Found this on the beach today

Nice I was thinking of looking for arrow heads in the Green River and this will motivate me.
 
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Arrowheads are very common in North America, is why they aren't worth more than average 20 to 30 dollars each. Some really rare outstanding pieces can bring up in the 100's though. Around here Indians lived by the rivers and after a rain, you can find their artifacts in plowed fields, that border the rivers. There's even large groupings found when the river banks erode away, where the Native Americans stored them.
 
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Bob W said:
I'd call it a "knife" or "blade."
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I agree, looks like a knife, a pocket knife. Which I think is much more exciting than an arrowhead. I imagine it was the previous owners EDC.
Today a 2.5 inch knife is used for opening boxes, cutting paper and tearing open the packaging of your newly purchased vacuum sealed gadget.
We can only imagine what such a knife was used for in that day.
I wonder if the previous owner carried it in a sheath...
QUICK, go back to the beach and check if you can find the sheath!!! :D
 
And just think the Native Americans no doubt sat about their campfires, at night showing each other their points and blades, they'd made, traded for, found and used for all sorts of tasks. Talking about them and comparing them. Now, we sit around our computers doing the same.
 
Sikael said:
It's strange they're not particularly valuable -- at least not in North America, since they don't date back that far, 16 000 years, max, and most much earlier (the arrow-heads might only be a few hundred years old). If a Paleolithic tool turns up that radio-carbon-dating places earlier than that, it would support claims of artifacts dating as far back as 50 000 years B.P. -- another matter entirely. I was also surprised when I first learned that actual Mammoth Ivory was being used on knives -- it seemed to me they should be prohibitively expensive or of great value scientifically... but seeing the sheer tonnage found in places like Siberia, it's not as rare as I assumed.
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wouldnt the radio carbon dating only prove the age of the actual material it was made from and not the date a tool was made from that material?
 
jill jackson said:
And just think the Native Americans no doubt sat about their campfires, at night showing each other their points and blades, they'd made, traded for, found and used for all sorts of tasks. Talking about them and comparing them. Now, we sit around our computers doing the same.
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One of the truest, coolest things said on this forum!

Agreed, we are just following our heritage built into our DNA when we come here.
 
PURPLEDC said:
wouldnt the radio carbon dating only prove the age of the actual material it was made from and not the date a tool was made from that material?
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I thought you were exactly right, but... apparently they do use radio-carbon dating, comparing it to sedimentary layers, dating whole settlements using rare plant and animal remnants (I just skimmed an article before editing, so I'll have to go back and read it through). Your point was logical, though, so... still a good call. It definitely wouldn't be as obvious as RCD'ing fossils. :thumbup:
 
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Some sites can be dated, then the dates are applied to the artifacts found there. Artifacts found on the beach buried in the sand can't be dated individually (not by ordinary means at least), but they can be compared to similar artifacts found at the dated sites. :thumbup:
 
efreedma said:
Here are some more shots of the piece.

4cdb34ac6ce3d8f4d4a42da96d54ab93.jpg

21fcc2f2c0369a52c51f56655d656590.jpg

0de028e35b8277a748e3fd06fa234e06.jpg
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Yep, it looks like only one edge was finished for actual cutting.
Quite a patina too, probably very smooth to the touch after being tossed around in the surf for a thousand years or more. Just like a rock tumbler.
Notice all of the fresh flakes where the light grey interior is exposed. That tool must have gotten banged against some other rocks.
 
Bob W said:
Some sites can be dated, then the dates are applied to the artifacts found there. Artifacts found on the beach buried in the sand can't be dated individually (not by ordinary means at least), but they can be compared to similar artifacts found at the dated sites. :thumbup:
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Yep! And in some cases the composition of the stone can tell you when and where it came from. Corroborate that with the other local finds in the area and you'll have a great idea. Regardless of age, it's great find, and cool of you to reach out to the archeologist and the native museum for guidance. A great reminder of the heartiness of the people from whom we are all descendants of, the original bad a**es, capable of taking down mammoths with points like these. Would be curious to find out if it's an attempt from later people's to duplicate the Clovis point. Thanks for sharing!
 
B34NS said:
Yep! And in some cases the composition of the stone can tell you when and where it came from.
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Some materials are so localized they can be traced back to specific rock outcrops.
That probably doesn't apply to the artifact in the photos above though; it appears to be some fairly generic chert.
 
jill jackson said:
No bone all flint, all found by my Dad. The big center piece is a knife, they're at least 800 years old.
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Many geologists consider that there is no flint in North America and archaeologists don't use that term. Unless looking at old rifles and the flint strikers, which were true flint (imported from Europe).

The Flint Hills of Kansas? All chert. :D
 
jill jackson said:
Arrowheads are very common in North America, is why they aren't worth more than average 20 to 30 dollars each. Some really rare outstanding pieces can bring up in the 100's though. Around here Indians lived by the rivers and after a rain, you can find their artifacts in plowed fields, that border the rivers. There's even large groupings found when the river banks erode away, where the Native Americans stored them.
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I used to be a kidnapper till I discovered flint.

I'm joking, I'm not a flintknapper. I saw that on a sign at a flintknapper's table at a Pow-Wow at Fort Ancient.
Fort-Ancient-Earth-Mounds.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Ancient_(Lebanon,_Ohio)

Whereabouts are you located Jill?
 
Bob W said:
Many geologists consider that there is no flint in North America and archaeologists don't use that term. Unless looking at old rifles and the flint strikers, which were true flint (imported from Europe).

The Flint Hills of Kansas? All chert. :D
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Maybe so but flint is widely used anyway.
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Limestone is the main bedrock where I live. It makes the water very hard and helps buck deer to grow massive racks, as well as being the reason great horses come from my State.

davek14 said:
I used to be a kidnapper till I discovered flint.



Whereabouts are you located Jill?
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Kentucky.
 
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Stone tools can only be dated by provenance and supposition from the materials found with the tool. Radio carbon dating will not work on stone.
 
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