Newb... i know i know...

[WIDirtFishing]

Is there any “end all be all” book or website about identifying artifacts? I’m in MN and late last fall got into river walking after I found some broken pottery shards. I’ve done a lot of research about my area and really want to dive in once this snow is gone. Mainly I’ll be focusing on waterways.
So I want to brush up on some techniques, what part of the river or run offs to look for. And I was wondering if there was a couple good websites or blogs to follow?
When I used the search function I found a couple but they weren’t maintained it looked like and a couple links didn’t work. Any current links would be much appreciated!

Trevor

 

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[coosakid]

Nothing real scientific about it... Search the sandbars really..... You can look on projectilepoints.com to see the different types from your state. And this is probably the best forum to be on to learn

 

[WIDirtFishing]

Thanks for that. Yea I metal detect as well and lurk on this sub forum all the time and it seems like it’s probably the most active. Always new posts.
I have access to 1/4 mile of river frontage and was curious if it would be worth it to build a screen and dig a little, but clearly I have no idea what I’m doing. I figured the sand bars and the river bends would hold the best goodies.

 

[arrow86]

Yea those are good spots especially if that’s where your finding pottery keep a good look out for flakes that’s the best indicator I have found that a spot really needs looked over throughly if your used to metal detector pace I would say slow way down the only tool you have know to work with is your eyes and sometimes just luck. Always look in the same spot from both directions ( double back) it’s amazing how much a different angle will reveal . It’s gonna take some time to really figure what’s worked and what’s just natural wear from water and Mother Nature. Building a sifter can certainly help assuming that the goods are their to begin with I don’t sift a whole lot but when I do I try to do a thin layer at a time also you wanna make the wire have fairly small holes for the sand to fall thru I had one that was bigger and tons of flakes and even small points were passing thru it. Here’s a few pics of the flakes I find down my way they should be similar most places but the material will differ. Good luck hope to see some finds posted

 

[WIDirtFishing]

Thanks for all the help! This gives me a good start.
One thing I want to see if I understand is dating of points. Let me see if I got this right.
2000 BP would be roughly 50 BC? Or 4000-5000 BP would be approximately 2050-3050 BC? Give er take?

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Projectile Point Identification Guide

This isn't an "end all, be all" site but it us fairly accurate on most Point ID's.

As far as a book, I always thought Sun Circles and Human Hands was an excellent book. It goes through each culture with great descriptions of the traits and artifacts used and really good pictures.

 

[justonemore]

This pdf is a very good resource for Minnesota

https://mn.gov/admin/assets/stone-tools-of-minnesota-part1_tcm36-247478.pdf

This link is much more simple but handy for point types

http://umrara.com/lithic1.html

 

[WIDirtFishing]

This pdf is a very good resource for Minnesota

https://mn.gov/admin/assets/stone-tools-of-minnesota-part1_tcm36-247478.pdf

This link is much more simple but handy for point types

http://umrara.com/lithic1.html

That is awesome!! Thank You so much

 

[11KBP]

This pdf is a very good resource for Minnesota

https://mn.gov/admin/assets/stone-tools-of-minnesota-part1_tcm36-247478.pdf

Great reference you provided justonemore.

You are not going to find a much better information source for Minnesota than this one by Toby Morrow.

 

[BearCreek]

I had a TNET friend that went out to hunt with me and show me where to look and what to look for. Anywhere the water first hits an area, and especially if it makes a gravel bar, that’s a good spot to look. Look around uprooted trees, big piles of wet leaves on the sand and piles of rocks that might have caught a point floating by. Also, just past big curves in the flow of the water. I love looking in the creek, but I found my best pieces on the first hills away from the creek. It was always after a few good days of rain and some sunny days that dried out the soil. Happy hunting!