Arrowheads

[Xtrema30]

Who here looks for them when you get some time or does it for a hobby? I know i try to when i get a lil time.

[jblackburn]

I enjoy looking for them in creeks whenever I get back home to central Missouri.  I don't have many, I guess I'm not good at it!    But, I did find this last summer to get my blood pumping, definitely my best point.

[born2hunt]

Arrow heads intrigue me like nothing else.  I really enjoy looking for them but have never found a nice one,  just tips and halves.  There's just something about holding a head that may have been  lost while hunting the same thing I am, except hundreds of years earlier. Just cool to me.

[jblackburn]

Arrow heads intrigue me like nothing else.  I really enjoy looking for them but have never found a nice one,  just tips and halves.  There's just something about holding a head that may have been  lost while hunting the same thing I am, except hundreds of years earlier. Just cool to me.

Exactly!  That point in the picture got me more hooked to the point that I have bought the Overstreet guide.  What is crazy is that point, a Hardin Barbed, is it is projected to have made about 7,000 or so years ago!!  Blows my mind that they could take a piece of chert rock and make something so useful and beautiful and the fact that it is not broke after all that time. 

[Xtrema30]

thats a freakin smoker there lol id be pumped to have found that dude

[SinGin]

 Just think, that head was probably lost thousands of years be for Jesus Christ walked the earth. That is a very nice one indeed.

[mgm1955]

That's a fantastic find!! The history is mind blowing!!

[Cut N Run]

I've been hunting arrowheads and spear points since the late 1970s.  I don't have pictures of all my finds, though I'll post a few.  The oldest point I have is a Clovis from around 11,000 B.C. and the most recent are from post-contact with Europeans ~1740.  Besides stone points, I've found stone axes, celts,  pieces of soapstone bowls, scrapers, hammer stones, and shards of clay pots.

In the early 1990s a lot of my arrowhead hunting fields got turned into subdivisions and strip malls, so I learned how to make stone arrowheads and spear points myself.  If you're interested in learning how to flinkknap, PM me and I can point you towards some good sources of tools and material.

Jim

[Cut N Run]

Here's some points I made.

Most of the fluted points in the case on the bottom right were made by a friend of mine. The obsidian blade between the frames is 9 inches long for a size comparison. 
The small hornestone point on the red rock is just under an inch wide and 2.125 inches long.

Jim

[cutt down]

Here's one I found. Haven't researched it yet. Maybe one of you experts can tell me about it.

[Cut N Run]

Just guessing, your point may be what's called an Adena.  Which sub-type, I don't know.  We don't have that exact point tradition in this part of the country. 

Here is a point I.D. page I sometimes use. http://projectilepoints.net/    Thanks for sharing your sweet find.

Jim

[M Sharpe]

Here's some points I made.

Most of the fluted points in the case on the bottom right were made by a friend of mine. The obsidian blade between the frames is 9 inches long for a size comparison. 
The small hornestone point on the red rock is just under an inch wide and 2.125 inches long.

Jim

I wonder how old carbon dating would say those points are?? I could see where it might tell you how old the substance is, but how do they figure out when they were made??

[Cut N Run]

Carbon dating could give an approximate age on the rock itself, but I'm not sure it could tell when it was chipped to that shape.

The majority of the time, almost any point can be identified as to what tradition it belongs to by the base of the point.

Archaeologists have done extensive excavations on known ancient camp sites and they can give an accurate age of point types based on what level of undisturbed soil they occur in.  If charcoal from a fire pit exists in association with the point, it can be more accurately carbon dated than the rock itself, proving the point's age. 

For my region (central North Carolina) there's a really good book that proves accurate dating of spear point and arrowheads called The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont by Joffrey L. Coe.  The book is actually Coe's doctor's thesis and a result of his extensive research to projectile point chronology.

Jim

[Cut N Run]

Sorry, I misunderstood your question.

Ancient points are pretty easy to tell from modern ones.  Ancient points are oxidized from being in that shape and exposed to the elements for centuries, where modern points are colored like the original rock and have sharper edges.  I always put my initials on my points with a diamond scribe so they can't be confused with ancient ones.

Jim

[cutt down]

Just guessing, your point may be what's called an Adena.  Which sub-type, I don't know.  We don't have that exact point tradition in this part of the country. 

Here is a point I.D. page I sometimes use. http://projectilepoints.net/    Thanks for sharing your sweet find.

Jim

thanks man.....very interesting reading