maybe I found a good spot...ID help please

[timtreasure]

Let me begin by saying that I have been reading everyones posts about their finds and that is what got me started thinking about a place that my hunting partner and I found during deer season.....here is the story.....We were bowhunting along a creek that had alot of deer sign and decided to take a doe that had wandered close enough to harvest. My buddy shot her and we began the tracking process and it lead us to a spot where we noticed a large cave about 175 ft up the hillside, so after the field dressing chore was over we climbed up the hill and found flint everywhere, but, didnt really get that excited because we had backstraps on our mind, anyway that leads me to last week, I started reading the artifact portion of this forum and it stirred me up about that spot we had found. I called my partner and we threw together a couple of 2 foot by 2 foot sifters and off we went and here is some of what we found after about 20 total hours of digging and sifting. What have we found and do you think it is a good spot? Pictures are of some broke pieces some pottery pieces and some points and some sort of balls.....oh yeah I just put the last picture in because it was on my camera and I sure am proud of my girls Thanks Tim ps any ID help would be nice

[mamabear]

no maybe about it!! I'd get back out there asap! a virgin site? the material is beautiful! wow what a find! & what a lovely family.

[lincha]

I enjoyed seeing your finds, any chance you could post pics of the cave. Beautiful daughters you have there.

[timtreasure]

the spot we are hunting has been in the property owners family for about 50 years..he and his brother would play in the caves and bluffs and creeks when they were kids,as far as he knows no one has ever really dug on the site.he gave us permission to "dig until your heart is content".There are 3or 4 more caves and shelters afetr when finish with this one....any ID help or advice would be greatly appreciated, my hunting partner found about the same amount of stuff as I did only he found 4 what I believe to be (bird points?) I will try to get some pics of his items this afternoon and some cave pics also thanks and I am glad the girls look like their Mom Tim

[keithtx]

Wow amazing! What state is that? Are the balls iron, stone, fired clay?

[timtreasure]

the balls are some type of stone, we found about 20 of them all together. At first we thought they were just junk and threw some of them down the hill into the creek. We are in Alabama on private land with written permission. tim

[keithtx]

Thanks. I am wondering, just from looking at those, if Indians are known to fire some scrap clay with their pots in the form of balls and use them in some sort of sling or sling shot for small game? Or primitive beads and the exterior is worn off (no holes right)?

[timtreasure]

No holes in any of them. Some are half dollar size down to dime size.

[Tnmountains]

The red one looks like a pickwick.The brown one like a little bear creek The black one might be a jacks reef. The broke triangular possibly a hamilton. The white chert one maybe a cotaco creek.
My guesses. I would have to guess middle to southern Ala. Not sure on the balls. They look like sandstone. Does the creek or spring come from the cave or underground?
Nice finds and good looking family !

[timtreasure]

one of the shelters has a spring inside it and two others have springs beside them coming from underground and one has a spring running over the top and down the front. gonna be doing some serious digging and sifting tommorrow Thanks for the comments Tim oh yeah the springs all run down hill into the main creek running through the property

[archer66]

When you take breaks from digging take the time to check those creeks and the main creek as well. You should find some good stuff there too.

[Tnmountains]

We have thought that the round balls of sandstone are in the water in caves in little cupped out areas we call slip stones.They constantly tumble in the moving water in the depression until they are small enough that they get kicked out by the currents. Just theory though from spelunking limestone caves in the south

[timtreasure]

you may very well be right about the balls because I think they are sandstone. The place is covered with pieces of sandstone
this is a sweet looking place and I feel very fortunate to have basically stumbled onto it. I wish I had taken pictures of our finds in the ground or sifter,my camera will be with me from now until we finish

tn mountain...I know from your previous posts that I have read that you are not far from bama exactly what part of tenn. are you from maybe you can come dig a little with us if you are not to far away

we will be working our way to the creek probably this summer, right now it is swollen from a lot of rain
thanks tim

[Tnmountains]

Pm sent.
Here is one link.. There is another on here with the crew showing some great sifters I will try to find it for you.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.p...,254694.0.html

Here is another

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.p...tml#msg2144508

Real good link here

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.p...tml#msg1613103