Have you ever wondered how they lost those artifacts in the first place?

[Cannonman17]

Have you ever wondered how they lost all those stone artifacts we go looking for? I have always... I was given an arrowhead when I was six years old and my very first question was "Did they kill something with this?" (The thoughts of little boys) but here I am, 40 years old and when I pick points up in the field I still wonder about them, I wonder what that person was like, what they might have been doing the day they lost it or last saw it. Eventually I got to writing stories about this very topic and now I am just days away from releasing a book devoted to anybody who has every wondered about this. I wanted to share the cover of the book here and now because I think most people that visit this page might be interested in it. I still need to go over the proof copy from the printer, but after that I will be able to start taking orders and shipping... I will post on here again as soon as we are good to go.

 

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[BearCreek]

Awesome! I haven't found a lot of artifacts, but my first, no doubt in my mind, REAL artifact - yes I wondered who the person was that made it. I thought about them walking through the woods I walk through everyday and how much work had to go into something so beautiful. It's so amazing to think that you are holding something in your hand that was held in the hand of another hundreds or even thousands of years ago. It's like you feel some connection to the spirit of the one who made it. Looking forward to reading your book!

 

[Jon Stewart]

I have been shooting a bow for over 60 years and it wasn,t until I found my first arrowhead about 12 years ago that I thought about where the point came from BUT finding that first point drove me to learn how to make them. I have taken one deer with one of my stone points and just two days ago I went bow fishing and took a Bowfin with a self made bow, wood arrow and one of my stone points. I am amazed on how talented our Indian brothers and sisters were with very little to work with.

 

[dts52]

Everytime I find an artfact, my first thought is to wonder who made it, who held it last, etc. I wish they could talk. Maybe someday we will have the technology to gather touch DNA off a stone to learn more about the previous owners. I wish you great success with the book.
HH
dts

 

[jeff of pa]

sorry you will not be able to advertise it,
take orders, or sell here without becoming a supporting vendor.

 

[kingskid1611]

I have wondered that also and just assumed some of the points I have found were left in animals that got away and later died.

 

[1320]

I'll go out on a limb here and say that the majority of artifacts that we find were simply discarded.

 

[Cannonman17]

I think you're right, but that would make for a boring book...

 

[Cannonman17]

jeff of pa, I will look into that, thanks for the heads up

 

[rock]

I would think by the 1000s we all find that it was probably bad luck to use them more than once or until it was actually able to kill something. There has to be a reason they made so many. Just think how many they found that were already made and discarded. Why not reuse the ones they found from the past just laying in the dirt or creeks. There had to be a reason they didnt. Just thinking out loud. Good luck with your book.

 

[diggingthe1]

That sounds like an interesting book. I have thought a lot about the subject also. I can think of wars, moving and forgetting items, stashing or keeping items at a camp for the next time. With such a long time period some may have weathered out of graves to be the only thing that remains. I'm sure some cultures reused and reworked points. I tend to think they left the bigger tools at their camp to return to use them. I sure wouldn't discard a good tool or point especially if I made it. If flawed then of coarse. Some points are so detailed you can sense the pride of the person that made it. Hope you do well with your book.

 

[SnakemanBill]

At the rate I misplace my keys/iphone/wallet I dont really wonder how anyone loses anything these days...

 

[monsterrack]

When man 1st put a sharp stone on a spear I believe he did so in a group of shafts at a time. You don't want to be trying to kill supper with just one spear, if it was a large animal you would want more than one shot put in it. So you make a hand full of spears, then comes along the socketed atlatl . With this you can carry a pouch of fore shafted points and during a hunt you don't have time to hunt down what you used, just pick up your main shaft an go on. An then along came the bow but we find more dart points than we do arrow points, also NA made stashes of points to be used later and they were buried in the ground and for one reason or another they never came back, then due to erosion, farming and construction things get moved around. Points and artifacts have been moved by streams and rivers for 1,000's of years and it will always be that way. You have to look at it like this, we have only been here on the North American continent for 250 years and look at all the stuff we have left behind and were all we have lived. NA lived here for over 10,000 years and now they are saying a lot longer than that. So if every Indian that ever lived here just lost 1 artifact, just think how many that would be. This is just my view that most points were just every day items to be used until they were lost are broken, but this does not count grave items an artifacts made for a special purpose or time. Another way to look at this is in our money as of coins, everyone likes their money but yet you can walk across any parking lot and find a coin of some type and then get a metal detector and see how many can be found.

 

[1320]

"When man 1st put a sharp stone on a spear I believe he did so in a group of shafts at a time. You don't want to be trying to kill supper with just one spear, if it was a large animal you would want more than one shot put in it. So you make a hand full of spears"

And, if you believe that they hunted in groups there's a multiplication factor on top of that.

"With this you can carry a pouch of fore shafted points and during a hunt you don't have time to hunt down what you used, just pick up your main shaft an go on"

This makes a lot of sense, they had to be efficient!

Getting a little off topic here but picture this, several Native Americans throwing/tossing spears/darts at a large animal, I think it would be very conceivable that there was some friendly fire back in the day yet when Native American remains are discovered with a dart point embedded in a bone the assumption is the subject in question was murdered by a rival group. That could be the case but I have yet to see any discussion that considers friendly fire as a possible cause of the injury. We need to rethink a lot of what we think we know about the Native Americans.

 

[RustyGold]

Shoot a hundred arrows bring back 10 kills?

 

[RGINN]

I would think by the 1000s we all find that it was probably bad luck to use them more than once or until it was actually able to kill something. There has to be a reason they made so many. Just think how many they found that were already made and discarded. Why not reuse the ones they found from the past just laying in the dirt or creeks. There had to be a reason they didnt. Just thinking out loud. Good luck with your book.

Some of the later people to inhabit the Southern Plains did indeed find the small Washita Points from an earlier culture. Somehow they decided these points were from a strange race of little people and they wouldn't touch them. (Kiowa and Comanche elders told me that story) Maybe that thinking would apply around the rest of the country. They would recover arrows they shot, but sometimes you might get the impression that they thought 'Hey, why look for it, I can knock another one out in about 3 minutes'.

 

[eyemustdigtreasure]

YES! Awesome! Would love to read the book...!
Keep us posted, as to when it is available.

 

[Tejaas]

I would think by the 1000s we all find that it was probably bad luck to use them more than once or until it was actually able to kill something. There has to be a reason they made so many.

I get what your pitching, but highly doubt that sheer necessity allowed for that kind of belief.

Think of how common and widespread you find coins strewn about in your day to day... Almost everybody in our history carried them at some point - but when its all said and done opportunity only allows for -hundreds- of years to be lost and accumulate.

Now think of points - like coins, everybody relied on them - but there has been 13,000+ years for the lost/broke/rejects to stack up.

I like to ponder how many pieces were found by early man, looked at quizzically trying to make sense of the previous design - then reworked into the patterns of his own time!