# Why I can't find Arrowheads



## swamp hunter (Apr 1, 2017)

In the Glades..
Been all over that place for bout 55 years or so, never found an arrowhead.
I was once sitting under a big old shade tree on some High Ground resting from the Florida sun and got to scratchin around some. Found some bits of pottery and turtle shells. Told some folks about it and next time I went back it was gridded off in sections with square pits dug everywhere. Heard they dug a canoe out of the mound later .
No access after that, fences and signs.
Reason I figure I can't find arrowheads is cause the Indians didn't bow hunt much down here. 
Deer were few and far between , it was mostly a Seafood diet. Oysters don't run fast and turtles, Sea cows , Fish, Gators , ain't all that hard to catch. No need for a bow really. 
Maybe it's the mud and water...
Hard to see the ground part of the year, rest of the year it's muck. Stuff get's buried quick in muck.
Don't tell me I got my eyes closed cause them Cottonmouths make sure your Defcon 5 wherever you walk.
Think it,s a just reason ?
I been lookin hard for years.


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## kmckinnie (Apr 1, 2017)

Most arrowheads are knifes and other tools. They are all given the name arrowhead. 
They are there.


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## Nicodemus (Apr 1, 2017)

There`s a reason very few stone points are found that far south. Not many sources for good knapping chert down there, so the Indigenous People used bone and antler instead. Stingray barbs too.


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## Katalee (Apr 1, 2017)

It's like real estate . Location location location.


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## swamp hunter (Apr 2, 2017)

Think your on to it Nic. Bones and antlers don't last a couple thousand years.
Bet the Orginals had the Knife thing down easy. Them Oysters are real sharp , and there's Billions.
Most of the Costal Island Camps were Oyster Middens.
They ate oysters and just piled them up and lived on top.
1 1/2 foot of good soil on Chokoloskee Island , then solid shell.


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## Bill Yox (Apr 3, 2017)

Ah, this is a topic very familiar to me. Coming from an area that had many flint points, walking fields here is frustrating to say the least. I have found quartzite points, but really no stone tools like Im used to elsewhere. Its strange to me. Hard to find local folks willing to share info. I get the secret thing, but heck, even where Im from people at least helped a little. Meanwhile, ha ha, I keep trying to find white quartz points in harvested cotton fields...think about that one for a sec...yeah, lots of white. Wish me luck!


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## Walker44 (Apr 3, 2017)

Not a southern thing  But In Northern NY  we found many after a local farmer had plowed his fields   , His farm in a plain below a small hill side ,   seems like the actual hunting was going on in his farm plain ----------- As another posted read --- LOCATION LOCATION  LOCATION


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## fish hawk (Apr 5, 2017)

Seen some incredible stuff from S. Florida made from coral,any high ground with oak hammocks would be a good place to search.


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## redneck_billcollector (May 17, 2017)

I have found some interesting points in south Florida made out of fossilized coral.  I have found them mainly fishing in places where the shoreline has moved and storms have led to shell mounds being cut into by the water.  Everywhere in Florida it has to do with shell mounds....at least close to or on the coast.  I actually, a long time ago, found a point that was in the road....not a dirt road but a road where they used shell mounds as a source of materials.  I got a screw driver and hammer and cut it out of the road....that was in Wakulla Co. around 40 years ago.


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## redneck_billcollector (May 17, 2017)

Nicodemus said:


> There`s a reason very few stone points are found that far south. Not many sources for good knapping chert down there, so the Indigenous People used bone and antler instead. Stingray barbs too.



Lots of gar scales, stingray barbs, etc.....but also some very colorful fossilized coral in South Florida that makes for beautiful points.  I have a beautiful adena point made from that material...plus lots of other ones from So. Fla just not as pretty as the adena. I don't know what an adena was doing down there other than it was associated with the woodland period and in most of Florida they never really graduated from that period....


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## Bill Yox (May 17, 2017)

Couldve just been a different stemmed point type, and named for a later culture. Someday Id like to find a fossilized coral point, some look beautiful.


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## redneck_billcollector (May 17, 2017)

Bill Yox said:


> Couldve just been a different stemmed point type, and named for a later culture. Someday Id like to find a fossilized coral point, some look beautiful.



It was out of an eroded  shell mound .  Lots of woodland pottery was spilling out of that shell mound.


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## kmckinnie (May 17, 2017)

I found a point out of oyster shell. Lost it as a kid.


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## saltysenior (Jun 15, 2017)

swamp hunter said:


> In the Glades..
> Been all over that place for bout 55 years or so, never found an arrowhead.
> I was once sitting under a big old shade tree on some High Ground resting from the Florida sun and got to scratchin around some. Found some bits of pottery and turtle shells. Told some folks about it and next time I went back it was gridded off in sections with square pits dug everywhere. Heard they dug a canoe out of the mound later .
> No access after that, fences and signs.
> ...



I think a Indian living in the Glades (or anywhere) would depend more on a snare for obtaining meat as opposed to a bow....I think they bow hunted as an excuse to get out of the house (or tepee)


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## swamp hunter (Jun 26, 2017)

I just don't think they Bow hunted at all. Flooded lands part of the year , No minerals in the soil for browsers, panthers ,1.2 deer per sq. mile. Sea turtles 100 per sq. mile , Seacows swimming up the creeks and rivers, Oyster Bars and Crabs all over.
They didn't really need a Bow, maybe a fish and turtle spear.


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## Dr. Strangelove (Jun 26, 2017)

swamp hunter said:


> In the Glades..
> Been all over that place for bout 55 years or so, never found an arrowhead.
> I was once sitting under a big old shade tree on some High Ground resting from the Florida sun and got to scratchin around some. Found some bits of pottery and turtle shells. Told some folks about it and next time I went back it was gridded off in sections with square pits dug everywhere. Heard they dug a canoe out of the mound later .
> No access after that, fences and signs.
> ...



Remember that the current FL coastline is not what it was 500 years ago, much less 10,000. FL being sub-tropical and even a tropical environment in many places means that things get buried quick. Add to to that the tropical storms and hurricanes which come in thousands of year cycles. We're in a historical low right now for both.

The coastline in the time that ancient people inhabited Florida is several miles out to sea and under many feet of sand. 

All of this makes it hard to locate artifacts in FL, adding to it that many archaeological sites were destroyed in the early 20th century for construction materials. 

I personally believe that Aztec other South American civilizations visited, traded, and lived in FL but the evidence is now several miles offshore under many feet of sand.


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## saltysenior (Jun 27, 2017)

there was also a lack of good stone to make arrow heads


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## redneck_billcollector (Jul 17, 2017)

I would imagine the natives in SWFLA relied more on shellfish and other items that were rather easier to gather than a deer.  I do remember seeing that manatee bones and raccoon bones were prevalent in one of the mounds I visited down.....that had a museum on grounds.


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## AMobley (Jul 27, 2017)

the calusa thrived on anything to do with the saltwater. I doubt there was much big game hunting in south fl. 
 more bone pins than points probably, along with running nets.


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