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sab316 wrote:On my parents land, i found an old bottle sticking out of the old road leading to a small house site up by a pond. Nothing is left from the house but the chimney that's laying in ruins and the clearing that we keep bushogged where the house was sitting. Maybe a 20' x 20' area. I don't remember exactly what the bottle was, but it was a from a medicine company from the 30's. Was really cool to find intact. I washed it out in the pond and gave it to my mom that keeps her soap for the kitchen sink in it now.

I love finding "old" stuff like that bottle, and would love to find arrow heads. This stuff fascinates me. My dad found loads of them when they expanded his parents house when he was a kid. They lived in the only high ground between a creek and the Coldwater River. He found spear heads, arrow heads, all kind of tools. Maybe I need to go dig some holes in my grandparents yard

Heck yea, if your dad found them there then they are still there. you would be amazed at what you would find around that old house with a shovel and a sifter.

matador1 wrote:Tica, that video is unbelievable. Explain to me why there is such a concentration in that area of artifacts. Was the population so dense in that area or did a few indians make that many arrowheads? Or was that a spot that had a multi generational use by indians?

Woudl love to find a place like that.

Yes the TN Valley area had one of the highest concentrations of ancients in the US. I assume it is because of all the resources here. Many rivers, tons of lithics (flint/chert/agate to make tools out of), a lot of game and fish, moderate temps, mountains with caves, all kinds of stuff that make the area a good spot to live. Ancients lived everywhere but some areas, like the Ark/MS delta, had such flooding that many artifacts are probably covered in deep silt from thousands of years of flooding.

I have found arrowheads and tools from all cultural periods here... from Paleo (10,000 -13,000 years ago) to Mississippian (just a few hundred years ago). Most sites you find are multi-cultural, meaning several ages lives on the same site and their artifacts are scattered together. Everybody wants to live on the nice house on the hill, out of the flood zone. Some things never change.

tica-tica wrote:

sab316 wrote:On my parents land, i found an old bottle sticking out of the old road leading to a small house site up by a pond. Nothing is left from the house but the chimney that's laying in ruins and the clearing that we keep bushogged where the house was sitting. Maybe a 20' x 20' area. I don't remember exactly what the bottle was, but it was a from a medicine company from the 30's. Was really cool to find intact. I washed it out in the pond and gave it to my mom that keeps her soap for the kitchen sink in it now.

I love finding "old" stuff like that bottle, and would love to find arrow heads. This stuff fascinates me. My dad found loads of them when they expanded his parents house when he was a kid. They lived in the only high ground between a creek and the Coldwater River. He found spear heads, arrow heads, all kind of tools. Maybe I need to go dig some holes in my grandparents yard

Heck yea, if your dad found them there then they are still there. you would be amazed at what you would find around that old house with a shovel and a sifter.

My grandad still does a garden as well. May have to poke around after he tills it. My dad's grandparents lived in Water Valley, MS and he said as a kid his favorite arrow head he found / played with was a translucent purplish color. He doesn't remember what happened to it, but I think he still has a box of the ones he found in the top of his closet. Thinking of getting them put into a frame for him for his birthday.

sab316 wrote:

tica-tica wrote:

sab316 wrote:On my parents land, i found an old bottle sticking out of the old road leading to a small house site up by a pond. Nothing is left from the house but the chimney that's laying in ruins and the clearing that we keep bushogged where the house was sitting. Maybe a 20' x 20' area. I don't remember exactly what the bottle was, but it was a from a medicine company from the 30's. Was really cool to find intact. I washed it out in the pond and gave it to my mom that keeps her soap for the kitchen sink in it now.

I love finding "old" stuff like that bottle, and would love to find arrow heads. This stuff fascinates me. My dad found loads of them when they expanded his parents house when he was a kid. They lived in the only high ground between a creek and the Coldwater River. He found spear heads, arrow heads, all kind of tools. Maybe I need to go dig some holes in my grandparents yard

Heck yea, if your dad found them there then they are still there. you would be amazed at what you would find around that old house with a shovel and a sifter.

My grandad still does a garden as well. May have to poke around after he tills it. My dad's grandparents lived in Water Valley, MS and he said as a kid his favorite arrow head he found / played with was a translucent purplish color. He doesn't remember what happened to it, but I think he still has a box of the ones he found in the top of his closet. Thinking of getting them put into a frame for him for his birthday.

That would be a great gift. I put the whole ones I find in frames and the broken ones in clear lamps.

Very cool tica.

My MS Stonehenge

Cool looking petrified wood. The injuns made tools out of petrified wood.

You can even see the wood grain in some petrified wood arrowheads


Coolest stuff I think is the agatized coral that the Florida ancients used to make arrowheads. Very translucent and you can see the six sided coral polyps in the ancient coral

That is the coolest point I have ever seen (bottom)

by far the coolest one I have ever seen too....had no idea they made them out of coral

Florida agatized coral is just ancient petrified coral. Break the old coral heads and the stuff inside is sharp as glass and great for making tools.



We have some river cobbles over here in north AL called horse creek chert. Beautiful stuff. I have never found a complete arrowhead made out of it.
Horse Creek Chert points



Raw horse creek chert cobbles broken open:

Some other types of material used in tool making:

Mozarkite from Missouri


Mahogany obsidian from Cali


Clear quartz


Rhyolite from North Carolina


Coastal Plain Chert southeast US coastal areas


Tallahatta quartzite (South Alabama/Mississippi)


Buffalo river chert from Tennessee


Fort Payne Chert from Alabama and Tennessee


Jasper (north Mississippi/Alabama)


Some are made from Agate

I'm digging this thread. If I could find a creek here in Rankin County, I'd love to take a walk. Hell, I'd just like to find a gravel road for a Sunday drive.

4dawgma wrote:I'm digging this thread. If I could find a creek here in Rankin County, I'd love to take a walk. Hell, I'd just like to find a gravel road for a Sunday drive.

There should be some turned ground to start hunting. I saw tractors cranking up the other day and with the big rain event coming thru today/tonight it will wash them so you can spot them.

Creek, river banks, clear cuts, ditches, plowed fields, sod farms after they remove the sod, new road grades.... all good spots to hunt rocks.. even better if they are on high ground and close to an old water source. Also check the fields next to the bridges that cross rivers and creeks. The civil engineers want the bridge to be at the highest point across the water source. Sometimes the high point is not visible because it may be only a foot or so higher but that foot in a flooded delta might be the only spot above water in a flood event. That is were you want to live and that is where you find artifacts.

a few from over the weekend

We are going back to the fossil park in Frankstown on Monday...nice rocks