STOP! - Arrowhead Collecting On The Web

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ACOTW TM Arrowhead Collecting On The Web Our editorial objective is to help our readers become longterm, even serious collectors of arrowheads, over the years to come. There are several things which we hope to accomplish for you in this process: • Help you find new points and understand what it is that you are finding; • Help you to learn about all the different aspects of collecting; • Help you to recognize the different kinds and styles of collectable arrowheads and other implements; • Help you to understand about the life ways of the cultures represented by the stone tools which remain; • Help you to discover ways to find good and desirable arrowheads from other sources, such as eBay and special subject web sites; • Help you to learn about point quality and authenticity, so that you understand about point value and character; • Help you understand about modern flint knapping, how new points and implements are made, how to recognize them, and how to appreciate those items for the skill and the craftsmanship of the work which they exhibit; • Help you to recognize that some people still try to sell unsuspecting collectors items which may or may not be what the item is described to be, that you should be careful when you think about buying points for your collection; • Help you to learn about authentication services and their value to you as a collector. As we do these things, we will maintain your readership and interest in our newsletter for many years to come. Thank you for your participation, and your interest in “Arrowhead Collecting On The Web”. Sincerely, F. Scott Crawford Carrollton, Texas The cave art shown on the last page of “Arrowhead Collecting On The Web” is from the “Cave of the Hands,” located on the Pinturas River in Santa Cruz Provence, Argentina. It was made thousands of years ago, by native peoples, perhaps in comingof-age ceremonies, since the painted hand images are the size for youths about thirteen years of age. The photograph was made in the cave by Mariano Cecowski, in 2005, and is used with permission through Wikipedia.com Member AACA © 2009. All Rights Reserved. www.ArrowheadCollectingOnTheWeb.com F. Scott Crawford, Carrollton, Texas About The Author From the time when I was 13 or 14 in the forested foothills of the western Oregon Willamette Valley and found my first arrowhead, an obsidian “bird point,” in a field my dad had plowed for an experimental crop of maize, I have always wondered about the people who used these stone tools, how they lived, and what became of them. Some friends had collected Indian artifacts in the desert areas of eastern Oregon and my brothers and I all enjoyed looking at their display of those arrowheads. So, to find some points of our own, on the family land, was particularly exciting. After that, whenever we were working in the bean fields, or tending livestock, or moving irrigation pipes, or just wandering across the back 40, we always would keep an eye out for bits and pieces of worked stone, tools and points, to add to our growing collection. Today, I still keep an eye out for remnants of past cultures. And as the world has changed so much, I can now do much, but not all, of that wandering and learning on the internet, on the world wide web. That’s how I came to be collecting arrowheads on the web, and why I began to put together this newsletter, for others across the land who also are interested in “ Arrowhead Collecting On The Web”. FSC p.s. There is still a time and a place for criss crossing a plowed field, or walking along the banks of a stream, just to see what you might find. Knowing where to look and how, is part of what we plan to explore in the pages of “Arrowhead Collecting On The Web.” Read, learn, find, enjoy. p.p.s. You are invited to visit my flint knapping web site: www.Arrowhead-Maker.com Volume I, Number 7 2 November 2009
ACOTW TM Arrowhead Collecting On The Web Getting Started With Collecting Arrowheads ... How Does That Happen? A Reader’s Story Idea Invites You To Share. by Kelly Griffin, Portland, Oregon I grew up on the north end of Tampa Bay, Florida. A state park fence separated our yard from Phillippe Park, named for Odet Phillippe, chief surgeon for Napoleon, who was later credited with settling the area permanently and introducing grapefruit to the New World. I always thought the park was misnamed, however, because the entire focal point of the park was the huge oyster shell mound made for the lodge of the chiefs of the ancient aborigines, the Tocobagas, who were the largest community of inhabitants of Tampa Bay and had lived and thrived there for thousands of years. It astounds me that Phillippe Park still doesn’t have a significant memorial or placard for what it means historically. It was the official spot where Pedro Menendez de Aviles and Panfilo de Narvaez of Spain came ashore in the new world in the mid 1500s and put an end to the Tocobagas in very short order with active force and passive diseases they brought with them. Today, the place is a very wellgroomed “picnic park”, with a wraparound concrete seawall, paved pathways, play areas for young kids, volleyball nets, permanent barbecue grills, with everything neatly turfed and groomed with St. Augustine grass. And, with that, no signs remaining of the rich history that supposedly set it aside as a state park in the first place. * * * * * When I was a kid, though, Phillippe Park was so much more primitive, and appealing, and wondrous. Painting by an historical artist in Florida depicting the Tocobaga native people harvesting fish in Tampa Bay. (picture credit: Hermann Trappman). Everything within five hundred yards of the mound remained basically unchanged from the years before, and there was no seawall to stop cliff erosion at the steep shoreline. I can remember a glorious old oak tree that leaned way out over the water, and erosion had undermined most of its root structure, creating the most wonderful, natural kid’s “secret cave” you could ever want. I couldn’t even guess the number of times I went artifact hunting at Phillippe Park as a kid. It was always something to do when there was nothing to do, and there was never a time I can recall that I came back empty-handed. The park was fully littered with clay pottery shards, and flint and chert scrapers and “pieces of things” weren’t uncommon to find laying almost anywhere. We even had kind of an ongoing contest with our neighbors whenever tropical monsoons happened; the downpours in Tampa Bay were so heavy that they could change artifact hunting altogether from one day to the next. Because the mound and the area around it added elevation to the area, there were lots of spots for gulleys and small washouts during a good rain. It got to be that we would go out in raingear while it was still pouring down rain, just to beat our neighbors to the punch. Sometimes we’d run into each other, them doing the same thing against us. * * * * * As a young artifact hunter, I remember my only real goal was to find “a perfect point”. It was fairly common to find broken halves of large lance points and spear points, but, for some reason, what I always really wanted and hoped to find was a whole, perfect, run-of-the-mill arrowhead. The common point was called the Pinellas point, which was nothing more than about an inchand-a-half tall isosceles triangle of flint or chert. Nothing fancy, but finding a perfect Pinellas point was what told me I was an “official” artifact hunter. It seemed that everybody else but me could find points. Looking back as an adult, though, the other stuff I found is much more rare and desirable as artifacts. I found two exquisite conch shell pendants (one of which the local historical society asked if I would donate), the upper half of a clay pendant, another flat shell ornament and some very nice pieces of pottery. Most of the pottery to be found was plain and unadorned, but it was always nice to find a piece of rim, and twice my brother brought home a piece that had an integrated figurine or other embellishment. We found some evidence of the Spaniards’ presence there as well; pieces of white flatware with indigo patterns, part of a wooden comb with a pattern carved on it, and a blue glass trade bead. I even found a rusted bayonet entangled deep in the roots of a palm tree, however I’m pretty sure that was from some time in the 1800s. But, for some reason, those treasures didn’t quite qualify as good enough finds in my mind. What I really wanted was a perfect Pinellas point. * * * * * (continued...) Volume I, Number 7 3 November 2009
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