....good enuff reason for me!

 

[Michigan Slim]

I've found three on my property. All of them were on mole hills.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Native Americans refer to N.A.as Turtle island....good enuff reason for me!

That's what Eustace Conway (from Mountain Men) calls his preserve in NC.

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g48975-d8121391-Reviews-Turtle_Island_Preserve-Boone_North_Carolina.html

 

[Hkindiana]

Here is a small frame of my most recent finds, along with an exceptional piece that I found last spring

 

[Hkindiana]

As others have alluded, Indiana has the STRICTEST digging laws of ANY state. In Indiana, the moment you start to dig for artifacts, even on your OWN property, you have broken the law. The ONLY way to collect artifacts in Indiana is to SURFACE find them on your own property or other private property with written permission of the owner. NO looking on state or federal property

 

[Hkindiana]

It is also fun to study the points, and be able to classify point type/age, and stone type/origin. I can even tell you if your artifact was made by a right or left handed individual

 

[indiucky]

Here is a small frame of my most recent finds, along with an exceptional piece that I found last spring

That top row looks like that chert from New Albany right below the falls.....

 

[Hkindiana]

That top row looks like that chert from New Albany right below the falls.....

It is fossiliferous limestone, found all over southern Indiana. It heat treats to beautiful colors from white (it’s natural color), to pink, to blue, to black.

 

[indiucky]

It is fossiliferous limestone, found all over southern Indiana. It heat treats to beautiful colors from white (it’s natural color), to pink, to blue, to black.

I've got a very, very, very large boulder (nodule?) of it my buddy found in the 70s in a small cave in the knobs when he was a kid....It'd been back there forever and he managed to drag it out...I had it on display in the shop for years and flint knappers were always trying to buy it off of me lol....Two sides had been worked pretty hard but there was at least another couple of thousand tools in it....I have one or two that look like they may have came off of it....

It weighs about 50 lbs give or take....

 

[Hkindiana]

I've got a very, very, very large boulder (nodule?) of it my buddy found in the 70s in a small cave in the knobs when he was a kid....It'd been back there forever and he managed to drag it out...I had it on display in the shop for years and flint knappers were always trying to buy it off of me lol....Two sides had been worked pretty hard but there was at least another couple of thousand tools in it....I have one or two that look like they may have came off of it....

It weighs about 50 lbs give or take....

One area I hunt has a large outcropping of fossiliferous limestone that was quarried by early indigenous peoples. There is a HUGE fire pit nearby (about thirty foot diameter and several feet deep) that they used to heat treat the stone. Lots of flint chips in the area from them working the stone, and a small area of Turkey gizzard stones nearby (they must have eaten well when working).

 

[indiucky]

One area I hunt has a large outcropping of fossiliferous limestone that was quarried by early indigenous peoples. There is a HUGE fire pit nearby (about thirty foot diameter and several feet deep) that they used to heat treat the stone. Lots of flint chips in the area from them working the stone, and a small area of Turkey gizzard stones nearby (they must have eaten well when working).

Sounds like glass/flint creek in Harrison/Crawford forest....that whole creek bank is nothing but nodules of Indiana hornstone going up 30 plus feet with narrow trails to get you to them...it's a dry branch (that leads to the boat ramp on the river) and if you walked barefoot in it for 5 yards your feet would be in shreds.....if every flake is an artifact, and I am told they are, then Harrison/Crawford is the only state land where you can follow the designated trail to the dry branch on your hike and literally destroy artifacts with every step you take on your way down to the river and not get in any trouble....there must've been hundreds of people working it per day and taking nodules down to the river landing for trade.....