Some of my personal finds |
Here are a few of the points that I have found over the last 18 years hunting artifacts in Georgia. Nothing fancy, but some nice examples of Georgia material, and some Southeastern types. In most of middle Georgia and into Northern Georgia, quartz is the predominate material for the making of arrowheads, blades, and other flaked objects. We have to go further into north Georgia, or down into south Georgia to get to the other materials that were common for the production of artifacts so many thousands of years ago. These materials would be coastal plains chert, and various colors of flint. Although quartz is not a good material for making points from, when you do find a nicely chipped artifact, you know that this guy had to be an experienced knapper to get something nice out of this course and brittle material. A couple of questions I have always asked myself are: How many of these points did a person make in the first 30 years of his life? How many other people were in his group of wanders and hunters? Where and how did he die? Was he missed? Was he loved? I guess it would have been a hard life back then, but who wouldn't take the opportunity to be there for a few days, just to see what it would have been like? If given that chance, how many of us would have rather stayed? Could you deal with a few days with no TV, no cellular phone, no, I mean no modern convenience. Just the sky, the quiet, no job, no taxes, no car...... NO WAY!!! I don't think many of us would handle this well at all. But to be given the chance.......................
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The Bolen Frame
This frame of early archaic projectile "points" are from middle to south Georgia. Early archaic being from around 7500 to 8000 years ago. They are made from what collectors call coastal plains chert. From the materials appearance, it seems to be massively compressed ocean bed. Some artifacts of this material have been found to have "sea shell" impressions in them. My guess is that these are, indeed, fossil sea shells from millenniums ago. Bolen's resemble a couple of other types of arrowheads found in parts of North Georgia called a "Palmer" point and a "Lost Lake" point. I believe these three types of points are closely related and more than likely were being used during the same time. All three have a beveled edge which is a result of re-sharpening them down, possibly due to a broken tip. As tips continued to break, more re-sharpening shortened the length of the point until it was finally discarded. The re-sharpening also caused them to have a serrated look and feel. This resembles a modern steak knife. One pull across your finger with the edge of one of these and you can feel the cutting power of this primitive tool. The last similarity I want to share is the basal grinding each of the types exhibit. They have had the base "ground" down to a smooth finish. Some examples are ground more than others. This had to do with the hafting method, and to prevent cutting the hafting lashings. These are the things that a collector looks for in a Bolen, Palmer, or Lost Lake point type: Symmetrical shape, good beveling, nice tip, basal grinding, and good Archaic flaking. Let's just not forget the age. It's been 500+ years since Columbus' voyages. These points predate that event by 7000 years.
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