The conversation went like this:. Looks like there might be some woodcock in the edge near the river at the east end of your field. I hear them drumming in the spring and in the fall. By Indians , he meant the Pemigewasset tribe who were hunters, fishermen, farmers, and trappers.
They were driven out of the area by soldiers in I found grouse where he mentioned, but while running the dogs on spring woodcock, I found something else: a spear and an axe head.
When it comes to finding arrowheads, oral tradition is frequently more reliable than the Internet. Water was an integral part of every Native American camp. Lakes, ponds, shallow creeks, and rivers that offered clean, pure water are a great place to find arrowheads.
Spring-fed lakes, ponds, and rivers had a consistent flow and never stagnated. Seeps and small creeks are OK, but because they suffered from big flows during the spring runoff or dried up in the summer, they might be a waste of time.
Seasonality plays an important roll in consistently finding arrowheads. Spring is the best time of year because the ground is soft and the topsoil is often washed away during runoff. If your hunting ground is being used agriculturally, the soil might be turned over by a discer. Exposure to the soil below is key, for it makes the arrowheads easier to find. The ground is usually hard ground during the summer and covered with snow in the winter, so those times of year make finding arrowheads difficult.
Next to spring, a post-harvest fall field that is tilled and planted with winter rye can be good, too. Differentiating between broken rocks and arrowheads is relatively easy.
Arrowheads have a point, an edge, and a base. They needed to be made from strong stone that could be sharpened and light enough to fly true. Quartz, limestone, and marble all had their uses, but arrowheads were mostly made from chert, obsidian, and flint.
Regionality plays an important part in the stone used for arrowheads. Chert, for instance, was commonly used by Native Americans in Missouri and Illinois. When you find an arrowhead, cross-reference the material to see if it was something locally available. Does it have any visible nicks or chips? If so, any kind of breakage of the arrowhead will contribute to reducing its overall value.
How well does this arrowhead point fit into its category type? Thinner are typically sought after more resulting in a higher demand and therefore value. But this also depends significantly on the specific arrowhead type. Precision percussion and secondary edgework, with a minimum of hinge fractures and stacks are graded higher. Nice flaking techniques such as collateral or oblique transverse also add to the value of an arrowhead point.
Many states see only grays and browns of local cherts but high color points can add color quality which can increase value. Records can be difficult to obtain at times. But providing any documentation you can on find location, past collections it belonged to, etc, all brings value to the Indian arrowhead collection.
The arrowheads you have in your collection might be worth money, and they might not. That person was an individual, who had a family and lived on the same land your walking on now. You tell me! Please leave a comment and let me know your thoughts about the value of arrowheads. Do you collect to sell? Are you a dealer or a buyer of arrowheads points and Indian artifacts? If so, share some of your tips with the rest of us. The Ultimate Guide to Rockhounding Tools.
The Best Rockhounding Books. Search Search for: Search. The arrowhead is simply the sharp tip end of the arrow. This sharp stone tip was used to pierce the flesh of the animal being hunted, either killing or maiming it. Arrowheads were fashioned out of multiple types of stone that would have been readily available to the Native American people. Arrowheads are most often times triangular or pointed oval in shape and frequently notched.
These stone arrowheads were attached to the shaft of the arrow by being set into a slot in the end of the shaft. The arrowheads were tied to the arrow shaft with sinew, rawhide or cord which passed through the notches.
Those that were not notched were affixed to the arrow by passing the cord over and under the angle at the base, in a figure eight like pattern. Sometimes glue, gum and cement were also used to make the fastening even more secure. Arrowheads were a very important tool and weapon to Native American people. They were used to hunt, fish and fight battles. Arrowheads were vital to nearly every Native American tribe regardless what part of the country they were from.
The art of making these vitally important tools were taught to Indian boys even as children. Stone arrowheads were used on spears as well as arrows. Typically, the only difference between these two types of arrowheads were size.
Larger arrowheads were attached to spears, which could be thrown great distances and with great accuracy to hunt animals as well as to spear fish. Smaller sized stone arrowheads were attached to arrows and shot with a stringed bow.
Native American Indian arrowheads were made from flint, or hard stones that could flake easily. These hard stones were sharpened into projectile points by a process known as flintknapping. To make useful projectile points like arrowheads or spear tips, the piece of flint was struck with a hammerstone to remove large sharp flakes of flint. These large sharp flakes were then broken down into smaller usable, thinner pieces of stone. The next step in making stone arrowheads was called pressure flaking.
During the pressure flaking process, the Native Americans would place a pointed tool, such as an antler horn, on the edge of the stone and apply an inward pressure to the horn to remove small, thin flakes from the stone. The purpose of pressure flaking was to shape and refine the projectile point into a more usable piece.
The final step in the arrowhead making process was called notching. Notches in the arrowhead were made by using a combination of pressure flaking and abrading, or grinding. By doing this, they would carve out the gaps, or notches, that the Native Americans would use to attach the arrowhead to the shaft of the arrow. American Indians were known for using the best material available for making tools like arrowheads and spear tips. At times, the best material they had available to make these tools were not only stones, but bone and antler as well.
However, when we talk about arrow heads today, we generally only refer to those arrowheads that were made out of stone. Stone lasts forever and does not decay like bone and antler. As mentioned earlier, many different types of stones were used to make arrowheads.
Here in Oregon, where I live, there is a place called Glass Butte , which is a massive deposit of obsidian.
This obsidian deposit was extremely important, not only to the Native Americans in the area, but to ancient peoples all around the United States. Indian artifacts made out of obsidian from the Glass Buttes deposit have been found all over the Pacific Northwest and as far east as Ohio! This is because not only was the obsidian easy to access, but it is the absolute perfect material for making razor sharp spear heads and arrow heads.
And as such, the ancient peoples would use the obsidian for trade. And the people who traded would carry Glass Butte obsidian with them as they traveled. In the Southwest and surrounding areas, materials like petrified wood and quartzite tend to be fairly common arrowhead material.
As you can see, it really depends a lot on what part of the country the Native Indians lived in, or traded in, that determines what kind of stone the arrowheads were made out of.
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