Joining in from Florida

[Sday]

Hello to the group! My name is Susan, and my family and I live on the Central West Coast of Florida. We have just inherited a massive collection of arrowheads and other artifacts,so I'm joining your forum to try to learn what we have and how to care for them. There are probably over 1,000 items. About half of them are taking up my dining room table at the moment because they were piled in cigar boxes, and I hated seeing that! We know very little, but feel responsible for the care of it all. As far as we can tell, most were found in our area, some are marked, others look like fossils, and the rest are a mystery! So thank you for your help in advance, we look forward to learning a lot from you!

[Broken Arrow]

Hello, from SE Missouri! Welcome to arrowheads.com, Susan! We look forward to seeing your artifacts and assisting you with the identification of them.

[Kentucky point]

Welcome from NE Kentucky! Post pictures of your collection soon. I like flipping through ID books trying to help.

[Sday]

Thank you! Here are a few photos of our current situation, lol. Any suggestions for storage as we go through them? I don't want to put them back in the cigar boxes. I've already found resources on sorting them by shape, but if there are any links to help in handling this chaos, they'd certainly be appreciated!

[Kentucky point]

Wow! That is a lot! I see one or two Cacacto creeks, and a few others that I recognize. As for storing them, You should probably get a fishing tackle box and put tissue paper in the tray. Then put your points inside. As for the white rock... I have no clue.

[Hoss]

welcome to arrowheads.com forum pages.

[Kentucky point]

I also see an Adena. Really nice lithics too. I like that one corner notch point, and the Bifuricated base point.

[Sday]

I don't know what those are, lol, but I'll look them up! we've got a local artifact show coming up, so hopefully we'll learn a lot there. I'm sure I'll be doing a lot of research this week, taking photos and sorting. Lots of broken ones, and pieces too, so who knows what we'll end up with. Thanks for the input, it'll help get me started!

[Kentucky point]

Sorry about the lingo! I forgot that you are a newbie. It will all become clear soon!

[tomclark]

Shell Adze probably Queen Conch. (So. FL) You need a FL ID book. Overstreets is great but a local, simple good one is Bullens Florida Projectile Points. All your points look familiar LOL

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/flarch/collections/bullen/terminology/

https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/flarch/collections/bullen/explore/type/

[Sday]

Thank you! We were wondering if Overstreet would be worth the investment. I see they have a website too, so I'll probably use that initially. I'll check out your other suggestion first. Thanks for the links!

[tomclark]

Overstreet's has actual pictures from collectors which is really great. Not gonna see that anywhere else except in collector's caseboxes. I have seen on many point ID books that they are not specific (enough) for Central and South Florida and some are confused IMHOP with some regional types by putting names on them from outside the region. An example of what I mean is that a Mississippian Triangle true arrowhead from your area is a Pinellas Point, not one of the dozens of names of similar, often SAME points from all over the US and the World.

[chase]

Welcome to ah.com

[Kyflintguy]

Welcome from east Tn!

[Andy W.]

You need to buys some display cases asap. The shell tools and other thicker things won't fit in them though. I would put that stuff on a shelf.

[Andy W.]

These are the last ones I bought...

indianriverdisplay.com

[Sday]

Thanks, I'll take a look!