My very first Jewllery piece!

Airborne80 · May 5, 2008

While hunting my favorite spot for arrowheads I found this! I have never found a bead but I am certain that this is what it is. .Its like a miniature arrowhead bead. Any thoughts and/or ideas on the age or identification would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

The Grim Reaper · May 11, 2008

Sorry to inform you of this, but I'm sure that is a natural rock. It is just a piece of quartz that probably had a softer stone in the center that has eroded. A bead would be more defined and polished from being worn.

Here are some pictures of some Beads and drilled items that were worn as jewelry. These are Bone Beads, Shell Beads, Stone Beads, Copper Beads, Glass Beads, Cannel Coal Pendants, and Drilled Teeth which were all used as personal adornment items.

Airborne80 · May 12, 2008

Well.... that explains why nobody responded or commented for a week

I thought I had bad breath! Yours are very very nice and while I do understand your message..... I wonder if the fact that this "item" was found in a a river.... (in the water on the shoreline) may have something to do with its roughness. I really am not trying to hold onto a dream, but i don't want to rule it out to fast. It was found exactly where the pipe and six other confirmed arrowheads have been found. Its the site of a riverside Indian village that spans thousands of years. Is it possible that its just rouged up? Take another look at the hole. Could that really be natural? And the shape....... coincidence? perhaps.... I just want to be sure though before I throw it away. Thanks again for your thoughts and great pictures. And thanks for at least responding. What does one have to do around here to get a response anyway?

The Grim Reaper · May 12, 2008

I wouldn't throw it away. It may very well have been used as a Bead, it just doesn't conform to the normal parameters of a Bead. The hole definitely doesn't look like it was drilled into the piece and it looks like what I said earlier, that a softer material has eroded out of the center therefore leaving the hole. Being that you found it on a known Indian site I would keep it just for that fact alone. It may have been picked up and used as a Bead by the culture that lived there because it already had a hole in it. I'm sure the Indians were just as fascinated by fossils and cool looking rocks as we are and would keep something like that just because it did look cool. I find Crinoid Beads here on some of my Ft Ancient sites that have a natural hole, but you can see from the polish on them that they were used as Beads.

Cannonman17 · May 12, 2008

Looks natural to me also-

unitas · May 12, 2008

I was waiting for someone else to give you the bad news, it does look natural. It's good that you picked it up though. I learned a long time ago to pick up anything that I thought might be something. If I hadn't i'm sure i'd have left some good stuff lay.I remember when I first started collecting I kept coming across a real funny looking mud that was hard and it seemed to have designs on some of it. I wasn't sure but I thought it might be pottery so I would lug it home not really knowing. It wasn't confirmed to me as pottery for at least three years until I got a little more serious about collecting and seen some examples in reference books.Another time I found a blue and white striped glass bead. At the time I joked that I found an indian bead and nearly threw it down thinking it had to be modern. On second thought I put it in my pocket and took it home. Three or four years later a knowledgable friend was looking at my collection,spotted it and informed me it was a genuine trade bead.(I was a little embarrased at the time because it was in a box rolling around with about forty musket balls from the same site, how it didn't break I'll never know). It was a good thing I held on to it though. I guess what I'm saying is if you think it's possibly something keep dragging it home, you never know when you'll find treasure.

Unitas