Advice on Artifact hunting

[Scorpio_queen6]

Hi All,

So I have been searching for artifacts for a while now. I've only found a few things but NO arrowheads. I keep finding chert/flint and quarts. Chert flakes for sure and they are definitely worked. Is it likely that there are arrowheads in the area as well? Where should I look? By rivers/streams? I live in NJ and my backyard is all woods where the Lenape lived.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

-Jess

 

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[Back-of-the-boat]

Definitely check the rivers and streams hopefully you can find some dry channels, look in the gravel areas where the current would have dropped them out. Also look for boulders and see if you can find grinding holes, if so you would be close to a camp. If there are any farmers in your area, see if they will let you look in their plowed fields those are good spots also. If you Google this .Reading a river for where gold would drop out. It will help with finding areas where you can also find arrowheads. An eddy behind a boulder or behind a tree stump will let things drop out of a current.

 

[Scorpio_queen6]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it! Hopefully ill have some luck tomorrow!

Definitely check the rivers and streams hopefully you can find some dry channels, look in the gravel areas where the current would have dropped them out. Also look for boulders and see if you can find grinding holes, if so you would be close to a camp. If there are any farmers in your area, see if they will let you look in their plowed fields those are good spots also. If you Google this .Reading a river for where gold would drop out. It will help with finding areas where you can also find arrowheads. An eddy behind a boulder or behind a tree stump will let things drop out of a current.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

When searching creeks and streams look for areas that block the current, artifacts wash down stream and fall behind things that block the flow of water like fallen logs, rocks, brush ect. I found hundreds that way after heavy rains. Heavy rain causes creek banks to crumble and fall in the water, since they camped close to water artifacts fall in the water when the banks crumble and they wash down stream during high water from heavy rains, obstructions block the flow or current and they settle behind them out of the current.

 

[H.P.]

Hi All,

So I have been searching for artifacts for a while now. I've only found a few things but NO arrowheads. I keep finding chert/flint and quarts. Chert flakes for sure and they are definitely worked. Is it likely that there are arrowheads in the area as well? Where should I look? By rivers/streams? I live in NJ and my backyard is all woods where the Lenape lived.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

-Jess

...You’re on the trail, you’re finding worked flakes, it doesn’t get better than that... now you have to put in the time before you find one....and that depends on if someone else has picked em up or not, which you’ll never know ,but fear not, cuzz chances are, they didn’t get em all.good luck, don’t give up, I’ve found em right out of the car... or in a dry spell not for a month.

 

[Scorpio_queen6]

Thank you for the positivity ! Much appreciated

 

[old digger]

There is a member here on tnet by the name ''Get the Point'' that is from New Jersey, but he has not been on for a year or two. You might want to try and pm him. I will try and let him know you are interested in artifacts in that area.

 

[Tdog]

Here's a recent thread about the same thing...

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/n...l-newbie-doesn-t-really-know-where-start.html

 

[uniface]

If you're finding a lot of flakes but no finished items, you're probably looking on a knapping (reduction) site. In that case, you'll likely only find more flakes there. Look around for where they would have been living (habitation site). Likely on a gentle rise near where a small stream merges with a larger one.

FWIW

 

[Charl]

Just looking at Google Earth, it looks like the western half of NJ is loaded with agricultural fields. Any that border or are near any source of fresh water, when plowed up, rained heavy on, will likely produce artifacts. The Northeast region of the US has been hunted for generations, so, it’s possible fields there have been hunted a lot, and will be sparse, but permission from landowners, and giving it a shot might pay off. I was surprised at how agricultural it was.

I’ve also seen two Paleo Clovis points found on the NJ shoreline in recent years. Young boy found one in the surf. I prefer bays/estuaries to open ocean, but maybe it’s different in NJ, and in general, salt water shorelines with average arrowhead sized rocks sorted by the tides can be good, too.

 

[Charl]

Fluted point, found in the surf on a NJ beach just a few years ago. Ocean stained yellow jasper. You can see a bit of the true color, yellow, in a couple of places....

 

[dognose]

I would toss into the mix:

you live in a region that has been having relics picked up since the 1700's, a long time.

Remember that the water table 10,000 years ago was not the same as it is today.

There could be dry creek beds with terraces that have not been searched if folks did not know water USED to be there 10,000 years ago but has not been there in over 500 years.

Look at USGS topographical maps and find ancient water ways no longer wet. After a while you will recognize these by the elevation contour levels and how they lay in the region.

The terraces may hold fine relics still and while some may think your nuts for walking so far from any current water, its ok, especially if your finding relics.

 

[monsterrack]

Any broken ground is good just to take a look. Rivers are fead by streams that are feed by small creeks that are feed by even smaller creeks that are feed by dry gulleys. Start in any of them an work your way up stream. Just remember to get landowners permission. Good luck !!!!

 

[MosesOfTheSouth]

a lot of solid info offered already by well seasoned hunters..

good water is the key frequently. so regardless of the current water table if you can identify old water sources and courses that might have changed drastically, using various mapping/topo/ and graphing sources you'll narrow it down quite a bit.

high or hill areas out of the flood plain where a minor tributary enters a main body is productive enough to fill sacks around me. finding the spot early settlers plopped down on can identify the more recent habitation before them. they blazed in and squatted on areas generally that the natives had been using for hundreds, if not thousands of years in certain cases. these being defined by water and the quality of. this can really be definitive. you can work your way into the surrounding landscape adjunct to these accordingly. associating finds from early settlers can work you through eons occasionally. back to early fluted like cumberland and clovis depending on the water.

when or if you find a honey hole or solid spot, don't tell a single soul.