Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Paleo Pete

Arrowheads and spearheads may not be a big deal to you, but I’ve never even held one. I think they are a big deal.

I once went to a place near the borders of CA, OR, and NV that had an enormous extrusion of obsidian coming out of the mountain. The vein was so big you could drive a truck all around it. I was told it was a source for arrowheads. I thought it was super cool and brought home a large chunk - maybe someday I’ll chip an arrowhead, I said to myself.

Everyone else thought it was lame. Years later I have a family, and my dad still has a large, shiny rock in his back yard.


17 posted on 09/14/2016 7:06:21 AM PDT by T-Bone Texan (Don't be a lone wolf. Form up small leaderlesss cells ASAP !)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies ]


To: T-Bone Texan

I think you misunderstood me. Extremely old spearheads from the paleolithic period, around 10,000 years old, are not that unusual when looked at in the context of how common they are. So no big deal. Many hundreds have been found that date back to the Clovis culture, 10,000 to 12,000 years old, maybe thousands. So it’s not a big deal when one that old is found. Ditto for those from the archaic period, literally thousand have been found. Even a large one over 3 inches long is not uncommon.

To someone who has never seen one, of any kind, a find of a small “bird point” as they are called, no more than 1000 years old would be an amazing thing, and a big deal. These really small projectile points were actually used for everything, including large game and warfare, but due to their size, often under an inch long, are commonly called bird points. But even one of those would be considered quite a find, as was the first one I ever found, about 2 inches long. I was quote impressed. Now, that would be...no big deal...

By contrast, the rarity of such an old snowshoe would be considered a big deal, especially since nobody realized such a thing was in use at that period in time. Being found in such a rugged area is pretty significant too.

A similar thing would be finding an artifact of any type in an uncommon location or the first one of its type ever found.

I realize to someone who has never found anything of this nature, any find at all would be a big deal, my comment was made in the context of people who are very familiar with this area of research and know that ancient tools and projectile points are actually among the most common artifacts found, at least in American archaeology. And therefore not really a big deal. This snowshoe, by contrast, is pretty amazing.


23 posted on 09/14/2016 7:29:57 PM PDT by Paleo Pete (Never take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson