Found this Indian blade on Christmas

[joshpulver]

Hey guys, yesterday after opening presents and eating some great food I decided to go check out an old bottle dump in the woods behind my grandparent's house. While I was digging around I came across this guy. It's the first Indian artifact I have ever found. Some information on it like the age, what it was used for, and the type of stone it's made out of
would be nice. It came from northeastern Indiana if that helps with anything. Thanks for looking.

 

[catherine1]

Thats a pretty nice blade. It looks adena. Around 2000 bp. I would check around the exact spot you found it in as their maybe a cache of those.

 

[quito]

That is a spectacular first find!!!

I wish I had more info for you, but someone familiar with your area will be able to help I am sure.

 

[tncreeker]

Friggin awesome,,,thats all I know about it.

 

[Americus]

That is a nice find. Thanks for sharing.

 

[rock]

Welcome to the forum and what a good find. Nice color

 

[joshpulver]

Thanks for the info!

 

[monsterrack]

That is some super heavy stain on that one and a very nice blade.

 

[joshpulver]

That is some super heavy stain on that one and a very nice blade.

The dirt in the bottle dump was pretty rusty. Would that explain the color?

 

[bone2stone]

The dirt in the bottle dump was pretty rusty. Would that explain the color?

Yes it would.
Was it found in direct context of the bottle/trash dump or associated near in the soil?

I would go back and dig around some more as Catherine1 suggested.
Her suggestion is an assumption but note worthy.
It does appear to be a transitional Adena preform.
Cashes of these type points are very hard to acquire.
You may not know of the local laws so keep things under wraps till you are sure prior to doing any more digging.
Keep your information as general as possible. You do not know but you may have stumbled across the next great site!!!!!!
Contacts should be through PM only. Keeps lurking eyes from locating your site and or you. Unless you so desire.

BTW: Sooooo you are a bottle digger? Pointy rocks are just as or more interesting.
Damn sure older.


Jess B.

 

[sandchip]

I knew an old gentleman, a WWII vet and long gone now, who had an exceptional collection of Indian artifacts. However, this was his second collection. While he was in the service, his mother cleaned out his room and threw away all of his arrowheads. I've heard other horror stories like this from other Great War vets since then, so it's conceivable that you could find entire collections in trash piles from that era. It's almost as if they never expected to see their sons again.

 

[joshuaream]

Welcome aboard! I grew up in NE Indiana (Allen & Whitley Counties.) You see a lot of that black flint (quarried in Ohio) and rusty patina from peat fields eastern Allen County, but the bottle dump context could also explain it. If you rinse the piece off in water, does the patina feel thick & crusty or smooth? (Thick, crusty stuff is probably rust build up from the dump.)

It could be Adena, but the workmanship & material makes me think it was a used Archaic knife. Most of the Adena stuff I've found in that part of Indiana is Flintridge material.

 

[NCPeaches]

I would be in that old bottle dump again! Hope you find more!

 

[joshpulver]

Yes it would.
Was it found in direct context of the bottle/trash dump or associated near in the soil?

I would go back and dig around some more as Catherine1 suggested.
Her suggestion is an assumption but note worthy.
It does appear to be a transitional Adena preform.
Cashes of these type points are very hard to acquire.
You may not know of the local laws so keep things under wraps till you are sure prior to doing any more digging.
Keep your information as general as possible. You do not know but you may have stumbled across the next great site!!!!!!
Contacts should be through PM only. Keeps lurking eyes from locating your site and or you. Unless you so desire.

BTW: Sooooo you are a bottle digger? Pointy rocks are just as or more interesting.
Damn sure older.


Jess B.

Yeah it was just mixed in with the trash. You can see the rust around the edges and it comes off but the red colors towards the middle are smooth like the rest of the stone. I'll have to go check out the site again. And yes I just started bottle digging about 2 weeks ago lol. haven't been at it for too long, but I've been detecting for about 2 years now.

 

[joshpulver]

Welcome aboard! I grew up in NE Indiana (Allen & Whitley Counties.) You see a lot of that black flint (quarried in Ohio) and rusty patina from peat fields eastern Allen County, but the bottle dump context could also explain it. If you rinse the piece off in water, does the patina feel thick & crusty or smooth? (Thick, crusty stuff is probably rust build up from the dump.)

It could be Adena, but the workmanship & material makes me think it was a used Archaic knife. Most of the Adena stuff I've found in that part of Indiana is Flintridge material.

Yes it's crusty on the edges where the orange rust is but smooth everywhere else.

 

[joshpulver]

I knew an old gentleman, a WWII vet and long gone now, who had an exceptional collection of Indian artifacts. However, this was his second collection. While he was in the service, his mother cleaned out his room and threw away all of his arrowheads. I've heard other horror stories like this from other Great War vets since then, so it's conceivable that you could find entire collections in trash piles from that era. It's almost as if they never expected to see their sons again.

That makes a lot of sense. All of the bottles were from the 20s to 50s so maybe at some point they threw out a jar not knowing what they had in it.

 

[yakker]

Very cool blade there Josh. I like the material too. Man, if I were you, I'd be on that dump like a freak! NICE find Yakker (and good luck finding more cool stuff!)

 

[GaRebel1861]

Very nice and as someone else suggested, I'd hunt that area closely! There's likely some more goodies waiting to be recovered. Good luck!