🥇 BANNER My smallest point and largest point in the same day -Epic too small a term

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,682
40,650
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
1728287-8dcb2230ffec8e30447b8aa859b5aa99.jpg
1728268-34578e6343bd09796e0f70ab42367c2f.jpg
1728309-1ece8ff6df06f5fed040372f97cf12d6.jpg

I drove to one of my far away places yesterday, I was trying to get there between rain storms as the corn is just starting to come in.

Place #1 was inaccessible as the creek was flooding. I was hoping the flooding would have subsided but it didn't. So...I went to Place #2 on the same farm, you have to cross the railroad tracks, then go down a 3/4 mile lane/dirt path/ car and truck eating swamp thingie.

Well, I called the owner from the high side of the field, there is a small place there you can pull off a car. He said it would not be wise to try it. A couple had been down there in their jacked up 4x4 pickup and got stuck. So I used the detector as cane #1 and shovel as cane #2 and started down the path, looking on each side for artifacts. Found zip. Got to the bottom and went over the known "good" spots. all I found down there was a broken net sinker. Bummer. I wasn't even finding any flakes. I found some fire cracked rocks, but not enough to concentrate on, PLUS every time I took a step it was like sink down 6" in the dark mud.

You couldn't really grid this field, it was too wet. So I started meandering back to the truck. I finally started finding a few flakes. The ONLY material found there, with the exception of one Flint Ridge, Ohio flake from a couple years ago is the Onondaga Chert, out of NY which is like 5 miles away.

Moving toward the driveway (mud puddle road thingie), calling it a road insults all other roads in the nation, I spy something thin poking out of the dirt. I snagged it and found the smallest arrowhead I have ever found. IMG_2895.JPG IMG_2896.JPG This is absolutely the smallest, complete point I have ever found. I washed it off a bit in a mud puddle and realized the material is different than the normal lithic material from this spot, but couldn't ID it at that time.

It is just over 1/2" long, is PERFECT and I was holding it between my fingers last night it punctured my little finger! Sharp as a razor after all these centuries! Wow! And it is nearly transparent. I'm having a problem getting a picture but light shines right through it. Here's my best try. The dark veins are still attached dirt. I haven't scrubbed it, I rarely "scrub" artifacts. IMG_2902.JPG

So, I safely put it in the side pouch, at least I found SOMETHING. I then crossed over the one glacial pond, scoured out by the last glacier to hit the area and started grubbing on the other side of the imaginary road. One horrid step at a time with the mud trying to suck me down down down. I spied a few more flakes, no tools. There were, again some fire cracked rocks, but not many.

A few more steps and I saw another razor edge of rock of a lighter color sticking out of the ground. I went to retrieve it, slop slop slurp of the mud, and pull out a monster! I took it over to the mudpuddle and washed it a bit and freaked! First, it's an archaic dovetail and after I got more dirt off of it, it is also made of Flint Ridge, Ohio flint! No doubt on this one! It is almost 6" long and NO DAMAGE! Now how the points on this farm have survived, I have no idea but it may be because the floods there move them in and out of the plow range over time and they only appear in the plowable zone every once in awhile. Flint Ridge is 400 miles away! I know the material was highly traded. I found an Adena blade near where I live when I was maybe 18, but none of the material since then till yesterday, of course with the exception of the Flint Ridge materials I have found at Flint Ridge itself - duh.

Definitely once in a lifetime hunt! IMG_2894.JPG IMG_2899.JPG

And as an afterthought, the mud was so bad truck would not let me in it until I got some of so I used two Cokes to rinse off my shoes to some extent. It's pretty hard for an old "mudder" like me to do this, the wash this am included my shoes -yeah, to haul myself through a mud pit anymore.

Make sure to zoom in on the points to check them out better. I suppose if you drove a total of 400 miles, round trip, these two make it worth while.

Here are the rest of the flakes, a few cores and what may or not be part of a broken banner stone. I don't think so, but...

IMG_2916.JPG IMG_2917.JPG And a hammerstone. Perfect hand size and lots of pecking done on the one end. The upper side is hand polished due to use. IMG_2918.JPG
 

Last edited by a moderator:
Upvote 107

NZ49er

Hero Member
Apr 3, 2018
520
1,968
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
Minelab Equinox 800
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Banner. That dovetail is a find everyone dreams of!
 

Megalodon

Silver Member
May 13, 2018
2,650
4,373
Maryland
Detector(s) used
White's MXT
Tesoro Cibola
Tesoro Golden Sabre Plus
Garrett ADS Master Hunter 7
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Jump up & down in the mud kind of gorgeous points. Congrats!

First use of coca-cola as boot cleaner on t-net?

I think the two together when the second is that dovetail, with the descriptive story, is worthy of banner nomination.
 

Last edited:
OP
OP
smokeythecat

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,682
40,650
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Thanks all. I realized after looking at them on the net I sure couldn't afford the big one! Now I want to go back. I have been there about 12 times. Maybe a couple more than that. I started I think 2019, also did a couple trips last year and now three this year. It's a long haul.
 

OP
OP
smokeythecat

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,682
40,650
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
These two get put in the safe deposit box. I don't think it will be possible at my age to find a smaller one or a bigger one! Will get pics of other misc. stuff soon. Still mud to clean up.

This is probably or may be either a celt or simply a chopping tool. There are 14 large flakes removed from the one end. Just over 1" thick and fits nicely in your hand. IMG_2904.JPG Small things, broken net sinker and broken point. The point is made of the Onondaga Chert. IMG_2906.JPG IMG_2907.JPG

The last pic is the side of a highly worked flake, made into a tool. There are dozens of tiny flakes taken off the side of it. IMG_2914.JPG

I have dozens of flakes from the other day and yesterday. I'll have to see where I "stuck" the other broken point. Probably right in front of me on my stand.
 

Last edited:

billb

Silver Member
Sep 23, 2010
4,569
10,145
New York
🥇 Banner finds
1
Detector(s) used
Excalibur2,,silver sabre
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Congratulations on your major once in a lifetime achievement Voting Banner
 

OP
OP
smokeythecat

smokeythecat

Gold Member
Nov 22, 2012
20,682
40,650
Maryland
🥇 Banner finds
10
🏆 Honorable Mentions:
1
Detector(s) used
XP Deus II
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
I was wondering what they were hunting, then looked up the "St. Charles" type point and they were used 10,000-12,000 years ago. Mastodon? Maybe the recent flood brought it up. Soil there is pretty deep in spots. This is the same spot my adze came from plus that huge chopper from last year and the agate basin point, although it probably has a better name for a Pennsylvania point.

Tomorrow I'll "find" the other (I think three) dovetails I have and stick them up here. They are junk in comparison. The white quartz one made my archaeologist friend almost wet himself years ago when I found it. It was the oldest point to date every found on that site. Then the next day (floods along the river), I found a resharpened clovis. I think he lost it then. And then the next day or so I found a Flint Ridge, Ohio Adena Blade (that's what he called it) 300' away. And a HUGE ax. Those were the days. That was 1984.
 

Last edited:

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Discussions

Top