Does anyone know or has ever seen a silver arrowhead?
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PEG LEG
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PEG LEG
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Silver arrowheads:
- Thread starter Peg Leg
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TreasureTales
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Silver arrowheads as in made by Native Americans? I thought silver was usually found in orebodies and therefore had to be refined. Did Indians have that capacity? I don't know.
Karl von Mueller used to make silver arrowheads and he sold them through his publications.
Karl von Mueller used to make silver arrowheads and he sold them through his publications.
COUNTRY GIRL
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Peg Leg said:
I've never seen one............But I'm interested. Pictures
?
Adena_man
Hero Member
Not unless they were hunting "Werewolves". 
Just kidding Peg Leg, I couldn't resist. Seriously though, I have never heard of them ever using silver for tools or points. I'll look it up and see, but I doubt that they ever used it.
Just kidding Peg Leg, I couldn't resist. Seriously though, I have never heard of them ever using silver for tools or points. I'll look it up and see, but I doubt that they ever used it.
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I have seen a few but have come across a few that were made by the IAS indians on the East cost of Florida. I believe they melted down Spanish silver coins. I know for a fact that they made trinkets from gold and silver coins.
Will look deeper into this.
Thanks
Peg leg
Will look deeper into this.
Thanks
Peg leg
gunsil
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Many modern cast silver arrowheads exist as used in bolo ties, necklaces, etc. The natives in north America did not have the ability to refine silver and did not work gold although available.
Glenn C
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joshuaream
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All y'alls is all wrong. Just kidding, I was standing inline at the apple store a couple of days ago and a rather angry customer screamed the first part of that combined with a couple of bad words at the lack of customer service.
A semi-complete run down:
A couple of ancient native american groups used copper extensively, and occasionally native silver when found with copper. There are a two or of documented archaic period silver points from the Great Lakes that are thought to have been made from this native silver.
The Hopewell used silver on a pretty significant scale at some burial mounds. The infamous GE burial mound had lots of silver items. The total weight of the items isn't in the hundreds of pounds, so it's again thought to be the collection of native silver that is occasionally found with copper. No arrowheads that I am familiar with, they mostly used it for earspools, beads and covered items with a thin sheet of silver. Earl Townsend had a large collection of silver beads from I believe the Kincaid mound in Illinois, he famously arranged a trade with the Smithsonian for his beads and the best known example of a birdstone. It is thought that silver might have been more common than some early mound explorers realized, the very thin sheets they used are pretty delicate if not excavated and subsequently preserved. Items are also found mixed with copper, and simply might not have been recognized under the more visible copper oxides.
Into the southwest you actually find evidence of melted and cast copper in the forms of little bells and different types of beads. Many of these were traded up from Mexico, but there are some people who think they also made them locally. Again, occasionally you see small silver items in the mix as well.
I've heard of small hammered gold trinkets from California, usually copies of silver and copper trade pieces, but most probably didn't escape being melted and sold for their metal value.
Protohistoric and historic groups also made rolled tinklers (bells) and points from metal (scraps, silverware, coins, etc.) by hammering and folding small pieces. You mostly see these in some parts of Florida, Texas and out in California.
And as someone mentioned, there are some beautiful silver points made by a couple of artists.
Here is a silver cast of a paleo point in my collection.
A semi-complete run down:
A couple of ancient native american groups used copper extensively, and occasionally native silver when found with copper. There are a two or of documented archaic period silver points from the Great Lakes that are thought to have been made from this native silver.
The Hopewell used silver on a pretty significant scale at some burial mounds. The infamous GE burial mound had lots of silver items. The total weight of the items isn't in the hundreds of pounds, so it's again thought to be the collection of native silver that is occasionally found with copper. No arrowheads that I am familiar with, they mostly used it for earspools, beads and covered items with a thin sheet of silver. Earl Townsend had a large collection of silver beads from I believe the Kincaid mound in Illinois, he famously arranged a trade with the Smithsonian for his beads and the best known example of a birdstone. It is thought that silver might have been more common than some early mound explorers realized, the very thin sheets they used are pretty delicate if not excavated and subsequently preserved. Items are also found mixed with copper, and simply might not have been recognized under the more visible copper oxides.
Into the southwest you actually find evidence of melted and cast copper in the forms of little bells and different types of beads. Many of these were traded up from Mexico, but there are some people who think they also made them locally. Again, occasionally you see small silver items in the mix as well.
I've heard of small hammered gold trinkets from California, usually copies of silver and copper trade pieces, but most probably didn't escape being melted and sold for their metal value.
Protohistoric and historic groups also made rolled tinklers (bells) and points from metal (scraps, silverware, coins, etc.) by hammering and folding small pieces. You mostly see these in some parts of Florida, Texas and out in California.
And as someone mentioned, there are some beautiful silver points made by a couple of artists.
Here is a silver cast of a paleo point in my collection.
Jon Stewart
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silver as in the metal silver or silver colored?
unclemac
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that makes me thinking too...your point is cast so it has those "flake" marks on it. Copper points look nothing like hand knapped stone points or even metal trade points. So a silver point should NOT look like what you just showed us but rather more like a native copper point...right?
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