Great day out!!! Some nice artifacts and a BIG whats it?

Nate in Ga · Feb 17, 2019

This bone is HEAVY its def petrified rock now, I believe it was already that way when it was worked on, Would Love to hear any of anyones thoughts on this, pretty exited.

I think another little dalton barely missing the tip, small base of a random point, a kinfe with top missing and the big one thats complete not sure if its a axe or preform...

close to size of pop can...

Again any feedback or identifications greatly appreciated, I find all my stuff in one location on private property no one else hunts. I have piles and piles of flakes and brokes, i think there is some great stuff at this location waiting to be found. Thanks for looking, happy hunting.

Nate in Ga · Feb 17, 2019

is
Drilled through on each end

sandchip · Feb 17, 2019

Nice finds! That one in the last pic looks a little paleoish to me.

joshuaream · Feb 17, 2019

That's a big bone.

The drill mark is a natural hole in the bone called a foramen (hole in latin), many times they were used by Native Americans to split or further drill bone.

The work marks on it are rodent chews. Squirrels and other animals nibble on bones to get calcium and minerals.

It looks massive, it could still be a fossil of some ancient beast but I'm not seeing an ancient tool there.

catherine1 · Feb 17, 2019

Those are some nice artifact saves. The bone looks to be chiseled, unless it was gnawed on by a beaver. You say it is hard as rock...…..interested to see what the pros say.

Nate in Ga · Feb 17, 2019

joshuaream said:
That's a big bone.

The drill mark is a natural hole in the bone called a foramen (hole in latin), many times they were used by Native Americans to split or further drill bone.

The work marks on it are rodent chews. Squirrels and other animals nibble on bones to get calcium and minerals.

It looks massive, it could still be a fossil of some ancient beast but I'm not seeing an ancient tool there.

Thanks for the input, Im not sure of its significance if any to the people living where im digging but its 100% a fossil its not a bone anymore its a rock, its extremely heavy, check out the front in the first post is that what you think is chewing from animals, i dont think the work on this is the white scratches in the patina on the other side.

smokeythecat · Feb 17, 2019

Big, heavyset animal. I don't know the names. How about cowasaurus?

joshuaream · Feb 17, 2019

Nate in Ga said:
Thanks for the input, Im not sure of its significance if any to the people living where im digging but its 100% a fossil its not a bone anymore its a rock, its extremely heavy, check out the front in the first post is that what you think is chewing from animals, i dont think the work on this is the white scratches in the patina on the other side.

Yes, the first picture shows the gnaw marks. Pretty typical for smaller animals to chew on the exposed side of big bones and leave the downward side untouched. This site has some pictures, the teeth marks are pretty distinctive, you should be able to compare them with pictures.

Fossil Matter: Rodents gnaw bones

Nate in Ga · Feb 17, 2019

catherine1 said:
Those are some nice artifact saves. The bone looks to be chiseled, unless it was gnawed on by a beaver. You say it is hard as rock...…..interested to see what the pros say.

its harder than the other rocks in this area, you cand scrape anything from its surface, the greenish on the back is the side that was facing up to the sky in a dried creek bed feeding into the james river

Nate in Ga · Feb 17, 2019

joshuaream said:
Yes, the first picture shows the gnaw marks. Pretty typical for smaller animals to chew on the exposed side of big bones and leave the downward side untouched. This site has some pictures, the teeth marks are pretty distinctive, you should be able to compare them with pictures.

Fossil Matter: Rodents gnaw bones

yeah it looks strikingly similar Josh! so what ever nawed on said bone would have done it before it petrified or fosilized right, so these would be prehistoric squirrels at least? lol

arrow86 · Feb 17, 2019

Nice finds , some sweet blades in there looks like a great site are they all surface finds or some digging to

Nate in Ga · Feb 17, 2019

arrow86 said:
Nice finds , some sweet blades in there looks like a great site are they all surface finds or some digging to

I pick around in some plow piles and creek bed walls, but mostly surface finds where land owner has moved around large areas of dirt and ripped the ground up for reasons unrelated to the search of artifacts, its a pretty significant site im guessing by how much stuff is there everytime he moves just a bit of dirt, he doesnt really care much about the stuff now, sais he has buckets of the "****" he picked up his whole life living on the land...

Nate in Ga · Feb 17, 2019

One more almost from the flake pile today

arrow86 · Feb 17, 2019

That’s a nice one too , do you find mostly one time frame of artifacts or a mix .... do you think those are early archaic or older ?

Nate in Ga · Feb 17, 2019

arrow86 said:
That’s a nice one too , do you find mostly one time frame of artifacts or a mix .... do you think those are early archaic or older ?

Im not an expert, this is by far the best site ive ever had privilege to hunt... i think there is multi time period stuff here, and there is dalton points there i know for sure. hoping someone knows more about anything i post to identify the people, I do live in an area thats crazy for hunting native american artifacts tho, im only a few hours down from the kohoke mounds or whatever twords the santa fe trail

jamus peek · Feb 18, 2019

Hi Nate nice finds. The bone looks Bos/Bovid which means a high probability of Bison or Cow. The bone is a metacarpal and Josh is right those are definitely chew marks. If a fossil it more then likely is an Ancient Bison the Bison before the one now. It looks like it was found in or near water. If so let it dry for a few days then check the look and weight again. Sometimes the old look and the weight change when it dries out. If found near water a bone can mineralize with in a short time.

A 400 year old bone can feel and look like a fossil. So Cow wouldnt be ruled out nor would todays Bison. Post it on the fossil forum and see what they say.