I went to Sanderson this weekend and dug in the shelter and around the middens again. In the shelter I found a few scrapers and what would have been a nice bird point.



The little bird point with serrated edges would have been sweet if the base hadn't of been missing. This is the same shelter that Hal has been in and this is why I want to sift the whole thing. See how small and delicate this one is? How did that tip stay undamaged?


These are the midden finds. Nothing too good, but I keep hoping I will hit a good spot sooner or later. I think the bottom right one is a perforator. The top right one is a piece of mano and the top left is a piece that looked familiar, so I took it home and it fit right onto the bottom of one that I had found the last time I was there.




And last, I thought this was a piece of pottery at first, but I think it is just a piece of rock or something. Right?

lookin' better every time you go out there DJ!

Thanks Travis, but I hope it gets better.

The last photo resembles a limonite deposit containing redish orange Iron oxides. This was among some of the minerals collected by indians to grind up for use in painting things. Most pottery was made from cohesive river clays where the clay lense matrix is very tight and compact, suitable to slow heat drying and curing without cracking apart. Probably not many sources around that area for the right kind of clay for pottery building. Our area has much the same problem for suitable pottery clay.
I'm sure that many arrrow points/ birdies that were used sucessfully to kill an animal sometimes broke at the hafting point/ base in attempt to extract the arrow shaft from the kill before cooking it. Others left in the animal when cooked are often fire pocked from getting too hot. Many break or shatter into many pieces, but occasionaly one comes up whole, but fire pock damaged. From the shape of yours, it could have been a nicely serrated scallorn.

You know Mike, I didn't think about that bird point being burnt. I'm not sure if it is though, the back side is all gray. I thought maybe the flint had two different colors in it. If that thing had actually hit an animal I'm not sure the tip would be able to survive but I may be wrong.

Well, I'm not sure it was burnt either, or recieved any heat related damage to embrittle it, what I was trying to say is that once embedded well into an animal, and no damage sustained from hitting bone, if they attempted to remove it and pulled in the wrong direction, the pressure could have gone directly to the hafting and snapped the base off from the rest of the point. Difficult to say with any real certainty, just a possibility because the point is very thin.

DJ, Your not going to be satisfied til all those caves are as clean as your kitchen floor ! Interesting how just enough finds are made to keep going.
Good story of one piece matching another found on a previous visit. Though it looks like a hardstone material, the first pic seems to show a color difference. Possible weathering conditions [ one slightly burried more than the other.

Mike's analisis of the bottom mystery lump is sure to be correct. . . BUT...if you only posted the one top pic of that, I would have thought it was shaped like some type of animal tooth.

The caves always payoff, I still find that LARGE midden rock camp tempting, There was a lot of people
there to have deposited that much food processing material. Where's the weapon fabrication area ??

I won't be satisfied until all the shelter's are cleared out Hal! I think so far we know that my finds have been relatively young, so that means smaller points. I'm using 1/4 mesh to sift the shelter's because I can't afford to lose anything.