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Point Chatter - AustinDiggers.com - Arrowhead Message Board
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Patina

Just found a new site, with a very shallow midden & snail layer (probably less than a foot deep. What's strange is that all the flint I'm finding has noticeable patina, making me think that it was once exposed on the surface and later covered by erosion.

My thinking is that the shallow midden is the only layer of occupation. When I've dug deeper, I've found nothing.

Since I've not found anything but buckets of flint, I wonder if someone has already picked up the good stuff, if in fact the points were exposed on the surface some time ago. Any opinions?

Re: Patina

This site from the way youv'e described it sounds like a game trail midden. If it is, these sites were not used on a daily basis, but maybe once every week or two. They were used as overnight camp stops for hunting parties, and good points are usually very few to near none. I've come accross many like this.
Mike

Re: Patina

I dont know as I would call the following my solid opinion but here's some brain excecises on your find area. Sun burned flint on both sides shows that it has " flip-flopped " enough times to toast BOTH sides. That would mean it was laying exposed and in habitated areas that would NOT have happened. The people would have seen them and severely reworked them into drills, practice pieces or whatevers. The true place where the people that made these pieces actually congregated ELSEWHERE. Ideally slightly uphill or perhaps even in relatively flat terrain but subject to that once every 500 year floods. I've got 3 compleat frames of whiteies that sound similar to your "thin soil" conditions. In my case it was just like gold prospecting. The smallest cracks in the base rock were loaded with millions of pieces of white flakes of all sizes [ including worked ] At the bottom of this slope the bedrock was washed clean of top soil, I pried one key piece out of the way and proceeded to use a jack to skid the others....BINGO

"Bleaching" does NOT go right through the thicker parts of a flat point so many one sided whites means that it laid exposed and undisturbed before being finally covered. Another sign of not only thin people activity but also non radical weather input.

So whats the summary of all this massive scientific brain exercise ????......MORE WORK. It's a neat project that could yield big results, assume there is no center of a camp but a flats that collected material. Did somebody else get there first??? Only your analisis of the soil factors can determin that but I doubt it. ANY digging no matter how shallow should be evident with SOME throw piles.

So thousands of flint fans are reading all this and wish you the best but MOSTLY we hope you find SOME worked pieces and can report what types and age you are dealling with. In my example story, about 25% of the pieces were MARTINDALES.....a very respectable age. Just like gold...flint is where you find it.

Re: Patina

Thanks for everyone's input. Went back to the site on Sunday and made some more finds. Wanted to share some pics... On the surface, I found an enormous what almost looks like a hand axe or some type of Kerville knife (Wonder what kind of animal they were hacking apart or skinning with this???) Also found what appears to be a broken Frio directly on the surface.

Given the topography of the site (penninsula surrounded by a inactive creek with cliffs all around), I'm beginning to wonder if they were driving game of the cliffs and skinning them down below. I sure found a lot of bone as well.

Also attached a pic that shows all the weathered flint I'm finding. Still no signs of multiple layers of occupation.
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket
Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Re: Patina

Sounds like you have a honey hole. I'd love to see some pics, for i never, ever get out to dig, of your site. I love to see the sites that the ancients once roamed, can't quite get that picture here in the piney woods of houston.
RGS

Re: Patina

Good progress update Eric. Thats more food for thought. Those hand choppers come in all styles and are brute force tools like for firewood and surely big bone crackin to get that yummy marrow out!! IF you right about a dressing area, keep going, there's some nice knives [ corner tangs??? ]. On the down side, the actual camp is a little ways away....you wouldn't want all that blood n guts in your living room. The chips pic do show a " near normal " patina for chip Not near as much as I was first replying to. Case one ALL the chips would be pure white. The tools pics have the least [ if any sunburn ]

Your on to something !