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Point Chatter - AustinDiggers.com - Arrowhead Message Board
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WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

The quantity of burned fire rock at the second midden attest to all the food processing that was done. The quantity of BIG broken blade tips & bases
are tools from that kitchen. Dart point finds are modest, One could speculate that most of their diet was vegetarian..

Some washed finds;

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After years & years of digging at Barksdale and having every digger at the tables around me yelling " WOOHOO, I found a KERVILLE KNIFE "...
To my surprise, I uncovered one of my own at Juno...

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Like all good KK's, the working edge is very fine.

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Pandale points are noted for their "twist" . This one is pretty good

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Not easy to get a good perspective of the twist due to focal depth of the camera so I glued tooth picks on at 90% to the spine of the point to
enhance the workmanship.

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Nacho found one that we judged to be a full 90* of twist...mine is only about 88*

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Here's the Nach ninety

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These are the points from the first dig at # 2

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And the final " before and after " pics

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Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

Great looking display you got Hal. Really like the one at six o clock from the KK.

Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

Sweet Show Hal ! Kind of a dirty ending though. The Pandale twist is awesome ! What do you think the corner notcher is ? Is all of that from two days sceening ? How old is the camp y'all are diggin ? Do the points range from birdy to early Archaic ? Do you got a pict of Nach's 90 cleaned up ?

Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

What ya calling the bandy looking one at 6:00 from the kerrville?Schumla?Looks like the second camp has ran out of Valverdes?

Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

K, Re corner notched, I think you mean that one in the second group. I'm thinking it's a Merrill. ( a Frio with Mickey M ears )
Age pretty much middle archaic ONLY. Just a hint of earlyish archaic, like Bell, Angostura.....That I know of, ONE Bird point in #1 midden and ONE in #2
It's obvious no one else posts anything from Juno, to say nothing of getting Nach to post a clean find. The many pics on the red carpet is 2 days.
Single group is also 2 days without all the broken pieces. To this writting there has been 4 days digging this site # 2..... Just like site # 1, it's not very large, both about 125 feet in Dia.

P, a 6 O'Clock Shumla it is. Just a smattering of Val Verde now. They are so thin and delicate, it's amazing any complete live through the rock tumble.
Good smattering of Langtry ARENOSA and Montells. 4 broken base tang bases were found last visit.

Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

Hal, Great Post & set of pics! That KKnife is a dandy, congrats!! Plenty of great points from that site forsure..... John F

Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

Nice finds! Is there any camp areas to dig near these middens?

Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

You clean up well Hal,Thanks for sharing!

Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

Thanks for info Hal. I wish there was a better way than screening to find the masses. I have parti****ted in screening in the past and the fine delicate stuff that I love to find seems to always be the first casualities of the bucket or the screen. I have damaged my share with a pick and a shovel but It's not the same. When you remove all the overburden with a pick and shovel out the hole, Then you get to the goodies it's like you have arrived back in their camp and your the first visitor since they left. It's just as they left it. All of the surviving artifacts have been inplace for thousands of years. (Un-disturbed except for the elements) I want to take my time going through it where it lies inplace. When your screening it's like you take the overburden and the camp throw it in a blender and pour it out on a table. ( not the same rush ) I have identified wash areas in the camp I'm digging that are rich with un-used heads, probably the result of a flood or massacare. If you ran a tractor through the heart of these rich spots in the camp you would get about a 50 % whole to broke ratio. diggin 90 % come out whole. Plus, I know where their footpaths are that went up the hill and around the camp. I know where they cooked, cleaned, slept, knapped stones. You can see it all if you dig it from stem to stern. Wish you luck. Thanks again for the show.

Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

Here Here! I agree 100% It seems the only way to keep diggers happy at a sub-par site is to give them tonage.If you had to hand dig the site, the good points to brokes ratio might not be good enough to keep people coming back.A lot of the enjoyment for me is to see what the site was like the last time these camps were used. You don't see to many archaeologist using bobcats,it's all about quanity.

Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

I have to disagree only with the numbers of brokes screening. I've done my share and watched hundreds of people screen and only seen a very small percentage damaged by equipment. Hand digging is just as destructive too points, even if you are very careful how you go about it. I've heard the same argument for wiggle picks being better and doubt that as well. If you are careful it's all about luck. You still have to take a metal object and poke it into the ground. I have never had a point damaged by equipment screening, and only broke a handful hand digging. Some of my friends haven't been so lucky and might agree with you. This is just my opinion based on many years of digging by hand and with equipment.

Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

Here's some middle of the road fence straddling comments from me.

For those lucky very few people with an ancient camp on their private property, they obviously make their own decision on hand dig or power
excavate.

But for the masses of amateur collectors, hand dig or screen is just a matter of what is available to them if they want to grow their collections.

After the first couple of months, pay hand digs become a nice intense exercise day in the great outdoors moving someone elses' old dirt. Still worthwhile vs zero finds sitting at home watching TV.

Power screening a viable mound is the land owners perogative on how he wants to deal with having strangers on his property. The central area of a mound can be very productive as at the present Juno site then get "slow" where hand digging would be non productive..

In favor of power screen digging consider the Nacho Barksdale site that is so well known over the last FIVE YEARS.. It's about a half mile long all
along the highest bank of the Nueces river.
That was not a " camp " a half mile long but rather many firerock midden camps with a barren space between.
It's unthinkable that even a troop of hand diggers would ever be able to carefully move 2500 X 200 X 6 feet deep.

There have been 5 full years of absolute treasures gleaned by power screening between camps that might have been covered over by future " land
developers " ( indeed the present owner had it platted out for ranchettes )

How about a compromise...serious diggers like Travis 1 have made their own
small power vibrating screen, just hand dig / load the screen !
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Re: WASHED FINDS FROM JUNO. # 2

All right !! Now I got some good opinions on a contraversial subject. I think there are certain benefits to power equipment on arch sites like, take off the top couple of feet of sand or clay. Also certain point types and blades are much hardier just as they were made thicker or more rugged. Not damaged as easily as the fine stuff. You can't tell me that needle tips and delicate ears and power equipment are EVER a good mix...A wiggle pick and concrete camp bottom are tricky enough. When you see bone beads and shell Gorgets come out two or three feet down mixed with rock you thank the lord you didn't stick your pick through one or find the pieces on a screen table. My point was not how many you find by moving acres of dirt. Some areas along the Nueces should have been designated (hand dig only) IMO but like you said Hal there's a ranchette on it now... If your in no hurry and you have access that is not going away in the near future, don't let people pot hole it. Study it as you pick it apart learn the layers and make an informed decision to use power equipmet to clear the top or clean out back dirt to expose un-dug areas.
Filling a frame is fun but the knowledge of how the Natives functioned is priceless.
Be a guardian to the areas you have access to and you will be rewarded.