Narragansett Copper Kettle Arrow Point

[Eastender]

On New Year's Day I found this copper kettle arrowhead while metal detecting on eastern Long Island, NY. I posted it over on the metal detecting forum so please excuse the repeat. I've never really checked out this forum before and am finding it very interesting.

My main goal when I started metal detecting over three years ago was to find objects dating back to the 1600's when the area where I live was first settled by Europeans. My oldest coins to date are two 1722 and one 1723 King George I. Mostly KGII era finds. I could have buttons and other objects dating to the 1600's, but nothing definitive. Colonial population was sparse and access to properties to detect is difficult so the challenge is huge.

This find lead me to spending hours researching copper points. The ones I've seen from digs in upstate NY are usually basic flat equilateral triangles with the hole for hafting. This one shows nice craftsmanship. I haven't even rinsed it off. I stumbled upon a blog entry from 2017 in Stout Standard's Q & A with Todd Hiltz. His point is a near perfect match and if you read the text above, was thought by an expert to be Narragansett dating from the early to mid-1600's. The historical contact period didn't last long so these finds are interesting. Huge epidemics, mostly smallpox, devastated the majority of Native populations in the New England region beginning in the early 1600's through early 1700's. Plus they wanted to get their hands on guns as soon as possible and gave up the bow.

I research European colonialism and have been looking for this early culture. It was a pleasant surprise to find an artifact that is a blend of European and Native Cultures. I discovered this book (photo attached) on the Puritan and Native struggles of 1600's New England. I only had a basic understanding of this history. Now I am reading about the Narragansett, the powerhouse tribe of the region, their acquisition of trade metals for tool-making, and raids to the this area during the mid-1600's where I now live. The Montaukett were in the Narragansett sphere and paid protection money in fine locally crafted wampum. When the Narragansett raided eastern Long Island this allowed the British to take sides in the conflict and settle. I'm reaching out to the author of this book as I'm sure he will really appreciate seeing it.

 

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[newnan man]

Nice point and enjoyed the history lesson. Rare I would think.

 

[antmike915]

Nice 👍

 

[Charl]

Beautiful example. That’s a somewhat untypical style, with the concave blade edge. I have found a couple in Rhode Island, while surface hunting. My two favorite time periods are Paleo and Contact. Like yourself, I really enjoy the 17th century artifacts, because all the personages I know from history, such as all the characters in “God, War, and Providence”, which I really enjoyed reading, were alive when many of these points were made. Wish I had found more, but I don’t metal detect.

Copper and brass kettles/utensils were traded by the Dutch, English, etc. to all the Northeastern tribes. To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing distinctive about the point that would ID it as Narragansett. I could be wrong, maybe they are Narragansett-distinct for reasons I’m not familiar with, but seems more likely traded to and cut into a point by your local Long Island tribal groups. Yes, the Montauks were in a vassal tribe relationship to the Narragansett, who had emerged from the pre-Pilgrim and Puritan plagues, that ravished all the tribes, but which the Narragansett had survived better, in part by holding up on islands in Narragansett Bay.

The Narragansett also became the chief producers of wampum, during that period of several decades in the 17th century when wampum became a medium of exchange for native and English alike. One reason the Mohawk, when raiding the Algonquin speaking tribes of New England, usually left the Narragansett alone, is so as to not alienate the guys making the wampum. The Pequot tribe were also a major producer of wampum.

 

[Eastender]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the contact period is fascinating, especially when it comes alive in your hands combined with reading historical texts (although most of the written history is from the euro-centric slant). Not far from where I found this point is a site the Dutch described in the 1600's as having over 50 Wigwams engaged in Wampum production. Also nearby is Gardiner's Island, whose namesake had a relationship with the Montaukett Sachem that resulted in him procuring the island. There were Narragansett raids here including one which killed 30 Montauketts and resulted in the capture of 14 along with the theft of a large quantity of Wampum. One cannot rule out the object not being of Narragansett manufacture, it being acquired through trade as opposed to being shot in either conflict or hunting, or being made locally. I also cannot rule out it being part of one of these skirmishes given its location. It was interesting to see another like it found in NE with some reference to an "expert" on the Pequot Wars.

Further west, on the middle north shore of Long Island, I worked on a NYS registered shell midden archaeological site as part of my undergraduate studies back in 1978-9. During 1995-6, I completed a Phase One Cultural Resources Investigation in this same area on a large parcel due to be developed, report filed Albany, as part of my Graduate level research practicum. Also excavated on a site in the mid-Hudson river Valley. I did see more cherts upisland. Out here on Eastern Long Island I see more milky white quartzite and crystalline quartz tools and byproducts, the latter beautiful objects which given the hardness were probably difficult to work. Working copper would have been less challenging.

In my youth I picked the farmer's cornfields in southwestern New York State where I grew up in Allegany County. Had a nice collection of over 500 points by the time I was 16, mostly Seneca made from PA and OH flints. I worked professionally in the Mojave Desert of Southern California south of Death Valley as a contract field archaeologist and Petroglyphologist. Out here on Eastern LI I see plenty of middens and worked stone but honestly do not look into it. Sometimes I do stumble into shell middens looking at metal detector targets in colonial settlement areas. The colonials would sometimes utilize Native shell middens for fertilizer, especially for fruit orchards.

Many people do not understand when I tell them there seems to an instant when you feel an artifact before you actually focus your eyes upon it. Many people may not believe in or feel any spiritual connection to such objects. Out here on eastern Long Island where I have lived the past 25 years I haven't found any arrowheads prior to the copper one. I'm talking about random surface finds. I haven't dedicated time to looking in tilled farmer's fields. I like to half jokingly say that my aura from the Seneca artifacts from where grew up prevent me from finding any gifts from the peaceful Algonkian and Delaware Peoples. Although they traded with Mohawk, there was apparently fear of the upstate tribes. So I was very happy to finally find this point.

 

[Buckleberry]

Awesome find (they really spent some time shaping that one) and a great thread, thanks to all for sharing this very interesting history!!!

 

[Older The Better]

I’m big into trade era too, it’s interesting that those triangles seem to be common to the east, out where I am trade metal points are more arrowhead shaped. That’s a nice find, more often than not people post questionable bits of metal, good to see a clear example.

 

[Indian.outlaw]

Awesome piece thanks for sharing!

 

[Charl]

Thanks for the reply. Yes, the contact period is fascinating, especially when it comes alive in your hands combined with reading historical texts (although most of the written history is from the euro-centric slant). Not far from where I found this point is a site the Dutch described in the 1600's as having over 50 Wigwams engaged in Wampum production. Also nearby is Gardiner's Island, whose namesake had a relationship with the Montaukett Sachem that resulted in him procuring the island. There were Narragansett raids here including one which killed 30 Montauketts and resulted in the capture of 14 along with the theft of a large quantity of Wampum. One cannot rule out the object not being of Narragansett manufacture, it being acquired through trade as opposed to being shot in either conflict or hunting, or being made locally. I also cannot rule out it being part of one of these skirmishes given its location. It was interesting to see another like it found in NE with some reference to an "expert" on the Pequot Wars.

Further west, on the middle north shore of Long Island, I worked on a NYS registered shell midden archaeological site as part of my undergraduate studies back in 1978-9. During 1995-6, I completed a Phase One Cultural Resources Investigation in this same area on a large parcel due to be developed, report filed Albany, as part of my Graduate level research practicum. Also excavated on a site in the mid-Hudson river Valley. I did see more cherts upisland. Out here on Eastern Long Island I see more milky white quartzite and crystalline quartz tools and byproducts, the latter beautiful objects which given the hardness were probably difficult to work. Working copper would have been less challenging.

In my youth I picked the farmer's cornfields in southwestern New York State where I grew up in Allegany County. Had a nice collection of over 500 points by the time I was 16, mostly Seneca made from PA and OH flints. I worked professionally in the Mojave Desert of Southern California south of Death Valley as a contract field archaeologist and Petroglyphologist. Out here on Eastern LI I see plenty of middens and worked stone but honestly do not look into it. Sometimes I do stumble into shell middens looking at metal detector targets in colonial settlement areas. The colonials would sometimes utilize Native shell middens for fertilizer, especially for fruit orchards.

Many people do not understand when I tell them there seems to an instant when you feel an artifact before you actually focus your eyes upon it. Many people may not believe in or feel any spiritual connection to such objects. Out here on eastern Long Island where I have lived the past 25 years I haven't found any arrowheads prior to the copper one. I'm talking about random surface finds. I haven't dedicated time to looking in tilled farmer's fields. I like to half jokingly say that my aura from the Seneca artifacts from where grew up prevent me from finding any gifts from the peaceful Algonkian and Delaware Peoples. Although they traded with Mohawk, there was apparently fear of the upstate tribes. So I was very happy to finally find this point.

I understand that “feel” an artifact before seeing. Once, while walking a field, a voice spoke “arrowhead!!” Into my ear. Right out loud. There was nobody there. I do not look gift horses in the mouth. I looked everywhere with my eyes. No arrowhead. I started to continue the walk, then, “nope, there’s a reason for hearing a voice. Got to be a reason”. At that very moment, I stooped down and lifted a huge red leaf sitting alongside my left foot. And there the arrowhead lay, completely hidden.

I live in a town where the only house on the west shores of Narragansett Bay, that survived King Philip’s War in 1675-76, once still stood. Torn down in the 19th century. It was a stone built garrison house. In 1676, an Indian raiding party attacked the town. People fled to that house. The natives attacked, but could not breach or set afire. At one point, a settler left to care for his cattle, not worried because he believed he was on very friendly terms with the Narragansett. But the raiding party was from a different tribe. They cut his head off. Next day, colonists buried his body and head in the graveyard beside the garrison house.

Flash way forward to a couple of years ago. Garrison gone, burial ground still there. Developer builds condos on the property. I found a broken quartz triangle. A close friend found this slate 17th century native made button mold. Right outside where the trading post/garrison house stood. I flipped out so much when he sent these photos the day he found it, and I had to figure out what it was. And when the old light finally went off, and I texted back: “you found a native Contact period button mold!!”, he gifted it to me that Christmas. I treasure it, just as I do my two brass points. Especially finding it at a garrison house that survived an attack during King Philip’s War.