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Ever thought...wow look at that spot!! It has to be a good place...and then...

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  • Ever thought...wow look at that spot!! It has to be a good place...and then...

    I have a field near me that should produce. It just does not. Its an ag field that has been tilled for years. It is right on a river and is on a hillside that is probably 20 ft above the river. It has never flooded. I have found many artifacts in short walk proximity to this spot. Its a small field maybe 6 acres. I keep searching it because it seems so right but have never found so much as a waste flake. Just wondering if anyone has ever had this issue. I have no idea of the full history on this field but I think its never been any more that a farm field.
    The chase is better than the catch...
    I'm Frank and I'm from the flatlands of N'Eastern Illinois...

  • #2
    Been there, done that! Have as many fields I have walked that aren't as are.
    Searching the fields of NW Indiana and SW Michigan

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    • #3
      I had a field like that, and after the fourth time looking, I finally found a scraper. I didn’t find much though.
      South Dakota

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      • #4
        You have to think in terms of what did the field area look like in prehistoric times. Being right along the river at an elevation of only 20", it may have been constantly flooded 3000 years ago, but today the river may have changed course just enough so the field doesn't get flooded anymore. Or maybe that area was all wooded at one time, and cleared a hundred years ago for farming. We often see fields and places that really should have artifacts, based on what we are seeing now, but the landscape no doubt changed a bit.
        http://www.ravensrelics.com/

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        • #5
          Its probably just needs to be plowed deeper.

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          • Jethro355
            Jethro355 commented
            Editing a comment
            As painful as this is, it is likely true.

            We have a Ridge on our farm that is a mile or so from the primary village site, but the Mississippian “tribes” were notorious for settling every high spot of ground. I have for years walked that small ridge(it’s only about 150 yards long) and it’s real sandy and it is the right elevation and so on and so on....and I never found anything. Not so much as a flake or chip of pottery...Then a few years back, maybe 2010, we ran a chisel plow over a lot of the farm and then we had The Great Flood of 2011, and the next time I walked it as soon as I walked up on it I started seeing muscle shell pieces everywhere, then I started finding pieces of really, really exquisite Quapaw polychrome pottery. Just pieces. Then I started finding teeth and bone fragments. I got a bit sick to my stomach. I have literally seen hundreds of plowed burials, and occasionally some nice pot fragments in them mixed in with bone-but they were always in known previously inhabited areas. This one hurt. I sat down on the ground and it took me a while to catch my breath. I gathered all the bone and teeth I could find and started digging a hole. I dug about a 5’ hole about as big as a five gallon bucket and put everybody back in the ground.. I started backfilling the hole and was almost done when my shovel hit rock. The ground there was extremely sandy, so I drew a quick breath(y’all know what I’m talking about, like when you just KNOW you hit a perfect G10 and broke it into g-ten pieces) and started scratching through the sand with my fingers...and I came out with the nicest Celt I’ve ever found. It was perfect. I like to think it was my reward for mixing the bones of the dead back into the earth with the bones of their fathers.

            Anyway, I say all that to say this. I know plowing is key to uncovering so many artifacts, but most of the artifacts here are clay, and some are the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, and then you see them scattered by the plow...it’s such a double edged sword.😕

        • #6
          Every time I walk the beach I'm aware that Mother Nature loves two shapes-- circles & triangles. Shells, gravel, chunks of Armourstone all take on that familiar shape. Every piece invites a second look until my eyes cross. Sadly, 99.9% of beach detritus is just that. Occasionally Mother Nature gives up one of her treasures.
          Child of the tides

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          • #7
            I would do a test area if you can.
            like Andy said dig deeper .
            Your never going to know if you don’t try .
            And yes I can’t believe some places have nothing .
            If I had a tractor to dig deep I am sure things would show in places I am frustrated with .

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            • balddawg
              balddawg commented
              Editing a comment
              There’s been a lot of construction around me that was once ag fields, wouldn’t the leveling of the area for plotting lots have taken a lot of artifacts away? Would it be advantageous to look around what they removed to build or is that dirt all waste or on the bottom of the piles?

          • #8
            I’m finding a lot of Flint, three artifacts, some flakes in one main area but working my way to the up stream as it is when it rains a lot, not much so far. Miami Valley Ohio

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