Hello all, I've been lurking here for quite a while enjoying all the pics I've seen of some gorgeous finds. Well I recently found one I thought might be worthy of posting here. Forgive me, I'm not nearly as well versed in the what's what of Point-ology as many of you are but I've been told this is a Kinney point. This was a surface find in a subdivision on a 1 acre lot that had been cleared for a house site within the last month. I found this poking it's little head out from under a grapevine about 2 feet from the edge of a 10-15 foot drop off to a paved street below. I can only guess that within the next few months this beaut would have been destro*** on the asphalt below......but thankfully I found it 8)



This is just after I found it, before it had been picked up. Complete, total blind luck. I can't belive that a surveyor completely missed this find......(look just above center sticking it's head out from underneath the grapevine)


As of now this is my best find yet. All of my finds are surface finds. I've got a re-worked Pedernales point which was my first find and a few other not so spectacular points. A gentleman who is an AVID artifact hunter at my place of employment told me that this was one was museum quality whatever that means...I assume it means that it's in really good condition. It has no non man made flaws in it which really makes it all the more special to me since it was a surface find.

A couple more pics of the same point...

Opposite side from the first pic:


Pretty thin too, if I do say so myself..



So what do you all think?

Excellent Big, looks like a real top quality Kinney to me too, if it's not, someone will let
you know about it.

Thats a real original " in situ " never saw one quite like it. Dont blame a blind surveyor.
That flagging tape looks a bit weathered, maybe that stake was placed before the big rains of this last two weeks and just that covering 1/4 inch dirt washed off.

Keep looking down

Great find Big. Think I'd spend some more time looking around that area

Thanks, it really was quite an exciting find. I can't repeat my words when I first found it but suffice it to say I was REALLY excited. Only thing I can compare to finding an even decent quality artifact to is buck fever.

It's been about 15 years since i found my last point surface hunting, but i can still recall that feeling.
Not to mention, i never found anything of this quality, excellent find!

Your high quality Kinney is from the Middle Archaic (2500 B.C.-1000 B.C.). I always try to imagine how and why a fine piece like that was lost.

Hunting loss is always a possibility. I've found many points in fields and ranches where there was no sign of occupation, no flakes or burnt rock. Just a lone point laying there in the dirt.
Chasing big game down, throw the spear and miss, and keep chasing after the prey with the spare. Couldn't find the first one in the brush, so wrote it off.

I've always imagined that they wouldn't miss too often, as much time as they put into making their points.

I figured it was just something as simple as it fell out of a container of some sort as they were traveling from one place to the next.....but your explanation is much more imaginative LOL, I think I'll go with that

Wow talk about worth posting!!! That is a nice point one of the best surface finds I've ever seen. Congratulations!! And as for the lot clearing I've got a friend who hunts them all of the time, and has some nice points to show for it.

Like Roy said DARL. One of the few blades serrated even in the U of the stem. Not always but sometime.
A killer anyway you look at it. A Darl like that is worth a lot more than a Kinney.
Bill

Bill, if anyone would know I think you would. I don't sell points so I don't know, but its interesting that the older Kinney is worth less than a younger Darl. Also, I find it curious that Ellen Turner and Tom Hester do not include the Darl Blade in their book on stone artifacts of Texas. The Darl Fractured Base is also a bit of a curiosity. My Dad used to laugh and say that the Indians lost all those points for the same reason he lost his tools, from the kids playin' with 'em.

you saved it's life!! sweet!

Yeah I've had one person offer me a decent amount of money for it but I'm not interested in selling any of my points either. I've got a soft spot for every one of them, particularly my 1st find (a 2" reworked Perd), and this one. In a pinch though I think I'd have to hold on to my perd for the simple fact that it was my first and the one that really piqued my interest. I'm also lucky enough to have a job where I'm able to look for them during my lunch and there are several avid collectors who have shared an awful lot of knowledge with me.

Great find Big ,I still have a standing order for a Kinney, this is as close as I have gotten. Yours is of high grade Congrats!

With the re-touched edges exhibiting fine pressure flaking, I believe that would be the correct answer.

could my broke be a darl blade, I've been told it was kinney ,but you guys don't miss much. Thanks

Nate, Overstreet shows four Darl types including the fractured base. Turner and Hester in their Texas Field Guide and Lar Hothem in his Arrowheads & Projectile Points both show Darl blades to be stemmed with no mention of unstemmed, lanceolate Darl blades such as the ones being discussed here. Turner & Hester do include the Kinney in their book. Lar Hothem does have a photo of unstemmed Darl and Kinney type blades from Dwain Roger's collection and he calls them V-back blades. Hester does mention that his book is not the final word in stone tool typology in Texas and Lar Hothem's book is over 25 years old.