Philadelphia area points and artifacts - all of my finds

filmiracl

Sr. Member
Nov 13, 2015
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I figured I'd post this not only to show off my finds (I have no one else to show them to!) but to serve as something for people to see what can be found around the Philadelphia area. I know I've always looked online for Philly-area stuff and there doesn't seem to be much to look at. Furthermore, it seems we don't have some of that amazing stuff available in other parts of the country (or at least that I've seen.) Anyway, I have two sites, one is relatively new so there aren't a whole lot of finds but there's some interesting stuff. You'll see a lot of jasper, common in this area but no so much elsewhere.

Site 1 - points - mainly woodland, but some archaic stuff thrown in. some other items of interest are some broken drills, graver, my only two pottery sherds and a tallied pendant.

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Site 1 - best point in my opinion is this nice multi-colored jasper fox creek point.

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Site 1 - closeup of the pottery sherds (cord marked and cob-impressed) and the tallied pendant.

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Site 1 - worked / utilized flakes, scrapers, preforms, knives, etc.

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Site 1 - large quartzite chopper or core

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Site 1 - mano type grinding stone of sorts

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Site 1 - waste flakes / debitage (yes, I collect it all to document the site - ultimately, I may pass off my collection to a local university, museum, or something.)

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Site 2 - mainly archaic / terminal archaic points as well as a couple of scrapers and two argillite chipped celts/adzes (one is broken.)

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Site 2 - waste flakes / debitage on left... worked / utilized flakes on the right

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Nice looking collection. I've collected rocks for years. The yellows and reds are made from "Vera Cruz" jasper, found near Allentown, PA. The blacks are local Delaware river black jaspers, mainly found as float coming down the river. The greyish is probably volcanic rhyolite. There are outcroppings in York Co, PA and Cecil Co, MD. That stuff got traded a long way, even back then.
 

I have a tough time identifying rhyollite -- most of the gray / black points I have are argillite, but I believe there's some rhyollite in there as well. Also, a little bit of quartize, quartze, and chalcedony (I especially like the chalcedony poplar island point on the bottom, too bad there's a tiny tip ding.)

Nice looking collection. I've collected rocks for years. The yellows and reds are made from "Vera Cruz" jasper, found near Allentown, PA. The blacks are local Delaware river black jaspers, mainly found as float coming down the river. The greyish is probably volcanic rhyolite. There are outcroppings in York Co, PA and Cecil Co, MD. That stuff got traded a long way, even back then.
 

...ultimately, I may pass off my collection to a local university, museum, or something.

Unfortunately, few are interested and if they do accept a collection, it is usually boxed and relegated to the basement, never to see the light of day again. Archaeologists usually scoff at anything that isn't found by themselves or their associates. The closest institution that might appreciate it would be a small town museum that needs items to actually display. The best route seems to be selling or passing on your collection to like interested children or collector friends.

Killer Fox Creek!
 

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