Nutting stone and arrowhead - probing

[BobGuy]

I went out for a few hours this afternoon and checked out some fields that I haven't been in in a while. With everyone doing no till it's slim pickens but I did manage to find this nutting stone and arrowhead.

I carried a probe along with me and spent about an hour probing the field in an area that I knew had artifacts because that is where I found these two. It was hard work and I didn't find anything. If anyone has any advice on how to effectively probe for artifacts I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks!

 

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[arrow86]

Nice finds .... Unfortunately 5 of my best fields have been no tilled for the last 12 years or so but I still ride by every spring praying they will be plowed. I am going to give digging and sifting a try this spring as well but couldn't offer any advice it will be a first for me so trial and error. In sure some of the pros will chime in with tips. Also just for kicks check out some of the videos on you tube of people digging ..... Unreal some of the artifacts they pull out. Good luck and happy hunting

 

[redbeardrelics]

Nice little point you found, and I can commiserate with you on the no till situation.

Probing for stone artifacts is an interesting subject to me. I have found a few that way, but I suspect it would not be a worthwhile venture in most parts of the country. I surface hunt on the Delmarva peninsula, where the topography is generally flat, and many of the sites are located on low, and relatively sandy knolls. It is believed that most of these sandy knolls date to the Younger Dryas period, and are the result of climatic loss of vegetation that thus allowed wind blown silts and sands to accumulate into slightly elevated knolls. These sandy knolls became preferred spots for the pre historic peoples to congregate and leave their stone artifacts. The cool thing about it is that on some of these knolls there are not many stones larger than marbles that were put there by geologic forces, just stones left by man. Most of these sites are multi component, and severely "deflated" by often hundreds of years of farm tilling. This often leaves a sandy layer about a foot thick that contains artifacts, below which is a denser, and artifact sterile, subsoil.
The flipping stick I carry is just a length of 1/4" diameter steel rod. I often push this rod a few inches into the soil as I walk through some of the sandiest areas, on the best sites, and can easily feel if the rod contacts a stone below the surface. It only takes a few seconds to scoop away the soil with my fingers to see what the stone might be. Usually it is just a chip, flake or fire cracked rock, but on a few occasions have been rewarded with a nice point or tool.
On my home farm with a sandy knoll site, I have been picking up all the stone material for the last 10 years or so, severely depleting the amount of stone material now remaining in the sandy artifact producing layer of top soil. The odds of probing a point out of a field with a 1/4" diameter rod is pretty slim so a few years ago I re-purposed an old camp fire, multi hot dog cooker, that was starting to rust away in my garage. It has eight 1/8" diameter hot dog skewers in a circular pattern on the end, and on occasion I take it out into my field to use as my flipping stick and artifact probe. I am able to locate a lot more stones under the surface with these multiple probes, but to be honest I don't think I have found any points with it, just flakes and fire cracked stones. I am embarrassed enough to be seen walking in my own field with a hot dog cooker, and have not taken it to any other sites yet.
In general, I would think that most sites around the country would have way too many naturally occurring rocks to make probing worth while? HH.

 

[BobGuy]

Nice little point you found, and I can commiserate with you on the no till situation.

Probing for stone artifacts is an interesting subject to me. I have found a few that way, but I suspect it would not be a worthwhile venture in most parts of the country. I surface hunt on the Delmarva peninsula, where the topography is generally flat, and many of the sites are located on low, and relatively sandy knolls. It is believed that most of these sandy knolls date to the Younger Dryas period, and are the result of climatic loss of vegetation that thus allowed wind blown silts and sands to accumulate into slightly elevated knolls. These sandy knolls became preferred spots for the pre historic peoples to congregate and leave their stone artifacts. The cool thing about it is that on some of these knolls there are not many stones larger than marbles that were put there by geologic forces, just stones left by man. Most of these sites are multi component, and severely "deflated" by often hundreds of years of farm tilling. This often leaves a sandy layer about a foot thick that contains artifacts, below which is a denser, and artifact sterile, subsoil.
The flipping stick I carry is just a length of 1/4" diameter steel rod. I often push this rod a few inches into the soil as I walk through some of the sandiest areas, on the best sites, and can easily feel if the rod contacts a stone below the surface. It only takes a few seconds to scoop away the soil with my fingers to see what the stone might be. Usually it is just a chip, flake or fire cracked rock, but on a few occasions have been rewarded with a nice point or tool.
On my home farm with a sandy knoll site, I have been picking up all the stone material for the last 10 years or so, severely depleting the amount of stone material now remaining in the sandy artifact producing layer of top soil. The odds of probing a point out of a field with a 1/4" diameter rod is pretty slim so a few years ago I re-purposed an old camp fire, multi hot dog cooker, that was starting to rust away in my garage. It has eight 1/8" diameter hot dog skewers in a circular pattern on the end, and on occasion I take it out into my field to use as my flipping stick and artifact probe. I am able to locate a lot more stones under the surface with these multiple probes, but to be honest I don't think I have found any points with it, just flakes and fire cracked stones. I am embarrassed enough to be seen walking in my own field with a hot dog cooker, and have not taken it to any other sites yet.
In general, I would think that most sites around the country would have way too many naturally occurring rocks to make probing worth while? HH.

Great! Thanks for the insight! I have seen YouTube videos of guys successfully probing farm fields but it just makes me wonder if I have 2 hours to hunt, am I better off walking a creek or probing a farm filed hoping I perfectly place a 1/4 inch probe directly on top of a complete point? I almost think, if I were to do any digging, it would make more sense to just bring a screen along and sift the soil. I am in a period where I am experimenting with different techniques and am trying to find what works best for me.

 

[ptsofnc]

For me, using a probe is only effective for detecting stone that might be an indicator of a NA work area. And it has worked for me that way. When I'm probing and I hit rock, I almost always stop with the probe and carefully shovel a square foot of dirt out as much as two feet deep....shovel test...and see what's there. It has been useful, but only for indicating that I'm in a work/camp area. The area I probe is on my own property. I've thought about buying some kind of "ground penetrating radar" device, but that seems a little extreme and expensive lol (Only found one broken point (with the probe) but lots of debitage, so the odds for me aren't good but still fun....you never know). Good luck!

 

[joshuaream]

I knew some guys who probed for points in Kentucky, but they were hunting pretty dense sites that were a couple of feet down. The feel/ring of thin flint is different than normal rock. It's a combination of the right type of soil and the right type of site. (If you stand the chance of pulling out early archaic points that haven't been chewed up by the plow, the reward can be worth the very time consuming effort.)

I've probed for pottery many times with a bottle probe, it's very effective if you can't dig an Olympic pool sized hole to find everything. Other people put a slightly wider bit on their probe to catch soil, and pull it up to check the type of dirt they are in (looking for fire pits, rich dirt, etc.)