I found something....

mommucked

mommucked

Endeavoring to persevere
Joined
Sep 26, 2011
Location
Rural Apex n.c.
I think it's a hoe or a hammer?

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Very cool.

I have one that looks like an axe head, with grooves. I’ll post a pic tonight.
 
mommucked said:
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I found this w a search, the Tuscarura tribe that has grooves like the one I found in Chatham co.
The other ones I found south of Morrisville.View attachment 369155
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I recognize the one in the upper right. It's actually an early American version of beer. Later generations of it are usually referred to as piss water or "dirty white boys."

The right collector may even pay you a dollar for it if it's still cold.
 
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That is most definitely a Native American artifact. The grooving around it was hand notched to lace the deer tendon around to hold the handle in place. That's a very intact tomahawk. Certainly a treasure.
The round river rock is what's called a hammer stone and was used to knap all the tools they made.
The sample on the far left looks to be a crude preform to a spear point.
You should look up the next artifact show in your area to get those confirmed and dated. I can tell you already they're several thousand years old.
Good stuff!
 
@XJsavage

I found this when I was a boy in the field in front of my house. It sat on the brick fireplace mantle for years and that caused the smooth/slick spots. Not sure what exactly it is/was.

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So as a kid my dad drug me all over western Nc walking miles in plowed fields after a rain

We have one of the biggest collections of Indian artifacts you have ever seen, my dad passed 13 years ago and most of the collection went to a museum to be displayed

So there are different terms for different items, whether it be a fully smooth Celt with a edge for work, an axe, tomahawk, I think what you found would be considered an axe, but I believe yours would have been used like a modern day sledgehammer or go devil

Very nice find
 
guffey24 said:
So as a kid my dad drug me all over western Nc walking miles in plowed fields after a rain

We have one of the biggest collections of Indian artifacts you have ever seen, my dad passed 13 years ago and most of the collection went to a museum to be displayed

So there are different terms for different items, whether it be a fully smooth Celt with a edge for work, an axe, tomahawk, I think what you found would be considered an axe, but I believe yours would have been used like a modern day sledgehammer or go devil

Very nice find
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I agree completely with that. I'm far from an expert on it and frankly, I've not yet found anything quite like it. It's hard to determine without physically seeing it. Down my way, I find a good many tomahawk and axe heads but nothing as elaborate as what was posted. Cudos to you for donating to a museum. Most of my finds end up in archeology and artifact shows local to the Southeast region and passed on to historians to study. Any find is exceptional. There is so little we actually know about the Natives from 500 years ago, much less 5,000+. It's hard to even wraps our heads around.
 
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One of my better boxes, some great points, on the right and left are chief pendants/necklaces, on the left is soapstone and unfinished

One on the right was slate finished broken by a plow, we sifted soil in an area 20x20 for several days looking for the rest of it, unfortunately the site is now a housing development
 

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XJsavage said:
I agree completely with that. I'm far from an expert on it and frankly, I've not yet found anything quite like it. It's hard to determine without physically seeing it. Down my way, I find a good many tomahawk and axe heads but nothing as elaborate as what was posted. Cudos to you for donating to a museum. Most of my finds end up in archeology and artifact shows local to the Southeast region and passed on to historians to study. Any find is exceptional. There is so little we actually know about the Natives from 500 years ago, much less 5,000+. It's hard to even wraps our heads around.
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I love to listen to podcast and read some books about early people. Every expert says the same thing. We know so little that all we can do is guess
 
Loganwayne said:
I love to listen to podcast and read some books about early people. Every expert says the same thing. We know so little that all we can do is guess
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Very true. They left just enough evidence behind to get our curiosity up. Also, if you look into astrology and lunar phases, a lot of modern day terminology came from natives. Every full moon has a specific nickname to it. Blood moon, Wolf moon, Worm moon, etc came from Natives. Rivers throughout the US and state counties were also named after tribes. There's way more to every day life with direct historic relevance to the native peoples than what most realize. The only thing is, it's all we have left besides rocks.
 
guffey24 said:
The deer hunting areas I used to hunt as a kid were loaded with Indian artifacts, when the forest service started planting food plots they uncovered tons of stuff, some found it’s way back up to WNC
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Most of the stuff I found while I was surveying in late 80s to 2010. Staking out silt fence and ponds etc. at the edge of the grading etc. I remember when my coworkers and I just stopped working for a while because there was so much stuff on the ground we would fill our pockets and the stake bag with arrow heads and other tools. Sometimes I would go back to the sites after a hard rain on a day off after a good storm. The rain/erosion made them easy to find as they often stood up on the dirt like a mushroom where the rain washed the dirt away and left them on a pedestal of clay/dirt . I also found lots of stuff in plowed fields, some of them had new stuff to find every time they were plowed again.
 
mommucked said:
Most of the stuff I found while I was surveying in late 80s to 2010. Staking out silt fence and ponds etc. at the edge of the grading etc. I remember when my coworkers and I just stopped working for a while because there was so much stuff on the ground we would fill our pockets and the stake bag with arrow heads and other tools. Sometimes I would go back to the sites after a hard rain on a day off after a good storm. The rain/erosion made them easy to find as they often stood up on the dirt like a mushroom where the rain washed the dirt away and left them on a pedestal of clay/dirt . I also found lots of stuff in plowed fields, some of them had new stuff to find every time they were plowed again.
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Good thing we have subdivisions and strip malls on top of all those priceless cultural sites. Can't let anything get in the way of "progress"
 
For those not in the know about being an artifact hunter, it's an insanely tight group. Unless it's an inherited knowledge, it's basically an apprenticeship or prospect period one has to go through. The research time involved is much much more than boots on the ground. Luckily for me and my group, we have have DNR officers and historians on our team. It takes years to "get it". Once you're in, you're in. It's one of the coolest hobbies you'll ever be a part of. Only for knowledge. Never for profit.
A gift from one of my brothers: This says it all. Yes, that's an authentic rose quartz bird-point. Handcrafted replica of a real arrow. I wear it on my rearview mirror as a badge of honor.
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