OK a learning question?

[rock]

Well as some already know I am trying to learn as to hunt a field. I have some questions on it seeing this is the first real field I have ever hunted. Ill describe it for you so you can tell me the best one to hunt. There is 5 total fields at different levels.
#1; One field is by a creek which is probably 30 ft wide. Its winter so no water hunting. It actually goes down hill slightly to the water. Above it is a hill and it doesnt get farmed. Have found some tools throughout.
#2; Is on the right by the creek but has a canal dug on the property that in some spots is 15' deep. Nobody knows who dug it. Havent found anything.
#3; Is to the left of #1 it has creek frontage and that creek leads to a farm with cows. Havent found much but some.
#4; which is the top field on the other side of the hill. Furthest from the water. By the hill and on the hill artifacts. Scrapers, tools, and arrowheads made from quartz cobbles. No large ones and all the tools are small.
#5; I have included this hill as a hunting area not farmed though. No points but have found some of the best colors of lithics in that spot and the best quality. The hill is in the middle of all the fields and you can see the creek from it.
Now my question is which area do you hunters feel might be the best spot to find arrowheads?
I have found no pottery so it might be a early site. Thanks, rock

 

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[GatorBoy]

Figure out what is natural running water in a low land area that would have been a water source for a very long time...hunt parallel to that working your way back little by little until you can figure where you find the quality artifacts and not necessarily lots of bits of material.

 

[GaRebel1861]

What Gator said is correct and exactly how I find my sites to hunt. Down here, I look for the old water source and then the high ground nearest to it. If it is sandy that is a plus. There is a lot of orange clay here and I rarely have any luck in that.

 

[NC field hunter]

I understand how finding a site would be difficult as far down as you guys are. I have never found any thing in GA, but have in SC, on the Savannah river. I actually shot mistletoe out of a tree in GA, from SC. I did that simply to have a dubious bragging right. Back to my point, in the low lands, all of the trees had water lines over my head on them. If the flood plains are still the same, as they were thousands of years ago, water would be in abundance during certain seasons. I was put on a sight. I didn't find it. On that site, pottery littered the ground. Also, it was on high ground.... Well higher than most in the area. Old Topo maps, I would think, would be a great help. Even with those, you only have a present layout. Through studying the maps, one may find trends or patterns to help build a theory on how the land has changed. I would look at maps, hunt areas that made sense to me, and redo it if I had no luck. Trial and error.

 

[Tnmountains]

All good advice. But if that creeks floods it can either bury the stuff in mud or it can keep it washing it out. It might not do either. It seems to me that in most fields the artifacts are usually in certain areas. I get some fields I run pass much to hit the hot spots. You learn those by spending hours walking. The high hump smooth ground is what i look for off a creek and work my way back towards the creek line. I am sure every field is different. Stop and look at where you are finding stuff and look around for like areas. And find some killers. Good luck !
1

 

[SOHIO]

find dirt look for points

 

[SOHIO]

find dirt look for points

oh and after you find points dig until you find them no more

 

[rock]

I do have a question on how the tractor might grab and this is just a guess. Can the tractor grab the rocks and carry them till it makes a turn at the end of the row and throw them? Almost like putting them at the end of the rows? I am wondering this because at the very end of a turn around I have found an abundance of tools some whole and some broke. Almost like a pile but scattered. I am trying to figure out if it is just a good spot to hunt or if maybe the tractor has carried them. Thanks

 

[1more4me]

I like this thread- some good points made throughout.
If I can offer a point or two- look for the most likely source of spring fed water. Then find the closest hump. (close being relative- my lazy wife fights for a close spot at walmart- a couple hundred yard walk for a Caddoan probably didn't provoke a thought...)
Spring water was one of the most important factors to site locale imho. It don't take much summer heat and slow flow to make water go bad quickly.
The camp site did not have to be outside and above flood water level- it seldom floods but it did need to be above normal rain pooling and provide run off such that it would not puddle in camp and sog out the huts.

In a farm field that's been cultivated for a hundred plus years the hump may be gone- but the remnant of stone, gravel, bone, don't get too terrible dispersed by the disk and plow from what I've seen. i.e- I have a spot i believe had a clay pot filled with bird or dart points that covered about a 30' circle- found nearly every piece of the pot and every year I go back and pick up 3-4 more points within that same small circle.

But- on the flip side- my best points seem to come in groups of 2-10 and they are completely random- not associated to any dicernable feature. Why- I think... Because the would have taken a large game animal by hitting it multile times before taking it down- where ever it happen to fall. It was dressed out right where it fell.

(((which also leads me to an IF/OR/OR theory that when the spirit of a point had sucessfully taken an animal it was not reused / or / they sometimes stuck an animal several times but failed to track, find or were prevented from finding- the animal and it died and rotted away- /or/ the animal lived many years with many points stuck in him....

How many Atlalt points could a mammut take if none hit a vital spot? Don't know- but if you find a really good point in a completely random spot- look for more!
PEACE

 

[rock]

Thanks for all the good advice. If it ever stops raining I will try some of these tips. As I have read them I have pictured the field in my mind and am thinking of spots to go to. Thanks everyone, rock

 

[larson1951]

I do have a question on how the tractor might grab and this is just a guess. Can the tractor grab the rocks and carry them till it makes a turn at the end of the row and throw them? Almost like putting them at the end of the rows? I am wondering this because at the very end of a turn around I have found an abundance of tools some whole and some broke. Almost like a pile but scattered. I am trying to figure out if it is just a good spot to hunt or if maybe the tractor has carried them. Thanks

hey rocky
one thing you could try is go to each area and spend one hour and keep track of what you find separate
then repeat the process

after that is done you will maybe want to go to the the top two producing spots and keep hunting them
you probably did this already but just sayin'

as far as the tractor thing i can tell you from experience that a tractor can break a few artifact but it does not carry them and drop them when turning around (like stuck in a tire or whatever)

 

[theonlinefisherman]

What a great thread. Here in Florida the gulf was at least 100' lower in the early archaic, and the Paleo sites are being found 100 miles offshore on what was a ledge about the gulf when if was 250' lower. During the last ice age. Artifacts are being pulled as I type.

We work the flow of the manatee river and the Myaka south of here. (I think i spelled that right). We also look for sinkholes near the edges of the Everglades. And the Suwanee property we are now starting to work is where the river is now. But geologists have defined the edge of where the river was when it changed shape about 8000 years ago.

We look for points. There is a reason they are still there. In our case ground 3 feet higher is either a midden or what was a ridge line. Up in the Suwanee there is chert. Here there is coral. And we do look for chips. The people that knapped did it in communities. Even back to hunting teams, they did not do it far from the group.

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[rock]

I talked to the farmer today and he said we have just too much rain rite now for you to go out there. I was thinking and said ok maybe next week if it dries out some and said that would be fine. So hopefully next week I can go to a spot that I found this tool and find some more in that spot. It is near the creek and is a highest point closest to the water. I believe this is the spot to be at, thanks everyone.

 

[GaRebel1861]

I do have a question on how the tractor might grab and this is just a guess. Can the tractor grab the rocks and carry them till it makes a turn at the end of the row and throw them? Almost like putting them at the end of the rows? I am wondering this because at the very end of a turn around I have found an abundance of tools some whole and some broke. Almost like a pile but scattered. I am trying to figure out if it is just a good spot to hunt or if maybe the tractor has carried them. Thanks

It is possible that after the soil was turned, heavy rain events over a long period of time washed the material that you are finding to the edge of the field where the undisturbed vegetation stopped it from going any further and it began to collect there? - Just a thought.

 

[rock]

Yeah maybe, it was rite in the tree line at a spot where the tractor has a turn around point. I havent tried raking the leaves back yet but I am thinking about it.