Found a killer - maybe a Charleston Corner Notched?

georgia flatlander

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May 21, 2017
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Southeastern U.S. (Georgia)
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Found this beaut today. nearly perfect except for two chips on the ears! Thinking it's a Charleston; that's the closest thing I can find, or some sort of re-worked Kirk.


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How is that not on the banner board. Lord have mercy, shes a beauty !!!
 

From everything I know and have seen, it's authentic. Someone would have gone through a great deal of trouble to bury it, because I know I did a lot of digging to find it! What makes it look fake? Other than the fact that it's almost perfect other than a few marks, a broken tooth and ears? I guess someone could fake those too if they really wanted to. I'd be really disappointed to find out otherwise.
 

Georgia Flatlander, I'd love to see what else you are finding on the dig.

There are couple of different regional types that it looks like but they are all basically the same cluster of Early Archaic points. Charleston on the older end, Kirk a few hundred years later and lasting a lot longer. Pinetree is probably the most common name for them, and they get that name when they are used and resharpened a bunch. To be 5 1/2 inches or so, and heavily resharpened like that means it was 7+ inches long originally? That's very big for the type, certainly the largest & finest I've seen. Normally small serrations on the tip on used examples are worn smooth, or simply not there. The curves on points aren't always even on the larger examples, but here they are very balanced. The squared ears can be correct for the type, but seem quite well developed. Maybe it's the light, but the edge flaking looks steep, that's a great way to make serrations and perfect the outline, but normally they were resharpened at less of an angle because it made a better cutting edge. It looks like it was made "showy" like that vs being the normal product of use, wear, resharpening repeated a bunch of times. It should be a pretty thick, robust point. Yours looks thinner and flatter.

You should probably get it looked at and put away safely. An authentic example like that to the right collector is probably a $8,000+ point, maybe a lot more. Dovetails are usually a bit better made, but belong to the same family of points, and it's not uncommon for documented examples of those to get to $10-15K. And I've seen a lot of them out there.

I hope no one minds me posting a link, but here are some shows in Georgia and surrounding states, I'd take it there and let some experts take a peak. You've either got the best early archaic point I've ever seen, or you've got something else.

Events
 

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Georgia Flatlander, I'd love to see what else you are finding on the dig.

There are couple of different regional types that it looks like but they are all basically the same cluster of Early Archaic points. Charleston on the older end, Kirk a few hundred years later and lasting a lot longer. Pinetree is probably the most common name for them, and they get that name when they are used and resharpened a bunch. To be 5 1/2 inches or so, and heavily resharpened like that means it was 7+ inches long originally? That's very big for the type, certainly the largest & finest I've seen. Normally small serrations on the tip on used examples are worn smooth, or simply not there. The curves on points aren't always even on the larger examples, but here they are very balanced. The squared ears can be correct for the type, but seem quite well developed. Maybe it's the light, but the edge flaking looks steep, that's a great way to make serrations and perfect the outline, but normally they were resharpened at less of an angle because it made a better cutting edge. It looks like it was made "showy" like that vs being the normal product of use, wear, resharpening repeated a bunch of times. It should be a pretty thick, robust point. Yours looks thinner and flatter.

You should probably get it looked at and put away safely. An authentic example like that to the right collector is probably a $8,000+ point, maybe a lot more. Dovetails are usually a bit better made, but belong to the same family of points, and it's not uncommon for documented examples of those to get to $10-15K. And I've seen a lot of them out there.

I hope no one minds me posting a link, but here are some shows in Georgia and surrounding states, I'd take it there and let some experts take a peak. You've either got the best early archaic point I've ever seen, or you've got something else.

Events

It would be a nice payday if that were true, but I'm not a seller or buyer. Thanks for the info! The most convenient shows for me are either Dothan, Alabama in August or Albany, Georgia in October. I may even see about displaying at one or the other.
The point is pretty thick, and doesn't seem to have been flaked down to be thin. We have found a handful of Daltons, a number of Big Sandys and lots of large knives and tools, including many drills. Typical Archaic stuff.
 

I went to a show back in Feb and a woman brought in the biggest Pickwick I had ever seen and entered it in the contest and bumped me out of the running. She had found a 7 inch Pickwick mine was 4.5 inches. So its not unheard of to find a nice big point/ knife. Just be prepared for the drooling at a show.
 

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