Weekend Shelter Finds

1320 · Jan 5, 2011

My brother and I located and began digging a different shelter last week which seems to be yet another undug location. The finds are varied from very nice to very crude and include bones as well as pottery. As usual, we're struggling to type these so any help on any artifact will be most helpful.

In one area of the shelter we found 11 broken blades. The best artifacts are coming from the back wall and are very deep. This shelter seems to have three "layers" of artifacts. Layer One is at the 3 inch level, Layer Two at 10 inches and Layer Three is at the 18+ inch level. We haven't dug past 18 inches yet. This shelter is labor intensive due to two compacted layers which we have to break apart by hand. The effort is worth it as we are finding artifacts in the "clods". The levels above and below the compaction are soft and very workable though. This shelter must have provided refuge for many, many years and perhaps two or more separate cultures. A tremendous amount of flint exists and every sifter load has numerous pieces. We've only managed to dig about 50% of the shelter to the 18 inch level so we expect to find at least a few more interesting pieces as we continue.

pickaway · Jan 5, 2011

Great finds, those teeth are cool... :headbang:

1320 · Jan 5, 2011

I must admit that those teeth made me a bit nervous but after comparing them to my own molars that were pulled a few years ago, I think I can exclude them as human. I've often questions myself on keeping those but finally, they served a purpose...LOL.
They are a close match to Wolf, but I've much more comparing to do to be certain.

As best I can tell, and someone please correct me if I'm off base, image 1355 might be a Fort Ancient or Camp Creek.
Image 1403 possibly a Big Sandy or Hardaway?

I'm still looking at examples on the projectilepoint website to narrow it down.

I still can't decide where to place the first blade that I pictured. I've found some that are close in shape but not excactly. Heck, they're probably all Adenas for all I know!

rginn · Jan 5, 2011

Cool finds and wish I was right there alongside y'all. I have some questions, though. Are you conducting what would amount to a professional archeaology dig or just digging for artifacts? And are you acting within the laws of your state? Not tryin to shoot you down, but I don't want you getting into trouble and I do like seeing history preserved, but not necessarily by the archys.

Lone Star · Jan 5, 2011

Nice!! Man I love to dig ! I bet you are having a blast. Send a few pics of the shelter. Thanks for showing, Lone Star

Treefrog · Jan 5, 2011

very cool finds, that small point may could be a hamilton if it is really small, I have found several hamilitons in the past.

Tree

musky44 · Jan 5, 2011

those are some great finds man!! ive got a shelter ive been wanting to dig in ohio, just need to find time. thats cool that u included details of ur dig, like depth and stuff. very interesting. thanks for sharing, hope to see what else u find.