Arrowheads

[honda450]

Here is a couple of arrowheads that have found while out hunting in southern Alberta. Ya ever find any? Or anything else like this please post what ya found.

[Rockymtnx]

As a kid in the summer I use to go pick up arrow heads off a couple sandy hill tops near home. When my Mom was a kid she picked up tons of them, including a few spearheads.
I will take a picture and post them for everyone this weekend.

On the same note, the past few evenings Dad has been going out to large slough that dried up and is picking up buffalo bones and skulls. Apparently last night he found a pretty good skull in the mud. Local tales from the native community say that long ago the Indians use to herd the buffalo and run them into what is now my grandfathers slough. When they got stuck they could then kill them with ease.

[Chet]

Here's my greatest find:

[m88.358wn]

Here are a few that I inherited from my grandparents. They had allot more, my sister has every thing else including a knife, a few scrapers and some beads that I found. Some of the other artifacts included grinding stones, bone tools, pottery and some pottery that still had corn seeds in them. I can remember my grandmother planting a hand full of them and then watching them grow. They were multi colored and the cobs grew to about three or four inches.

I made the broach for my grandmother and the key chain for granddad.

[Rockymtnx]

Originally Posted by Chet

Here's my greatest find:

Nice find Chet.
I would have thought that most of the larger thing like hammers heads have been picked up by now.
Thanks for sharing.

Originally Posted by Chet

Here's my greatest find:

My granmother in Saskatchewan had all her flower gardens ringed in those hammers. She'd painted them all white. There must have been 50 or more and they were all different sizes. I've always wondered what happened to them. Cool find for sure.

When we were in Arizona elk hunting last year, the ground was littered with arrow and spear heads but is was illegal to pick them up. Still pretty cool to see that many. It wasn't hard to see where some of the battles had likely taken place. There was a high hill and it would be surrounded by flint projectiles in various states.

[m88.358wn]

Originally Posted by Chet

Here's my greatest find:

I've been told by some one that is an anthropologist that ax heads and grinding bowls and grinding stones were handed down from generation to generation some times over a thousand years for some tribes. I too also remember seeing bowls and grinding stones all over the grandparents home.

[honda450]

Really nice finds guys.

[Frans]

I'd love to find something like that! Do you guys go out and deliberately look for them, and if so, what kind of terrain feature would attract your attention. A friend of mine has over a hundred in a display on the wall. Sheep', what would happen if one of those AZ arrowhead accidently slipped into your pocket while crawling closer to a sheep?

Frans

Originally Posted by Frans

I'd love to find something like that! Do you guys go out and deliberately look for them, and if so, what kind of terrain feature would attract your attention. A friend of mine has over a hundred in a display on the wall. Sheep', what would happen if one of those AZ arrowhead accidently slipped into your pocket while crawling closer to a sheep?

Frans

LOL...we didn't want to find out.....

[honda450]

Originally Posted by Frans

I'd love to find something like that! Do you guys go out and deliberately look for them, and if so, what kind of terrain feature would attract your attention. A friend of mine has over a hundred in a display on the wall. Sheep', what would happen if one of those AZ arrowhead accidently slipped into your pocket while crawling closer to a sheep?

Frans

I just found mine by fluke. Going to give them to the Royal Alberta Museum before I kick the bucket.

[Grizzly Adams]

This is one of those is it, or is it not things. It fits in the had perfectly like a scraper and the bottom edge appears to be deliberately sharpened by flaking, but it's too worn to say absolutely. Hoping to get someone to check it out for me sometime.



Grizz

[BrownBear416]

I have always wanted to find one but never have

My Grade 10 social teacher grew up down south and he had a briefcase Full of them.Everything from arrow heads,spearheads,axe heads,bowls,meat grinders etc etc

Very cool to see..

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by Grizzly Adams

This is one of those is it, or is it not things. It fits in the had perfectly like a scraper and the bottom edge appears to be deliberately sharpened by flaking, but it's too worn to say absolutely. Hoping to get someone to check it out for me sometime.



Grizz

Hi Grizz,

Now that's a knife! The flaked edge wouldn't work very well as a scraper, but I bet that rock fits comfortably in your hand while cutting a roast off a mammoth or giant beaver.

Or it is just a rock.

[Mulestalker]

Always finding Dino bones but never any arrow heads

[BeerSlayer1]

It wasn't hard to see where some of the battles had likely taken place. There was a high hill and it would be surrounded by flint projectiles in various states.

If a person finds a large number of artifacts in a small area it could also be a "factory" where the arrowheads etc were crafted, they would just discard the rejects or ones that broke. If you ever find a location like this it's like hitting the motherlode of artifacts.

I would think that the winning tribe would have scoured any battle areas and reused any projectile heads they could find, it's a lot easier than making new ones.

Just my thoughts, sounds like a cool area.

[WayneChristie]

Found mine near one of my fishing holes Im thinking more war club than hammer tho. Near a dam on the bald azz prairie.

[BeerSlayer1]

Here's a few of the cool things I've found.

I found this rock when I was a kid, it's used to start fires with a bow and stick.





This club was found along the Swan River in N.E. Saskatchewan about ten years ago while I was grouse hunting. It's huge, I don't know how some moose hunter didn't trip over it during all of the years it was laying there.



The arrowhead on the left was found by a slough just northeast of Saskatoon while I was duck hunting and the one on the right was bought in a giftshop in Banff for $5.



This coup-de-grace club was given to my grandfather by an indian chief in the early 1900's. It's made of moose or deer hide, twisted grass on the inside and a pebble. You can see how they decorated it with natural pigments. My grandfather's family was good friends with the chief and received several other gifts from him including a clay peace pipe.

[BeerSlayer1]

Found mine near one of my fishing holes Im thinking more war club than hammer tho. Near a dam on the bald azz prairie.

WC, you've got me thinking. That big club I found was near water as well (along a river ) and I haven't been able to think of a use for something that big until now. Do you think these big hammers were used to break through ice in winter to maintain access to drinking water?

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by BeerSlayer1

WC, you've got me thinking. That big club I found was near water as well (along a river ) and I haven't been able to think of a use for something that big until now. Do you think these big hammers were used to break through ice in winter to maintain access to drinking water?

Certainly probable. Larger stone tools were usually left at sites of use. No point carrying a bunch of rocks around, just have another set of heavy tools where you are moving too. Like good camping sites today, the good spots were used repeatedly.

Just good old common sense.

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by BeerSlayer1

This coup-de-grace club was given to my grandfather by an indian chief in the early 1900's. It's made of moose or deer hide, twisted grass on the inside and a pebble. You can see how they decorated it with natural pigments. My grandfather's family was good friends with the chief and received several other gifts from him including a clay peace pipe.

This style of club is also called a "slingshot club", for the whipping action the flexible shaft has.

For your info. they are very desired for collections. You should find someone to repair it, and consider an appraisal (insurance).

You can imagine for yourself the traditional way for the club to be inherited.

[Rocks]

A couple I found as a kid on the farm:



Found the first one while sitting in a JD4020 plowing stubble, and the bottom one, which I don't know what it is but it is definitely hand shaped in a summer fallow field.

Found a couple broken arrowheads as well, but have no pics.

[walking buffalo]

Originally Posted by Rocks

A couple I found as a kid on the farm:



Found the first one while sitting in a JD4020 plowing stubble, and the bottom one, which I don't know what it is but it is definitely hand shaped in a summer fallow field.

Found a couple broken arrowheads as well, but have no pics.

Rocks,

regarding the 'phallic' tool, could you post up another picture showing the rounded end better. Is there a groove in the end? My first thought was a pestle, for grinding. But if there is a groove, it is something else, possibly for shaping hide strips, or to keep the wife entertained during hunting season.

[Rocks]

I'll scrounge around for pics tomorrow for sure WB.

[Rockymtnx]

Here is a pic of the last two that I found.
Now that the snow is gone a guy should go walk the hill tops.
98% of the ones we found were on the hill tops. The elders say that the hill tops is where they camped so they could see who was coming or even where the buffalo were. Of course where they camped was where they made them even lost some.

[TheClash]

i have two hand axes that my dog found...yup my dog found. one he dug up in my back yard and dropped it at my feet..the other he found at the dog park and did the same thing...bought it back and dropped it at my feet and trotted off. i have had my archaeology professor look at them and she confirms that they are artifacts...pretty cool. i will try to get some pics up.

[TreeGuy]

Very, very cool stuff guys. Like BB, I have yet to stumble across any artifacts of interest. However, this is one of my prize finds that somewhat releats.

After the flooding of '05, many river embankments were severly eroded. A couple of years ago, something caught my eye and this is what I dug out.

It is a buffalo vertabre. You can see the portion that was exposed, and hence bleached by the sun. It proudly sits here on my desk.

[honda450]

Rocky that black arrowhead you posted sure looks simular to the black one I posted. Perhaps made by the same tribe and stone. Yours is shiner though.

[Grizzly Adams]

Originally Posted by Rockymtnx

Here is a pic of the last two that I found.
Now that the snow is gone a guy should go walk the hill tops.
98% of the ones we found were on the hill tops. The elders say that the hill tops is where they camped so they could see who was coming or even where the buffalo were. Of course where they camped was where they made them even lost some.

These look like they were made of Obsidian, definitely not to be found on the prairies, so who knows where they came from?

Grizz

[TheClash]

here are the artifacts that my dog dug up for me and delivered right to my feet haha. you can see the distinct shape..and the worn out smoothed area from being held in a hand. they are pretty cool to hold....