How would you go about this? (possibly old village)

[blaylock]

Today it was sleeting outside so I decided to go talk to my neighbor about something he had told me in passing before. According to him , he has lived next door for 72 years and his family once owned my property. It used to be a field and they regularly farmed it, He said every year he would walk behind his fathers plow and pick up arrow heads. He claims he had 4 old 5 gallon buckets of them that were stolen while he was in the hospital back in the 80s. The community around here has always had documented ties to native americans. My property (which I bought last year) borders a creek that usually has 1 foot of water in summer and 4 foot during rainy season, also I'm less than 1/2 mile of tombigbee river. So water would have been plentiful as well as game, lots of wooded areas around. So it could have been a small ban of natives here. How would you start looking, dont really want to destroy my yard.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

How to Research for Treasure Hunting and Metal Detecting From Lead Generation to Vetting - Grab it through Amazon!

[wvwildman]

dig 6x6 holes at a time dig down a little at a time and sift your dirt on to a tarp then when your done fill your hole back in and put the sod back on top

 

[Number9]

"He said every year he would walk behind his fathers plow and pick up arrow heads."

What does that tell ya!?

Do you know anyone who plows near the water ways? Walk the field the first rain after it's plowed.

 

[x512x]

Speaking of this.. today I was talkin to a guy who was telling me of his land he use to own and when he would plow the field he would find arrowheads and buff nickels..he told me who he sold the land too and it happened to be the local antique shop owner. Went to talk to him to ask to hunt his land and he said he was a detector himself....

 

[wvwildman]

sounds like there was a village there. thats the way it is at my place i thank there was a big village here i find a lot stuff every year when i plow the garden we moved the garden spot a few years ago the old garden spot is about 200 yards from the new one when i was a kid i found a bunch of arrowheads and flint in the old garden i thought about plowing the field up but that would just break nice artifacts digging 6x6 holes at a time would be better

 

[blaylock]

dig 6x6 holes at a time dig down a little at a time and sift your dirt on to a tarp then when your done fill your hole back in and put the sod back on top

thats kinda what I was thinking. Maybe dig around 2 foot down since (most) plows would be going 1 foot max. Maybe I could get to the stuff he's never seen with a plow.

 

[blaylock]

Do you know anyone who plows near the water ways? Walk the field the first rain after it's plowed.

It is no longer a field and hasnt been in around 22-23 years now. As far as plowing next to waterways, its done alot around here. My family has done it for 6 generations no more than 20 miles down river.

 

[wvwildman]

you should walk the river might find some nice stuff around the edge

 

[PYRATE]

Look up old maps for your area, if you can find the original roads, you'll get a better feel for the area because most of the pioneer roads weren't just built, they followed indian routes & bison paths.

 

[blaylock]

you should walk the river might find some nice stuff around the edge

The river is protected from digging. Theres a highway between my place and it. It is now part of the Corps of Engineers. But I live in a spot where the original river still can be seen. The man made river runs almost straight for several miles but the old river intertwines many times with it. I know its kinda crazy but alot of the access roads are still closed since 911, but the boat ramps are still open .

 

[blaylock]

Look up old maps for your area, if you can find the original roads, you'll get a better feel for the area because most of the pioneer roads weren't just built, they followed indian routes & bison paths.

The old road is part of my driveway and goes along the edge all the way to the back of my property and crosses the creek. I have walked it through to the next road in use today . Its a little hard to see, but you can still tell. I found a couple old house places .

 

[Muddyhandz]

All great advice here.

One thing you could do is to detect the property real good and every signal you get, open up a larger plug than normal and poke around in each hole.

If you start to find a bunch of flakings, core pieces or even tools, then mark those plugs with a flag or GPS and you should have an idea of where to start digging 6x6 squares.

This way, you're already making a plug to retrieve your signal and do not have to randomly guess where to start a test pit.

Sounds like some good potential.

Cheers,
Dave.

 

[GMD52]

If you can access the river banks, you should be able to locate arrowheads and pottery by simply walking the shoreline, without digging at all. Creeks have always been the highways of trade and travel, and campsites are located not that far from the water edge. I find a lot running a trapline in the spring as the winter runoff scours the banks and does the digging for me. The other good time is during duck hunting when the level of the water is usually at it's lowest level. Good luck.