Day 1 in Maryland

[BrettCo124]

Hey all,

So this is day one of two in Maryland. I'm at a friends place where I've found two arrowheads before and flakes. So, I'm back to try again. I'll post day two tomorrow, but for day one, could you please help me with a couple of IDs?

first pics: looks like a piece of pottery. Is it Native American? It looks like the design etchings are done by hand.

second pics: this thing is razor sharp. It has a bulbed backside to it, and it really feels like it could be possibly a mini scraper, but I'm too much of a newbie to know for sure. All I know is, it's literally razor sharp around that entire side.

Third pics: is this finally my first flake that I could legitimately identify? Lol. If so, I'm happy with it. Oddly, it has little etches along its edge, almost like it could have been for scraping. I feel like it would just crumble though if us ed as one. Any ideas?

Thanks all!

 

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[BrettCo124]

Sorry if the pics are out of order, I am in a horrible location with bad service, so things aren't sending correctly.

 

[Old Pueblo]

Yes and yes. The pottery sherd looks like its been tumbled in a stream a little, but that is some obvious man made decoration, in my opinion. Very cool! The second piece is a little scraper or maybe even a little cutting tool. You can see in the last photo at the far right where it was sharpened.

 

[Indian Steve]

Your "pottery" piece resembles the side of a conch shell. Could it be shell and not pottery? Very nicely decorated.

 

[BrettCo124]

Thanks old Pueblo, this is really exciting for me.

Indian Steve - I'm not sure, but it's really light! Do you also think this is native American? How about my other pieces? Do you think that one is a small scraper of some sort?

 

[Old Pueblo]

Your "pottery" piece resembles the side of a conch shell. Could it be shell and not pottery? Very nicely decorated.

I was thinking the same. It does look like it could be a shell, but the "decoration" doesnt look natural to me, and it appears to be concave like a pottery sherd would be. It looks too imperfect to me and I know the Natives used to decorate pottery like that using small sticks. And there was a certain spiritual thing among certain Native American tribes about not making things perfect, although I dont know how common of a belief this would have been. I dont see much of that type of pottery where I live, but I think its more common back east. (Out here you find more painted pottery than stuff like that).

 

[Old Pueblo]

Both would be native American, if that is indeed a piece of pottery and not a shell. If it is a shell, it could have turned up where you found it under natural circumstances, or it could be Native American also. They used shells for lots of things, like currency for trade and for making jewelry.

 

[Old Pueblo]

The way to tell if its pottery for sure, would be to break a small piece of the end off, then post of picture. This looks like its been tumbled downstream or weathered in some other way, so I cant tell with these photos. But if you do this, be very careful and take off only the smallest piece possible around an end with the least decoration. I need to see what it looks like on the inside to say for sure, although Im like 99% right now as it is. I looked up conch shells specifically, and didnt see any that look quite like this, but I wouldnt want to rule that out just yet. You can use wire cutters or a heavy pair of scissors to get and nice straight cut on one of the ends and reduce the possibilty of breaking it where you dont want it to break.

 

[Old Pueblo]

And if you dont want to break it, or cut it, I understand. I really think its pottery as it is, especially if youve found other artifacts in the immediate area. But see for yourself. I typed "Indian pottery Maryland" into google just now, and some other similar phrases, and came up with a few different photos of very similar looking stuff from your part of the country, that is 100% for sure Indian pottery.

 

[filmiracl]

The one thing is a flake with some possible microflaking (hard to see in the photo because it's blurry but I think that's what I'm seeing.) The dome shaped piece looks just like a broken rock to me. The suspected pottery does not look like the indian pottery found in the mid-atlantic. If I saw just the photo with the pattern, I would say yes... but with the other photo, t looks too thin and smooth in my opinion. Is it clearly tempered with anything? Post a photo of one of the edges.

 

[Old Pueblo]

It does look a lot like stone, but a lot of pottery sherds do look like pieces of stone. Kind of a tough piece, but to me it looks concave and decorated, but the edges doesnt look right, like its been tumbled down a stream or something, and the black area on the one side with the portion of one layer missing doesnt look quite right, either. If its pottery, it should break pretty easily, and if it looks like a bunch grains of sand on the inside, and not solid rock, its pottery.

 

[BrettCo124]

Thanks Old Peublo. I am not at home at the moment, but will carefully do so when I am back. I'm really hoping it's Native American...

Filmiracl - it definitely has micro-flaking. What would be the point of doing that? Is it safe to say that it's an artifact (even though it's just a flake)?

The dome shaped piece actually has very hard to see worked edges on it. It's difficult to explain but it just feels right. If it wasn't for me noticing very worn worked edges, I'd say it was just natural, but I really question it. I'll try and post a better photo of the edges, if it even shows up.

Man, this is one fun hobby. So happy to have gotten in to this and e-meeting all of you.

Here are some more pics, which include the side view of pottery piece, the opposite side of the pottery piece (notice the black flakey area in the center), the possible sharp scraper (trying to show the potential worked edges), and the small flake with the potential micro flaking edge.

 

[Old Pueblo]

Maybe its some kind of fossilized corral, or something along those lines? Ive never seen any rock that naturally had lines like that, only natural stuff like shell or corral or stuff made by man.

 

[BrettCo124]

By the way, these items were found on a river/beach. The pottery piece is very light. I scraped it with my fingernail and very fine powder came off of it. I didn't break it just yet.

 

[BrettCo124]

This piece of pottery, even if not Native American, is 100 percent designed by human hands. It is by no means naturally made.

 

[Old Pueblo]

After these new photos, Im thinking it could be fossil or even some kind of layered stone, but with lines like that on it I really dont think its just a rock.

 

[arrow86]

Where are you looking at in MD? I live In Kent county and hunt shorelines in both Kent and Cecil county. If it would help I can post some pottery I have found around here.

 

[BrettCo124]

Really? You're pretty close, I just went to Woodys for dinner! I'm actually at my friend's place in Elkton. He has a little beach in front of his house. I just scan his property and I've found a few things before. So I'm loving having the permission and it being a private hunt in a spot where I've found a couple of good things before.

 

[BrettCo124]

I only hunt from one end of his house to the other lol. It's kind of lame, but I don't know where else to go and I don't like going places by myself when I don't know the area

 

[arrow86]

I sent you a PM