My Son signed us up for this dig and as we had arrived early, we helped to set up chairs and a tent for the day’s class. After the rest of the participants arrived, the instructor preceded with the orientation. After the history of the site was cited the folks with previous experience were released to a plot to begin digging while the rest of us were instructed on the manner of the work ahead. My son joined that group as he had been on a previous dig a couple of days previously.

 
After the orientation I was able to join my Son’s group and as I walked up there was a stir of commotion as a member had just unearthed an arrowhead. I asked what style it was and the leader said “we just call them Burkies”. It was most likely almost 600 years old. I was eager to find more arrowheads but no more were to be found that day, however, my son found a clay game piece and everyone in our group found sherds of pottery in the piles of soil that we sifted throughout the day.

 
In the past I have found arrowheads independently in plowed corn fields and in a creek, but an archeological dig can give you some sense of history associated with the artifact that has been found. I heartily recommend participating in an event like this that gives greater meaning to artifacts that are uncovered and contributes to the history of the community where they are found.

This method uses a 12 oz. bottle for the break out. A dime is small enough to fit inside the opening of the neck and once inserted the bottle is grasped by the neck and the thumb placed over the opening, then the bottle is shaked up and down vigorously for quite a time, perhaps a minute. I was delighted when the bottom finally broke out whole. This is best done over a soft surface so that when the glass bottom comes off it won’t break into pieces when it lands.

I use a tire iron to poke out the bottom of a 40 oz. bottle (because the glass is thicker) but some folks use a nail or bolt to shake in the same manner with this larger size as I did with the 12 oz. bottle and dime. I wondered that if a dime worked, could a small stone work as well. Sure enough, it worked, but it didn’t come out as cleanly as with the dime. I stepped up the test and used a heavy steel nut but the bottom was shattered and broke out in many parts. I’m guessing that there is an optimum ratio of weight-to-glass for best results.

In the end I would call this the “shake” method and it’s good to have alternative methods of removing a glass bottle’s bottom for various uses. Although water can be used for breaking out the bottle bottom (see “Popping Off Bottle Bottoms By Hand“) the “shake” method can accomplish the task when water is not available. Give it a try and share your results.

Dacite Spalled In Half

When we met I handed him the rock and after a brief examination he said “I’m not sure this is obsidian, but let’s open it up and see what we’ve got here”. He selected a baseball sized hammerstone and placed a leather apron over his thigh, then layed the rock on the side of his thigh and with an arched swing, struck the rock’s edge with a downward blow. After a few strikes, the stone split open the full length of the rock. He said “oh… this is dacite… similar to obsidian but different. Dacite is a volcanic rock that has cooled under salt water and it works differently than obsidian”.

Not too surprising, different materials require different tools to achieve the best results. A gritty-surfaced hammerstone worked best in this case but a hardened dogwood billet works best for harder stones like quartz and rhyolite. The effectiveness of the tool has to do with it’s surface contact time during the strike.

Dacite Flake

After having observed the reduction of the first half of the rock I now have the remaining half of the rock to work with to apply what I have learned from his demonstration. I expect that exciting times as well as frustrating times lie ahead but I’m sure that they will be rewarding in my quest to master flintknapping skills.

Obsidian, a glassy rock, is a favored material but only found on the West Coast. A number of other states have flint. Here, in North Carolina, there is no flint. The local material in this region is quartz that is tough to knap and can be found in various shades of white. However a similar material to flint is found on the Southern boarder of the state that is called rhyolite and is usually greenish-gray in color. When this material is found locally you know that it was “imported” and is referred to as “trade stone” because Indians would trade goods to obtain this nicer material to fashion into arrowheads.

Local arrowhead hunters recommend that one of the best places to look for arrowheads is in a freshly plowed field after a heavy rain. The artifacts in the photo were not found in a field but rather in the mulch beds around an apartment complex that I tend. Fortunately for me the general public does not recognize these as artifacts and have been left as “rocks”. Having done some flint knapping I can recognize the signs of man-made shapes created by hammer stones, billets, and pressure flaking.

The two quartz pieces are rough compared to the finished points using trade-stone. Arrowheads can have different shapes based on tribes and differing eras. Some artifacts that are roughly shaped mid process are known as pre-faces. The rhyolite shown here is a piece off of a stone as it was reduced to the final shape. This is known as a spall from the spalling process. It’s not an arrowhead but a byproduct of the process to make one.

My guess is that the grounds where the mulch was processed happened to be located over old Indian campgrounds and were picked up when they loaded their trucks for delivery. It’s a delight to discover these bits of history in the course of tending the landscaped grounds. What can you find in your gardens?

The other day I was scouting for 40 oz. beer bottles whose bottoms I remove and use to make arrowheads. Having found one I placed it in a plastic grocery bag to carry as I continued my search. At the end of my excursion I began to remove it from the bag but noticed that it was oily and coated with grease. Rather than handle the bottle, I decided to keep it inside the plastic bag with only the neck poking out the top. As I inserted the metal rod into the neck of the bottle to poke out the bottom it dawned on me that all pieces of glass would be captured inside the bag and that it was a safer process.

For some people this may have been an obvious approach but for other folks like me it was a great revelation. A slight challenge in this process is that the bottle is not visible while you strike it so it becomes more of a “feel” of proper rod placement while striking the bottom. If you follow the suggestions in “Removing Beer Bottle Bottoms” and with a little practice it should become second nature for this procedure.

Of course, take care when retrieving the bottle bottom from inside the bag. Once removed I recommend tying off the top of the bag that contains the remainder of the bottle parts before disposing it in the trash or recyclable bin.