Arrowheads Found In Field Near My Farm! (Pics)

[happychick]

An elderly neighbor of mine said her grandparents picked these arrowheads up out of the fields they farmed in Broadhead Wisconsin not far from me. Her husband also found a spear head in a field less then a half mile from my farm! Here's a picture of the arrowheads -
*I'm big into history and reenacting, and really want to know more about these. Does anyone here know what style they are, our how to identify their age or what tribe they belonged to?? Thanks so much!

[PrettyPaisley]

I have no idea but wanted to say "WOW!" How cool is that?

[jwal10]

I have buckets of arrow heads, spearheads and heads from tomahawks. I also have rock bowls and pestles. After a rain they were all over, many you can see from the tractor but if you walked the fields you found a lot. There are burial mounds near the rivers here. Find out who the local tribes were and the trails of other tribes....James

[RebelDigger]

I was a "rock banger" in my archaeology days. That is to say my sub specialty was in lithics technology. If you can post a photo with a ruler in it to show the size of the points I think I can help you. I don't believe they are arrowheads, they are older, possibly Woodland which makes sense for your area. The 3rd one on the right in the top row may be even older and appears to be unfinished.

[Bearfootfarm]

The third from the left in the top row appears to be a Clovis Point:



http://www.thefurtrapper.com/prehistoric_indians.htm

Clovis points are typically relatively large with single or multiple flutes. The grooved, or fluted, area rarely extend more than a third of the way up the body. Many Archeologists believe the Clovis Indians are the first known group of people to populate the Americas. As more Paleo-Indian sites were located, archeologists set up a stringent criteria to qualify as a Clovis site. Any site not meeting all of the Clovis criteria was not considered as being early than Clovis. Despite this "stringent criteria" there is growing evidence of small groups of people in the Americas long before the Clovis Indians.

Dating back to 11500 B.C., isolated Clovis sites have been located in North America from Alaska to Panama. It is interesting to note more Clovis points have been found east of the Mississippi than west of the Mississippi, but many of these points could have been carried there by other Indians...the only way to date a stone point is its association with an organic substance i.e. a wooly Mammoth.

Or an unfinished Folsom Point:





http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/st.../earliest.html

Were the Folsom peoples direct ancestors of Clovis, and did later Paleoindian cultures in southern Texas descend from them? We have no idea, or at least no solid archeological evidence. All we can say is that the South Texas Plains yields evidence of late Pleistocene “early” Paleoindians—in the form of Clovis, Folsom, and Plainview points

[Ken Scharabok]

You seem to have points from several eras and possibly tribes. It is unusual to find them intact. Chipping them out was a task so the arrows would be recovered when possible.

I found one on my farm here in West-central TN almost identical to the top row on left. Can't remember the name.

Yes, if a field has been plowed walk it after a heavy rain.

A neighbor gave me about eight points. He had found them in a cluster. Almost like a quill with arrows was buried.

Don't take arrowheads today at face value. I've read about 90% of those on eBay are modern reproductions.

Arrowheads on the East Coast much resemble those from what is now France.

Lots of books on arrowheads available.

[braggscowboy]

Originally Posted by Ken Scharabok

You seem to have points from several eras and possibly tribes. It is unusual to find them intact. Chipping them out was a task so the arrows would be recovered when possible.

I found one on my farm here in West-central TN almost identical to the top row on left. Can't remember the name.

Yes, if a field has been plowed walk it after a heavy rain.

A neighbor gave me about eight points. He had found them in a cluster. Almost like a quill with arrows was buried.

Don't take arrowheads today at face value. I've read about 90% of those on eBay are modern reproductions.

Arrowheads on the East Coast much resemble those from what is now France.

Lots of books on arrowheads available.

The top left looks like a Gary point. If the size of each are large and appear to be then they would have been hafted and become cutting tools more than likel. Too heavy to shoot. Some were attached to cane and with short attachment of cane then were attached to longer cane and used as a spear. The Points look to be paleo points and with maybe no tribe affilation at that time. One appears to be a Dalton. Where several are found in one place is a cache or saved for later use.
Good find!

[Ken Scharabok]

Name I was looking for is, I think, Ledbetter.

I have a friend who does knapping. One afternoon he sat on my deck and chipped out four points using stones picked up in my driveway.

He said he was once called by a retiring postal employee to evaluate his fairly extensive collection. It was to be his retirement supplemental income to resell them. Friend told him about 80% of what he had were reproductions. Thought the guy was going to have a heart attack.

My understand is there is a group in Richardson, TX who specialize in reproductions. For chipping they use a metal bladed fan without the cover. They would buy arrowheads back and forth from each other to up the price.

Potty points are made in Mexico from broken pieces of commodes.

At one time I would purchase lots and then resell them for a variety. Sold most to Boy Scout leaders who wanted them to recreated a mound with different arrowheads at different levels. Went towards a merit badge in archelogy or such.

[happychick]

I had no idea any of them could be THAT old, wow!! Clovis Indians - I will have to learn more there, as I know very little about them.
I know these are not fake because of who gave them to me, which was why I am particularly interested in them (NOT to sell), but very interested in the history of my area.

Originally Posted by RebelDigger

If you can post a photo with a ruler in it to show the size of the points I think I can help you.

I should have included a ruler in the first picture...Here's some better ones (in the same order as before): Do these better pictures tell you anything more??





@ Bearfootfarm - thanks for your great info!

@ braggscowboy - do you mean the larger heads that are to big for arrows could have been used for something like a Atlatl?

[Ken Scharabok]

Clovis points were name such in that the first ones were found near Clovis, NM. Quite unique. Archelogist found some on the Eastern Coast which they dated to after those from NM. However, when they dug further they found much old ones.

Another place to look for them is at manmade lakes when the water goes down. Harder to see though as they won't be a visuable.

At one time muscel shells were gathered out of KY Lake. Pickers would step on them and recognize they weren't natural. I've seen some beautiful points out of that lake.

If you are referring to a lance throwing stick in the last book of The Clan of the Cave Bear there is an excellent description of them.

[pheasantplucker]

I searched for arrowheads as a kid, and regrettably I've never found one. I have two cool stories about arrow heads, though. My best friend Tom, was with his two boys as the boys were exploring the Olentangy River north of Columbus. As the boys were engaged in whatever they were doing, Tom thought to himself..."I think I'll look for an arrowhead." As he turned his gaze to the ground, right at his feet, he found one, not ten seconds after he decided to look for one!. I have another good friend, whose family owns a farm in Coshocton Co. Ohio. Their neighbor was plowing a field and uncovered a cache of 400 points. I guess the Indians used to bury them in the ground to keep them from drying out. Anyway, from what I understand this was one of the largest finds in a single cache (in Ohio) and my friend (who was a geology major in school) offered the neighbor $400 for the whole shooting match. The guy sold them to my friend. My friend took the best dozen to a fellow to have them appraised, and when the guy asked my friend how much he paid, my friend said, "$400". The appraiser replied, "Your finest point is worth what you paid for the entire collection!" Needless to say, my friend was pleased.

[Ken Scharabok]

Over the years one of my neighbors picked up two and one-half 3-lb coffee cans of points, mostly off my farm. He wife had a flea market at the time and she sold all of them for something like $40. One of the reasons he cited leading to their divorce.

[Bearfootfarm]

do you mean the larger heads that are to big for arrows could have been used for something like a Atlatl?

People tend to call them all "arrowheads" since the shapes are so familiar.

Often though, the design is just one that gives two cutting edges and a sturdy way to lash it to a stick, so they could be used for spears, arrows, knives, etc.
True arrowheads are often MUCH smaller than most of the ones you'll find since primitive bows were weaker, and they hunted a lot of small game and birds too.

[Ken Scharabok]

I've also read points with broken tips were reknapped into smaller points.

[Ed Norman]

Around here all the points are obsidian, although the daughter of a friend found a perfect flint point in an obsidian area.

I often find little obsidian chips, maybe an inch or more long, that aren't point shaped. I will handle them a while and suddenly find a way to hod them that doesn't cut me and exposes one razor sharp edge in perfect position to cut something. Those were the common knives. There weren't many sawed off antler butts lashed to big blades like the knife catalogs sell.

[stormwalker]

Takes me back to my childhood.
I was the first to find an arrowhead.
We cleaned a lot of rocks out of those fields!

[Ravenlost]

My Daddy used to find lots of them in our fields (NW AL) and I've found a few on our place here in Mississippi.

[VERN in IL]

500ft in the field behind my Great grandmas house there was a draw, and apparently a good Native Headsmith lived there. We found many arrowheads there.

A ground hog dug up a banister stone and they tell us it's only one of three they've ever found in that shape. Some sort of ceremonial tool, it was photographed and published in a book published back in the 90's, it belongs to a family members "private" collection. Most artifacts around here is from the Mississippian mount builders era.

[Paquebot]

I also have a number of points such as those. I like the second one in the top row as I have a twin to it. I call it a bird point but may be wrong. The third one in that row is rather common and many people can't understand why there are no notches for binding to a shaft. The shaft was bound to hold the point in place.

There was a mention of someone saying that they were going to look for an arrowhead and immediately found one. Several miles of drainage ditch was cleared out one winter. Walking in it in the following winter was great for hunting rabbits. One day, I was walking in the ditch and a picture of an arrowhead popped into my mind. I continued on and there was a perfect 4" drill partway up the side of the bank. I went back and retraced my tracks to see if I may have actually seen an arrowhead but could not find one.

And regarding reproductions, it's easier than one thinks. I watched a guy make them out of black obsidian at a rock show one time using different pieces of deer antler. In 20 minutes he could knapp a conventional type point. Then my son once borrowed one of my points and came back the next day to see if I could identify which was mine. He used a nail to make a near twin! The only difference was that his was sharper.

Martin

[Cindy in KY]

Our farm is full of Kentucky Blue Flint rocks. You can tell this was a very popular place for making arrowheads and tools. I find quite a few arrowheads, especially after a good rain, they just pop up out of the ground. It is amazing. We love watching the Flint Knapping videos on how to get the flakes out of the stones. And there are videos on how to heat up the stone in sand to harden them.

I have found some very sharp tips and then some you can tell they were just starting to learn. And a few tools and knapping rocks. There are more pics on my page. I love hunting rocks.

Kentucky Blue Flint