My Best Day

[Bow Only]

Since the Grim Reaper told such a great story, I thought I'd tell one. This happened in 1986 and was one for the ages. My Dad worked for the local co-op and knew all the farmers in the area. Jeff Paulk told him he ought to go look one of his fields over by the creek because he always sees flint out there. Dad went and checked it out and sure enough, it was a good site. Dad only found 8 or 10 points that first trip but the lithic scatter was over 5 acres. It was a big multi-component site with a huge Woodland component. The field just wasn't quite right for looking so we waited until planting season. The excitement was high when Dad told me that Jeff bottom plowed the field and we just had big rain. I practically jumped out of the truck and made my way towards the field. The dirt was perfect. The rain had knocked it down and anything on the surface just jumped out at you. I walked across the hill (Mound 1) and found a piece of Weeden Island Plain pottery as big as my hand. The bottom plow had just pulled it out. Then another, and another. I always wore a nail apron around my waist and a small army ammo bag over my shoulder. The nail apron was filling with pottery pretty fast when I found my first point. I moved on towards the village site where I saw a point sticking up. I walked over to get it and saw a point before I got there. I picked it up and stepped towards the 1st point I had seen and saw another point. I couldn't believe it. I had found 3 points back-to-back-to-back. Standing there admiring and getting the dirt off my points, I looked around. I saw another, and another, and another, and another. My jaw dropped as I saw 11 more points from where I was standing. A total of 14 points came from an area no bigger than my living room. I methodically picked them up one by one. I put them in my bag, in my apron, in my pockets, and held them in my hand. I had a rule that I didn't ever want any points to touch while in the field but I didn't have a choice that day. Between myself and my Dad, we found 150 points that day. Only 75 were whole points, but I kept all of the brokes too. That was a very special place and I lost track of the number of times we found 30 or more whole points from that field. I sprinkled some of my Dad's ashes in that field, it was his favorite.

 

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[Bow Only]

do tell...how do you differ? a lot of us question specifics in areas we know intimately. it doesnt mean we are right, but we do have a lot of insight. we were the sort of people who questioned "clovis first" before it was much of an idea. we also have some pretty whack ideas and go too far down the rabbit whole from time to time...

Basically, archaeologists say the Weeden Island II cultural period transitioned into the Ft Walton culture. In NW FL on inland sites, there are no overlapping sites. There was no transition and they were different people. It was an abrupt change that is easily seen in the archaeological record. I have a couple of pieces of Weeden Island ceramics where it appears the maker tried to make a short globular bowl (Ft Walton style bowl) but she didn't really know how to make it. It looks pretty crappy.

 

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