Copper Spearhead. Amazing update!

[Bell]

Ok well some of you may have seen the broken bent copper spearhead I found a few days back detecting. Well today I was planning to go hit that spot with a friend but we had a rain delay and went to my house to show him what I found there last year. As he was looking through a box of colonial odds and ends one thing caught my eye as being familiar. I grabbed the piece and the copper point I just found and was amazed. A perfect match! I found them fifty yards and one year apart after being broken maybe a thousand plus years ago. This is a once in a lifetime find and sequence of events for me. Thank goodness for the rain aye?

 

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[Bell]

 

[bill from lachine]

Bell,

What area are you in and can you post more pictures of your spearhead from different angles.....I love the archaic copper finds and it could be much older than you think.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[Bell]

Im in western north carolina, a very rare place to find these. In fact the experts I've shown it to have called it a first. See my original post for more photos. I may also post more tomorrow.

 

[kuger]

I dont know anything about Copper Culture points but do know copper is soft....being that thin,how could that be a functional spear point?

 

[bill from lachine]

Bell,

Yeah the archaic copper culture was centered in the upper peninsula of Wisconsin and Michigan and surrounding areas....
must have been a trade item between the tribes back in the time....that's a keeper for sure and thanks for sharing.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[Tnmountains]

That is amazing to have found the other half. What a display that will make. Rare very cool find.
HH
TnMtns

 

[bill from lachine]

kuger,

I'm a bit sketchy on the details also....but my understanding was this was sheet copper found on Isle Royale in the Great Lakes and the natives would fold it over and hammer it with stones and repeat the process over and over again....so kind of a primitive version of making a sumari sword without the forging.

That gave the points additional strength...

Regards + HH

Bill

I dont know anything about Copper Culture points but do know copper is soft....being that thin,how could that be a functional spear point?

 

[kuger]

Thanks Bill,awesome find then!!!

 

[bill from lachine]

Kuger,

A bit more background.....the archaic copper culture goes back as far as 10,000 year ago.....so probably some of if not the oldest metal artifacts in the world.....we drool at the finds in Europe and meanwhile we have probably the oldest items right in our own backyard in North America....lol.

Regards + HH

Bill

Thanks Bill,awesome find then!!!

 

[Bell]

Thanks guys. I am thrilled to have found it. Its definately one for the grand kids and unexpected as i was looking for rev war stuff. This spot is very near a major mississipian site though and many stone points and axes etc have been found there so it makes sense. Its thick enough to be usefull. Id think it was a knife except for the haft and it matches exactly other great lakes copper spearheads. It must have travelled some crazy trade routes. Finding the point last year and not puting the two together until today was amazing to me.

 

[Bell]

The big thing for me is not many of these have ever been found at all, and apparently none on this part of the east coast.

 

[Gunrunner61]

Congrats on what might be a once in a lifetime find.........................HH

 

[wheatfinder13]

Nice

 

[terpfan]

This find belongs up top. You have my banner vote.

 

[fishstick]

Def a once in a lifetime find for ur neck of the woods. STELLAR to say the least!! NOTHING in that display case will match it bud. You mite b able to find sumone to restore it, ask Q if his guy could do it, he's awesome.. CONGRATS.. HH

 

[BuckleBoy]

Think of what it'd been like if you hadn't saved the other half! I'm doing an article for Western and Eastern Treasures magazine called "Saved--From the Junk Bin," and I'd love to have a nice photo of that find to use, with your permission for my article. If you're interested I'll send you my e-mail in a PM.

 

[Curious The George]

I dont know anything about Copper Culture points but do know copper is soft....being that thin,how could that be a functional spear point?

Copper is only soft when it is annealed. Once it is worked, by hammering or just bending back and forth a few times it gets very brittle. The point of a worked copper point could break off very easily if it strikes a rock, sticks in a piece of wood and an attempt to remove it is made or if it struck bone in an animal and the shaft of the point then hit something as the animal ran off.

I'd suspect the latter, an animal was hit with the point and ran. The shaft with the main part of the point fell out of the animal and the animal died close to where it fell out. The hunter failed to locate the animal or failed to find his broken spear.

Had the hunter found it it would have been carried off, reworked into a new point and used again and Bell wouldn't have found it so close to the broken tip.

This is a fantastic find and a great metal detecting story.

 

[Bell]

Thanks everyone. I'm learning more about it as I go. My wife theorized the guy threw it at a bear which then killed him and then went a few yards away and died itself. As good a theory as any. I think the bend and break came from its last use. For that reason its part of the story for me so I plan to leave it the way it is. The patina and copper should be stable right? And Buckleboy Id love to do that. Ill get with you about pictures. Thanks again.

 

[CRUSADER]

Thanks everyone. I'm learning more about it as I go. My wife theorized the guy threw it at a bear which then killed him and then went a few yards away and died itself. As good a theory as any. I think the bend and break came from its last use. For that reason its part of the story for me so I plan to leave it the way it is. The patina and copper should be stable right? And Buckleboy Id love to do that. Ill get with you about pictures. Thanks again.

Not sure on the distance, but why not a missed shot that hit the ground - breaking & catapulting the main piece some distance away?