Got some nice stuff, and you know it's a good day when the super thin perfect banded rootbeer flint Montell isn't the find of the day! Also got a martindale Marshall base and a broke blade base, as well as a.... CONCH BEAD!!! I've never found one before, does anyone know anything about them? Rarity? Age? Chance of finding more? I'd like to know more about it. It was found at the bottom of the hole in some fill that washed in with tthe recent rain, there's one heck if a reason to screen screen screen!

So THATS where you were Saturday ! Actual finds sure beat anything you might buy at the flint show.
Second place Montell is nice but Martindale age strata is good too.
Cant help you on the bead, just the usual controversial remarks.....
Seems logical that it's not from a single bead necklace.there were at least 4 different show dealers with various bead finds ( less the original string material )as I recall, most had alternating types of material beads. Keep an eye out for gold nuggets now while screening.
Is it really a shell material ? Not bone, antler or Ivory ?
Last year some knowledgeable person, like RGS responded to a shell bead thing, Turned out to be some wierd named shell native to the Gulf Coast that actually had the interior with a core hole. All the jewelry designer had to do was polish down the outside and string it together.

Well I assumed conch but I'm not sure, it isn't bone or antler, but the inside looks to have drill marks in the hole. It is polished, and I have found bone beads at the site before, thanks for the response!

Tucker,

This is just based on your picture (always best to actually see and hold the artifact), it does looks like a shell bead. It is most likely made from part of the columella of a Lightning Welk. Found along the Texas coast, commonly called conch, biologically, welk is not a true conch. Most beads of this style are Late/Transitional Archaic in age.

Congrats, any shell artifact is a very good find.

jmo
jh

Thanks a million, I didn't know any of that so it was a tremendous help. And if it is late archaic it would be at the same level that the drilled bone artifacts came from! It will be at the next show I attend. Thanks again!