Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Aldeer General Forum D8 cat revealed Indian artifacts

These artifacts were scraped up to the surface by a D8 cat on my land. Many were broken, unfortunately, before I could save them. All were found on one acre atop a flat hill.


Points, blades, scrapers:







Perforated river pebble beads and pendents (48 total, I think):

Neat stuff

Photos of quartz and field stone celts...5 were intact, others were anciently broken, and some unfortunately were fractured by the D8 cat:




Grinding stones, intact and broken by the cat:



Cooking stones, translucent quartz discoidal, fire starter drill spinner?:



Beautiful Plummet stone of some type of coral found in the dirt around a fire pile the D8 pushed up...before it was burned:

Alright Skinny, tell us something about this collection...

LeCroy point found washed up, earlier, but in the same spot; 4 LeCroy points were found, total:



Camp debris...nutting stones, pestles, abrasive stones, hammer stones...intact, broken anciently and by the D8, were lying everywhere:





Chips and flakes:



Intact celt or club head of field stone:

nice finds for sure....

those two lower left in the first pic are real nice.....

troy

Heck yeah that's pretty cool stuff ya got are you going to save some of it?

Betcha there was a creek or other water source very close to the spot. My relatives used to farm an area in Pickens county that had a slight mounded area in the field. We found several arrow heads and other items including bones after heavy rains. It is grown up now and planted in pines. There was a small creek within 200 yds.

Cool

Now thats what I'm talking about, congrats on the find.

Impressive find! Thanks for sharing.

I found over 15 gallons (Three 5 gal. buckets and more) of pecked and ground...then smoothed, stones for general purpose work, I'll guess. Some had holes drilled into them (platform stones) and some had concavities (abrasion for points/tools).

I'll just keep most of them (smaller ones)and make a shadow box to place on the wall for conversation pieces. I have some more I found on other land that I might sell/trade for things I need for the family...several Dalton Chattahoochie points, nicer Archaic points, and other points, etc. PM/Email me if you wish.

Thanks, Troy. It took from early June to just a week ago to find it all. I felt I owed the respect to the Ancient folks' spirits/memories to save these items of their ancient culture from certain destruction. The ones you like are nice ones. Several other nice items that were broken by the cat were VERY disappointing. I saved all the larger stuff quick as I could...as the D8 cat was returning to do more work. The points/darts/knives washed up in the weeks following after small rains. I saved several celts and clubs from certain crushing by returning to hunt them down.

I also found 16 sherds of bright, scarlet glazed pottery.

The place was used intermittently from the Transitional Paleo Phase (as evidenced by the diagnostic points/flake knives)...through the Archaic/Woodland Phases...to the Late Mississippian Phase.

There is a nice double spring head located just 50 yards away and they form a branch head. It has old tree planks still in the bottom about 3' down. (I had to dig it out for the cows, as a boy, and I left them.) This place was known as Double Springs. The springs still function today. Another nice spring is located 100 yards away and still produces plenty of water. Three more smaller springs dot the nearby area. (I dug up 4 spring from old springs for deer this July.) The site is located on the exact 'flat top' of a 2 acre hill. You're very right, 300gr ! They selected optimal camp areas probably under large, sparse, shade trees...nearby desirable (for foraging food) hickory and oak stands. Just 3/4 mile 'as the crow flies' is Chubbehatchee Creek.

I conclude my land was a large Base Camp for bringing in game for processing, re-tooling hunting weapons, trading, meeting mates, a place where several major trails converged, and as a safe haven for Archaic interior band(s) attached to larger tribes. 15 ancient campfire circles were exposed by the cat. Small and medium size prepared nodes of scarlet ochre dot the darkened ground around them. The ochre color matches the pottery sherds' color. I also found anciently broken, greenish-grey soapstone (steatite)sherds that served as eating/cooking slabs...said to be older than pottery. They still retain the original gouge marks when quarried. Amazing stuff.

Very cool find!!

I thought the state would shutdown operations so that they could properly archive the site.

I really didn't know it was there until it was to late, Skull. Their were only a few isolated points found...as is usual on most hilltops.

Nice find.

cool stuff, is a flat hill like a jumbo shrimp?

kendall

Exactly what did they use plummet stones for - net weights???

Some Archaeologists theorize they are net sinkers or fishing weights, bola weights, or plumb bobs, and others say they were ceremonial objects made in the style of a particular Clan. Most think they were fishing weights. They are still listed as problematical (don't know the usage) objects if I recall correctly, deadeye.

My nephew found a museum quality plummet washed out of the bank at little lagoon near Gulf Shores. They have also found several very nice points there where a small freshwater creek flows into the lagoon and lots of pottery shards too. Seems like if it were a weight of some type, they would not have put so much time into making them. I think they are ceremonial type adornments.