Any Archaeology Fans?

[Sig]

Ive always been interested in history. But about 24 years ago while checking our soil right after turning it, I found an arrow head. Then I found another one, then another....
That day I found 11 arrow heads in about 20 minutes. I immediately called an old professor of mine. He laughed and told me to go look for more. By the end of the week I had found over 100.
Apparently they are not rare, and its not unusual to find a LOT of them in certain areas. Fields that are turned often are hot spots for arrow heads I found out.
That sent me on a mission to find out WHO made them, and everything I could find out about them.
They were a Tonawanda "clan" of Seneca Indians belonging to the Haudenosaunee group of the Iroquois.

 

[anotherbob]

I've watched so many things about it that I can now spot earthworks and striation in soil. I love how the more I learn about history in any way the more I think people are people but our environment and condition is really the only thing that actually changes. I also love how the more I learn about those things the more the notion of more simple times starts to sink from all the holes in it.

 

[anotherbob]

Ive always been interested in history. But about 24 years ago while checking our soil right after turning it, I found an arrow head. Then I found another one, then another....
That day I found 11 arrow heads in about 20 minutes. I immediately called an old professor of mine. He laughed and told me to go look for more. By the end of the week I had found over 100.
Apparently they are not rare, and its not unusual to find a LOT of them in certain areas. Fields that are turned often are hot spots for arrow heads I found out.
That sent me on a mission to find out WHO made them, and everything I could find out about them.
They were a Tonawanda "clan" of Seneca Indians belonging to the Haudenosaunee group of the Iroquois.

There are some fields that even a casual walk will reveal arrowheads. Sometimes they even look like they could have been chipped out yesterday.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

There are some fields that even a casual walk will reveal arrowheads. Sometimes they even look like they could have been chipped out yesterday.

It really is amazing how many are out there.

Maybe it's just because I'm near the river... but you have to wonder why so many spear points and arrowheads?

 

[Sea Lord]

Ive always been interested in history. But about 24 years ago while checking our soil right after turning it, I found an arrow head. Then I found another one, then another....
That day I found 11 arrow heads in about 20 minutes. I immediately called an old professor of mine. He laughed and told me to go look for more. By the end of the week I had found over 100.
Apparently they are not rare, and its not unusual to find a LOT of them in certain areas. Fields that are turned often are hot spots for arrow heads I found out.
That sent me on a mission to find out WHO made them, and everything I could find out about them.
They were a Tonawanda "clan" of Seneca Indians belonging to the Haudenosaunee group of the Iroquois.

Yup, they were part of the Iroquois Confederacy, consisting of, at first, five nations and then, of six, when the Tuscarora joined it in 1722.

 

[Boko_Fittleworth]

Like some guys above, I always wanted to be an archeologist like Indiana Jones! I still try to keep up on the latest developments.

 

[Hillcrest]

I love to read all stories of Archeology and discovery. I love it when a new discovery proves or significantly proves or lends credence to Myth, folklore, beliefs of the past, historical record etc. Maybe some of those people over the last million years actually knew something !!! unlike today where there is no history prior to the year 2000.
My brothers and I also collected arrow heads down by the river for a merit badge in boyscouts ... my Dad mounted them in a frame and I think my brother still has it somewhere. You can learn alot from the people of the past (including the elderly as I approach that stage !!)

Good news they found my birth certificate !!! : (Sorry ! Feeling old today !).

 

[Sea Lord]

It really is amazing how many are out there.

Maybe it's just because I'm near the river... but you have to wonder why so many spear points and arrowheads?

This is my interpretation, not actual scholarly answers. I think the various Iroquois nations were fighting a lot among themselves. And most likely, with other nations. A main factor was probably the control of commercial exchanges with the Brits. As for the French, their main commercial post was in Tadoussac, with the Algonquin nations. And they were in multiple conflicts/wars with the Iroquois, until the Great Peace of Montreal Treaty, in 1701, was signed.
The Iroquois nations came to the realization it would be much better for them to unite as a bigger group. Thus, the founding of the Confederacy.

 

[Waning Embers]

but you have to wonder why so many spear points and arrowheads?

They've been around since the Clovis people going back nearly 14,000 years so lots of time to make them.

 

[Sig]

It really is amazing how many are out there.

Maybe it's just because I'm near the river... but you have to wonder why so many spear points and arrowheads?

From what I read, the natives just made a LOT of them. Many were one time use, and many were not up to snuff, so they were discarded after knapping. As far as the Iroquois, there were a LOT of mouths to feed and they hunted a lot. Many points were damaged upon hitting a deer bone and were discarded. And lots of practice points were lost or discarded.

 

[xrundog]

They've been around since the Clovis people going back nearly 14,000 years so lots of time to make them.

Right, flint tools are the most ubiquitous and lasting items from those cultures. Think about how many they made and then lost or discarded. Millions.
They are kind of the equivalent of knives and forks today.

 

[anotherbob]

It really is amazing how many are out there.

Maybe it's just because I'm near the river... but you have to wonder why so many spear points and arrowheads?

One of the first times I went field walking as a youngster I got plenty of arrowheads and they were different shapes. Some looking a lot cruder then others. I assumed weathering. I was told they're from different time periods or cultures. That revalation that the natives we are accustomed to had peoples who while they descended from who were ancient to them blew my mind. And add to that arrows and spears were used the same way we go to the grocery store now. Day in day out over hundreds if not more years people shooting their daily grub and also their enemies too. And minerals don't decay and rot away like wood or animals.
There are spots in the woods that if you dig down a little bit it's amazing how many smooshed up beer cans there are from several decades of people drinking in the same spot. Best spot for that I found beer cans that had to be opened like those cans of fruit juice by puncturing the top with that hook shaped can opener. Those ones where they have a tear drop shaped tab. And that's just a few decades and an activity that isn't constantly done by nearly everyone.

 

[anotherbob]

Like some guys above, I always wanted to be an archeologist like Indiana Jones! I still try to keep up on the latest developments.

the saddest day in a young mans life is when he realizes Indy wasn't really that good of an archeologist.

 

[Sig]

One of the first times I went field walking as a youngster I got plenty of arrowheads and they were different shapes. Some looking a lot cruder then others. I assumed weathering. I was told they're from different time periods or cultures. That revalation that the natives we are accustomed to had peoples who while they descended from who were ancient to them blew my mind. And add to that arrows and spears were used the same way we go to the grocery store now. Day in day out over hundreds if not more years people shooting their daily grub and also their enemies too. And minerals don't decay and rot away like wood or animals.
There are spots in the woods that if you dig down a little bit it's amazing how many smooshed up beer cans there are from several decades of people drinking in the same spot. Best spot for that I found beer cans that had to be opened like those cans of fruit juice by puncturing the top with that hook shaped can opener. Those ones where they have a tear drop shaped tab. And that's just a few decades and an activity that isn't constantly done by nearly everyone.

Points were also made for different reasons. Small slicey points for small game like rabbits and birds. Larger, fatter points for penetration on bigger game like deer.....or people.
Some tribes even made blunt points to kill without damaging the skins. They just knocked the animal silly....or dead.

 

[bullet08]

Yes and no. I like some of the findings, but others are... If it's weaponry, sure. But if they find another public piss hole, don't tell me about it.

 

[anotherbob]

Points were also made for different reasons. Small slicey points for small game like rabbits and birds. Larger, fatter points for penetration on bigger game like deer.....or people.

So another the more things change the more they stay the same!

Some tribes even made blunt points to kill without damaging the skins. They just knocked the animal silly....or dead.

my favorite are bouncing arrows. For shooting birds on the water. Not as much of a global thing but northern European tribal groups back before there was even a concept of a continent.