# Arrowheads



## DSGB

I thought I would share a few pics of some of the arrowheads my dad, brother, and I have collected. This is just one of the cases we have, but it has the best points in it. Most of the others are pottery, broken points, and pieces.
Here's the whole case of 'heads. As you can see, they're made from a variety of materials. The ones at the top are mostly quartz. The bottom ones and most of the others are flint. The ones in the bottom-left (light colored), I think they are some kind of lime-stone. The one in the middle that looks black is made from obsidian.





Here's a closer view of the left side. I used a lighter to give some size reference. The one with the rounded tip next to the lighter is the first whole point I ever found. 




Here's the right side. My brother went with us one(1) time, and found that big one next to the lighter (lucky dog).




Here's an even closer view of the one my brother found.




This is, by far, the best one. My dad found this one and it's black as coal with a streak of caramel color across the bottom.


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## Trizey

Nice finds!

I'll try and post a picture of a large spearhead that  I found, it's in perfect shape.


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## coon dawg

*I've got around 100*

perfect ones...........found 'em from Elberton (quartz) to Albiny...........favorite is a blood red spear point........beautiful............  ..........nice collection ya have there, DSGB..........


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## Carp

Nice!


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## Doc J

You have a nice collection there.  Did you find those around Columbus?


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## broadhead

Very nice collection.


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## Jeff Raines

cool collection DGSB

If you wanna see others go to www.thetreasuredepot.com and check out the indian relics forum


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## Handgunner

Very nice!  If I get around to it, I'll post a picture of my points and tomahawk heads.

I used to have around 50 or so peices, but some neighborhood kids stole them from the shed. :


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## jrgriggs

Nice collection! I love walking up on hidden treasures in woods like that!


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## Duff

Great collection DSBG. Here is some bone neddles and some pottery I've found this past year. Also a few arrowheads I found this week. "True" quartz arrowheads I guess you may say.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	









You need to visit/join Son Anderson's fourm page at SonAndersonArtifacts.com. Son is a member here and has written a few books on point types from Ga., Ala, and Fla. Very very imformative person when it comes to points, but thats about all    I'm kidding son. 
I would say Son could tell you the name/age of every point you have without blinking an eye.


Great people there as well--always willing to help and love the hobby. Check it out.


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## dbodkin

great collection.. How do you get started in relic collecting?  I've always wanted a collection.   I recall reading some states have laws pertaining to relics that you cant disturb or remove them.  Such as pottery and the like I'm not sure of arrowheads, spears, etc... In Pennsylvania as a boy I remember finding arrowheads and musket balls  a friend found a cannonball once while deer hunting ... The area I grew up in has a long history of French & Indian Wars as well as Revoluntionary expeditions.


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## Duff

Dave 


   I found a large pink colored point in my garden last spring and that is what got me going. Jeff Raines looks for the civil war relics-- check out the site he posted for more info on that. Those guys are serious about Civil War relics


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## Bow Only

That dark colored point is extremely nice.  Keep it safe and don't let it get chipped.  It looks like a high quality chert, but not obsidian.  An obsidan point from this part of the country would be a tremendous find.
Limestone is often too brittle to be used for points.  The only limestone artifacts I have are choppers that were protected from the elements in a cave.  I also found alot of bone tools, and since you have also found bone, who knows.


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## Son

*arrowheads*

What appears to be limestone may be coastal plains chert with a patina. A fine layer the silica has been depleted from. The black point could be the color of the chert or maybe a dark tanic acid stain. Most of what you show looks to be the normal Georgia coastal plains type points. To get started in collecting Indian artifacts. First research the laws of your state to assure you're not doing anything wrong. In Georgia it's legal to surface hunt artifacts in fields. At this time it's not legal to search for artifacts in navagatable waters. Above all, be sure and have written permission on your person before walking any fields that doesn't belong to ya. Always look at the ground when you're around disturbed dirt. It's amazing how many points I have found around boat landings where folks have been walking on them for years.


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## gabowman

That's a mighty fine collection. I'd stumble across things like that without ever seeing them. Only way I'd ever collect them was to buy them from shops. They're sure worth being proud of.

GB


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## Bow Only

Son, I am familiar with your work and we need to talk.  I've probably got a few things you'd like to see.


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## Son

*arrowheads*

Mention buying from shops and many collectors will cringe. Lots of reproductions for sale out there. Aged with bogus stories to go with them too. Everyone's welcome to visit my website and msg board where we discuss the hobby. You can even email a scan of your artifacts if you have a question, or would just like to show.
Son


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## Bow Only

Thanks for the invite, but I barely have time for this board.  The title of my science project my senior year was "The Use of Lithic and Ceramic Typology and Frequency Distribution Studies to Determine the Settlement Patterns of an Inland Fort Walton Period Site."  Needless to say, I went to the International Science Fair with that one.  There are not many 25-foot, non-excavated truncated temple mounds around, but I found one.


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## Son

*artifacts*

In my opinion, Fort Walton pottery was the finest for out region with weeden Island running second.The lythics are my favorite, pottery's interesting too, but just the basics of it are enough for me.


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## Bow Only

The Woodland folks had some pretty basic stuff, but when you get to the complicated stamped and the ceramonial wares, that stuff is something.  I like the Weeden Island stuff the best and I've got a Weeden Island piece that is red glazed as well as enough stamped ware to build a kitchen.  Pottery used to be my thing and I've got tons of it, but it's all in storage.
Since you are an educated man, I'll ask you the million dollar question that has never been answered by any of the archaeology chronies I've hung around.  Why is Ft Walton period pottery never found on sites where Weeden Island peoples lived?
And which person has the best Weeden Island lithic collection in the state?  I'll only give you one guess on the second one, and it's not you.


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## Son

*the best?*

Couldn't possibly tell you who has the best collection as there are many who hoard and hide their collections. And you're right, it's not me. My collection is modest compared to some and geared for typology more than value or the best.


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## Son

*Fort Walton sites*

Can't tell ya why those two cultures don't overlap. I know more about the Cades Pond culture than others. I do have the best visible collection of Cades Pond cultural period pottery. Sand tempered, plain ware and Dunns Creek red. Largest vessel is 15 1/2" tall and four and a half feet in cir, is gourd shaped and has a manufactured kill hole in the bottom. Neat huh? Rare stuff and I'm fortunate to have it, compliments of land development and bull doziers.


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## Bow Only

Growing up in NW Florida, my knowledge base is from that area.  I too have a collection based on typology and not $$$$.  Each piece is numbered as to where it was found.  My quality isn't up there with Kevin's or anyone like that, but I've got the quantity.  I haven't actively added to my collection in 10 years, but I still look at them every day when I go in my office.  I am assuming Cades Pond is a Woodland culture in Georgia?  Most of my Woodland pottery is from a late Swift Creek to early Weeden Island, but the largest site was inhabited until Weeden Island II.  I have probably the best assortment of ceramic sherds and Woodland lithics from NW Florida.  I'm talking variation of sherds, just small pieces.  From fiber tempered to late limestone and shell tempered Ft Walton/Historic wares, I've got most of it.  I even found one stamped ware that I named after myself, since no one else knew of it's existence.  Even got a late Ft Walton Incised with a white clay inlay and a late excised piece.


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## Son

*Native American pottery*

The only Fort Walton pottery finds I have are from Appalachicola to Indian Pass in the panhandle. Nice incised shards and one effigy woodduck head apparently broken off a vessel. The Cades Pond culture was named in the 80's in "Florida Archaeology". Evidence of the culture runs from Duval to Pasco County Fl. The late Calvin Jones (Fl Arch.) first saw my assemblage of Cades Pond material (200-800 AD) even before the culture was named (1979 or so). I believe my collection provided enough data for the culture to be isolated. associated artifacts were sand tempered Cades Pond pottery, Pasco Plain, Dunns Creek Red, and limited decorated vessels. Stone plummets, micca, celts and points were also found. The point types were Jackson, Duval, triangular and Columbia. All were made of local cherts and coral. 
A limited number of site reports can be found in some central libraries.


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## Bow Only

I bet you found some Taylors with those Duvals.  Calvin was my mentor and a good friend.  He actually talked me out of becoming an archaeologist due to the politics of the science.  He said I could help him more in the private sector.  We were very close to finding the lost Spanish mission in Jackson County.  With my relocation and his passing, I'm afraid it will be lost for good.  I believe we were within a mile of finding it, but who knows.  I was one of the fortunate people to get to view the master file maps at the capitol.  
I have that Florida Archaeology but don't recall the Cades Pond culture.  I guess I'm getting old or since it was farther south, I just didn't read up on it.  My large Weeden Island sites also had plumments, mica mirrors, and similar point types.  Here is a picture from one Weeden Island site.  It was a rather large site scattered over 5 acres.  Duvals, Taylors, Jacksons, Columbias, it had them all.


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## Son

*artifacts*

Yeah, I liked Calvin, he was a good fellow. No taylors were found in the Cades Pond site in Pasco Co. But we never find Taylors that far south. That must have been some site to produce that many whole lythics. Ever find a site producing what Bullen called an O'leno?


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## Bow Only

You can't see them from that picture, but there are probably 8 or 10 O'Leno points from that site.  They are classic too.  There were lots of hafted knives and cutting implements and this site has all of the Woodland point types and the picture doesn't show but about 1/2 of the points from that site.  My favorite point of all is a Woodland version of a Bolen Beveled.  It is made from the same material as all of the other points from the site and shows the same patination.  I guess an Indian found a Bolen and said, "I can make one of those."  
I even kept up with the broken ones and matched up several broken points.  One day I was in the field with my Dad and found a broken tip.  He couldn't understand why a broken tip would make me so happy until I told him I had found the bottom half of that point the year before.


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## Son

*arrowheads*

I too have found the woodland people to be great collectors of earlier points. In woodland sites I've found them worn smooth from the rivers with tanic acid stain, altered forms of earlier points and in some cases they kept the earlier point as found. We're trying to put a finger on the O'leno type for a typology project on my website. Evidently it's a more northern Florida type as we don't find them down around Tampa Bay. It's common to find blades in most every cultural period with many of them not named. I've found nice blades showing use wear in Florida Orange Period sites overlapping with Woodland Hernando forms. Wonder if that would be the same as what you find in North Florida as O'leno? I would like to see a scan of about ten or so O'lenos to possibly use with our project if that's possible.


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## DSGB

Sorry for the late response. I've been busy at work and don't have much time to get on the net. All of those were found _around_ Columbus. Some are from Stewart and Chattahoochee Counties, some are from Russell Co. in Alabama, and a few are from Muscogee County. I'll admit that I don't know as much about them as I should. I have a few books I've read, but that's it. Some of y'all sound like you know your artifacts. I would be interested in learning more about them.


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## Mac

*Very interesting*

I joined Son's forum.  Nice info.


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## Dunnellondave

I joined this site from Son's site. Can never learn enough and never know it all. I have a woodland site close to Mayo Fla. It amazes me to find different sites from Paleo to Woodland. Almost like driving into a different subdivision now days. Even though the woodland points I find are usually much cruder than the rest, they seem to mean alot more to me because I don't find near as many. I hope this thread continues and maybe Bow Only can post somemore pics with a closer view?


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## Handgunner

Welcome to the site, Dunnellondave!  Hope you enjoy it here!


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## Augie

Hey ya Dave, Looks like a nice group of people at this board, I'm glad Son posted the link to here.
Give Spanky a hug for me.
RW


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## Duff

Woody's fellows met Son's fellows

Son's fellows met Woody's fellows   




I'm telling ya, you want find 2 boards with more helpful folks there than Son's and Woody's.    


carry on......


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## Bow Only

Son, it's hard to date that one site exactly because it was so big and was inhabited for such a long time.  We do not find any Deptford materials and to answer your question, the O'Leno's I've found have been later Swift Creek.  Florida Orange is too early in my opinion, but my opinion is limited to 48 different sites in NW Florida where only a dozen or so had a Woodland component.  I do have a good question for you.  At the site those points came from, there are a large number of heat treated artifacts.  I have never found many points that were heat treated except there.  My guess is that the camp was destroyed by a rival tribe and the structures were burned.  That could be why so many points were left behind and not accounted for by their maker.  Our best day, 75 whole points and over 100 broken ones.  It's the only explanation I have.
I also don't find much Deptford material, except for one large site on the FL/AL line that had a mound.  It was bulldozed and produced several nice celts.  I lost access to that site so my lithic and ceramic assortment is limited to only a few hundere shards and maybe 100 points.  It like most sites had multi-components.  
I don't usually post pics of my stuff on the internet, that was just to let you know I was serious about collecting.  I'll post you an O'Leno.  After looking for 10 minutes, I finally found them.


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## Son

*O'lenos, arrowheads*

Those two certainly fit the description for O'leno, what's the lengths?
But as I suspected, the same form can be found from Florida Orange period thru Woodland. So It appears the O'leno form lasted for quite some time. Considering that most all points start out in blade shape, I'm suggesting O'lenos are blades from the pile that found a use not requiring notching.
I believe Woodland people used heat altering for their larger, fine pieces. But when it came to the small points they were opportunist. Using raw materials and heat altered waste flakes from previous cultures. I find a mixture of fiber tempered, Depford, Swift Creek complicated stamped and Weeden Island pottery shards in SW Ga. Down around Tampa Bay it was fiber tempered and sand tempered inland. Sand and shell tempered along the immediate Gulf Coast. One needs a good library of books to identify and study pottery types. And even there you will find splitters and lumpers, too many variations for me to remember. My memory handles the lythics better.


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## Bow Only

Smallest 1 1/2 inches, largest just under 1 7/8"  

I have 2 sites that have fiber tempered pottery and 2 that have Deptford ceramics.  Is it a coincidence they both are the same sites?  
I haven't read up on lithics or ceramics in over 15 years.  The last time I read, they had changed the names of my Lake Jackson Plain to something else.  I have a general knowledge base but the specifics I used to know have eroded over time.  
Like I said, my knowledge base is from Jackson County in NW Florida.  I know that area, but don't have much from anywhere else.  If O'Leno's occured throughout all those cultures, I would have some.  I have plenty of triangular knives and some points, but I wouldn't call them O'Lenos.  Some are blanks, some are transitional archaic, a few are O'lenos.  Do yours show higher degrees of patination?  And I hope this isn't going towards the Tallahassee debate.  
Look at the how fine the tips are on those two examples.  Not like you would expect.


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## Son

*arrowheads, pottery*

I noticed the tips on the two examples you picture, sure favor the tip treatment on Taylor points. None of the blades I'm referring to have an early patina, they exhibit a patina comparable with associated artifacts in the later sites mentioned. Tallahassee points? No we wont go there it would only confuse this discussion. I will say, My opinion about accurate point typology for our region is discussed on my website, with a picture of accurate publishings on the collectors page. Preforms and finished blades are a good subject for discussion. I seperate the two by identifying the degree of final work done on a piece. In my opinion, if a blade shows final retouch, then it's not a preform any longer. If it doesn't I classify it as a preform.


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## Son

*for those following this discussion*

If you have any questions about the legality of collecting artifacts in Georgia, search Georgia Archaeology for sites containing such information. Also believe your answers can be found on Georgia DNR. It is legal to surface collect prehistoric arrowheads, spearheads and knives in Ga. on personal property or on private property with written permission. If you're not familiar with the laws, it's best you read them thoroughly before collecting.


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## ngabearhunter

I just call them arrowheads, didn't know the hobby was that detailed. Wish I knew 1% of what you all are talking about. I have only found one "good one" over the years in my Forestry work and here it is.

Can either of you ID it for me and tell me what it's made of and if it's rare or not? Found in 1998 in *Oglethorpe County*, Georgia near Sims Crossroads on a logging job.
Thanks for the info.
NGABEARHUNTER


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## Son

*type*

Your point has the shape of a Kirk cornernotch, Early Archaic, approx 5-6000 BC. Can't tell about the material from the dark scan, It's a common type.
Identifying features are the shape, made of raw material and has an unground base. Raw material means the material wasn't heat altered. On some points the edges of the stems (base) are smoothed by grinding with another stone. If your point has a smoothed/ground base it's earlier than Kirk.


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## Bow Only

Looking at the length to width ratio, I'd say it was a Lafayette, but I would bet on Son if I were ya'll.  The problem with point identification is that when a native american made an arrowhead, he didn't say "I'm going to make a Lafayette or I'm going to make a Kirk."  They usually made the type of point that their father made and they were taught to make.  But these points did change over time and new cultures influenced the shape of points.  Add the nomadic nature of the native americans and you really have problems.  Collections like Son's and mine are very valuable because they show artifacts from one site, one group of people.  The problem is that most sites were inhabited over and over again for thousands of years.  I had one site that had artifacts from roughly 10000 BC to AD 1300.  Fresh water springs provided a great camp site and the peoples continously wandered by to camp there.  It is tougher to understand points from multi-component sites like this, but they are still very important.  The Woodland people that Son and I refer to were very prolific at making points.  Not just arrowheads as some people call them, but knives, drills, and a whole lot of skinning blades.  Most people call them junk, but I've got them by the box full.  They are triangular knives with a thick cross section.  When all of these items are displayed together, it gives a good example of the people that made them.  I have arrowheads made by the same person.  How do I know, they come from the same piece of flint and look exactly alike.  I am fortunate that my Dad got me interested at an early age.  I would suggest that you take your children looking as well.  Get permission first and be legal.  Don't give our hobby a bad reputation like some people have done.


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## Son

*shapes*

yes, In the Southeast it's interesting how shapes come and go, for example. Paleo, lancelote shapes, disappearing around 7000 BC, then lancelote shapes appear again during the woodland period, 400 BC or so. Side and cornernotched appear around 7000 BC. disappearing around 5000 BC. Then showing up again during the late Archaic 2000 BC. Dates vary according to region. I said Kirk Cornernotch, not only because of shape, but in the area it was found later cornernotch points differ slightly from Lafayette.


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## ngabearhunter

Thanks to both of you for the quick reply, at least now I know a little about what I found. I am looking forward to getting back into the hobby again.
Thanks


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## Son

*collecting*

No time like the present to get started again, all the fields plowed and lots of rain in the forecast. Then you can share some pictures and experiences with us and we wont have to listen to our own stories over and over.


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