Begginers Luck Or Fools Gold...??

[Nigel Tufnel]

Begginer's Luck Or Fool's Gold...??

I just spent an hour trying to format the pictures with the proper text only to hit the wrong button and... POOF!! So the shortened version.

I am new at hunting. I found a piece of painted pottery that is gorgeous. I returned to the same area last week. After 6-7 hours of great finds I stumble upon what appears to be the same color and texture as the pottery I had found. It was also surrounded by large flakes of arrowheads/artifacts. What got my attention was the colors as I am a classically trained painter.

Here is what I took with me in the waning light. I do not know what to look for but when I find that many flint objects and decoratively painted rocks I know that is good. Throw in the fact that it is off the beaten path and on a conspicuously higher level than the surrounding topography and my excitement grew. These are just a few examples of the many I have and I did not include the arrowhead flakes, some of which were substantially pristine for a beginner.

I plan on returning tomorrow and thought asking for help here made the most sense in case I am wrong, which is the case more often than should be fair!! Critiques are welcomed!! If you want to learn you must accept being wrong and acquire the thick skin which eases the blows. Apologies if I screw up the text and the corresponding pictures.

Pictures 1 and 2 are the original piece of painted pottery. The others were found within a 7-9 foot diameter of one another. The guitar pick is one inch.

 

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[lordpiney]

Re: Begginer's Luck Or Fool's Gold...??

well nigel...the first one looks like a set of terra cotta cat ears. definitly some kind of statuary. the other thing is a chert nodule that was cleved in half longitudinally. neither one is a fossil, but both pretty cool.

 

[Tylocidaris]

Re: Begginer's Luck Or Fool's Gold...??

Nigel, I agree with lordpiney that the "cat ears" are some sort of recent ceramic / terracotta fragment. The other chert fragments could be random breakage of the abundance of chert we have in the Austin area. The other chunks of chalky rock are not ceramic. They are most likely oxidized pieces of Austin "chalk", a very common form of limestone in Austin. The variation in color comes from the oxidation of pyrite and marcasite crystals present in the chalk that leach through cleavage planes in the rock. Keep looking. See my previous response.

John

 

[Nigel Tufnel]

Re: Begginer's Luck Or Fool's Gold...??

John, You know when you want to see something and it looks SO CLOSE TO "Insert your dream find" but in your heart of hearts you have a sinking feeling that, gulp, it might not be my... I think that will be arriving for me shortly.

On some of those specimens I think you are spot on. What really grabbed my attention was the obscene number of quality arrowhead/artifact pieces and shards laying right next to these pictures. One of those is a dark brown flint piece that was colored identically so I figured it worth a shot.

The good news is I get to go back tomorrow afternoon and will bring my camera because so much of it is buried. Either way here are a few of the flakes that were substantial for a beginner to find excitement which works for me. The worst case is I have found a pretty fertile spot to hunt!!

Thanks for all of the thoughts. I will confirm my Fool's Gold this week.

 

[Tylocidaris]

Re: Begginer's Luck Or Fool's Gold...??

Ahh! Now that is some artifact debitage. It even looks like you have a couple of broken ones in there.