Copper arrow point- need opinions- is this a trade or copper culture point?

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

Hello All,

I spent yesterday driving around the county up here in Minnesota with my old plat books. Checked out some old church and school sites. Ground is getting a little to dry for digging, and the deer flies and mosquitos are pretty bad. Deer flies bother you a lot less with head phones on. Their bark is worse than their bite; though sometimes you get so many buzzing around that it gets hard to see. After getting drenched in sweat, chased by flies in the sun and swarmed by mosquitos in the shade I said "this is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby, not an endurance test". Said Screw it and spent the rest of the afternoon driving through little towns looking for potential detecting spots and just general purpose rubber necking.

Anyways, at one school site got a hit that I thought might be silver half or perhaps my first silver dollar.

Instead it was a copper arrowhead in pretty decent shape. I looked at some copper culture websites and saw some similar styles. I've also heard in the early fur trade days that Europeans traded arrowheads for fur, not sure if they were copper.

[attachment 99042 Copper1.jpg]

[attachment 99043 Copper2.jpg]

[attachment 99044 Copper3.jpg]

Think I have a few thousand year old find here?

Chris

 

[Great Republic]

n/t

 

[BlackX]

I know you had copper culture there in WI but was it well-entrenched or in MN as well?

 

[Erik in NJ]

that is one amazing find! Looks to be in excellent shape...you might want to detect a 20' to 50' diameter circle around where you found it and dig every signal. Try contacting a local museum for authentication and preservation. It needs to be properly preserved.

 

[Anonymous]

Chris, it would be classified as a "socketed" arrowpoint. Its design reminds me of ancient Roman patterns, but you need to take it to someone who specializes in ancient projectiles, most likely someone at the Smithsonian or Chicago museum. Great find, David

 

[Reggie]

Rich, that is one awesome find! Please let us know when you find out more about it. Incredible artifact.

 

[James N.D.]

Now that is a Great Find Chris! If I were you, I would take it to MSU (Moorhead State University) and see what the Professor's say about it. I believe that is where Dale took his Copper Spear Point when he found his and they told him what Era it was from, how Old, and about the Price Range it was in along with Rarity. I think I would have taken that over a Silver Dollar anyday! Congratulations Chris on a very neat find! Bet you won't find another one of them in your lifetime! Continued Success, Good Luck and HH.

 

[jeff & Maria]

n/t

 

[Scully]

Its actually a socketed spear point not an "arrowhead". A very nice piece. Copper Culter sites have been carbon dated back to 7,800 years ago. Conicals are occassionally found with the wood still in the point, and they have been able to dated sites based on that age of the wood. I have several pieces that still had wood in them when found.

Do not clean it in any way, use only a soft brush like a tooth brush to clean the dirt off it. Quite ofthen the crust on the "top" side is impossible to remove, but the under side sometimes comes out very clean. From the pictures it looks like the flat side of the blade was up and the median ridge side was facing down.

Awesome find Chris, congrats.

 

[Erik in NJ]

Chris, It seems that Amazon doesn't list very many books on the Old Copper Culture - I thought there would be more and more up to date - I found this: "OLD COPPER CULTURE OF WISCONSIN" (Paperback) by Robt (ed) Ritzenthaler (Author) (1957) and "The old copper culture and the Keweenaw Waterway" (Fieldiana: anthropology) (Unknown Binding) by George Irving Quimby (Author) (1957).

Just out of curiosity, how deep was it?

 

[Great Republic]

http://copperculture.homestead.com/

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

This was an old one-room school site. I saw a recently constructed septic drain field cap nearby. No idea if the ground had been disturbed, fill brought in, some kid had brought it to school for show and tell 75 years ago or it had been lost there 5000 years ago.

Chris

 

[Chris(SoCenWI)]

n/t

 

[Andrus(ut)]

n/t

 

[GOLDDIGGER]

Very nice find Chris, Copper Culture all the way!!!!
"DO NOT TRY AND CLEAN IT" It should stay just the way it is!!!
Light soap and water only to knock the dirt off !!!!
H.H.(GOLDDIGGER) J.W.

 

[John - Maryland]

Interesting Artical SEE: (COPY AND PASTE TO THE ADRESS BAR) http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://baldwintownship.govoffice.com/vertical/Sites/%257B2C0D67A1-6044-4910-9683-8AC3F0C20A7A%257D/uploads/%257BB637CF79-ACF0-4A88-B92F-FDE4965EB7BA%257D.JPG&imgrefurl=http://baldwintownship.govoffice.com/index.asp%3FType%3DB_BASIC%26SEC%3D%257BD5D318B1-F761-4381-9E72-1923301B8C65%257D&h=912&w=600&sz=88&hl=en&start=2&um=1&tbnid=qnjUBWnVC5gdMM:&tbnh=147&tbnw=97&prev=/images%3Fq%3DOld%2BCopper%2Bspear%2Bhead%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN

 

[John - Maryland]

Record your find


When you find artifacts, note where you found them as precisely as possible. In the long run, these will be much more valuable to you than a set of artifacts from places long since forgotten. Keep items found at individual sites separate from those found elsewhere. Simple recording systems such as numbering sites works very well. For example, keep all artifacts found on Site 1 together, or label them as such when mixing with others for display. Keeping a notebook with sketch maps of sites is extremely important. An example of a site recording form follows. You could also mark sites on a county map or even a highway map. The best maps are U.S. Geological Survey topographical quadrangles, which are becoming more easily available in digital form through commercial vendors or via the Internet.

For storing, wrap special artifacts separately to prevent them from getting nicked by knocking against other artifacts. Too often, well-intentioned people have dumped coffee cans or old cigar boxes full of artifacts onto our lab tables revealing not only new information but also new breaks and a small pile of fresh chips. Take care of your artifacts; they are a priceless record of the past and are irreplaceable!

Contact an archaeologist


Each state has a state archaeologist, and many colleges and museums have archaeologists who would be happy to photograph your finds and record the information. Rest assured that archaeologists will not confiscate your artifacts, steal your site, or broadcast its location. You will be helping to piece together essential knowledge of the past. In return, you will learn how old your artifacts are, what they are made of, and what they were used for.

Do not buy, sell, or trade artifacts
Buying and selling artifacts not only encourages looting, but once sold, the most important information

 

[Hotcz70]

n/t

 

[Buddysox]

I would agree with Scully that it's a spearpoint. I don't know zip about ancient cultures but I do see that as an arrowhead, the offset from the point to the base would give it really bad flight characteristics. Native Americans were primitive but certainly not dumb when it came to putting food on the table. NICE FIND!