[Rockhounds] Collecting Arrowheads

[Alan Silverstein]

> Ok.  Now that we have the legal stuff out of the way......where do I
> find said arrowheads?

There have been a couple of good replies.  I learned from them too,
although I'm usually not specifically looking for artifacts.  I just
see them while rockhounding or hiking.

My experience and limited knowledge says you are a lot more likely to
find other stone artifacts and NOT arrowheads or spearpoints, for two
reasons:

- Most stone artifacts made prehistorically were not points.  Look also
  for scrapers and other odd tools, tool cores (rocks from which flakes
  were knocked off), and waste flakes (typically pretty agates in an
  otherwise unlikely place).  I seem to recall that the Lindenmeier site
  in Colorado turned up over 80% non-points.

- The points really stand out and many have already been picked up,
  while the other artifacts are much subtler and easy to miss.  Often I
  find a nice rock for tumbling that just MIGHT POSSIBLY have been
  whacked on by hand...  It's not always easy to tell natural erosion
  from whacking.

Also I've wondered and recently read that, sure enough, many of the
stone artifacts are hard to be sure about because they were made by
novices, not experts.  Not every man-handled rock is a perfect
arrowhead.

Alan Silverstein