Question on Celts

[BrettCo124]

Hi all, another question yet again:

Are celts found pretty much anywhere? Rivers, creeks and fields? More so in one of those areas? It’s on my bucket list right now, big time.

 

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[arrow86]

I think it’s all dependent on the area just the same as finding any artifacts . The main reason you find more in different areas is because there was more activity and more artifacts to find. A good site is a good site regardless of field or water

 

[choo]

Yeah you can find them in all those places but I think you have a lot better chance of finding them in a field!

 

[captain redbeard]

The ones I have were all pulled out of one field about 150 yards apart. Field is on the edge of swampy woods (flood plain) and the field is about 175yards from a river.

 

[BrettCo124]

Thanks everyone! The day I find one of those, will be the day whoever is around me will think I’m a lunatic due to my extreme celebration

 

[quito]

Thanks everyone! The day I find one of those, will be the day whoever is around me will think I’m a lunatic due to my extreme celebration

Hope you find one some day.

From 2 sites, I have found 4 complete celts a few broken off bits, a pre-form or celt in the making, and a few poll ends. Every one was in a field, and near the river.
BUT, In the plains here, pretty much the only place there were any trees back when the natives thrived here, was right along the rivers and creeks.

 

[BrettCo124]

Hope you find one some day.

From 2 sites, I have found 4 complete celts a few broken off bits, a pre-form or celt in the making, and a few poll ends. Every one was in a field, and near the river.
BUT, In the plains here, pretty much the only place there were any trees back when the natives thrived here, was right along the rivers and creeks.

That makes me feel hopeful! I will continue to check around those areas. I’ll be along a river this weekend so I’ll check in the water. I never really search for anything in water, usually just in the rock piles at low tide on the beach. I should start incorporating that in to my searches.

Was there a primary use for celts?

 

[quito]

That makes me feel hopeful! I will continue to check around those areas. I’ll be along a river this weekend so I’ll check in the water. I never really search for anything in water, usually just in the rock piles at low tide on the beach. I should start incorporating that in to my searches.

Was there a primary use for celts?

Basically they are just an un-grooved axe.

 

[quito]

Here is a grooved Celt I was able to acquire a few years ago.

 

[Gold Maven]

keep flipping rocks, sooner or later you will find one. gl

 

[BrettCo124]

Do you feel like your only chance at finding celts (and arrowheads for that matter) is on an area on or immediately nearby a campsite? Obviously chances are probably better at or near a campsite, but I’m curious how you all do searching rivers and creeks NOT around a campsite. Still find stuff? Still feel just as confident?

 

[quito]

Do you feel like your only chance at finding celts (and arrowheads for that matter) is on an area on or immediately nearby a campsite? Obviously chances are probably better at or near a campsite, but I’m curious how you all do searching rivers and creeks NOT around a campsite. Still find stuff? Still feel just as confident?

Rivers and creeks often wander, or change course. Native's spent much time living near them, so sites often get eroded into them. They were also great places to get a shot off at a critter getting a drink. Lots of missed arrows and darts found their way into the water.

You can find artifacts in places you wouldn't expect since gravel is often mined from old creek and riverbeds. Dirt is excavated off sites and deposited elsewhere etc.

I don't spend much time in the water or on gravel bars. I mostly hunt farm ground near water. If you find a decent flat area near water around here, chances are good someone camped or lived there at some time. Every spot I thought would be a good place to look, where I got the chance to, so far anyway, has been good.

 

[georgia flatlander]

Do you feel like your only chance at finding celts (and arrowheads for that matter) is on an area on or immediately nearby a campsite? Obviously chances are probably better at or near a campsite, but I’m curious how you all do searching rivers and creeks NOT around a campsite. Still find stuff? Still feel just as confident?

Celts were not only used in a utilitarian way, but also as ritualistic and ornamental items. I have found many that were polished and obviously never used, and others that were battered and chipped from everyday usage.
In one area where I hunt, we find celts made from a variety of materials, including flint, quartz and greenstone, and find them frequently. In fact, we found nearly 50 in a relatively small area over the course of a few months. In other areas I hunt, we've never found a celt of any type, despite the numerous other artifacts we've found. In my opinion, they are found specifically rather than generally. I found my first bannerstone after nearly 40 years of looking for one; they were simply non-existent in the areas I hunted.
My advice: enjoy the hunt, and everything you find that was made by Indians regardless of quality or quantity. You're holding history in your hands when you find something, and in some cases your hands will be the first to hold an artifact in thousands of years. You may never find a celt, but you never know. I had given up on bannerstones when I found my first, and it made it all the more exciting. Good luck!

 

[BrettCo124]

Thanks all. I’m going to need to wander myself a little bit more. I have one area in a nice creek full of creek stones and stone beds, but i never leave that one area. It’s where a small creek meets the big creek. I’ve always heard that’s where to look. I never find anything there. Not a single thing. And ive gone there 20 plus times.

If you were to choose one spot in a nice creek like I just described, and you chose the exact point where a small creek meets a big creek, how confident would you be on finding an artifact?

I can’t really wander around in the creek because it gets deep and has some fast moving parts. So I really am limited to this small area with about 4 stone beds on it. I just feel like I keep wasting my time in this creek.

 

[Charl]

Thanks all. I’m going to need to wander myself a little bit more. I have one area in a nice creek full of creek stones and stone beds, but i never leave that one area. It’s where a small creek meets the big creek. I’ve always heard that’s where to look. I never find anything there. Not a single thing. And ive gone there 20 plus times.

If you were to choose one spot in a nice creek like I just described, and you chose the exact point where a small creek meets a big creek, how confident would you be on finding an artifact?

I can’t really wander around in the creek because it gets deep and has some fast moving parts. So I really am limited to this small area with about 4 stone beds on it. I just feel like I keep wasting my time in this creek.

It's always been an old rule of thumb that where two rivers meet, the chances improve. I was walking a drawn down lake a few years ago, formed when the confluence of two rivers was drowned, with a friend, and not seeing anything, and as we approached the point where the south-north river joined the west-east river, I said now we should start to see stuff. I had never been there before, but I was right. The flakes began to appear, and the artifacts.

My own recommendation is to find agricultural fields, near bodies of fresh water, get owner permission to walk them, and do so after they are plowed, and after heavy rains. I have also had luck just screening river bottom, not in really muddy areas, but sandy bottoms, and near where stuff has been found just away from the river. We used to do that in the summer, just sitting in the river, on property belonging to family. Always found points. But, fields where there were camps were always my favorite. Hard to find any that are not picked over sometimes, though. Up here, people have been walking fields for points for near 200 years.

 

[quito]

Charl is right on there. I hunt one site where two creeks out of Minnesota meet and cross my friends property before they merge into the Sioux River 1/4 mile away.

 

[rock]

Here are 2 I have found. Some people have never found a nice Hard Stone Celt or Ax so it is a special thing to find them. Hope you get a chance to experience it, rock

 

[rock]

1st is a Poll Celt
2nd is a Square Celt

 

[mainejman]

In Maine all of my finds are on sites that are next to water.Fish weir's were utilized in most Maine streams.Finding flakes along stream banks and shorelines help to narrow down possible sites...I have never found an artifact in a field in Maine...I have had some pretty good luck plucking stuff out of streams when water conditions are right..I once found a nice gouge and a perforated net weight standing in knee deep water about ten minutes apart.Definetly my best stream hunt...the advantage no disc hits...mjm

 

[hucklburry]

Those things are heavy, so I just don't think they carried them alot, they probably left them to use around "home" the most, increasing the odds of where they are found. I could be wrong, and it doesn't apply 100%, but if any rock will do for a lot of stuff, why carry something heavy that you don't need too??