Found this sifting in a cave (actually a deep three-sided overhang around 6 ft tall, 20 ft wide and 15 ft deep) on family property in Central Texas. The cave is halfway up a small mountain and overlooks a meadow leading to a river. The entrance is completely covered from view by brush/trees. The cave floor is covered with around two feet of fine dust/soot/sand.
A large number of Native American artifacts have been found in the cave and surrounding mountain area over the years. The local history also has it that a lady of ill repute did business out of the cave in the late 1800's. I was told that the cave was completely searched out years ago, but you know nothing is ever completely searched out, right?
In any event, the bone bead? was found along with a tooth and a couple of partial flint points/tools.
Any opinions? Is it what it appears to be?
Last edited by TheCoinKid; May 18, 2017 at 09:25 PM.
Reason: typo
It's a cool find, you did good! I haven't found one yet either but they do find them in the dig across town so hoping one or more will turn up in the creek for me.
Yes and no, it really depends on what type of site you are hunting. On the Ft Ancient sites I hunt these are fairly common and I have found hundreds of them. Some soils though just don't preserve the Bone and it will deteriorate really quickly.
That looks like a pretty nice and highly polished one.
Here are some flat bead's made from I would guess freshwater shell. These and most of the points were found in Ohio near the Kokosing River. I like that bone tube bead, sadly I've never found one.