Bone And Deer Antler Artifacts

[The Grim Reaper]

I've noticed that when I post some of my Bone and Antler artifacts finds that most people say they never find items like that where they hunt. I guess we are just lucky in the fact that 1. my area has a large contingent of Ft Ancient village sites, 2. they used Bone and Antler for quite a few of their artifacts such as Awls, Beads, Pendants, Combs, Flutes, Arrowpoints, Flakers, etc, and 3. that the soil here is excellent at preserving the Bone and Antler pieces. I have seen pieces found both on the surface and while digging that look as good now as the day they were made 500 to 1000 years ago.

I didn't start hunting Ft Ancient sites until around 1991 and until then I had never found any Bone or Antler items at all and I would estimate I have 400 to 500 Bone and Antler pieces now and maybe more. Now I would rather hunt a village site than anywhere else because of the diversity of artifacts one can find there. To me finding a killer Bone Bead or Awl is akin to some of you guys out west finding a killer Paleo. Don't get me wrong, I would love to find Paleo pieces but since it is very scarce in my area and the chances are slim I am content with these types of artifacts.

I figured I would post some of my Bone and Antler pieces for everyone to see. I know a lot of you have seen some of this stuff before and I hope I'm not boring you with it, but I'm hoping someone will see these and maybe post some of their Bone and Antler artifacts. This will probably take numerous posts to get all the pics on here and I will be putting on Beads, Awls, Deer Antler Arrowpoints and Flakers, Bone Flutes, and a few other various items. Hope you enjoy the pics and if you have any questions about a certain piece don't hesitate to ask and I'll try my best to answer it.

These first few are of some trays of Bone and Antler pieces and a picture of my best Bone Flute.

 

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[The Grim Reaper]

Here's a few other items. These are Deer Antler Arrowpoints and Deer Antler Gaming Bones in the first 4 pictures.

The next two are close ups of a couple Awls.

The last few are just some odds and ends Bone Awls, Beads, and Deer Antler pieces.

 

[*Molly*]

Interesting, Steve are all those finds from the same site? If not, do you keep each sites finds together?(in each frame).
I've never found anything like those but my site is EarlyArchaic right through to Woodland. Was this culture like Woodland Cultures.
I know very little about your site, do you have any links or can you tell us a bit about the Ft Ancient cultures, you know just to get an insight.

It's nice to see & learn something new.

Thanks for this interesting Thread.

Molly.

 

[luckyinkentucky]

Good stuff. The only bone artifact I ever found was a human finger bone that had been drilled. I left it there since I don't like picking up human bone as artifacts even if it is clearly drilled. If I found a deer jaw artifact or a drilled wolf tooth I would probably keep it.

I'm not familiar enough with bone artifacts to tell if they are human or not, so I don't bother with them. Although, I always like to observe others' collections of bone since they obviously are knowledgeable in the area. A local collector has a human skull cap that has been drilled with 2 holes. Evidently it was a trophy for the original owner, and it is a legal artifact since it has been drilled. Although, you wouldn't catch me owning it. Still an interesting piece all the same.

Steve ... are those Canal Coal or Hematite pieces in the 9th frame from the top? Nice stuff.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Thanks for the comments.

Lucky, those are Cannel Coal Pendants.

Molly, these are from 3 different sites. They are The Goldcamp Site, The Hardin Village Site, and the Feurt Mounds And Village Site, and yes I do keep them all seperate from each other in their own trays. I think that if you Google these you can probably find some info on all three, but I can tell you a little of what I know. All three are Ft Ancient in culture, which is a Late Woodland phase and from approximately 950 to 1650 AD which basically coincides with the Mississippian of the south and the Monongahela of the east.

The Goldcamp Site is located in the far west corner of Lawrence county Ohio right along the banks of the Ohio River. It is a classic Ft Ancient site and if viewed from Google Earth can be seen as an almost perfect black circle and was more than likely surrounded by a wooden palisade for protection. I don't know of any professional excavations ever taking place here.

The Hardin Village Site is located in northern Greenup county in the Siloam Bottoms right along the Ohio River. This site was excavated by the University Of Kentucky back in the 30's or 40's and you can actually find a book that was published on the site titled The Hardin Village Site by Lee H. Hanson Jr. If viewed from Google Earth it shows up as a long black rectangle spread out over a very large area and was probably surrounded by a wooden palisade as well.

The Feurt Site is located just north of Portsmouth Ohio in Clay Township along a high terrace overlooking the Scioto River bottoms and is almost directly across from the Tremper Mound, which was a Hopewell Effigy Mound and full of lots of wonderful artifacts. This site has been excavated a few times both professionally and by amateurs and is still being excavated today by the new landowner. You can find info on it rather easily by Googling it and it was also published in a volume of Ohio Historical Society Journal.

This is a link to a publication on the Feurt Site. It rather lengthy, but very informative and worth the read. Just click on each page to read the entire article.
http://publications.ohiohistory.org...age=449&volume=26&newtitle=Volume 26 Page 305

I couldn't any good links to the other sites, but you might be able to get the Hardin book at a local library though it is a rare find. Hope this helps.

 

[jeff a]

those are all nice,wish the soil around here would preserve that kind of stuff,i found 1 bear tooth here but it is in pretty bad shape,the soil here is acidic so bone and pottery doesnt keep well

 

[tomclark]

Awesome!

 

[spot]

Wow!
Thanks for sharing,

spot

 

[Pinellas Man]

That's a fine collection of bone and antler artifacts DorkFish. Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[*Molly*]

Very interesting, I'll be sure to look at google maps. I was asking mainly because the Archaic site I hunt on, as produced a few Woodland Culture points. You're finds are from Woodland culture, Maybe if I look harder or sieve the soil, I might find beads etc.
Gives me something to aim for. Thankyou Steve for taking the time to educate me..
Your frames are excellent, nice to see something different.
Thanks again for sharing..

Molly.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

My pleasure Molly.

Good luck, I hope you can find yourself some Beads. It just takes a while to train your eye to find them. I know it took me a while, but once I got the hang of it I can now spot them from a good distance if they are completely exposed.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Doesn't anybody else on here have any Bone or Deer Antler pieces to share? I had really hoped to see some from other areas.

 

[king saftey]

i have only one lil bead from a central fl. lake site. sad thing is i found five or six and tossed them, didnt know what they were? this one here is the only one i kept. took it home and a friend had to tell me what is was. its the only bone i have,bird leg bone.

 

[archaeon]

sorry dorkfish, i was slow on the draw here are some i have found

 

[archaeon]

a nice bone pin and one i have not identified...it seems light for antler and looks like bone on the inside, it might be a rib, it was broken right at the score line, i glued it together...the cut mark is very visible as a man made cut, most likely made with a chert or coral knife.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Nice Bone Bead king safety.

Archaeon, killer Bone pieces.

Thanks for sharing thos guys.

 

[archaeon]

wish i had more

 

[ohioriver hunter]

Wow Now that is nice.I love the bone and antler pcs.I have only found a few.Thanks for the show.
Jeff

 

[tomclark]

Only couple pics, love bone boom.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Very nice Tom. Those are some killer Bone Artifacts. I especially love the Bone Hair Pins.

Thanks for sharing them with the class. lol