Question about sifting for artifacts.

[angler 07]

Hello, I've only been hunting arrowheads for a couple years after accidentally finding one while looking for fossils. Now I'm obsessed with it....haha. I usually hunt for them in creeks and rivers. My usual spot is full bank to bank so i've been scouting for new spots to hunt till the river goes down. Today I went to a different area than my usual one. I was in a very remote area following a game trail at the base of a bluffline. The wild roses and brush were almost impassible but I wanted to investigate these bluffs so I pressed on. I came to an area where the little 1 foot wide strip of dirt from the game trail was absolutely littered with flint flakes for a long ways, and flint does not occur naturally in that area. The whole forest floor is coverd with leaves and plants, the only dirt I could see was the narrow gametrail. Obviously I searched the little trail, but found only flakes and chunks but tons of them. Only another hundred yards or so down the trail there were 3 nice natural rock shelters in the bluff, one still showing smoke stains. In the floor of 2 of them is about 2 feet of silt. I'm thinking in that silt is who knows what kind of broken tools and maybe good ones too. I scraped around in it a bit with my hands but realized quickly i would need something to actually sift the larger material out to find anything.

So that brings me to my question. I know there are laws about digging for artifacts, which Im only vaguely familiar with, since I only have surface collected. Is it legal for me to sift through the contents of the floors of these shelters? And secondly is it ethical to do so? By the way, im in Oklahoma and do have permission to be on that land. Thanks for reading. -zach

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A Handbook of Civil War Bullets and Cartridges - Grab it through Amazon!

[irbaddadjoe]

Im thinking if its not government land and you have permission from the landowner. Yes. I find alot from cow trails and game trails. and if theres a shelter. Have a look 10 to 12 inches down. Thats where Im having the luck. And we arent to far apart.

 

[Tnmountains]

Rock shelters are a great place to hunt as long as you have permission and the land owners know that you will be digging. There are right ways and wrong ways to excavate a shelter. The best way is to sink a test pit so you will know the total depth that needs to be removed. Do not sift it outside the shelter because you may end up having to move it all to dig under it. You do not want to move everything twice. After you have dug your test pit and know the depth to dig then dig out about a 6x6 area remove all that material and sift it away from the shelter.
Once you have a clean pit you can work in any direction working in the pit moving the material from one side to another.This keeps you from piling up all your silt in your shelter to have to be moved again. A lot of shelters have been dug on private land and they just sifted everything right outside the shelter and mounded up all the dirt. Many times at shelters that is where the most points will be found is out at the front so don't pile all your dirt up there.
Go about it with some thought it will be easier and you will not Miss much. One other thing is to dig around any large rocks that may have fallen from the ceiling. Wear good gloves as the flint from the shelters is as fresh as yesterday and you can cut yourself very badly.
I would also keep my site quiet to others and take care in parking and creating paths as you could come back to have it cleaned out overnight by another hunter without permission.
If you have flowing water nearby that makes sifting easier. Go slow. You can google sifters and get the idea on what to make.The smaller the better on screen size. Like what is used in the floor for bird pens in a wooden frame anything larger and you could miss micro drills and small points. OK I wrote more than you probably needed.
But here is a shelter on some land I lease that we worked on some last winter.You can see the layer of ceiling that collapsed. That will be our next project getting out the big rocks.We found a little here as it was already dug haphazardly. Good luck a shelter if you have one can tell a very big story of the area and is lots of fun. Plus you can hunt in the rain. Watch out for rattlers as they like to pile up in them too. : )
Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[PALEOMAN]

being on private property and have consent from the land owner i would think ur alright. but never dig unless you know the law! also, i have found that most rock-shelters have been pot-holed, i learned this working with a state archaeologist. i hope you the best and good luck!

 

[RPG]

If you have permission to be on the land, Then "dig".
Randy