found this by the hog pen gate today

[k0ua]

This arrowhead thing brings up a childhood memory. In a nearby little town back in the 1960's and old hobo showed up and took up residence under a railroad trestle. He was about 80 years old, and a pure native american. He soon started turning out arrow heads by the hundreds. Every child in the neighborhood, came to watch and learn from him..and not just the kids but a large number of adults too. He sold the arrowheads for a modest amount of money, but would show anyone that wanted to sit and watch how they were made.. he could make them very rapidly, Not just spearpoints like the one in the picture of this thread, but extremely small bird points as well. I only got to watch a couple of times as we lived several miles away, and I was small. But my dad and older brother, learned how to make them quite well. Not as fast, but they made several examples. A lot of the small bird points he made were mostly decorative in nature and made from pretty examples of colored flint. I can't remember for sure if he died in the community or moved on but he was very old and I think he was there for less than a year. In any case I got to see a true native American make arrowheads a couple of times.

James K0UA

 

[creekbend]

I live in the Piedmont region of North Carolina also. Last year, while clearing some bamboo on a knoll above the creek, I found 8 arrowheads. One was probably a spear point because of its larger size. They were in proximity to a large chunk of quartz. The quartz weighed 18 pounds, because I weighed it.

 

[toppop52]

I recently found a cutting/skinning tool as I was digging creek silt for flower beds, I backed the tractor up and it was just sitting there. The rock is not native to this area, in fact almost no rock is. Each side of this semi triangle appears to have a different purpose and is obviously intentionally chipped for a reason. It has several fairly sharp edges and a couple of ripping points, it would be quite effective as a skinning tool. It fits a right handed persons palm and fingers perfectly. My wife says it looks like a paper weight.

 

[Yellowhair42]

Just think about it. And Indian had to cut and form a piece of wood for a bow, make a string, form an arrowhead from a piece of flint, cut an arrow, attach the arrowhead to the arrow and then get close enough to an animal to shoot it for food. I know how hard it is to kill a deer with a modern compound bow. It seems impossible the way they did it, but obviously it happened thousands of times over. Just goes to show how ingenious humans can be.

If someone offered me $1,000,000 to accomplish that feat using only the tools available to Indians and a year to complete the task, I wouldn't even try. Failure would be almost assured.

Some of you hard core outdoorsmen are going to tell me you could do it. I don't doubt you at all. Have at it, and post your deer picture. By the way, sorry but I can't offer the $1,000,000. You'll just have to do it for the sake of saying you did it.

I am a flint knapper and I have made hundreds of pieces.I also do wilderness survival and primitive reenactments.I have all the skills to do this and is one of my life goals.I am hoping to accomplish this in the next couple years.

 

[ncnurseryman]

That would be a real feat and I hope you can do. Would love to see pics of your work. It blows my mind what humans worked with long ago and the skills they had. How many of us could make it and thrive if we were suddenly placed in nature with nothing? I'm sure we could live (maybe) but it sure would be a shock given the luxuries we have now.

 

[toppop52]

I'm 3/8 Cherokee, have none of those skills and make no claims to knowing any of it, but they were raised from birth living that way. The few that survived to adulthood learned those skills quickly or they didn't survive. The stone aged Native Americans had a life expectancy of about 38 years, and that was only for those that lived past 5. According to one study the true life expectancy figuring childhood morbidity, was 26 years! Some were estimated to be in their 60's at time of death, almost none were older. I guess cold, drought, sabre toothed cats and competition was hard on the old lifespan!

PS; My family was from Northern Alabama and that's where the Cherokee comes in.

 

[dmccarty]

... According to one study the true life expectancy figuring childhood morbidity, was 26 years! Some were estimated to be in their 60's at time of death, almost none were older. I guess cold, drought, sabre toothed cats and competition was hard on the old lifespan!

...

As well as illness, childbirth and other people.

Later,
Dan

 

[brin]

Take a look at this bit of history from 1787 of life in the US...avg life expectancy was 34 &1/2....Imagine how hard life was back then....they drank a lot too...LOL

How things have changed since 1787 - Yahoo! News

 

[TNhobbyfarmer]

I am a flint knapper and I have made hundreds of pieces.I also do wilderness survival and primitive reenactments.I have all the skills to do this and is one of my life goals.I am hoping to accomplish this in the next couple years.

If you give it a try, please start a thread on TBN to document the adventure. The one modern tool we expect you to use is a camera. Good Luck!

 

[charlz]

I found part of a spearhead last fall while deer hunting. Made of Obsidian of which there are a few deposits in the area. It is illegal to take these items on public land so you just check it out and leave it where it lays.

I had been Antelope hunting in the same general area but further south. I came across a natural low point where a creek runs through and a couple of gullies intersect. Lots and lots of petroglyphs on the rocks there. Most seemed to be a way of counting time. I imagine this was a popular camping spot for native Americans. It was also a natural choke point for animals moving off the flats and into a sheltered area with water. If I had only stuck to my hunting plan and arrived 15 minutes earlier I would have gotten a nice Antelope buck. By the time I got there he had already moved through the choke point and was able to quickly move out of range. It was pretty cool thinking I was using the same terrain features that hunters a thousand years before me probably used as well.