General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFound this in a local creek last Sunday...
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I've been searching for Indian artifacts washed out in creeks for the past several years.
This is a very nice 4-1/2" long "Cobbs Knife" made from Indiana hornstone chert and it is roughly 8,000 years old.
Fascinating to be the first to see it or touch it after all those years and to wonder what the life and times were like for the person who made it.
MustLoveBeagles
(11,634 posts)Thanks for posting.
GoCubsGo
(32,088 posts)It's in really nice shape, too.
Freshly-plowed farm fields near those creeks, rivers, and other water bodies can be a great place to hunt, as well. Just make sure you have permission to go on the land. I have found artifacts in dirt roads, as well.
Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)Getting tougher to find anything in fields with all the low/no till farming.
Creeks produce waaaaay less finds but usually the artifacts are in better shape due to lack of implement strikes.
Nictuku
(3,617 posts)I was on a hiking/camping trip on the border of New Mexico/Arizona in the mountains, and we actually found colored Indian beads in an old fire pit area. That is so cool, what you found. I know you will treasure it.
notdarkyet
(2,226 posts)AJT
(5,240 posts)marble falls
(57,204 posts)fierywoman
(7,694 posts)moondust
(20,006 posts)I have one almost identical to that but made of light-colored stone that I found in my back yard as a kid. Also once found what I think is a tomahawk head that looks a lot like this:
Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)Roughly 1,000 BCE to European contact.
moondust
(20,006 posts)Thanks! Looking at more Google images there's no question that mine is a granite celt (ungrooved axe).
Maybe I should donate it to a museum or something. ??
Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)Would be protected and preserved that way.
3Hotdogs
(12,406 posts)moondust
(20,006 posts)The one I found is almost exactly like this:
jpak
(41,759 posts)onecaliberal
(32,894 posts)GulfCoast66
(11,949 posts)While walking behind a mule and plow.
Nice story. He actually had a small Indian mound or so he thought, on his farm. I guess he might have been right because it was on a very flat flood plain and was 2 yards high and 60-80 feet wide. He cleared the land in the 20s and someone built that hill. Said after he cleared the land and the first time he plowed it all kinds of stuff came up. After that no one was allowed on the hill. By the time I came around he grazed cows on the land rather than plowed it. But he never allowed it to be disturbed. Said it might be someones grave and it would be disrespectful to mess with it.
The land is now owned by my right wing uncle and to his credit the rule remains.
The cows keep it cleared but it has never been dug in since my family owned it.
Karadeniz
(22,572 posts)Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)For the near future I'll just be holding it in my hand turning it over and over; staring - and wondering...
ProudLib72
(17,984 posts)You should show us your collection! This new find is awesome, but I bet I'm not the only one whose curiosity is peaked.
Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)Snackshack
(2,541 posts)Congratulations, nice find!
spanone
(135,873 posts)denbot
(9,901 posts)I would also wonder about the person who probably made and carried that tool.
What his or her life was like, and how a seemingly useful and likely valuable tool was separated from its owner.
reACTIONary
(5,771 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)especially in washed areas. My dad and granddad found all kinds of artifacts 100 years ago after big rains and plowing.
Ive only found a few, but nothing that awesome.
MagickMuffin
(15,952 posts)If you're open minded there is a technique where you hold an object in your hands, kinda what you've been doing. However, if you close your eyes and meditate on it you can connect to its past and maybe even who made / owned it.
If you decide to try it, let me know your results. I'd be interested in hearing about your experience.
StarryNite
(9,460 posts)I'm really into all kinds of things like that. I never knew about that technique though.
MagickMuffin
(15,952 posts)is the practice of the perceiving, or receiving impressions, of the history of an object. it is a method used by rosicrucians and psychic practitioners.
It works!!!
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,036 posts)Mariana
(14,860 posts)Duppers
(28,127 posts)Have you had an archaeologist look at it yet? You're probably an archaeologist or an amateur archaeologist yourself?
Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)Been looking for and studying Indian artifacts for over 40 years.
Duppers
(28,127 posts)Thanks for answering.
StarryNite
(9,460 posts)That is sooo cool!
JDC
(10,133 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,414 posts)Need to test that. Might have to grow a mammoth, mastodon or giant sloth for a proper test, though.
Beautiful piece!
alfredo
(60,075 posts)Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)About 30 miles NW of Cincinnati.
Cobbs Knives have a large distribution range.
Bob Loblaw
(1,900 posts)near Versailles. The land was sold when I was a child so I never really got to roam the farm. That is one fine artifact you have there, congratulations on your find and thanks for sharing.
Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)Where it empties into the Ohio is a huge Indian campsite. Never got permission to walk it but friends have and they found many nice artifacts.
sl8
(13,881 posts)His was a different color, though.
Nice find!
alfredo
(60,075 posts)We have Adena mounds n our area
paleotn
(17,956 posts)We use to find all sorts of arrow heads there, finished points and mistakes, broken points, etc. Loads of fun snooping around his plowed fields when I was a kid.
JohnnyRingo
(18,641 posts)Then it's yours!
Kidding aside, that's an awesome find. I'll bet he was pissed he lost it.
Demovictory9
(32,475 posts)mountain grammy
(26,648 posts)littlemissmartypants
(22,797 posts)3catwoman3
(24,041 posts)Mine would have been.
What a treasure!
I, too, would be interested in hearing about it if you try the meditation idea.
Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)To find artifacts that large and that complete is getting harder to do. Humbled to have saved it.
Ellipsis
(9,124 posts)My best find is a fire starter stone. It's amazing how well it fits the hand.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Do you collect these things, or sell them?
Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)I don't buy or sell. I like to collect the ones I have personally found. That way I KNOW they are real.
Judi Lynn
(160,621 posts)demmiblue
(36,885 posts)jpak
(41,759 posts)MineralMan
(146,329 posts)I found many points and other artifacts near my former home in the Central Coast of California. Relics of the Chumash culture that existed there for many centuries until they were exterminated by the intrusion of the Spanish explorers and the priests that came with them.
I always thought about the people who made and used the artifacts, and spent a lot of time studying what was known of that culture. I learned the natural foods they ate from the area, and even tried many of them that aren't part of our diet.
Artifacts from the past are wonderful triggers for learning.
Roy Rolling
(6,933 posts)As a kid in the 60s Id look for arrowheads on the ground but never found one. Now I think Im just a descendant of an immigrant who is living on stolen land.
KPN
(15,650 posts)the moment. A tangible connection to another human's life that many years ago!
Bayard
(22,149 posts)How did you date it at 8,000 years?
When I was a kid, I was walking through a newly-plowed field in southern Indiana, and found a really nice grooved ax head. I still have it. This was beside the creek that ran across the end of my folks property. It was very flaky shale on both sides. My dad also collected arrowheads for me there.
In central Calif., the farm I bought used to belong to an amateur archaeologist who had retired from King's Canyon National Park up the road as a park ranger. It had a huge self-built garage, with attached rooms. He used to have a Wild West museum there for the tourist trade headed to the parks. My understanding was that he had a phenomenal collection of Native artifacts, mostly from the Mono tribes in the area. They would spend the hot summers in the high mountains, then come down to our level for the winter (3,000 ft.) There were many grinding stones on the property, including a huge one right in the backyard. All granite.
When this gentleman died, half his collection went to the little local college, and half went to Fresno State. I was told there was a lot of theft before that. There was one big granite bowl left, that I still have, and a big smooth grinding stone that someone stole from me.
Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)Here is info on the dating of the Cobbs knife. I believe they use C14 dating on associated organic remains to obtain the dates:
https://www.projectilepoints.net/Points/Cobbs.html
skip fox
(19,359 posts)PatrickforO
(14,587 posts)I love what you said - sometimes if you hold something really old like this, it is fun to wonder who last touched it, and what they thought and cared about, and who they may have loved. I always wonder why people didn't develop the alphabet or technology sooner than they did.
bigbadR
(49 posts)Great find.
Nitram
(22,877 posts)Goodheart
(5,339 posts)Native Americans roamed Indiana much later than 8000 years ago.
I'm not doubting you... just curious how you dated it.
Comatose Sphagetti
(836 posts)Here is info on the Cobbs knife. I believe they use C14 dating on associated organic remains to obtain the dates:
https://www.projectilepoints.net/Points/Cobbs.html