Bronze age axe?? UPDATE!

[ryaan21]

Hi all found this today about 100 yards from my house. It was a really good signal and i dug the hole and buried it twice out of frustration. My dad was close to me when i was digging and he kept giving me crap about giving up. So i dug down about 13-15 inches and up popped this. Im not sure how the pics will turn out but you should get the general idea. I live in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan which has an abundant copper area about 100 miles north of where i am. The axe head has a nice green patina and looks hand forged. Any ideas on a probable value or who i could take it to to get it dated?? Thanks for looking. HH.



Hey all. I managed to contact a really nice guy who is educated in this type of collecting/artifacts. He was really very helpful. He informed me that this item is indeed a copper "celt". Out of all the artifacts these ones are the most rare. It is between 5000-7000 years old and was used by native americans. The cool part is the site is less than a 2 minute walk from my house and there were several other signals almost identical to this one but i didnt dig them. Can ya guess where ill be on my next day off?? Thanks for reading. HH.

 

[WYO1]

That's a great ax head Ryaan. Put handle on it and go chop some wood!

 

[Old Dog]

Ryaan,

These archies wonder why so very few of us even bother to cooperate at all.

I suggest that you tag it put it in your personal collection and tell the archeologist to pound sand. Don't even tell them where it came from. Unless they pay for the info.
They earned that much.

Congrats on your find Buddy, sorry to hear that another self absorbed archie made the work they have to do harder still. These college educated "rocket surgeons " need to learn that a few well placed words of courtesy, will go a lot farther with most of us, than all the money in the world.

Tell them to fill their holes.
OD

 

[Prober]

You ought to send a link to this post to the rude woman...let her see just how her rudeness pisses people off. Just a thought.

 

[Skrimpy]

You ought to send a link to this post to the rude woman...let her see just how her rudeness pisses people off. Just a thought.

There's a great idea!

 

[texan connection]

DITTO Do it and let us no how she respondes

You ought to send a link to this post to the rude woman...let her see just how her rudeness pisses people off. Just a thought.

There's a great idea!

 

[allen]

awesome find....tell the professor to keep the pic you sent her as that will be as close as she gets to your find...

 

[dubby90]

I have been detecting since I was 10 years old. It was the reason I studied Anthropology and became an archaeologist. I agree with the fact that it seems like all archaeologist may be bitter towards the common detectorist but how would you feel if your employer paid you to do a job and you came back to him after weeks and said "Well, I don't have any information for you, I didn't excavate anything, and this project was a waste of both of our times", all because someone else performing their leisure activity, ON THEIR DAY OFF, removed all the pertinent artifacts and disturbed the natural context of the area. If you think that we are lazy, that we want someone else's finds, or should have already excavated a particular site just STOP and think for a minute... It takes time, money, and people to perform an archaeological dig. Where do you think these items come from -- the archaeologist HA, most of the time we are broke as joke. You know what I do, I work for Volkswagen, let me tell you how much my archaeological backround helps there! If I were rich and you had a prehistoric or historic archaeological site in your city, I would be there, cause I would have the money too. Nobody ever gets into archaeology for the money, and there is rarely a time when archaeology is ever in the spot light, I mean come on this is not Egypt. My last project was the excavation of a 19th century one room school house. It was archaeology and the willingness of a community to learn about their past and actually want to preserve it that made the project a success. Student, families, professionals (not in the field of archaeology) all contributed to the project, and it wasn't for the recognition, it was because they wanted to know where they came from and how it use to be, to see how much they have grown as a community and how the most insignificant things of our time are taken for granted. I am an archaeologist and I also metal detecting my rear-end off. Trust me, some of my mentors don't take it lightly and probably don't agree with my methods but I am the new generation. I can't afford to be an archaeologist but I still know what is important and what is not important. I also know that feeling in your stomach when you actually uncover something old, great, and amazing that just makes you say "wow" out loud and that is why we do what we do, whether it be archaeology or THing. We all need to work side by side because artifacts and relics do deteriorate, are threatened by constant development, and disappear quicker everyday. Everyone can learn from eachother and it is our responsibility to show history to our fellow human beings, whether it be students at a school, a community of people, the state, or the world (if you are lucky). Thanks for your time guys, hope this helps clear some peoples minds

 

[MalteseFalcon]

Archaeologists should be glad of what is found by detectorists.

If only they were all forced to follow the UK model. Think of all the neat stuff that would be brought to their attention by detectorists!

As with any sub-group of people....it is the bad apples that ruin it for everyone.

 

[texan connection]

Agien it seems that all are in agreement here, What are we gonna do to bring the UK model here?? I think we should all print this entire post and send it to all in power that might care about archeology and our past, but it has been my exp. (locally) that they dont have time (or money, what do they do with all our money?)for such trivial Matters.
Now I will say that go to the Texas sight on treasure net and you will find a start up grass roots effort to help with this problem, Who knows might help.
Another little story. Here locally and Very recently a mastadon skeloton was dug in a local gravel pit, what do you think they did?? Some of it was taken out by truck drivers some of it was ground up and destoyed, Why?? Because they were afraid of the beurocracy, another tremendous waist.
Also Dubby90 I hope you havent been offended as I dont think anyone here is ditching the "archi" proffesion, just the beurocracy, the same beurocracy that keeps you unemployed in what you likely do best, and keeps treasure hunters in the closet.

 

[sniffer]

what is wrong with some people?, if these people were really concerned with finds, they would want to learn about the artifact first, before saying gimme, gimme, while some things should not be sold, others that are sold generally are sold to somebody that knows what the item is and can really appreciate it.