What’s the most unexpected place you’ve found an artifact?

[Older The Better]

I know it’s not much of a point, but that’s not what’s surprising about it, it’s where I found it. I was walking a small pond dam looking to see if anything had washed out in the rain. I walked to the far end and I saw that the muskrat(s) had damed up the pipe that flowed out of the pond. I decided it was probably best to clear it so I started pulling out sticks and hunks of grass and got the water rushing through pretty good. I thought for good measure I should dig out the entire damn not just the top half I reached out and removed a scoop of dirt and grass and I saw this almost glowing in the water sticking out of the dam where I had just scooped. I never ever expected to find an artifact in a pond underwater buried in a muskrat dam.




It inspired me to make this thread I’d love to hear the strangest places others have found artifacts.

 

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[arrow86]

That’s a very unexpected place to find a point lol .... good deeds lead to points. I’d say mine was at work me and another guy were digging up cable ( I’m a line tech ) to repair an outage and a few shovels scoops in I yelled “ wait ! Wait ! Stop “ I caught a glimpse of what looked like a worked piece of quartz and it sure was .... it was a nice little crystal quartz point missing just the tip so I started sifting thru the dirt with my hands hoping to find the rest which unfortunately didn’t turn up but still was a cool find ...... my buddy already thinks I’m crazy so he understood.
Side note .... the next time your cable or internet goes out have some patience your cable guy may be looking for points while fixing your cable [emoji51]

 

[jamus peek]

In my mailbox!!!

 

[welsbury]

Found about 2/3 of one when they were tearing out old sidewalks on main street where I live. Also found some great coins

 

[Huzzah!]

I have two funny stories. Will have to think about the strangest place I’ve found one.

My bud’s parents built a house on top of a knoll that had 3 intersecting creeks beneath it. The house site was allegedly a great place to find points per the man who sold them the property. So one day I convince my friend to look for points with me and after an hour of looking with not one shard of a point we reconvene and he says, “BS! There aren’t any points here!” And went to kick a clod of dirt when I told him to look down—right there between us was a nice whole quartz point. Couldn’t have been more of a coincidence. He now collects points.

Another funny one: was digging a site with a dude who had been digging there for weeks and had found everything BUT a whole point—pretty cool site. As soon as I’m there 5 mins I dig a nice, whole, well-used early archaic point and gave it to him. We still talk and laugh about it to this day.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

We went to the Baseball All Star game in Pittsburgh back in the early 2000's and the hotel where we stayed had these huge islands of river/creek rock in the parking lot so of course I had to look. I found two really nice Quartz Hammerstones in about 15 minutes.

A place I worked at in the late 80's had three or four truck loads of creek rock brought in for our back parking lot and I found several Points and Scrapers in that.

 

[Charl]

At the beach, lying on my back on a beach towel, eyes closed, sunbathing. Right arm stretched out at my side, scooping up sand, letting it run out like sand from an hourglass. At some point, after one handful of sand had run out, there's a small rock left in my hand. Eyes still closed, I feel it's shape with my fingers. A lightbulb goes off in my head. I sit bolt upright, open my eyes, then open my hand. Tan quartzite point with an impact fracture.


Another one. Walking a corn field daydreaming. Comes a voice, directly into my right ear: "arrowhead!!" Huh?! Nobody there. I look at the ground all around me. No point. I take two steps to continue the hunt. "No, wait", says I. "That was a voice, there's got to be a good reason, I've never heard voices before!". There's a big red leaf lying aside my left foot. I stoop down, and lift up the leaf. Underneath is a green quartzite triangle.

 

[Older The Better]

Sounds like maybe they found you. I haven’t heard voices but sometimes I get a feeling in a spot like there’s something good ready to be found and ill find a decent point or one time it was a trade bead I’ll go back to the same spots other days not really feeling it and come back with a handful of flakes

 

[Charl]

Sounds like maybe they found you. I haven’t heard voices but sometimes I get a feeling in a spot like there’s something good ready to be found and ill find a decent point or one time it was a trade bead I’ll go back to the same spots other days not really feeling it and come back with a handful of flakes

Yeah, Carl Jung, one of the pioneers of modern psychotherapy, had a deep interest in what he invented a term for: synchronicity, or meaningful coincidences. I do believe when a person is deeply involved with certain activities, like an artifact hunter who involves him or herself with hunting, and with the prehistory, just, in general, a lot of time spent involved in the hobby and stuff to do with the hobby, these synchronicities do happen. And, when they do, one may realize the universe probably works in ways we don't quite understand yet.

 

[joshuaream]

Landscape gravel at a restaurant.

 

[jamus peek]

If you live in a highly populated area you may be surprised at what you may find under bridges or in drainage ditches. A lot of drainage ditches are straightened creeks and you would assume nothing will be in there so nobody looks also bridge construction requires a lot of digging when the rocks come out of the ground they tend to leave them under the bridge. Even drainage ditches that are concreted in the work done to concrete in the ditches reqired removal of the rocks so they would put them under bridges. The cost to haul them and find a spot to put them adds to overhead. I work for for some big time investors who buy apartment complexes some of these ditches run right through the middle of the propertys after work i always take a little stroll. It never seems to dissapoint.

 

[smallfoot]

About 30 years ago when I finished building my log house, I dug my own pool and found this piece.

 

[dirstscratcher]

This could be a lengthy post. My first in 1970 was a nice polished pestle that fell out of a root ball of a self dug arborvitae from a nursery in SE Columbus Ohio that was closing. The second was on a pile of dirt dug by a ground hog (since deceased) from under my back porch. A subsequent rain revealed a nice little corner notch archaic point. Then there was the time I was cleaning dirt out of a basement from a section of collapsed foundation and a little 3/4 groove hammer stone slid down the collapsed dirt pile. Then there was the archaic roasting pit that the county highway department graded the top off of in the ditch in front of the house that had the collapsed basement wall. Since the road was closed, I decided to excavate and found about 25 pounds of river rock, and charcoal and nothing else. The topper however were two caches of over two hundred pieces each I uncovered while building a wetland pond here on the farm. One was all the debitage from a couple blanks that were knapped into small bifacial disks. I was able to refit enough to get the general shapes and sizes. The second was a cache of a number of small lance forms that were "killed" and several scrapers that were complete. The lesson is keep your eyes open.

 

[fyrffytr1]

When I worked for the fire department we had to inspect the fire hydrants yearly. I was walking along the side of a highway and as I approached the hydrant I looked down and saw a small point laying on top of the ground.

 

[sandchip]

Found a nice tip embedded in asphalt pavement years ago. Another time, I was walking back through the woods after getting skunked looking a large gravel bar. This was an old, mature stand of mixed pines and hardwoods. All leaves and needles except one spot in the path where there was a little slope that had washed after a pretty heavy rain. I took a picture just in case even though I wasn't completely sure I had anything. Absolutely the last thing I was expecting.



My son found this one during practice at second base back in his little league days. I was hitting balls to the kids when suddenly he went to yelling, "Daddy, an arrowhead!" The nearest water source is well over a quarter mile away. I had to wonder if it was in dirt hauled in. Either way, I was glad for my young'un.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Met my folks in Paducah, KY for Labor Day weekend. I told my dad if there's an arrowhead around, I'd find it. Looked in creek by motel and construction sites. Nothing. Dad and I went to lunch. Along the side of the road I see a purse. We stopped and I grabbed it. Full of little girl cosmetics, toys and things. In the bottom was a nice little Kirk point. I told my dad, "See, I'm good!" Gary

 

[tomclark]

We were digging a small sinkhole site in Pasco and a friend who hadn't found many artifacts got up to get rid of excess water. He did not go far and found a spot where there was a gopher tortoise hole and "spoil". When he did his business he watered up a sweet little point that had been dug out by the gopher. When he came back to the digging area he was SURE that we had somehow salted that point... We would never do that and how could we have ever imagined to place it where he "found" it!?!?! That point has a name. Intials are P.P.

One of the weirdest places I have found a point: We were coming back over the Skyway Bridge from a looong day of fossilling on the Peace River. VERY TIRED and wanted to get home (with goodies!) When we got off the bridge into our county I saw that there was a new concrete light pole along the highway and I made the driver stop in the pouring rain so I could jump out and look. Actually had to go back I made a fuss c'mon, c'mon, c'mon!!! I wasn't ten feet from the car and there was a killer Sarasota point just laying on the sand at the base of the concrete pole. Our county is ringed by mounds and middens so not unlikely to find points anywhere especially along the coasts but to find one from a pole installation was cool. One of my favorite sites is only a few hundred feet from the highway and that pole and the pole is only 50 feet from a shell mound fenced off on a hotel property. The folks with me couldn't believe the luck lolol.

I found coral chunks, a hammerstone and a large unifacial scraper in a fire-ring on my Paleo Beach site that people had gathered unknowingly.

 

[Older The Better]

Great replies so far, makes you feel like there’s points hiding every in little patch of dirt animal burrow and parking lot haha

 

[digging440yrs]

Found a few in our back yard veggie garden after tilling , nice surprise

 

[Huzzah!]

Im a country boy but I had to move into the city when I got married. We renovated an old home and when building the back deck some large flakes and a large quartered rock were found. I was floored and am still trying to figure a way to dig up my backyard without the wife noticing. It’s a small backyard—maybe 30x20 yards—so I’m thinking of starting a garden (with a heavy archaeological 1st phase). Never had to call Ms Utility to dig an artifact