Arrowhead hunting

[MossRoad]

Does anyone else's imagination go wild when holding an artifact in your hand?

Yeah, sometimes. I have an Egyptian bronze mirror and some scarabs, as well as a bunch of other people's fossils.

I also collect bottle openers. The little metal bent wire ones and the stamped metal ones. I often wonder who held them in the past. Arrow heads bring up the imagination too. Same as old handtools, antique firearms, vintage tractors.

 

[ovrszd]

Wife, eldest Son and I were on a remote fire trail, top of a saddle, way above treeline Jeeping in Colorado. Stopped to take in the solitude and scenery. Weren't there two minutes and my wife said "look what I found!!". A perfect arrowhead. Now how did that get there?

 

[HCJtractor]

I especially am amazed by the possessions of the “Iceman” who was the frozen mummified remains of an ice age hunter found high in the Austrian mountain glaciers. He had numerous weapons, tools, etc, and even a very primitive pure copper axe head. He had things made out of many tree species, and even birchbark. Replicas of him and his possessions are on display at the Smithsonian. He had an arrowhead imbedded in his shoulder, so there’s much speculation about his death. Fascinating. Google it. It’s interesting to see his tools and clothing and pack contents.

As I was hunting a few years back, sneaking along a game trail, I found a perfect arrowhead. I suppose centuries ago, someone was doing the same thing I was. Makes one think

 

[MossRoad]

Wife, eldest Son and I were on a remote fire trail, top of a saddle, way above treeline Jeeping in Colorado. Stopped to take in the solitude and scenery. Weren't there two minutes and my wife said "look what I found!!". A perfect arrowhead. Now how did that get there?

Someone else stopped to take in the view.... a very long time ago.

 

[ovrszd]

Someone else stopped to take in the view.... a very long time ago.

We had quite a discussion. If your theory were plausible we would be stating the hunter enjoyed the view so much he walked away without his hunting tool? Likely/unlikely?

My Son's speculation was the arrowhead had been shot into an Elk or some other game animal and then fell out as the animall escaped thru the saddle?

 

[ovrszd]

I especially am amazed by the possessions of the “Iceman” who was the frozen mummified remains of an ice age hunter found high in the Austrian mountain glaciers. He had numerous weapons, tools, etc, and even a very primitive pure copper axe head. He had things made out of many tree species, and even birchbark. Replicas of him and his possessions are on display at the Smithsonian. He had an arrowhead imbedded in his shoulder, so there’s much speculation about his death. Fascinating. Google it. It’s interesting to see his tools and clothing and pack contents.

As I was hunting a few years back, sneaking along a game trail, I found a perfect arrowhead. I suppose centuries ago, someone was doing the same thing I was. Makes one think

Very thought provoking. Confirms my belief that I am glad I didn't live then. All energy used each day was specifically to stay alive.

Your trail find plays into my earlier question about the number of Natives and the span of time.

 

[MossRoad]

We had quite a discussion. If your theory were plausible we would be stating the hunter enjoyed the view so much he walked away without his hunting tool? Likely/unlikely?

My Son's speculation was the arrowhead had been shot into an Elk or some other game animal and then fell out as the animall escaped thru the saddle?

Sure. Or he stopped to eat his lunch and dropped an arrow. Or he took a shot, missed, and lost the arrow. Or he was injured and died right there, leaving all his worldly possessions there to rot. Or.... all kinds of things come to the imagination. It's fun to speculate. :thumbsup:

 

[2LaneCruzer]

If you think about it, stone (and bone) tools were pretty much it, at least before Europeans arrived and they had access to iron. Arrow points, spear points, atl atl points, knives, drills, scrapers, etc. were what they used. An experienced knapper could probably make an arrow point in 15 or 20 minutes; probably took longer to make the arrow shaft. Bottom line, they made and used a lot of stone implements; and reworked dull tools. Places where they camped (creeks, lakes) are good places to find stone implements...and there are places, they call "factories" where they found and worked the materials.

Took some Anthropology courses at the University of New Mexico; went on a field trip with a grad student there; somewhere between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. He knew what he was doing; he could find camping spots in an area where everything looked the same. He would dig a bit, and come up with stone knives, arrow points, snub nose scrapers, etc. He said one of his friends was digging with his hands in one of these spots, and ran a bone needle into his finger.

Don't remember what all we found that day, but we did find a mono and metate (corn grinding stones), both were intact. The metate was too heavy, but I still have the mono somewhere...used it as a door stop for many years. I guess point being, artifacts are where you find them.

 

[ovrszd]

Sure. Or he stopped to eat his lunch and dropped an arrow. Or he took a shot, missed, and lost the arrow. Or he was injured and died right there, leaving all his worldly possessions there to rot. Or.... all kinds of things come to the imagination. It's fun to speculate. :thumbsup:

I can see you aren't very good at this Moss. None of your speculations have any credibility.

 

[jbradley]

At a church campground in SW Missouri where there was a lot of flint and a spring fed creek, we would sift buckets of soil & rock through a frame with 1/2-in hardware cloth. We found several arrowheads in that manner.