Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Indian Artifacts - Volume II

Huntsman:



Looks about right, I generate a lot of detritus in my knapping efforts. It goes into the garbage, is packed off weekly, and I've never quantified the leavings. When I have a bit more time, I'll start with a weighed rock, and weigh the point and leftovers when I'm done. I'd guess a 75 to 80% waste pile when I'm finished.

Have a good one,

I bet you are a close estimate 1minute. The only reason I pick them up, is so they don't fake me out more than once..... I used to just pitch them in a yucca, but figured they make a kinda unique display their very own selves... These were all picked from the camp on the bluff my house is on, maybe a 100 foot wide by eighth of a mile stretch of hill.

Yes. When one starts thinking in geologic time, even at a slow pace, a lot can accumulate in 12 or 13,000 years.

A question: How does one keep the glass clean on that wood stove? Mine looks like crap.

Keep an active fire going. Or just wash the window when it's cooled down...

Impressive Huntsman. My uncle has been collecting since his late teens....he’s 65. He has an extensive collection of just about everything the natives made. Found lots in fields but the majority came from sifting river and creek banks near encampments. He just gave his friend (2) 5 galllon buckets filled with broken points. I wish I knew he was giving them away, I would’ve followed your lead and filled some old clear jugs with them. Lots of history there

Huntsman:



That note got me to thinking of some past finds and how localized they often seem to be. Back in WVa I worked a farm where one found points on a daily basis on just a single knoll. Ground was just above a river and had a couple nice springs nearby. Cross the river or go east or west a quarter mile and there was nothing to be had.

A couple years back I was helping a buddy on a pronghorn hunt on what was new ground here in eastern Oregon. We started about a 3 mile stalk on a buck and near midway encountered a stretch where we picked up several points, drills, and flakes across about 300 yds . There was nothing on the landscape to suggest it as a potential gathering/hunting/fabrication spot, and we found nothing in the surrounding square miles.

A thousand years back, however, who knows. There's been a recent dig going on about 30 miles west of here with finds dating back 12 to 13,000 years under 6 to 8 feet of soil. Wood in the fire pits is mostly willow and one must travel about 15 miles from there to find willow today. Obviously a different climate and vegetation in those days. It's all a sea of sagebrush and some occasional juniper today.

Our most consistent sites here in eastern Oregon are the small internal basins that have no outlets. In wetter times, they may hold water for 3 or 4 months and support some waterfowl production. The edges of those temporary ponds are usually good for an item or two. Then we have miles of sage with nothing.

Have a good one,

Dang! More beauties 😊

That Horse creek chert fire formed??

You got some really colorful material in alot of stuff you find.

That is a lot of chips!!



I saved about mop 3 buckets and 2 shoeboxes full of brokes, crude tools, tips and such and some big colorful flakes. Got tired of hoarding it all.

Took it out to a spot and while I was still crippled up from surgery,renegade50 returned it all to The Great Plowed Dirt God. Small ceremony, had a lemonade and a 3 musteteers afterwards.

Another reason to get out so restocked on rocks (obsidian) a couple days ago before the heat turned on.

This morning's knockoff- 4 inches from base to tip.

Have a good one,

Oven cleaner

This made me smile. I love this thread and always look forward to the new finds that you guys come up with. I also love the collective knowledge contained here along with the little tips and shortcuts for virtually everything. 👍

From arrowheads to oven cleaner this place has it all.

Wow Hunts Cool old bottle, even better now filled with the Chips! whats the broken muti colored one stone?

I started out working on a blade in a clean place in my garage a few years ago. That made it easy to save all the flakes that were generated in the process. When I was through with the blade, I put all the chips in a zip lock bag. I didn't weigh it but I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't closer to 85 to 90% waste. Course it was a weird shaped piece of chert, but still when you start out with a rock there is a lot there that goes to the dump.

After seeing these small points that Huntsman is finding, it makes me realize that the old guys that did this for a living probably didn't waste much of a good piece of flint. They could make a thousand points from the flakes in my waste bucket. I might give it a try myself. Mostly I'm trying to make a blade or big point. (Im a custom knife maker so I guess that is a natural.) I love the looks of those little points and I bet they pose serious challenges all their own.

Yes. The true functioning arrow heads were quite small. Unlike the English, natives here were not known for making really stout bows. Points over an inch or so were likely atlatl tips or knives with larger points going back to the days of spears for tackling mammoth etc.

I've found a few cores while out and about, and the scars where flakes were chipped off are usually an inch or less in length. Even small flakes most of us might dismiss would have been suitable edges for brief cutting jobs.

Beauty of a little corner notch.

Me and the boy went out to the ranch and shot some steel for an hour or two this afternoon. Crossing an old cow path while hiking up to trim some trees around the gongs I looked down and found a worked piece of obsidian. Never found any chips at all out there and the nearest obsidian source is a long hike from here.

How long of a hike? Throw me out of a guess. I love the idea of their trade routes and their material acquisition

I think women made a lot of points too, blades and tools.