First Finds Northern Arizona Anasazi?

[masadon]

First Finds Of the week.

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My brother and I are just starting in the hobby and I must say Its great. The exictment of finding the next artifact is a thrill I've never experienced in my life. I must say we both caught the bug. Anyway here are our finds from the past week.

Close up of Stone Axe

This looks like some sort of grinder. It looks like a Iron we use to well Iron Clothes with. Has a great handle on it and you can see the wear and tear on the bottom of it. These look like nut crackers?

Here are some pottery shards . All these artifacts were found on private land.

Some preforms and maybe one or two broken arrowheads.

A Heart Effigy?We actually have two of them.

The next two items im going to show you will be the last two, but they blow my mind away.

This looks like a heel or shoe print. The material has turned to stone its really wierd and the pictures dont due it justice.

This looks like a screw of some sort. I looked up marine life pictures online and none of them look like this. They are more spiral in nature. The groves on this are perfectly horizontal to each other like a screw and at the top of it looks like a hexagon screw head that is bent. The bottom of it comes to a point. Again the pictures dont do it no justice.

Well thats just some of the stuff we found over the last week. Any comments on anything would be great. If something is a rock then let me know its a rock

 

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[stefen]

Arizona is a bit touchy about relic hunting around known habitats...best check the rules before the State and Feds tag your butts...

You can bet they may be looking at this site posting...

 

[masadon]

we do have strict rules out here no doubt. The rules state no collecting artifacts without a permit on public lands. And no digging of burial mounds on private or public land. All these artifacts were found on private land.

 

[DanKnug]

The screw-like rock appears to be an ancient marine fossil known as Archimedes, a type of bryozoan.

 

[masadon]

I was thinking the same thing until I looked up pictures of bryozoans on a google search. They seem to be more spiral in nature. This looks exactly like a machine screw. Wish you could see the head of it. A real small socket wrench would fit perfectly over it. Hmm is all I can say.

The heel or shoe imprint or whatever it is was found not more then five feet away. What's strange about that is on the top side of it appears to be either the sole of a shoe or some sort of adhesive used to hold the sole of the shoe/boot/ whatever together. The strange part is it's stone.


Oh btw love your avatar lol. The best.

 

[DanKnug]

Ok, well if it's not an Archimedes, it must be a crinoid stem. The only thing is a crinoid is an Echinoderm which has 5-sided symmetry (like a sand dollar), and you are saying it is hexagonal in cross section....Hmmm

Yeah, the avatar...classic movie

 

[Tom_in_CA]

we do have strict rules out here no doubt. The rules state no collecting artifacts without a permit on public lands. And no digging of burial mounds on private or public land. All these artifacts were found on private land.

masadon, well, I bet that if you asked enough archaeologists there (the real "purist" types), they would even try to say it applies to private land too. And I bet they could come up with wonderful twists of logic, and morphing of laws. They intrinsically hate md'rs and collectors-of-indian-stuff. So believe it or not, some archies have gone on record, in some states, as trying to say that laws subrograte down to even private land (bottle digging, etc...).

So here's what you need to do: Go quickly and "do the right thing" and seek clarification from the most purist archaeologist you can find

 

[Mekong Mike]

Do you have a pic of that shoe print in stone ? what size shoe was it ?

 

[lookindown]

Are you sure that shoe heel is stone and not hardened leather? Love that axe head.

 

[huntsman53]

Nice finds, congrats! If those are nut crackers, keep them away from me. I had mine cracked too many times when I was a kid when the chain came off of my' bicycle.


Frank

 

[masadon]

Wanted to thank everyone for replying and the warm welcome to the forums.

@ Danknug: I just looked up pictures of those marine animals that you mentioned in the fossilized state and this doesn't resemble any of them. Really the best way to describe it is as a 8/32 screw with a bent head made of stone or maybe crystal. I'm new new to the whole scene but have jumped in with both feet. Reading everything I can about these finds. Tomorrow I will try to take better pictures of it and post it and the stone shoe/ heel print? On the what is it forum subject. Appreciate all your help hang in there with me and help me figure this out

@Tom in Ca- lol a little sarcasm there. I agree with your statement 100 percent. Slot of archaeologist seem to forget all the important finds that have been made by amateurs over the last century. Too busy hiding out at there university with there feet kicked up on the desk drinking mocha.

@Mekong mike- there isn't a print in the stone. The picture I've shown of it is all I found. But one thing I can say is it fit my moms heel perfectly. Forgot to ask her what size shoe she wears, but if it's a heel print or half a shoe then it wasn't very big feet that fit in them. Small man or normal sized women size. Will post more pics tomorrow in what is it section. I tell you this both of these finds are blowing everyone's minds I show them too.

@kooky down- how about that axehead what a find huh. Not sure what hardened leather feels like, but I can tell you that this feels and sounds( when I tap it) like stone. It doesn't bend and is well , man really hard to explain like a stone cast of something but it's solid as a rock,if that makes sense.

@huntsman- lmao that had me rolling. Think all of us men have experienced that at one time or another. Thanks for the congrats. Plan on going out on my buddies land again this weekend

 

[masadon]

I haven't cleaned any of these finds yet. I know from coin collecting that cleaning them can be detrimental to the historic condition which it is found. Does the same hold true for artifacts of this nature? And if they should be cleaned how should one go about it?

 

[Tnmountains]

I haven't cleaned any of these finds yet. I know from coin collecting that cleaning them can be detrimental to the historic condition which it is found. Does the same hold true for artifacts of this nature? And if they should be cleaned how should one go about it?

Welcome to t-net
I have always enjoyed the Anasazi culture and their pottery. There are good web sites which will tell you what type and age by the designs. Polychrome was a leap in pottery.Everyone was giving you helpful advise in the best way they knew how as Archeologist and others do watch and use us a learning/information tool. We just did not want you to do anything wrong knowing how strict that area is.
We also have a North American artifact section and am sure they also would enjoy seeing the ax and pottery. The heart stone is a natural geo-fact is my guess.
Happy Hunting!

Resources for Ceramic Studies in the Southwestern U.S.

PrehistoricPotterySherdsPartialPots

 

[g-olden years]

Wonderful finds! Glad you're on private property as I recall from my 2 years there the strict Arizona state laws re native people's early creations & tools.
As to the stone "heel", hmm, well that reminds me of the Arizona & New Mexico "dirt" called caliche! I tried digging thru that stuff, lol.
HAVE FUN! Andi

 

[masadon]

Hey thanks for the welcome and the links you have provided. I will definitely post some of these finds in the north American artifact section. And I appreciate everyones concerns. Ive lived out here for over a decade and have researched the laws as best as possible. A good friend of mine who is a lawyer looked into the laws and even had some of his lawyer buddies do the same. As long as your not digging up burial grounds and are on private property your ok. That's the way the law reads. What alot of people don't realize is these laws apply to them in there states as well. Our state law mimics federal law. So if your in the smokey mountains And find a arrowhead on federal or blm land you are not allowed to take it. Not sure about your state laws on state land. Why people get so concerned about hunting in Arizona is Arizona enforces the federal and state laws out here unlike most eastern states. As I'm writing this just got off the phone with a ranger at a major national monument and talked to him about finding artifacts on private land and he confirmed what the blm and Arizona state websites said.

Knowledge is power. If you stay within the boundaries of the law and know the law you have nothing to worry about.

 

[pippinwhitepaws]

not to be a pest...but you are dancing on a tiny needle picking up artifacts in Arizona...

five people were arrested an convicted a few years ago for this activity... since most of northern Arizona is reservation or federal land...I would be a bit apprehensive about picking things up, then advertising them on line...
THIS IS NOT A JOKE or a minor crime in the southwest.
Twenty Four Indicted in Four Corners Artifact Theft Probe - NAZ Today
Native Artifact Theft Sentencing Postponed - 8 News NOW
Native American Artifacts Plundered; Five Convicted After Two-Year Probe
24 charged in crackdown on Native American artifact looting - Los Angeles Times

 

[masadon]

@ g-olden years- lmao yeah I've had to dig many ditches out here to run PVC pipe for electrical feeders and helped friends dig fence post, tree holes etc. It can really be tough getting thru the caliche. I wish the heel/ shoe cast imprint was that simple, but believe me it's nothing like caliche.

Oh as for the heart effigy I agree with tn on it being a geo thermal rock. A lot of people I've been talking too out here have one also I'm finding out. So it's just a rock lol. Thanks for the input on that. Would've been a great find if it wasn't.

 

[masadon]

Did you read my post. I'm not joking about anything. Call the blm and ranger stations out here and ask for yourself. I'm aware of those arrest, but you fail to mention that they where on federal and state land. And like I said those laws apply to you also and this isn't a Joke!