Some recent south-central Indiana finds

[Kantuckkeean]

Howdy Y'all,

I've been swamped with work for the past few months and haven't been able to post but I've been keeping my eyes on the ground whenever I've been out and reading your all's posts. I've been pretty envious of the stuff you all have been finding because I hadn't been able to even get out for an hour or two of actual hunting until recently. Now that things have slowed a bit and the wet weather has prevented any farming, I've been able to hunt a bit. My first find was this little scraper...

My 8 year-old son has been taking a real interest in artifacts, so he and I went out walking a few gullies in a different field one nice day. As he was in the gully, I spotted this beauty on the surface nearby
About 20 minutes later, my son found this one...


Then my wife and I were hunting one day in the field around the house and she found this cool piece...

It looks chipped, but it's not. I think that it's a Harrison turkey tail that broke and someone re-worked it, putting a square base where it broke and hafting it upside down. Here are a couple of more images. You can see where the patina changes for the "fluted" square base.


Another day, my son was home sick and I had to help empty out a grain bin so he walked a gully in another field and found this nice knife. He and I went back later and he spotted the point with the broke base in the same gully.


Any thoughts on the "turkey tail" are welcomed. I'll post some more finds in the coming days.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

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[arrow86]

Great finds , you have me feeling jealous now , that one your wife found is really nice I don’t what style that would be but it’s different looking and I would love to find one , pretty cool the whole family found points that sounds like a great day

 

[firemanphob]

great finds kentuck, What part of south central Indiana you from. I'm at Lanesville.

 

[joshuaream]

Interesting idea on the reworked Turkey Tail. I've never found a nice, ceremonial Turkey Tail, but the common/utilitarian ones I have found in Central and Northern Indiana are often notched like indents on your stemmed piece. (One sided notches, not well formed notches.)

 

[MAMucker]

Interesting point for sure. Any possible reworked (repurposed) Point that may have been passed through cultural periods is significant. Assuming it was a Turkey Tail Harrison (Late Archaic), any idea the point type now?

 

[gilmerman]

Outstanding, loved this post. Whole family successful outing.

 

[Kantuckkeean]

firemanphob,

I'm up by Columbus. Bought a Huskvarna 346xp in Lanesville just before they switched to the Autotunes. Everyplace else was sold out, except for the shop down there. I heard that that shop burned down. Great saw. Had the guys at D&D near Salem tune it up.

Josh,

I noticed that about the notches on the turkey tail side but don't have enough experience, so it didn't stick out to me as a distinguishing characteristic. Thanks for the knowledge.

MAMucker,

I haven't really looked into what type it may be now, and I'd think that it would be fairly tough to type, since it's upside down and the newer working end is rounded and notched. The square base isn't ground and the flaking is more crude than the original working. I'm thinking Woodland, but it's just a guess. Every edge is sharp.

Thanks for the comments everyone. It is fun making it a family activity.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[Gridwalker306]

Good hunting! That one your wife found is really interesting.

 

[Target1972]

firemanphob / Kantuckkean

Either of you spent any time looking around Atterbury?

 

[Twistedsifter]

Hey there kantuckkean, those finds look awesome. I especially like the reddish one your son found. Also I agree with your assessment of the reworked turkey tail. That is a very unique piece. I have a question for you, I’m a Florida native and I just finished a job outside Bloomington, were starting a new project in Columbus next week. I’ve been able to get in some creeks around brown county with some luck but not much. I found a nice broke yesterday, but I haven’t been finding much flint or Hornstone, so I think it was a pretty isolated find. Anyways, I was curious if you were hunting on your own land or at a permission site? Also do you know if the creeks in the area are productive? Not being from around here makes it kind of a crap shoot, but I’m going to get out there and give it a shot.

 

[firemanphob]

Kantuckkeean, The shop at Lanesville did burn but they're back up and running. D&D gets all my saw and 2-cycle work. Those boys really know their stuff. A buddy of mine bought one of those auto tunes and is not real crazy about it.

 

[Kantuckkeean]

Hi Twistedsifter,

I actually found the little pink one. I think it's a Stanly or Kanawha. He found the cool black one that's nearly as thick as it is wide. I'm calling it a fish spear since I really don't know what it is, other than that it is small and was likely hafted.

We've been hunting on my father-in-law's farms and one series of fields that he used to farm where I have permission. I don't think that any of them are the best sites for hunting artifacts although there are a couple of fields that I haven't even hunted. This year has been tough because we weren't able to chisel last fall because it was too wet, so we just disked this spring which means that the corn stalks didn't get incorporated so they haven't decomposed much. To make matters worse, it's been so wet this spring that the weeds got really big before we could disk, so even after we disked, there's a bunch of plant trash strewn over the surface. We only recently began disking and just got the corn in the ground on Monday and Tuesday (extremely late). The bean fields haven't even been disked yet because we got rain after putting the corn in before spraying, but not enough to clean off the rocks very well. The fields are still really blocky so we'll need a few more rains to wash things off before the hunting is good. Most days I go for an hour or two and don't find much, other than some chips or a core. Our best finds this year have come from gullies that opened up in fields over the winter/spring. Unfortunately, artifact hunting can't be my top priority. The priority right now is getting the corn sprayed, bean fields tilled, beans planted and sprayed, and then it will be time to harvest the wheat and no-till in beans after the wheat's pulled out. Hopefully the rains will come at convenient times so that I can get some hunting in before the crops get too tall but the way we've been fighting the weather for the past 9 months or so, I'm not holding my breath.

My father-in-law knows of a field where he used to look for artifacts that always produced. It's up near the airport. He found some nice Lost Lakes there and some other knives and things. You might check the creek that crosses Rocky Ford Rd. near Marr Rd. (if the water's down). There may have been a village just upstream from there. I hope to get permissions to hunt the fields in that area one day, especially because a lot of it is being converted to subdivisions. I can't recall the fields that he pointed out to me over there and I'm not sure if they're no-till or not. I'll need to get him to show me the area again and then I'll be able to find out who owns the land to see if I can get permission.

firemanphob,

I'm glad that the shop that burned is back up and running. They had a good inventory and seemed easy to work with. The two brothers that run D&D are awesome. They get all my saw and small engine stuff too. It's such a drive for me that I set the day aside because I know that I'll have to wait while they tune stuff up/replace parts. I've bought a few saws from them as well as my Shindaiwa weedeater and I get all my chains, twine, and supplies there.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[Twistedsifter]

Kantuck, thank you so much for that response. I’ll be having s look in the creek soon. We are here building the skatepark by the high school.

 

[Twistedsifter]

Kantuck- spent an hour in the creek today and found a busted preform/blade. Flakes everywhere. The bottom is rocky and about knee deep generally. I bent down and pulled up a blind handful of stone and found a big core, so I think I’m going to make a sifter and head back out soon. Let me know if you want to hunt together sometime, I always enjoy the company.

 

[Kantuckkeean]

Nice! I’m sure there’s some good stuff in there. Even if the fields nearby have gone to no-till, we had so much rain last winter and fall, not to mention this spring, that most fields had gullies and I’m sure that creek received some fresh rocks. It doesn’t surprise me that you found that nice gray material. Two of the Lost Lakes that my father-in-law found around there were nice material like that. I’ll send you a PM and see how my schedule works out.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[Kantuckkeean]

firemanphob / Kantuckkean

Either of you spent any time looking around Atterbury?

Sorry that I missed this earlier. I haven’t hunted near Atterbury and I’m not even sure what access is like. I used to go to Ft. Knox a lot when I was younger to find scorpions, snakes, and other cool wildlife. I wasn’t into artifacts at the time, but that was long before 9/11. After that, they tightened up security and I’m sure you can’t run around there like I used to.

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[Target1972]

No worries... I am new to artifact hunting and have only been able to research instead of hunt. Like you, I have limited time available so I am trying to increase my odds of finding something other than the broken pieces I have found so far.