Can those who have studied this stuff help identify the various clans, tribes, whatever that are represented by the points in these two small frames. I've decided I need to organize my stuff ( I have a bunch) and give them to some educational organization since they all came from one place. It should make for an interesting unit in a history class.
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Native American cultural groups
- Thread starter Jimmypop
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MIG
Senior Member
Did you find these yourself? I’m seeing some stuff that looks to me to be “paleoesque” as well as trans-paleo and early archaic period types. The material looks odd to me - maybe north GA material, I’m used to seeing coastal plains chert. Plus, I’m on a phone and I’m having a hard time getting a good look.
I would say that every one of those points were made thousands of years before any of the historic "tribes" that we recognize and found here when we arrived existed. Most of those points range from Paleo to early-mid Archaic cultures-nomadic hunter/gatherer cultures that lived here thousands of years ago and likely have no direct connection to the tribes that lived here in historic times.
Are these points from Kentucky?
Oldest.....Clovis, Youngest....gun flint. Most of my stuff is Archaic , but there are examples of each culture, all from this small area found solely by me.I think I have a very important collection from an educational view point.But I'm not sure. There are several hundred points plus a tub of ancillary stuff and the reason to do something with it.I'm 79.
That second frame is a textbook example of what is likely the same culture transforming over time. It pretty much mirrors Joffre Coe's work at the Hardaway Site in central NC, where he excavated it in context and was able to date it, and published his finds as The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont.
You've got it all right there-from Paleo to the Dalton/Hardaway culture evolving into the Palmer culture-a few thousand years of what was likely the same folks adapting over time. The next direct evolution was into the Kirk culture. The spot where you found all that would have made a great archaological dig comparable to some of the best sites in the southeast, I would say.
Artfuldodger
Senior Member
Maybe you could turn the task of classification over to the school, museum, etc. you are donating them to.
It seems like you'd almost have to have someone look at each one in person to identify and group together in like minded groupings.
Might need to reach out on who to best donate your collection to as well. Someone on here might could offer advice.
Thanks for sharing, you did a good job with the displays.
It seems like you'd almost have to have someone look at each one in person to identify and group together in like minded groupings.
Might need to reach out on who to best donate your collection to as well. Someone on here might could offer advice.
Thanks for sharing, you did a good job with the displays.
Please give them to a collector or find a family member that will appreciate them, or consider selling them to a collector.
That is a lot of your own history and man hours finding them. The site you are looking looks to be something really special.
Personally, I would keep them from any "professional or museum", as they will be donated to never be seen again except for the private collection of the museum or whoever sneaks them out. Same with a university, donate them to be studied and they will be boxed up never to be seen again.
My cousin, who is deceased, spent a few years and had to hire an attorney to get back a grave piece "legally taken at the time of the find" from the museum.
Sorry to be negative of your plans.
Great finds!!
That is a lot of your own history and man hours finding them. The site you are looking looks to be something really special.
Personally, I would keep them from any "professional or museum", as they will be donated to never be seen again except for the private collection of the museum or whoever sneaks them out. Same with a university, donate them to be studied and they will be boxed up never to be seen again.
My cousin, who is deceased, spent a few years and had to hire an attorney to get back a grave piece "legally taken at the time of the find" from the museum.
Sorry to be negative of your plans.
Great finds!!
White Horse
Senior Member
I must second what Sixes says. Unfortunately museums have very lax security and articles many times just disappear. Even the Smithsonian has not been immune to that.
Also, there is a trend in museum management that looks down on certain items and on certain people.
I plan to leave my collection to people who appreciate it and will enjoy it.
Also, there is a trend in museum management that looks down on certain items and on certain people.
I plan to leave my collection to people who appreciate it and will enjoy it.
Here's a third on avoiding museums and schools. Peroidically they decide what to excess and they sell or give away whatever they want to. You would be better served to sell it yourself and pass the money down in your family if you can't find a way to pass the items themselves down.
Before I would donate my collection to a museum or university, I would take each one, lay it on an anvil, and use a hammer to pound them to dust.
I`ll leave mine to my son.
I`ll leave mine to my son.
I concur with the above. If you donate them to an institution, they will either go immediately into a cardboard box in the basement, never to be seen again, or wind up in someone's private collection.
I don't disagree , but what I have I found on just a few acres of our farm and I think it's a shame it can't be shared with others through some educational effort. It is a lithic representation of all human occupation( that we know about) in a progressing manner from early paleo to the little mississippian triangles. There are dozens of point styles plus all kinds of tools .All I did was pick them up when I worked my gardens.
It could still be shared through a collector that likes to display their collections at shows or online.
I had a cousin ask me and some others that I know. to put some of ours on display at the local courthouse, even though we trusted her, we didn't trust what would happen up there and as far as I know, no one "loaned" anything. One of her first cousins has probably the best collection to come out of this area and he refused also.
I had a cousin ask me and some others that I know. to put some of ours on display at the local courthouse, even though we trusted her, we didn't trust what would happen up there and as far as I know, no one "loaned" anything. One of her first cousins has probably the best collection to come out of this area and he refused also.
If you want to share with other people build a website or find one that would like to host pictures of your collection. Start with your best and take very good detailed pictures of each one from top, bottom, each end and each side and post the up.
trad bow
wooden stick slinging driveler
I wouldn’t put it past some group or government department to try and confiscate them. I’d share with friends to look at but wouldn’t let anyone know exactly what I have or where it was found.
longrangedog
Senior Member
Professional archaeologists do not value artifacts after they have been collected by non professionals. The value to an archaeologist is information provided by the context. They are able to precisely date artifacts by carbon dating materials (mostly charcoal) found around the stone artifacts. Pottery decorations change with time and are another reliable means of dating stone tools found in proximity to projectiles and other non carbon artifacts. Once context is lost it's gone forever. Collectors are looked down on and frequently referred to as "pot hunters". Surface collectors are tolerated since context has already been lost as a result of plowing or digging in the case of a construction site. Diggers are the ones archaeologists blame for destruction of sites. The people who made the items did not have a written language. What they called themselves is not known. This changed with the arrival of Europeans (Hernando Desoto around 1530) who were able to communicate with them and had scribes who wrote down information about them. I am a life long collector who grew up on a farm in sight of the Etowah Indian Mounds. I invited Kennesaw State to excavate my farm several years ago.
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