Hi Folks
I’m a UK lithics collector and new to this site. Can anyone please help me with more info on a couple of spearheads? Not much known about these, apart from:
i) They were bought at auction about 20-30 years ago and were SAID to be from the collection of the British army officer Augustus Henry Lane-Fox, known (from his later adopted surname) as the ‘Pitt Rivers’ collection. Both items were labelled as “North American ceremonial spearhead” but nothing more.
ii) The main ‘PR’ collection was donated to UK’s Oxford University in 1884, where it still resides. But his second, private collection housed at Farnham in the UK was broken up in the 1950’s and much of it was publicly sold from the 1970’s onwards. PR’s own catalogue for this second collection is patchy and goes from full descriptions, provenance and detailed drawings all the way down to entries like: “26 flint arrowheads unknown locality”.
iii) Other items bought at the same time included a group of small points and scrapers labelled as from “Allegeti Serpent near Scotsdale, Arizona (2,300 - 1,500BC)” and another group labelled as from “Mississippi Valley, Texas” with various styles and periods between 4,000BC - 1AD. These are mentioned just on the off-chance that either location might be related in any way to either of the spearheads.
[Incidentally, what is the Allegeti Serpent? Is it a stretch of river or a canyon perhaps? Is this the correct spelling, or is it mis-spelled like ‘Scotsdale’?]
Both of the spearheads are bifacially worked, not fluted and highly symmetrical. The larger one is about 10 inches long and fashioned from chert; the smaller one is almost 3 inches long and from obsidian.
Any opinions on likely date, culture or origin greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I’m a UK lithics collector and new to this site. Can anyone please help me with more info on a couple of spearheads? Not much known about these, apart from:
i) They were bought at auction about 20-30 years ago and were SAID to be from the collection of the British army officer Augustus Henry Lane-Fox, known (from his later adopted surname) as the ‘Pitt Rivers’ collection. Both items were labelled as “North American ceremonial spearhead” but nothing more.
ii) The main ‘PR’ collection was donated to UK’s Oxford University in 1884, where it still resides. But his second, private collection housed at Farnham in the UK was broken up in the 1950’s and much of it was publicly sold from the 1970’s onwards. PR’s own catalogue for this second collection is patchy and goes from full descriptions, provenance and detailed drawings all the way down to entries like: “26 flint arrowheads unknown locality”.
iii) Other items bought at the same time included a group of small points and scrapers labelled as from “Allegeti Serpent near Scotsdale, Arizona (2,300 - 1,500BC)” and another group labelled as from “Mississippi Valley, Texas” with various styles and periods between 4,000BC - 1AD. These are mentioned just on the off-chance that either location might be related in any way to either of the spearheads.
[Incidentally, what is the Allegeti Serpent? Is it a stretch of river or a canyon perhaps? Is this the correct spelling, or is it mis-spelled like ‘Scotsdale’?]
Both of the spearheads are bifacially worked, not fluted and highly symmetrical. The larger one is about 10 inches long and fashioned from chert; the smaller one is almost 3 inches long and from obsidian.
Any opinions on likely date, culture or origin greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
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