Archaic Toolkit Cache

[1320]

My brother and I continued our dig at the monster shelter Sunday/Monday and FINALLY hit paydirt, finding an assortment of archaic tools tucked away under a rock ledge! Five of the tools came up in one sifter load! Our next sifter revealed 2 more tools. At that point, I hurried home to get the camera to document what else might come from the hole but we only managed one more blade from the cache upon my return.

The tools came from about the five foot level. We were into a small about of debitage and trying to get down to the 5 1/2 level when I hit rock. So I moved out about a foot from the shelter wall and hit a soft spot. I was trying to locate the edge of the wall and work downward as we've had very good luck finding artifacts right against the wall. I went after the soft spot and as I leveraged the shovel up and out, I hit rock again, parallel to the shelter wall. Essentially, I had a crevice about 8 inches wide that I could dig. The first shovel fulls revealed nothing and as I continued to dig, I discovered that I could reach back underneath the rock about 12 inches and that's where the cache was located. 8 artifacts in all, from one spot...just unbelievable for my brother and I. This by far is our best dig to date.

I took the cache to a local "expert" to get his opinion and he thinks that the white blade might be gem quality. I'm not sure what that means but I must agree, it is one nice point. As pictured, a short piece of petrified wood came up with the artifacts. Is it possible that this piece of wood was a handle or shaft? I wasn't sure but I kept it as part of the cache just in case

 

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[1AB Hunter]

Nice finds congrats on making the Banner. I think Tom will like that point !!!

 

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[joshuaream]

Nice finds there 1320. Hey if your not diggin' illegally, go for it. How many artifacts are dug up by "the pros" and just put up on a shelf some where for no one to see. Thanks for sharin'.

Cool finds, always nice to see archaic points matched up with tools. A lot of people swear that those tools are exclusively paleo, which clearly isn't the case.

My next comments aren't really about these points or digging (which I do and enjoy), just some of the replies. I don't buy the "rescue it before it's lost forever" line or "get it before the pros do because they'll just put it shelf and no one will see it" arguement. Collect if you want to and if it's legal, but you don't need to create excuses for it...

On the rescue side, the points were fine against the wall of the shelter for 8000+ years, I think they would have been fine for another 8,000+ years. And the arguement that pros will just put it on a shelf in a room where almost no one will see it is basically what happens with 95% of our collections. If you are starting out you might only have a couple of frames on the wall. But once you've been collecting for 30+ years, you end up with a lot of stuff. I've got boxes of stuff I haven't opened in 20 years, and I'm not sure how that's any better than something sitting in a museum where no one sees it...

Joshua

 

[archer66]

Congrats on the banner. THANKS for showing pictures of your shelter and the dig in progress.

VERY NICE!!

 

[1320]

Absolutely awesome!! Congrats on the Banner as well. Those are simply amazing pieces and many thanks for posting for us all to see.
Just curious how you picked this particular spot to dig? Sure paid off in spades.

The particular spot where the cache came from had the driest wet sand....if that makes sense! We had also found a nice pink leaf shaped blade at the two foot level and we made a decision to dig under it. We picked this particular shelter because we found a few uniface scrapers and a broken point in the upper few inches of the previously dug sand. My 5 year old son found a nice thumbnail scraper just by running his hands through the sand! The irony of this shelter is that when my brother and I first assessed it, we both agreed that we'd not find a single artifact. The previous diggers had dug multiple four foot holes and back filled the sand inside the shelter. It was a monumental task to remove the previous work to get to the undug portion. That we reached the undug part was just dumb luck, we had no idea.

 

[1320]

Cool finds, always nice to see archaic points matched up with tools. A lot of people swear that those tools are exclusively paleo, which
clearly isn't the case.

Thanks Joshua, very good point. It's also an interesting study to compare all of the points from this shelter side by side. Starting with the two best ones from the cache and working "backwards" with the resharpened ones all the way back to the exhausted points, I can see how the points morph into a completely different "type". At first we thought we had three different types but now, not so sure....

 

[tmodel]

love this post, photos, are great, oow those points and scrappers..if you are having trouble finding undug areas get you a glass diggers probe the one with a larger tip than shaft.. you know the difference in digging all ready dug and undug dirt it will be the same with a probe. would you please post some photos of down the sloop of the hill, so can see if any large bouldersres are down there. Terry

 

[1320]

love this post, photos, are great, oow those points and scrappers..if you are having trouble finding undug areas get you a glass diggers probe the one with a larger tip than shaft.. you know the difference in digging all ready dug and undug dirt it will be the same with a probe. would you please post some photos of down the sloop of the hill, so can see if any large bouldersres are down there. Terry

Yes T, there are several large boulders down slope in front of the shelter, should we be looking there too?!

 

[theviking]

Killer finds, great selection of tool's. Congrats on the banner.

 

[tmodel]

no i do not think it would do any good if they are what i think they are. they most likelybroke away from the overhang about the time the empty sand layer started or when it stoped most of your artifacts would have already been in place.. my own thoughts! Terry

 

[allen]

Congrats on those amazing relics
and congrats on making the banner !

 

[steelheadwill]

Fantastic Finds
Well deserved banner, More great digs to You

 

[hmmm]

I fear a huge amount of significant archaeological information is being lost through this sifting for relics. Collecting tilled fields is one thing, but a stratified shelter like this one should be reported to the professionals, and then reserved for professional excavation.

I can say that an untouched shelter with Early Archaic material would be of enormous importance in my state (Pennsylvania).

artorius

The top two feet of this shelter has been previously dug and because of little to no over hang, the shelter stays wet year round. Except for lithics, the record is long gone. The archy's seek much more data than just lithics these days. To be honest, I'm not sure what else there is to learn as so many shelters in this area have been professionally dug.

Please don't get me wrong, I appreciate your point of view as I used to think the same. Part of me still does.

dont do what i did, i was told by the Canadian heritage branch, "we will send someone down" that was in 1986. still no arc, the elders are dead, the land has been given to the indians in a treaty and the forests are logged. I have found hundreds of caves that look as if they where built as houses, grotto's that look like they where blasted from the cliffs and caves that are perfectly set up as light houses. even solstice caves with cave paintings.

 

[Krisrock]

Great finds ! Congrats on well deserved banner. Great show of tenacity in the story. Inspiring to all who think their dig area is already dug. Keep it up. Thanks

 

[choo]

Nice finds! Congrats on making the Banner.

 

[ohioaxeman]

Congrats on the banner!

 

[JoshnMO]

Thanks for sharing your finds your very fortunate to have that place to dig.

 

[birdman]

So cool!

 

[Lithophylic]

First as a collector I agree they are great finds, but I also have to agree with Artorius in that you could destroy information that could completely change the way we view things. It is the age old problem, "yes you have a right to but should you". I know some sites in Alabama where the owners called in the state archs who are investigating the sites, but all the collected artifacts remain on the property and are owned by the property owner. This way, the archs can record the data and the owners get to keep the artifacts; a win win situation for both sides. Might be something to look into if you find any area you think may be significant. But that being said, Those are some good finds. I especially like the scrapers. What is the last pic you provided. I could not make it out.

Tim

 

[tmodel]

his last photo is a piece of petrified wood! have you ever walked into a shelter that was dug back in the 60s through the 80s with a bottle diggers and probe and tryed to find the areas that have not been dug, most of the t.me they or few and far between and to small to hid a body in.. if you have not you should try once. what would an archie find that would tell him or her anythink but that the indians were there at sometime not WHAT time they were there!!!!!!!! Terry PS. if they have changed and now and do not keep the artifacts as long as they want to it might be nice If you had an untouched shelter?? BUT YOU BETTER CHECK THE STATE LAWS IN YOUR STATE AND THE STATE THE SHELTER IS IN.... T MODEL


































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[Lithophylic]

Hey T...I agree which makes the rare untouched ones event more valuable for information. Lets face it, if it were not for the archs, the clovis would be just another arrowhead. You would be surprised what information they can get out of soil laminae, relative positioning of artifacts, etc. I agree that disturbed soil pieces are useless to the archs. Don't get me started on prohibited hunting along river banks. Hey it moved and is of no real value to the archs. I also agree that I would make sure to have a legal doc in place before I would agree to let them on, but I would also look into it. Good Hunting!