New Member looking for Miwok Expert

[IDigMiwoks]

Hello all. I'd like to start by saying thanks to all the knowledgeable people out there for making this such an amazing website and resource to all of us novice collectors. I started collecting accidentally about a year ago as my friend and i were mining for gold at his seasonal creek in the Placerville, CA area. The property has several dozen bedrock mortars as well as some interesting other tooled rock outcroppings that we can get into later. Over the past 10 years my friend has found a few arrowheads, large pestles and other artifacts just while walking around. Since we have been processing material looking for gold, I have accumulated so many artifacts I'm starting to feel overwhelmed, thus my reaching out to the arrowhead community today for some clarification on some of our finds. I haven't yet figured how to post pictures so I figured I'd start with a list of what we are finding. Bird effigies, frog effigies, human face effigies, one ceremonial phallus, axe heads, hammer heads, hand choppers, hand scrapers, massive spear points/knife blades, thousands of spent arrowheads, arrowshaft smoothers/ sanders of different "grit", small, medium and large pestles as well as grinding bowls, and lastly an assortment of geometric shapes with smoothed edges instead of the typical knapping chip marks. Some are perfect triangle blocks, some are diamond shaped, some are perfectly flat like a business card. Oh and I almost forgot the best part, portable petroglyphs. About a half dozen stones with patterns carved in with such precision I still can't get my head around it, considering they didnt have carbide bits or diamond cutters back then. Well, I hope this peaks some interest out there. I'd love to hear from a local Miwok expert if there is one in the community, and possibly get some requests for which items I should post pictures of first. Lastly, I think I should clarify that most of these artifacts are made from greenstone, volcanic pumice, and a type of greenish/ bluish slate material. Obsidian and flint don't occur naturally up where we are digging, assuming they got a little of it by trade, and we have only found a few items made form such materials. Thank you all in advance for any information provided.

[gregszybala]

Welcome and nice introduction!
Look forward to seeing your finds and we do have quite a few knowledgeable members here and from California so you should get help.
Figure out how to posts those pics and lets see those artifacts!

[chase]

Welcome to AH.com  :welcome:
From the materials you have said and what you think they are I have my doubts. But pic's would help.

[SDhunter]

Welcome,  Lets see what you have.   Thanks

[IDigMiwoks]

Thanks guys for your replies.  I understand I made some lofty claims so I understand the doubt, my wife keeps me full of it, she thinks I'm nuts.  Should I post the pics to this thread or start a new one under "What do I have"?  Also any advice about getting pictures posted from iPhone photos would be appreciated if there are some easy methods/ shortcuts.  Hopefully pictures coming soon...

[Claycald]

:welcome: from Texas
Feel free to post in either what did I find.....if your looking for feed back,
Or post in a Your site finds....just so we can see all that amazing stuff!
Look forward to seeing it!

[SDhunter]

Put them in the native american artifacts and lithics section,  unless you don't know what it is, and then put it in the what did I find.  There are some helps in the welcome section to aid you in uploading photos.  They are up in the yellow threads.  I don't use an iphone to post pics,  so not sure how to do that.  Thanks

[IDigMiwoks]

Ok, just testing this out a little bit. This is one of the few arrowheads we've found made from "glass type" material. We just call it "red obsidian". It is about 1" long. Future pics will have a ruler for scale. And now would be a good time to apologize for my ignorance regarding geology, different types of rocks and proper terms for classifying artifacts. I'm still learning:dunno: Let's see if this works.

[IDigMiwoks]

I just started a new thread in "what did i find" called "Miwok Artifacts".  My uploads are showing up as thumbnails instead of full pics, I still have some figuring out to do.  It will probably take a couple dozen photos to show all that I have so please be patient.  My 2 year old daughter calls the shots around here.  In the meantime, if there is an item anyone wants close ups of, please let me know.  I'm still struggling to find the best way to sort these and take accurate photos. Thanks all.

[painshill]

IDigMiwoks wrote:

I just started a new thread in "what did i find" called "Miwok Artifacts".  My uploads are showing up as thumbnails instead of full pics, I still have some figuring out to do.  It will probably take a couple dozen photos to show all that I have so please be patient.  My 2 year old daughter calls the shots around here.  In the meantime, if there is an item anyone wants close ups of, please let me know.  I'm still struggling to find the best way to sort these and take accurate photos. Thanks all.

  After you have uploaded a picture, you need to click on the "Insert" button alongside it to get it to display at full-size. I've done that for you here. You can do it at the time to compose your post or afterwards using the "Edit" button. The picture is inserted where you have the mouse cursor in your post. We need good sharp pictures.
Welcome to the forum, and please take the time to read the notes here:

http://www.arrowheads.com/index.php/forum/tutorials-a-how-do-i/78915-getting-started-adding-pictures