Found this cleaning my van this morning

[tomsneck]

Wondering if it's a trade point. Any thoughts
Thanks for the look

 

[unclemac]

those holes make me think not...why would it be in your van?

 

[Charl]

Well, holes are extremely common in brass/copper trade points here in New England. They are sometimes interpreted as aides in hafting, and it has also been suggested that this allowed them to be strung when not hafted, and carried on a strand that way. I just saw you are from the Vineyard. Yes, I have seen that style often in these parts. I would say it is a trade point, and a very nice one.....

 

[Charl]

As seen in the artifact guide for southern New England, various styles of brass/copper trade points. Note that two are perforated. If you don't know how it got in your van, maybe a previous owner found it, or you forgot finding it. At any rate, yes, it's a 17th century trade point....

 

[Rege-PA]

Charl is right, a very nice Trade Point. The shape suggests that it was made specifically for trade by a skilled metal worker and not one cut chiseled from a piece of kettle scrap. The two holes also make it unique, as they usually one.
Super find!

 

[Charl]

Here are a few of my own, from a 17th century Seneca Iroquois site in New York State. Surface hunting, I have found two in RI over the years, and they were both cut from sheet metal. The Native men obtained brass and copper kettles from the English and earlier, the Dutch, and rather then give those kettles to the women, for use as vessels, they cut them up and made points, etc. from them....

 

[11KBP]

Wondering if it's a trade point. Any thoughts.
Thanks for the look

Ref: Perino, Vol. II

 

[sandchip]

Way cool!

 

[joshuaream]

It certainly looks like a trade point. I assume you found it metal detecting?

It might be worth researching, if you are interested, if contact era items have been found on Martha's Vineyard. Trade goods like that existed in specific windows/lenses of time, and on islands those lenses are usually compressed and well defined. I wouldn't be surprised if you could narrow it down to 30 year or so window of time where an item like that would have been in use.

 

[Mrdigz]

That's Awesome!

 

[NCPeaches]

Very nice find!

 

[captain redbeard]

I'm going to have to start hunting vans now!

 

[villagenut]

Just how old ...is your van?