I live in west texas and have surfaced hunted for arrowheads for many years. I have not hunted for a while, but last week hunted for about 30 minutes on a camp that I have hunted on about 20 years ago. I found two complete heads, two broken, three metates, and 1 mano. All in about 30 mins. We have had rain and snow since then and was wondering if this would be a spot I might try for a dig. What do ya'll think? It is in open plowed field just to let everyone know. I live in sand country, so I mostly go after windy days. Thank you in advance for your help!

Sounds like an area of consentration alright. Metates and manos mean food preperation. Have you indentified any of the bases for type and age ?
How about trying some raking with one of those long tined "potato rakes" before actual digging. How far away would the probable water source have been ?
Strange things happen to land when man & John Deere are
involved. Might have been the farmers great grandfather did some bull doze land clearing & leveleling and so the patch of artifact rich soils were from another location.

The location sits about 300-400 from a draw that at one time held water. Both points are archaic from what I was told. one point was from edwards flint and the other I do not remember what I was told. Their is burnt rock everywhere and lots of broken pieces of sandstone metates. How far down do I rake?

The majority of surface campsites in west texas, are

typically not deep, unless in rock shelters. I think

the answer to your question lies in the raking/

digging. As long as you have stratum, keep going down

until your convinced you've hit the bottom, or

original ground level prior to the site. You may also

need to sift the material. Good Luck!

Well if the soils are that rich with even fire rock, maybe you got something serious.
As Mike notes, out thata way it might not be deep, ,go for at least one test hole. Nother option,
use a manual post hole diggers and shoot a number of
test holes. Take a flashlight, you'd be looking for not just what comes out of the hole but try to see how the layering might be.

When is first planting time ?

Thats it, there will not be any planting on this camp. I have maybe two years tops to work it. It will be lost eventually because of subdivision going up in a couple of years. So I hope I can figure this digging out pretty quick, although I know I can surface hunt anytime the wind blows. I just want to be a little more aggressive on the hunting since it will eventually be lost forever.

So it's actually an emergency recovery operation. Rent a Bobcat for just one day. Dig a trench as long as the daylight will allow [ 50 to 100 ' ] Just pile up the removed dirt, or ideally have a couple of trusted buddies screening it on a BIG screen table / rig. In any case the pile of dirt must be screened.

Start hand digging the sides of the trench, the removed dirt will just fill up the hole without
hindering future work.

Pls report back after 2 years