A new found collection

dcberg00 · Sep 17, 2012

Hello!
I am a newbie here. I am not really a "collector", but I do enjoy history and I am always wanting to learn. My wife and I found a collection, here is a little background and pictures. Any help would be GREAT! Thanks!

My family owned a farm in Michigan (Ionia County). It was in the family for as long as family history goes back. My wife found a box of 40+ arrowheads and 10+ tools. I did search and I think they could be from the Potawatomi tribe based on their location being in the area of the farm.

Does any one any information on these artifacts? Or how I could find out about them? I can't find anything on line!

Thanks!

birdpointgriswold · Sep 17, 2012

Wow that is some really nice stuff! Not familiar with your area but I think a few guys are I'm sure they can help you out! Thanks for showing and welcome to TNet!

Johnathan Griswold

GatorBoy · Sep 17, 2012

What a great find! That's wonderful. There are many websites you can use to research the points you have. I like to refer beginners to www.lithicsnet.com you can search the points by shape without knowing what they're called. Make sure to type in your state when searching. That's a great piece of history you found. Just click on this link. And welcome to T-Net

Twitch · Sep 17, 2012

That's a very nice collection. Looks to be primarily Woodland in time frame with a couple of other pieces mixed. This is very common for a family collection like this. The 3 drilled stone pieces are pendents, as probably was the drilled shell. The ungrooved axes next to the pendants are very nice. In the 4th picture, the bottom right piece that looks like a broken point is, I believe, a hafted scraper. After points were broken they were often used to work hides and other scraping functions. Great finds and nice collection!

Joe

dcberg00 · Sep 17, 2012

WOW!!!! You guys are FULL of knowledge! I have searched the web and seen that some items ( not in this collection) are worth some money. Is this stuff accurate. It seems as if things like this would be pretty common.
Reason I ask, we are thinking of possibly putting some of these items in shadow boxes for our kids. IF something is worth something, I do NOT want it any where around my kids until they are older!

Now, off to LITHICS-NET HOME PAGE to learn about these things!

dcberg00 · Sep 17, 2012

Twitch said:
That's a very nice collection. Looks to be primarily Woodland in time frame with a couple of other pieces mixed. This is very common for a family collection like this. The 3 drilled stone pieces are pendents, as probably was the drilled shell. The ungrooved axes next to the pendants are very nice. In the 4th picture, the bottom right piece that looks like a broken point is, I believe, a hafted scraper. After points were broken they were often used to work hides and other scraping functions. Great finds and nice collection!

Joe

After playing around with that piece, my wife found another part that "completes" it. I think it was whole when found and broke in the box we found it it. I can guess that this box has not been looked in for 30 years. It was moved from Michigan to here in MD around 83 and I havent seen it til my wife found it yesterday.

tomclark · Sep 17, 2012

Looks like a great, honest, family field collection as you said. Has a good cross section/assemblage of points and knives, all from one area/site. The only way to get a collection like that is to find them one at a time, sometimes over a lifetime. Put 'em in proper caseboxes and don't crowd them. Put the best in one case.
To me, they are more valuable kept together.

NC field hunter · Sep 17, 2012

Those dove tail points are beautiful. I have always wanted to find one, but live in the wrong place. Welcome aboard by the way !

austin · Sep 17, 2012

Beautiful collection...

The Grim Reaper · Sep 17, 2012

Like Twitch said, those pieces look to be mostly Woodland, which would make them Hopewell and Adena related and make them much older then you thought and from around 1000 BC to 500 AD. The pieces with holes in them are Pendants and were used for personal adornment. The pieces to the left of those are Celts and are basically ungrooved Axes and used in woodworking. Most of the "points" are actually Knives, especially the larger ones, and were hafted in bone or wooden handles. They are valuable, both monetarily and historically, so I wouldn't give them to young children unless they know they are not toys and not to be played with.

Here's you a few links to help you learn more of these cultures.

http://www.ambrosevideo.com/resources/documents/American%20Indian%20Timeline%20for%20A%20History%20of%20American%20Indian%20Achievement.pdf

The Hopewell Culture

Hopewell tradition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

5.a The Adena Culture

Adena Culture - Ohio History Central - A product of the Ohio Historical Society

Adena culture - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

River Rat · Sep 17, 2012

You have a beautiful collection there. I would find some shadow boxes and display them on the wall, up & away from the children. Something you would want to pass down to them someday. BTW, welcome to TNet!

mamabear · Sep 17, 2012

deserves to be in a museum! have you thought about donating them? that is an amazing collection

dcberg00 · Sep 17, 2012

WOW! You all are giving us some amazing feedback. My head has been blown away in the last 24 hours. My wife found this box last night. Absolutely amazing! This will be something that is put on display at our house for a long time. I think this may just help create new father/son hobby. My boy is really into what we have here.

I am so glad that I came here to learn about this. I never thought I would get this type of information. This is becoming a prize for sure.

Please keep giving me information/opinions! It's great to hear, but I do have a question. Rightfully so, the focus has been on the points and pendants.If you look in the upper right corner of picture 3 there are circular items that are flat. Any idea what those are based on the image?

dcberg00 · Sep 17, 2012

mamabear said:
deserves to be in a museum! have you thought about donating them? that is an amazing collection

I am floored by this comment. Like I said, we just stumbled on this last evening. My parents have a lot of things from our family farm that these items came from. We are learning about everything we can.

I think this is a collection that will stay in the family. Since we just found it, the idea of a museum never came to mind. Wouldn't even know where to start with that!

GatorBoy · Sep 17, 2012

As far as the round items try searching discoidal and see what you think.

GaRebel1861 · Sep 17, 2012

You've got a nice collection of artifacts. I'm glad to see that they were re-found by someone who appreciated them as much as the original collector. Great stuff!!!! :icon_thumright:

GatorBoy · Sep 17, 2012

Good point! I die a little every time I see someone come across artifacts and the first thing out of their mouth is where can I sell it. I'm happy I read this thread.

birdpointgriswold · Sep 17, 2012

I agree with the other guys please keep in the family! And yes it is a great thing for your children to get into! Very rewarding! I started when I was 10 and now 25, and I have really found some amazing stuff!

Johnathan Griswold

dcberg00 · Sep 17, 2012

I have a friend near me that searches for artifacts (who led me to this site!) and I think he will become a mentor for me. My wife and I have talked about this becoming a family hobby. We like being outdoors and finding "treasure" is something the kids will love!
We will find a style of artifacts than the ones above, but what a way to get kick started. The way you all have talked about this collection really has led us to keeping it and starting a new hobby!
Now we just need to learn how to search! The live in Central Maryland, so there has to be plenty of artifacts out there to find! I can't wait to find some and share them here!

I must say thank you all for helping out so much and sharing the knowledge that you have with a person who has NO CLUE about this!

GatorBoy · Sep 17, 2012

Your so welcome! Your interest and the fact that you can share this with your children and learn and spend time together as a family is a gift to all of us. Look forward to photos.