A day's finds for a beginner

[MarkDz]

Hi everyone,

Like several of the folks here, I started as a metal detectorist and am now working my way into artifact hunting. I find it more relaxing and at least as fulfilling and interesting, if not more so. It's a nice change to stroll around a field or riverbank, looking around, instead of lugging around expensive machines and digging big holes all over!

I've had some modest success so far. Here's the results of one of my first decent hunts about two weeks ago, in a plowed field. I found a crude/battered point, a nice knife or scraper, and a broken point tip and pottery bit. Pretty standard stuff but I'm still in the honeymoon phase where every artifact I find is pretty thrilling.

Well, hope you're all having luck, and I'll post more soon.

[razor]

Looks like you're off to a good start Mark. Believe it or not my first point isn't much prettier... but to me it's one of the prettiest points in my collection. What your calling a scraper may actually be a preform. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture. Here's a picture of the last one I found, maybe it'll help you I.D. it.



Hope this helps, and stick with it, Ray

[unitas]

Nice work. It seems you know what your'e doing, keep at it ,your best finds lay just ahead of you.

[MarkDz]

Thanks! I hope to have more to show soon.
Razor, I also considered it might be a preform, but I'm not sure how to tell the difference. A lot of artifact types seem to look very similar.

[razor]

Hey Mark, this type of preform is generally pretty thick and pretty crude. Hunting and gathering bands needed the ability to travel light, and when they came upon quarry sight they'ed bust some of these things out. It's lighter to carry these preforms than a bunch of boulders. Then latter they would finish them out or trade them. Here's a pic of a couple more I have. I hope this helps, Ray

[creekhunter]

Thats a great start by anyones standards, when I first got too hunting, I was told you had to pick up 100 brokes to every whole

[MarkDz]

Thanks!
While I'm fairly new at artifact hunting, my eyes are already pretty well trained from years of metal detecting. I'm pretty good at staring at the dirt .
It looks like my find is a little more developed than the preforms, though it is still on the crude side. Either way, I'm very pleased with it. It was so cool so see it sitting there in a plow rut, just looking up at me.

[pickaway]

Way to go nice finds...