Native American arrow heads!

This thread was inspired by the Roman coin finds of Bartweegie. In Europe you might go metal detecting for Roman coins, here in the USA you might go to a plowed field after a heavy rainfall and find arrow heads.
Ironically only days after this comment I had made, I was visiting some relatives in Florida and found these three items made of fossilized coral.
The first one is very crude, perhaps some tool or made by a child, the middle one is a knife, most people would leave it In the field not knowing what it is, you can see from the back that it was made from a simple flake. They would have used all the sharp edges from the flakes as knives as they knocked off pieces In the process of making an arrow head. The third is a pink arrow head, I am pretty excited to add this to my collection.
The bottoms two are quartz arrowheads from the piedmont of South Carolina. I found them last year. The long one was sticking half out of the sand in a creek. I was crossing the creek on a fallen log looking for edible mushrooms and saw it down In the the creek bed.

Great and Enthusiastic hunt!!!

Amazing finds! They're all in such great shape too.

There's not really much of that kind of thing to find where I come from so it's always really exciting when I hear about other peoples' finds. The day in general sounded like a good time too.

Nice collection. I'm still waiting for my first flint.

I've never been able to find any arrow heads. To be fair, I've never really gone hunting for them, but still, lol. But no, those look great. Kind of jealous.

How did you find them? Did you metal detect or just walked and noticed them sticking out of the dirt? Really impressive collection you have there.

Those are really neat. Takes a good eye to spot them. I would think one would have to look at quite a few rocks, before finding one.
Im really into metal detecting, but am now getting into old civilizations and the like.
I took a trip out west this summer, by car and solo.(My wife doesn't care for road trips.) I didn't realize what I was in for when I got to the deserts of AZ and New Mexico. Simply breathtaking. More then I could ever imagine.
I spent a lot of time in Page, AZ, . While looking at the sites ,I picked up a Navajo gentleman hitchhiking. He was coming back from a job interview at Wal-mart, about 2 hours away from his residence. He was hot, tired, and looked pretty disheveled. When he got in the car, I couldn't understand him, as he would never look at me when we talked. Indians around that reservation are not to fond of the Whiteman. After awhile , we both got more comfortable with each other, and the conversation flowed more easily. His turn off was about 35 mins up the road, but having nothing else to do, I took him to his home, another hour and a half one way.
I cant stand the touristy destinations, so I like to go on my own adventures. I was explaining this to him and as we became more acquainted, I asked him if he could send me in a good direction for exploring.
He was giving me directions, information, histories of the area, and it eventually became overwhelming about where to start(Some of the places ,He said, take hours to get to.) We talked about White man, Indians,Government, and really engaged in a good conversation.
He said he would like to go with me, but he had other obligations for the next few days.
I couldn't wait for a few days, so being thoroughly disappointed, I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably get lost, and maybe serious trouble if I went alone in this desolate, unfamiliar area.
He told me I am welcome anytime, and gave me his phone no., name, and some other info, and told me to come back and he would take me to some awesome old ruins.
I was ecstatic and gave him my info. I also gave him $50 to help his situation, and told him it was for future guide service. I didn't want to insult him.
SO, this fall or next spring I plan on going back.
Funny thing is, if I would of seen him in Wal-mart, I would of walked right past him. But I was a little late getting going that morning, and even if a situation arises , and I never see him again, my life is better because of that 3 hour ride.

Quote: "johnspa"​Those are really neat. Takes a good eye to spot them. I would think one would have to look at quite a few rocks, before finding one.
​Im really into metal detecting, but am now getting into old civilizations and the like.
​I took a trip out west this summer, by car and solo.(My wife doesn't care for road trips.) I didn't realize what I was in for when I got to the deserts of AZ and New Mexico. Simply breathtaking. More then I could ever imagine.
​I spent a lot of time in Page, AZ, . While looking at the sites ,I picked up a Navajo gentleman hitchhiking. He was coming back from a job interview at Wal-mart, about 2 hours away from his residence. He was hot, tired, and looked pretty disheveled. When he got in the car, I couldn't understand him, as he would never look at me when we talked. Indians around that reservation are not to fond of the Whiteman. After awhile , we both got more comfortable with each other, and the conversation flowed more easily. His turn off was about 35 mins up the road, but having nothing else to do, I took him to his home, another hour and a half one way.
​I cant stand the touristy destinations, so I like to go on my own adventures. I was explaining this to him and as we became more acquainted, I asked him if he could send me in a good direction for exploring.
​He was giving me directions, information, histories of the area, and it eventually became overwhelming about where to start(Some of the places ,He said, take hours to get to.) We talked about White man, Indians,Government, and really engaged in a good conversation.
​He said he would like to go with me, but he had other obligations for the next few days.
​I couldn't wait for a few days, so being thoroughly disappointed, I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably get lost, and maybe serious trouble if I went alone in this desolate, unfamiliar area.
​ He told me I am welcome anytime, and gave me his phone no., name, and some other info, and told me to come back and he would take me to some awesome old ruins.
​I was ecstatic and gave him my info. I also gave him $50 to help his situation, and told him it was for future guide service. I didn't want to insult him.
​SO, this fall or next spring I plan on going back.
​Funny thing is, if I would of seen him in Wal-mart, I would of walked right past him. But I was a little late getting going that morning, and even if a situation arises , and I never see him again, my life is better because of that 3 hour ride.

​nice story. Did you end up going detecting or did you turn around?

I didn't do any detecting there. I continued a 3 day leisure drive home.

Quote: "Hello There"​How did you find them? Did you metal detect or just walked and noticed them sticking out of the dirt? Really impressive collection you have there.

The are just made of regular stones so, ​you can't detect them, you just surface search.

I dug these out of my attic. These are from my youth. The big grey one I found in the creek that I grew up playing in. An archaeologist told me that this stone was traded from over 250 miles from my area. Pretty cool to think about the trade routs these Stone Age people had. And the quartz ones are the common stone in my area. The four grey ones are made of flint, they are from Nashville Tennessee, the top right one it my favorite.

I found this ax in a place they had bulldozed, it would be the prize of my collection if it wasn't chipped so bad on the sharp end.

And finaly I like to show this teenytiny ones, and say that what's worse than not finding any arrow heads, is to find broken ones.

How do you tell the difference between an arrowhead and a normal stone? It's not like you go places and start digging, right?

Quote: "Hello There"​How do you tell the difference between an arrowhead and a normal stone? It's not like you go places and start digging, right?

​as a kid I would find one or two in the creek where I grew up, but most people look in freshly plowed fields after some rain. They look quite different from normal rocks, for one thing they have been "flint knapped" or worked by the hand of man. We tend to leave our mark on things. You can see the flint one in the top right corner, you wouldn't mistake that for a normal rock or vice versa. Archeologists search for villigas and such where they will do a dig, but if you were to find something that important you wouldn't want to disturb it, you would have archeologists come in.

I purchased some land that has a creek on it. While walking the creek with my kids I found this quarts arrow head. Sadly the back is broken off, but it’s the first one found on my land!
Y’all Europeans didn’t have as long as a Stone Age as we did, so you don’t find these as much, but you do get to find Roman coins....

Quote: "Hello There"​How do you tell the difference between an arrowhead and a normal stone? It's not like you go places and start digging, right?

Look up time team on youtube, they have an expert Phil Harding who is extremely knowledgable on flint tools and how they are made, he demonstrates it very well.