[Rockhounds] Arrowheads

[Charles Baran]

Wonderful information!  Thank you.  Chuck

J.R. Hodel wrote:

>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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