Latest Finds From My Excavation Site

[The Grim Reaper]

I know some of you have seen my post about the Excavation Site that I am allowed to surface hunt after the archy and the owner throw the dirt behind them. We finally got some rain and I went back out there a couple times in the past week or so and found some nice pieces.

Pic #1. This is what I found on my first trip in last week. One nice Point, a real Nice Drill, some broken Points, three Bone Beads, a Shell Disc Bead, a Drilled Deer Tow Tinkler, and two Stone Discs.

Pic #2 . This shows the hole drilled in the Deer Toe Tinkler.

Pics #3, #4, #5, and #6. Pieces I found on trip #2 to the site. A nice Drill, a Blank or Preform, another decent Drill, and a Deer Antler Arrowpoint.

Pic #7. Finds from trip #3 into the site. This time I found a few more Blanks, a couple more Drills, a few Points, two Bone Beads, two Marginella Shell Beads, a few Splinter Bone Awls with nice polished tips, a Turkey Spur, some cut Deer Antler, a Drilled Tooth, and another Deer Toe Tinkler.

Pics #8 and #9. Two pics of a Bone Tool I found that has been sharpened to a bit on one end. It has definitely been used as some kind of tool because it show all kinds of use polish on the sharpened and.

Pic #10. A view of the hole in the Deer Toe Tinkler. You can also see the Drilled Tooth in this pic.

 

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[The Grim Reaper]

Some in situ pics of some of the finds above.

 

[ohio]

Nice man! Glad to see somebody is finding something. I have found about twenty "complete" points this year but, nothing really killer. I am going to get out tomorrow to see what I can do. I am going to post some rocks soon.
Chuck

 

[iwannafindsome]

those are really neat pieces u are finding there. do u ever get to see what the archy and owner find ? with all the stuff u are finding in there throw out dirt,they must be finding some great pieces.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

I've seen a few of the pieces they have found, but not much. I did see a really nice 3" Knife Blade that they found while I was there one day. I also saw some really nice Pottery shards, especially some nice pieces with great handles on them that they found. They also told me that they had found a Catfish Effigy Pipe that was almost complete, but had a little bit of damage. The archy told me that they are taking pictures of all of their finds and they are going to do a book on the finds. I told him that I definitely wanted a copy when they were finished and he said he would be sure to get me one.

 

[unitas]

That looks like a site I'd hunt on my knees!

 

[Rege-PA]

Dorkfish...Wow! awfullly rich site, people must have returned to it many times in their cycles of habitation. Here in PA the Monongahela people stayed in an area until they exhausted the firewood and clams/mussels then moved to the next site until it was used up also, but in twenty years or so they would be back as the flora/fauna renewed itself. I`m sure some of the richer sites were inhabited in this way over hundreds of years. In picture 14 the mussel shell above the shell bead appears to be drilled or perforated. Do you find any of them worked into hoes or scrapers?

 

[The Grim Reaper]

That piece of shell you are referring to had a large groove cut into it and we find all kinds of these on our Ft Ancient sites. I have argued for years that they are some kind of tool and my buddies say that they are just made like that from being hit by a plow. We do find the Shell Hoes and I have a few of those myself.

You can see two of them in the 1st picture in the case and another one in the 2nd picture on the shelf. I have more, but these are the only ones I have pics of.

By the way, this site has been carbon dated from 900 to 1650 AD, so that 750 years of occupation.

 

[Rege-PA]

Your dates correspond to the Monongahela people exactly and the artifacts are the same. I notice some pottery shards, are they cord wrapped? On some sites we find a punctated incised design that is supposed to be an Iroquois influence, have you run across any of it? I have seen some pottery from your area that has swirls impressed into it, that style is nonexistent on our sites. Your fortunate to have such a rich site and your collection is worthy of a small museum.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Rege-PA, we find Cord Wrapped, Incised, Punctated, and Guilloche(sp?) in my area. Here's a few pictures of some of me Pottery Shards. I don't have a lot of pictures of the Pottery pieces I have, but I'll try to get some better one and post them for you. You can see some of these pieces are cord impressed, some are plain, the handle piece next to the really large piece has some of the Giulloche design just barely visible around the handle. I have a lot better examples of these types, but no pics of them. All of these pieces are shell tempered, but I also have a site that I hunt where we find nothing but really thick, plain pieces of grit tempered Pottery and it is an early to late Woodland site that is predominately Hopewell in nature. The last picture is the tray I have filled up from this site in the past 3 years.

 

[Rege-PA]

DorkFish...Thanks for the pictures, pottery is a neglected aspect of most artifact collectors and they are missing an interesting window into the daily lives of these people. I wonder if the more decorated pieces had some special use outside of the usual utilitarian functions, or in times of plenty the designs became more complex and artistic due to the extra time afforded the maker. I don`t see any ceramic shell tempered pipes or broken pieces, here in western PA they occur rather frequently and must have been much easier to produce than drilled stone examples although the latter do turn up on occasion. I would like to see your collection at some time and compare notes.

 

[newnan man]

Nice finds and pics. A great collection well documented. Thanks.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Rege, here is a link to my gallery on DirtBrothers.org. This hasn't been updated in a couple years, so a lot of my new finds aren't on there. I keep sending them new pics, but for some reason they never make it into the gallery.

http://www.dirtbrothers.org/gallery/valentine/

 

[Rege-PA]

Steve...I must warn you, you are way past the legal limit on Ft. Ancient artifacts!!!!!!!!!!!!! The only thing that can be done now is for you to box them up and send to me. LOL. All kidding aside, your collection and dedication to your hobby is outstanding and an inspiration for the newbies here and to us old timers to get our butts out there and start looking, as I write it is pouring and the plowed fields will be awash with new treasures only until the next storm when they will again return to the earth. Thanks for the view.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Rege, thanks for the kind words about my collection. I love hunting Ft Ancient sites because you just never know what you might find and you never go away empty handed. I didn't start hunting these village sites until around 1990 when I met up with a guy in the field and he showed me some of the Beads he had found. We became friends and he showed me what to look for on these sites and I became hooked on looking for Beads, Pendants, Pipes, Drilled Teeth, etc that you find there. I still hunt the Archaic, Adena, and Hopewell sites in my area, but give me a Ft Ancient village site any day.

I'm going to the Excavation Site again on Monday since it rained all day here today and see if anything washed out. I'll be sure to post what I find. Good luck to you in your hunts.