heavyweight........

[SOHIO]

I rarely walk the cornfields to find arrowheads. Thats just too easy. I like to challenge myself, thats why I'm a heavyweight. Unspoiled, untilled ground has more complete artifacts, just have to work harder at it. Only downfall is that finds may be a little less frequent. I have dug spots for years that would yield an average of say 1 complete artifact for every 30 or 40 hours of digging. On the other hand I have dug spots that have stuff pouring out every trip. So if someone were to want to tag along with me....well I'm afraid they might be disappointed. I've been disappointed a bit myself the past couple of weeks. I have been digging the spot I found the banner pestle and a nice celt, thought I was in a hot spot but the flint is dwindling as I go. I think I left off though on the edge of the site, next time out I'll be reversing my direction, and I will probably do some test holes to see wherein the site actually lays. So if you'd like to hang with me on the hilltops over the raccoon better get your chainsaw ready ( I could carry it for you), prepare for disappointment, make sure you like it when your arms and legs feel like jello. You know cause this isn't like jumping rope or slapping around some bag. This is actual labor.

By the way if you read my previous post "best of the day" you might understand this post better.

 

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[MObushwhacker]

............SIGH................

 

[SOHIO]

get a sense of humor ..geesh

 

[flintmel]

If you weren't so far away I'd take you up on it, I've been referred to as a mole!

 

[creek astronaut]

Heavyweight??What are you the billy bad ass of arrowhead hunting??lmao.Dude you can spend 40 hours working for a point. that does show great work ethic though,treasurenet should put you in for a raise.I can fill a frame up in 40 hours of walking/floating/creekn/diggin and have fun doing it.im just sayin....

 

[Diggit]

I don't hunt American Indian artifacts, so I am in the dark here.
How do you know where to DIG? Surface finds?
It seems that if you just dug random holes, you would NEVER find ANYTHING.
Or are there THAT many out there, that if you start digging in spots,you may find something?

I've always wondered about that.

 

[SOHIO]

Ok from now on your flintmole to me ....Creek I'll agree there are faster ways but the fields aren't always plowed, and BBA of arrowhead hunting...? OK.

DIGGIT....... I find the flakes of flint, the chippage debri, debitage . Where theres smoke theres fire.
whenever you find flint like that you can often dig in and keep finding the flint below the surface.

By the way I'm just being funny, not to be taken serious. I've seen a lot of posts on treasurenet. There are many hardcore diggers, finders, hunters etc. on here. Some MIGHT even be as hardcore as me.

 

[joshuaream]

Try digging in 120 degrees or above 8,000 feet above sea level... Then you can be heavy weight and hard core.

 

[SOHIO]

Done some heat no high elevation that would be a new one on me.

 

[1320]

Why not try some rock shelters in your area?! The artifact to man hour ratio might improve? LOL

 

[SOHIO]

you know how i feel about shelters.....

 

[1320]

you know how i feel about shelters.....

What's the difference between a shelter and a campsite? Pretty much one in the same aren't they? Each was a home. Aside from your legal interpretations, do you feel different about shelters for other reason(s)? Not looking to start a fight, honestly just curious.

 

[SOHIO]

I kinda feel like they should be dug by pros to record info but like mentioned here before, archs steal, politics plays parts, stuff gets sent to museums far away etc so.... i dunno. But no they are not like campsites. Campsites aren't as well preserved, and yeah many shelters have been plundred and arch rec destroyed already but they DEFINATELY are some undisturbed. And with a camp the chances are slimmer to find burials and yeah there are burials in them thats for sure. I think it was you 1320 that before said there were slim chances to find burials (not true) I would safely assume that there is a 50/50 chance on finding a burial in a good shelter. Of course the ratio would be more like 1 percent of all shelters in us held a burial when all dug but as you open one its 50/50 because you just don't know. I know I'd be pretty upset if I destroyed a shelter that held a history intact to learn from. But I definately would like to dig them.

 

[1320]

In my area, campsites and shelters are equally disturbed by previous digging. No archeologist in the world is willing to put forth the effort to dig even a partially disturbed habitation, unless it were a bonifide Paleo site. There is a huge misconception that the shelters of Kentucky (and likely most States) were full blown habitation sites when in fact, the evidence suggests just the opposite. Shelter burials in Kentucky are few and far between. The population models of Kentucky vs discovered shelter burials supports that. I have archeology books dating from the 20's up to present and most of them rather pointedly state, "no burials found in this shelter". Just taking a guess, I'd wager the chances at less than 10 percent. Finding a good shelter around here......almost if not nearly impossible. My area has been hit hard by professionals and amateurs for well over 100 years, there's not much left untouched.

All things being equal, campsites have much more study material than a shelter as they contain the evidence of every aspect of daily and seasonal life.

 

[SOHIO]

Ok I'm being a time thief here at work today......I've always known shelters to be seasonal, temp, traveling, protective retreats. Your right there would be more study material in campsites. I guess my point of view on shelters has been that shelters preserve organic study material better than a campsite would like the feather found in a shelter here in ohio or grains, animal remains etc. These types of study materials are probably not easy to find in abundance for study so wouldn't that make shelters equally as important ( or moreso) as camps to study. If they weren't so important why would the archaeologists focus on them as they did in early studys. I would feel that we could learn more about ancient life from what they ate more than we could on what types of flint were in a campsite.

 

[1320]

I agree those materials that you mention are more likely to be found in a shelter but so few shelters, less than one percent, will (or would) have the conditions necessary to preserve those materials. The famous Ky archaeologists Funkhouser and Webb excavated 108 shelters during their career, only one contained organic matter worthy of study.

The new movement in archaeological study is in protein residue analysis. With this method, campsites are equally if not more important than shelters. Nonwithstanding the rare well preserved Native turd, there's very little OM to be had in shelters.

 

[Wallhangers]

Some good input there! I raised this question with a friend the other day and he didn't know for sure. From what you know about the indians, why are there not more mounds? Were those only for the top dogs? Did they bury the average indian without ceremony and different than the ones that were in mounds? Just curious. Another question for you...This lake site that I just found, how do you determine which type of site it is? I found a few heat-fractured rocks, quite a few chips, some points, scrapers and that game ball. It only takes up about a 20 yard square area for finds, is this a temporary or more permanent site? If this was a kill site, what would I see for finds?

 

[1320]

Different cultures practiced different burial rituals. From cremation to stone box graves to mounds. There's one little culture in Ohio that apparently "borrowed" the mounds to bury their dead, now those were the smart ones!

 

[Jon Stewart]

I would go out with you guys in a New York minute. Never found a point in Michigan but i keep looking.

 

[creek astronaut]

Different cultures practiced different burial rituals. From cremation to stone box graves to mounds. There's one little culture in Ohio that apparently "borrowed" the mounds to bury their dead, now those were the smart ones!

you are referring to the intrusive mound people,they buried their dead in hopewell mounds.