Info needed

[Target1972]

Found this in a field back in '80 or '81 in Johnson County in Central Indiana. My older brother had an eye and patience for finding nice arrowheads. I preferred baseball and fishing. Regardless, I am a newbie and just want to learn what I can, starting with this. Thanks

 

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[arrow86]

Seems like odd material and how flat the one side is

 

[Target1972]

It is flat on one side, not sure what kind of stone it is either.

 

[joshuaream]

Are the notches chipped, or ground smooth? (Ground smooth would look like someone drilled them.)

 

[ToddsPoint]

Base is too thick to ever be hafted to a shaft. Real arrowheads most always have a thinned base. Gary

 

[neodetectorist]

It looks like those arrowheads you buy in a souvenir shop. Flat on one side and 2 cleaves on the other.

 

[GaRebel1861]

It looks like those arrowheads you buy in a souvenir shop. Flat on one side and 2 cleaves on the other.

Thats what I think as well.

 

[Tdog]

It looks like those arrowheads you buy in a souvenir shop. Flat on one side and 2 cleaves on the other.

Thats what I think as well.

Yep except the souvenirs look a little better.

 

[Quartzite Keith]

Not a Native American arrowhead. Looks like a waste flake that a kid picked up and made into an "arrowhead". The part that is now the base was the bulb of percussion (where the flake was struck off the core). The flat side was inside the core, the side with flake scars was the outside, scars left from previous flakes. From there looks like someone picked it up and pressure flaked in the notches and maybe shaped it a little. As a kid I used to do that with triangle shaped pieces of slate or glass, using the awl on my official Boy Scout pocket knife as a pressure flaker. Some of my "arrowheads" are still probably out there somewhere.

 

[Tdog]

The part that is now the base was the bulb of percussion (where the flake was struck off the core). The flat side was inside the core, the side with flake scars was the outside, scars left from previous flakes. From there looks like someone picked it up and pressure flaked in the notches and maybe shaped it a little.

I agree Q.K. There's another recent thread here entitled "Dalton?" where someone is questioning a piece depicting many of these same attributes.

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/north-american-indian-artifacts/612523-dalton.html

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Is it out of the question that it might be the work of a Native American kid, or were they born with the skills to turn out great arrowheads?

 

[Quartzite Keith]

Is it out of the question that it might be the work of a Native American kid, or were they born with the skills to turn out great arrowheads?

I doubt it. It looks like someone copying the shape without understanding the function. It is built backwards for a flake point. The thin end should be used to build the base, the bulb of percussion is chipped away to form the tip. This creates a point with a base thin enough to haft and a tip strong enough to punch through hair and hide to get inside the target.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

I was just wondering. Seems like there should be a bunch of poorly made tools out there...either from beginners or people with no hand/eye coordination.

 

[southfork]

I was just wondering. Seems like there should be a bunch of poorly made tools out there...either from beginners or people with no hand/eye coordination.

Yep there on ebay

 

[Older The Better]

I had always assumed everyone made their own tools but I was reading a book that suggested that there could have been tool specialists that would trade their work for other goods, food, clothing and such. Could be why there aren’t a bunch of poorly made tools