Well, I am back from the vacation.  Brought back the indian artifact collection.  That took ten plastic boxes the size of shoe boxes... ok... only eight, one has coins and the other has my finds from my vacation.  LOL
This is the point I was telling Badandy about.
PERFECTLY knapped, almost three inches, and from a piece of obsidian.
Found in a plowed field on the bank of the Tennessee River in north Alabama near the Mississippi line a while back by my father.
There was a large, very out of place hill right in the middle of this farmers field.  Not very high, maybe five or six feet above the rest of the very flat river bank and about 15 yards across.
Dad suspected it was a plowed over mound, but didn't find anything on it.  Found the point about 75 yards away.  Sadly, this area is now under a couple of million dollar houses.
ENJOY guys!!!!
(Any appraisals would be appreciated)
Garrett 2500 Pro, Cobra Beach Magnet, Bullseye 140mm, and a Magnet on a stick.
As my old archaeology professor would say...."That's a honey!"
Grand point for sure and super material. Not an expert on Clovis stuff, and hate to ascribe value to anything I didn't find myself, but it wouldn't surprise me a bit so see it paper between 3-5 grand. Rare point, rare material and rare location. Would be more if it were larger. No, I wouldn't part with it either for any price.
TN has produced a number of nice Clovis points but that is as fine as an example as one will ever see. Beautiful material and rare for that area, common out west. Did you know obsidian can be dated fairly accurately? This is hard to describe but as it "ages" from the time in was made the color of the stone on the outside changes slightly and it continues to "age" from the outside in. There are a number of stone materials that exhibit this same property but because obsidian is so transparent and because it ages from the outside in at a known rate it is possible to date when a point was made. In the case of clovis points and other paleo period artifacts it may very well be the case that the point has "aged" completely through although I'm not sure. Obsidian points are sometimes shunned by collectors because of the large number of fakes but this is obviously the real deal - you can see the heavy wear on the flaking scar ridges- NICE! The value, specially since you know exactly where it came from and can document it is quite high- the previous estimate of 3-5 thousand seams a bit high to me though... hard to say.
"A culture truly grows great when old men plant trees in who's shade they know they will never sit"
I had no idea you could determine the age by the obsidian. That's cool.... as long as they don't need a piece of it! LOL
Thanks for all the nice comments guys. My dad was especially proud of this point and would have loved to hear all the good things about it. I'm sure he's smiling from "upstairs" as we speak!
Garrett 2500 Pro, Cobra Beach Magnet, Bullseye 140mm, and a Magnet on a stick.
Holy Moly! I've looked at thousands of points but never seen or heard of an obsidian Clovis. That's probably because like you, no one wants to sell. That one should cause a huge stir in the archaeology scene. 3-5 grand sounds conservative to me.
Are you going to have it authenticated?
Not doubting, but is there a chance it could be chalcedony or moss agate?
Well, unless someone was into planting fake points in the middle of some farmers field in the 80's, there is no need for me to have someone else tell me that it's real. LOL
Finally got all the old glue cleaned from the rest of my collection. Now I'm ready to start making my shadow boxes. I have got to buy a table saw first though... hard to cut precision dados with a circular saw! LOL
I have a really cool idea for the boxes...
The box is constructed of 1X2 birch so that it matches all the rest of my wood things. It will have a 1/8 inch fiberboard back that is covered with felt and set in dados. That glass front (which is a generic 10X24 inch glass shelf) is also set in a dado. The top piece of birch is cut so that the glass can be slid out but is still attached to the wood on the narrow end; the wood will act as a handle of sorts.
Hard to visualize? I post a pic later.
Any ideas on the point layouts? By groups? By like styles? I'm thinking of going with a really great point in the center and like points radiating outward from it and putting three such arrangments in the same box. I think I'm going to make about ten boxes and see if that is going to be enough.
Any ideas on the layouts would be great though... pics of your layouts would be even better!
How about displays of odd sized things? For example, I have a rock that is about 5X3 inches. It has been carved into a turtle. It needs to be looked at from all sides to really appreciate it. Any ideas?
Well, it's late guys, I'll start posting some pics now that I have things cleaned up a bit.
Later guys.
Garrett 2500 Pro, Cobra Beach Magnet, Bullseye 140mm, and a Magnet on a stick.
There's no doubt that's obsidian... wow, I have to take back what I said about 3-5 being a bit high, such a perfect piece with obvious patina, nope, that's not too high at all. There are other obsidian clovis examples but I don't recall ever one from that far east... WOW. I would be VERY careful handling it... I've seen a lot of ooops, I dropped it type things happen over the years but in this case it would be a very expensive oooops. Do you still hunt that site?
"A culture truly grows great when old men plant trees in who's shade they know they will never sit"
No, it was never allowed to be hunted until the farmer was just about to sell it for some fancy mega-house neighborhood. Dad finally talked him into it with something along the lines of "Heck, come Monday, it won't even be your's to worry about." We drove the four hours to go hunt it and the next time I saw the property after this only hunt it had houses going up everywhere.
To hunt it now would require a security pass to get through the gate and a sod cutter to get under the lawns! LOL I have always wondered what the construction workers found while digging all those basements and foundations, as well as the landscaping!
Garrett 2500 Pro, Cobra Beach Magnet, Bullseye 140mm, and a Magnet on a stick.
O.K. digem,
This point of your is driving me CRAZY! LOL! It is an awesome piece and would love to photograph it and study it someday. I just made a great deal on a nice Clovis found this year and I'll post pics. of it when it arrives. I agree with Cannon man about how far west it was found being obsidian. Maybe one day we can meet up and exchange stories.
Sincerly,
badandy
Go find some artifacts! Wait............What's this red button do?
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