Arrowheads and Stone Artifacts

C.G. Yeager

Description

Acknowledged by Dr. H. M. Wormington as “very helpful for amateurs who truly care about archaeology,” the nationally recognized first edition is now revised, with a foreword written by Dr. George C. Frison, Professor Emeritus University of Wyoming and Paleoarchaeologist of the Century.
This practical, down-to-earth guide for surface collectors of arrowheads and stone artifacts is designed especially for amateur archaeologists and people interested in learning how to study and collect artifacts safely and responsibly.
Author C. G. Yeager reveals invaluable tips on:
• Where to look for artifacts
• How to identify artifacts
• Where surface collecting is permissible
• Starting and caring for your own collection
With more than fifty new photographs and illustrations of common and rare artifacts, this book is the perfect addition to libraries of amateur archaeologists thirsty for knowledge about preserving and interpreting the remains of a prehistoric culture.
Most people who have found a beautiful arrowhead would agree that the excitement brought on by the discovery is the main reason they search for artifacts. Let’s face it, finding any nice stone artifact can be a fun and very exciting experience, especially for those of us who respect history and how our ancestors lived years ago. For example, I have a tremendous respect for any stone age culture that survived because of the ability to create tools—mainly tools chipped from stone, which was the most obvious natural material they had to work with. It is true that many tools were made of wood, bone and other ‘perishable’ materials, but these materials gradually disintegrate on the surface of the ground and have long since disappeared, leaving only stone artifacts remaining to be found. Occasionally, bone or wood artifacts will show up in caves and other protected surface areas, but it is mainly the stone artifacts that withstand the elements and are not destroyed over time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 Amateur Archaeologists’ Code of Ethics
Chapter 2 Antiquity Laws—Is Your Activity Legal?
Chapter 3 Why Look for Artifacts?
Chapter 4 The “Flint” Materials
Chapter 5 How Artifacts Were Made
Chapter 6 Arrowhead, Spearpoint, or Knife?
Chapter 7 Stone Artifacts
Chapter 8 Where Artifacts Are Found
Chapter 9 How to Hunt Artifacts
Chapter 10 Modern-Day Flintknapping
Chapter 11 Documentation and Preservation
Chapter 12 Organizations and Activities
Glossary
Recommended Reading
Bibliography
Meet the Author
Index

Sujets

• Archaeology
• Arrowhead
• Social sciences

Informations

• Publié par: West Margin Press
• Date de parution: 03 décembre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780871089922
• Langue: English

Extrait

ARROWHEADS
STONE ARTIFACTS
Illustration 1 Petrikin s Hill arrowhead, Greeley, Colorado.
ARROWHEADS
STONE ARTIFACTS
A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR THE AMATEUR
ARCHAEOLOGIST

SECOND EDITION
C. G. YEAGER
THE PRUETT SERIES
1986, 2000 by C. G. Yeager
All illustrations and photographs by the author unless otherwise credited, with the following exceptions: illustrations 1, 16, 21, 36, 75, 101, 126, 133, 134, 146 by Norman Wood.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED . No part of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews and articles.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
Yeager, C. G. (Carl Gary), 1942-
Arrowheads stone artifacts : a practical guide for the amateur archaeologist / C.G. Yeager.-2nd ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 978-0-87108-912-0 (pbk.)
ISBN 978-0-87108-992-2 (e-book)
1. Archaeology-Field work. 2. Arrowheads-Collectors and collecting. 3 Stone implements-Collectors and collecting. I. Title: Arrowheads and stone artifacts. II. Title.

CC76.Y43 2000
930.1-dc21
00-036607
WestWinds Press An imprint of

P.O. Box 56118 Portland, OR 97238-6118 [phone] www.graphicartsbooks.com
Cover and interior design by Julie Noyes Long Front and back cover photographs by Stephen Collector Book composition by Lyn Chaffee
This book is dedicated to my wife, Sue, who has been my steady companion in hunting artifacts for many years. A husband could never ask for a more faithful and devoted wife-she is a real trooper. She has always provided faith and inspiration when the going gets tough. When hunting for artifacts she is usually the first one out and the last one in, no matter how the hunting is or what the conditions are like. Her energy is not directed toward being the first one to find all the artifacts-she genuinely enjoys watching others find nice artifacts, too. She is very generous, compassionate, and truly a lot of fun to hunt artifacts with.

Illustration 2 Sue Yeager at homestead site in central Wyoming.
CONTENTS

List of Illustrations
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1
A MATEUR A RCHAEOLOGISTS C ODE OF E THICS
Chapter 2
A NTIQUITY L AWS -I S Y OUR A CTIVITY L EGAL ?
Chapter 3
W HY L OOK FOR A RTIFACTS ?
Chapter 4
T HE F LINT M ATERIALS
Chapter 5
H OW A RTIFACTS W ERE M ADE
Chapter 6
A RROWHEAD , S PEARPOINT, OR K NIFE ?
Chapter 7
S TONE A RTIFACTS
Chapter 8
W HERE A RTIFACTS A RE F OUND
Chapter 9
H OW TO H UNT A RTIFACTS
Chapter 10
M ODERN -D AY F LINTKNAPPING
Chapter 11
D OCUMENTATION AND P RESERVATION
Chapter 12
O RGANIZATIONS AND A CTIVITIES
Glossary
Recommended Reading
Bibliography
Meet the Author
Index
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I LLUSTRATION NUMBER :
1. Petrikins Hill arrowhead, Greeley, Colorado
2. Sue Yeager at homestead site in central Wyoming
3. Petrikin s Hill, Greeley, Colorado
4. Folsom point
5. Campsite at author s home
6. Bureau of Land Management map symbols
7. Bureau of Land Management map
8. U.S. Geological Survey map
9. Granddaughter with first arrowhead
10. Camping on field trip
11. The author s family on a weekend outing
12. Granddaughters on camping trip
13. Assorted flint materials
14. Agate
15. Chalcedony
16. Jasper
17. Chert
18. Obsidian
19. Petrified wood
20. Quartz
21. Quartzite
22. Conchoidal fracture
23. Man-made flake of flint
24. A flint core
25. Striking platform for flaking
26. Methods of direct percussion
27. Methods of indirect percussion
28. Methods of pressure flaking
29. Pressure-flaked thumb scraper and knife
30. The preform
31. Basic arrowhead terminology
32. Hafted arrowhead
33. General spearpoint and arrowhead sizes
34. Typical arrowhead notch and base types
35. Spearpoint or arrowhead?
36. Spearpoint or knife?
37. Knives mistaken for arrowheads
38. Spearshaft
39. Foreshaft
40. Atlatl
41. Commonly found arrowhead pieces
42. Reworked points and tools
43. Reworked projectile points in author s family collection
44. The so-called stunner
45. Notchless point
46. Serrated point
47. The metal arrowhead
48. Assorted arrowheads and miscellaneous tools
49. Projectile point identification guide
50. Assorted drills
51. Drills from author s family collection
52. Hafting of drill
53. The awl types
54. Awls from author s family collection
55. Typical gravers
56. Gravers from author s family collection
57. Large scraper types
58. Thumb scrapers
59. Large thumb scrapers
60. Large thumb scraper, handheld
61. Hafted scrapers from author s family collection
62. Hafting of scraper
63. The Gastrolith scraper (top)
64. The Gastrolith scraper (bottom)
65. Top side of unifacial scrapers
66. Bottom side of scrapers
67. The beaked Paleo scraper
68. Basic knife types
69. Basic knife types
70. Knives from author s family collection
71. Preform versus knife
72. Cody knife and corner Tang knife
73. Quarry blank, preform, and knife
74. Hafted contemporary stone knives
75. Macroblade and microblade
76. The chisel
77. The saw
78. The crescent
79. The all-purpose tool
80. The adze
81. The burin
82. Knife, drill, and adze
83. The axe
84. Grooved or hafted axe
85. Ungrooved hand axes or celts
86. Spokeshaves or shaft scrapers
87. Spokeshaves from author s family collection
88. Mano types with metate
89. Granite mano and metate
90. Sandstone mano and metate
91. Top side of mano
92. Bottom side of mano
93. Assorted man os
94. The hammerstone or percussor
95. Mortar and pestle
96. Stone mortar
97. Boulder mortar with pestle
98. Abrader or shaft straightener
99. Assorted abraders
100. Large and small abraders
101. The maul or hammer
102. The stone hoe
103. Assorted stone balls
104. The core
105. Assorted utility artifacts
106. Assorted ceremonial or ornamental artifacts
107. Assorted rubbing or polishing stones
108. The pendant
109. Assorted pendants and pendant blanks
110. The gorget
111. The amulet
112. The discoidal
113. The plummet
114. Various bead styles
115. The homestead campsite
116. The river-bluff campsite
117. The plateau campsite
118. The dry lake-bed campsite
119. The lake campsite
120. The spring campsite
121. Riverbed site
122. Small tepee ring
123. Large tepee ring
124. Prairie hilltop site
125. Blow-out site
126. Buffalo jump or game entrapment site
127. Buffalo wallow site
128. Promontory site
129. U.S. Geological Survey map
130. Geological Survey map symbol chart
131. Rain-washed arrowhead in situ
132. Wind-blown arrowhead in situ
133. Rain-washed arrowhead in situ
134. Water-washed arrowhead in situ
135. Wind-blown arrowhead in situ
136. Riverbed or gravel bar arrowhead in situ
137. Arrowhead-hunting accessories
138. Petroglyphs
139. Anasazi pottery sherds
140. Anasazi pot stopper
141. Assorted Great Plains potsherds
142. Various modern man-made finds 143. Various natural finds and stone artifacts
144. The contemporary arrowhead, photographed
145. The contemporary arrowhead, diagrammed
146. Artifact design frame
147. Arrowhead frame
148. Assorted artifact frames
149. Loveland Archaeological Society field trip
150. Stone Age Fair history exhibit
151.1994 Loveland Stone Age Fair speakers
152. Author at Folsom, New Mexico, museum
153. Sand Creek -original pastel by C. G. Yeager

Illustration 3 The home of J. M. B. Petrikin on Petrikin s Hill in Greeley, Colorado, as it looked in 1950. Note the native sod in the area of the prehistoric campsite. This site is now occupied by the student center of the University of Northern Colorado. Photo courtesy of the Greeley Municipal Museum.
FOREWORD

Anyone who frequents the great outdoors stands a good chance of encountering artifactual evidence of earlier inhabitants. Such an experience can affect individuals in different ways. At the age of four, while trailing along horseback behind a herd of cattle on the family ranch in Wyoming, I noticed a strange appearing stone. Not knowing what it was, I put it in my pocket and that evening my grandmother identified it as the most unusual artifact she had ever seen. From that day on, I was hooked on archaeology and went through all of the stages of collecting and finally, realizing that archaeology was more than gathering artifacts, decided to pursue the subject through the academic discipline of anthropology, a decision I have never regretted.
The other extreme is exemplified by an old sheepherder I knew who would pick up artifacts, lay each one on a flat rock and smash it with another rock, and then throw the pieces as far as he could. This all changed on t