[Rockhounds] Arrowheads

[J.R. Hodel]

Hi:
 
I have a friend who befriends farmers in bottoms, by helping with
various work (like loading hay into wagons - really hard work where an
extra person makes the day easier for everyone not running a tractor),
in order to then ask if he can walk freshly plowed fields next spring
where he suspects pre-European villages may have existed.  He tries to
hit a field after it has just been plowed and has then ben rained on, so
that the rain will wash the dirt off stones at the surface.  He says to
pick up every rock  and look at it, once he picked up a tiny chip of
rock and pulled a 5 inch spear point out of the ground.
 
Dan can look at a plowed field and make a good guess as to the layout
of the village, darker soil was where the larger cooking fires were, or
sometimes where ceremonial activities took place.  His prime target is
where the workshops were, where chipping of tools took place.  He looks
for many many little conchoidal chips as a clue to the workshop area
location.  There are frequently many tools (weapon points, scrapers,
drills, etc) with tiny imperfections that were discarded when they went
a little wrong.
 
So look for bottoms beside creeks, where fresh dirt is showing, or
along banks where erosion is causing exposure of soils above the common
level of the stream.  Construction sites where minor earthmoving has
started but actual construction isn't yet underway is another common
place to look, if the land looks like it was mainly flat and near water
back in the day of villages.  I've collected tiny brachiopods from a
development across from Keaneland Farm in the bluegrass country of
Kentucky, they were exposed in construction, and subsequent rain put
them on tiny pillars of dirt a half-inch tall and 3/8 of an inch tall - 
for additional fun, many of then were geodized, although too small to
have interesting crystals inside.  There could easily have been
arrowheads there - now that I think about it, the guys who showed us
that site had other friends across the plot of land doing just that,
searching for arrowheads.
 
I don't see anything wrong in collecting artifacts in plowed fields and
construction sites - they will be gone forever if someone doesn't pick
them up before they get plowed to death or paved over.  The same goes
for arroyos where artifacts will erode into a stream and be destroyed by
washing downstream.
 
Just my $0.02 worth - worth every penny!
 
JR
 
 
 
 
 


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