Hello guys! I found my very first point today in Washington county. Man what a rush!!! I've found several broken points and pieces of flint, but never a single piece of quartz. I figured I might as well ask the experts on here And see how common they are in middle Georgia. I appreciate any and all in put!
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Are quartz points common?
- Thread starter ugajay
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dtala
Senior Member
I probably picked up 150 points near LaGrange many years ago. All but three were white quartz.
I don't know about middle Georgia, but around here, about 90% of the points you find are made from quartz or quartzite. Probably 50%-75% of the ones I've seen from about halfway down the SC/GA line.
Very few down here in South and Southwest Georgia where I am. Most of ours are Coastal Plain Chert and it`s various subtypes.
Thanks for the responses guys. I've found a pile of broken points and flakes that were all flint. Just started looking around here a couple months ago after checking out my Papa's small collection from this same piece of property. It can be addicting. After finding this one, I wonder if maybe my mind's eye was looking for flint and didn't bother keying in on the quartz pieces. Hopefully one day I'll know half what y'all do. Thanks again!
PappyHoel
Senior Member
Every single one i have found in NE Ga have been quartz. I did find flakes recently that were not. I no longer have access to that area to look for more.
Whatever the stone source is your local area will be what the majority of tools and points will be. Occasionally you`ll find points made from stone from far off places, since good stone was a valuable source for trade. Some of that stone will have traveled from long distances, especially when it was all on foot with only dogs for pack animals.
Where I used to look in north Ga, I'd guess the ratio to be about 10-12 to 1 quartz to flint.
I do think that quartz gets a bad rap from a lot of collectors as not as nice looking or knapped as well, but if you find the right campsite that held the right knapper, you can find quartz points that rival flint.
I've found quartz ranging from virtually clear to rose quartz to an amber color and all are intricately knapped.
I do think that quartz gets a bad rap from a lot of collectors as not as nice looking or knapped as well, but if you find the right campsite that held the right knapper, you can find quartz points that rival flint.
I've found quartz ranging from virtually clear to rose quartz to an amber color and all are intricately knapped.
I do think that one of the main reasons that I've always found more quartz is that a lot of the old timers in my area would only collect the flint points.
I have a cousin (in his late 70s now) that has a very, VERY large collection picked up from the time he was a kid up until just a few years ago when throat/tongue cancer made him stop looking and talked about how they picked up the flint and skipped a lot of the quartz into the river. As he got older, he began collecting them all.
I have a cousin (in his late 70s now) that has a very, VERY large collection picked up from the time he was a kid up until just a few years ago when throat/tongue cancer made him stop looking and talked about how they picked up the flint and skipped a lot of the quartz into the river. As he got older, he began collecting them all.
I've found 2 points in Laurens county made of quartz and they are the only two pieces of quartz that I have ever seen on the property. They had to be traded in at some point.
That was GREAT looking for a couple of years, virgin turned dirt that didn't appear to have ever been looked. It's now in row pines and more than likely will never be looked again
We found them in south Troup after our property was clear cut. Found some quartz but a lot of flint, some with inclusions
Small fossils, like in pieces of coral. I'll have to dig some out and get some pics and talk to the others on my club that found some
Quartz is a durable tool stone and cuts well because of the faceted texture of the stone. Crystal quartz has an edge that will almost rival obsidian.
A lot of it is the quality of the material itself. Quartz/quartzite can range from almost unknappable to pretty good quality stuff. I've worked some local material that I can make pretty nice points from.
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Around here, some of it is period-specific, too. The rivers here flow down out of the mountains into eastern Tennessee. There is no flint/chert in the mountains, but there is some decent chert in eastern TN.
Most of the chert points I find here are really old or late-period, one of the two. The early people were nomadic, and traveled up the rivers into the mountains in the summer, and back down into the lowlands in the winter. So many of the oldest points I find are made from Tennessee chert that was carried upstream by the people on their hunting and gathering trips.
Later in the Archaic period, people tended to settle down in one area more, so they used local lithic materials for points; which in this area, is mostly metaquartzite and quartz. So nearly all the Archaic-era points I find are made from local quartzite. Later, in the Woodland and Mississippian periods, trade became a bigger thing, and various materials and commodities were traded across the east, including lithic materials. Since by this time people were using bows and arrows and smaller points, flakes of flint big enough to make small triangular arrowheads were fairly easy to carry. So, many of the true arrowheads I find here are made from chert brought in from other places.
During the Woodland and Mississippian eras, lithic material trade was apparently big business. I have seen a collection of micro-prismatic blades found in eastern Tennessee that were made from Flint Ridge flint from northern Ohio, and obsidian from the Yellowstone area was found in quantity at Cahokia Mounds in Illinois. One obsidian arrowpoint was found at a Mississippian mound in central NC, even. I have a few points that I've found here in western NC that look to have been made from Kentucky/Indiana hornstone. When a Mississippian mound near here was excavated, they found a lot of copper from the Great Lakes region, and Hopewellian pottery from the upper Midwest. Sheet mica from western NC was found up there.
Most of the chert points I find here are really old or late-period, one of the two. The early people were nomadic, and traveled up the rivers into the mountains in the summer, and back down into the lowlands in the winter. So many of the oldest points I find are made from Tennessee chert that was carried upstream by the people on their hunting and gathering trips.
Later in the Archaic period, people tended to settle down in one area more, so they used local lithic materials for points; which in this area, is mostly metaquartzite and quartz. So nearly all the Archaic-era points I find are made from local quartzite. Later, in the Woodland and Mississippian periods, trade became a bigger thing, and various materials and commodities were traded across the east, including lithic materials. Since by this time people were using bows and arrows and smaller points, flakes of flint big enough to make small triangular arrowheads were fairly easy to carry. So, many of the true arrowheads I find here are made from chert brought in from other places.
During the Woodland and Mississippian eras, lithic material trade was apparently big business. I have seen a collection of micro-prismatic blades found in eastern Tennessee that were made from Flint Ridge flint from northern Ohio, and obsidian from the Yellowstone area was found in quantity at Cahokia Mounds in Illinois. One obsidian arrowpoint was found at a Mississippian mound in central NC, even. I have a few points that I've found here in western NC that look to have been made from Kentucky/Indiana hornstone. When a Mississippian mound near here was excavated, they found a lot of copper from the Great Lakes region, and Hopewellian pottery from the upper Midwest. Sheet mica from western NC was found up there.
brunofishing
Senior Member
I am lucky enough to live on the fall line, I find both on our property, more flint than quartz but I have some nice quarts large and small as a fingernail. I can go to my friends place 3 miles north and we find mostly quartz!
