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My dad collected arrowheads
Needless to say my dad was blown away by the 3"+ Genesee point (Figure 1) that I held in my small hands. The point was typical in thickness and shape for this type and was made of native Esopus chert. The field also yeilded to me a 2" Brewerton Side Notched projectile with slight damage to the base (Figure 1). With a first outing like this one, needless to say I was hooked and begging dad to take me every weekend.
For reasons of finding better and more productive sites, we very rarely went back to this field and then for a good many years it was a hay field. In 1993 I returned and found a few small dart points and hundreds of pitted stones used for cooking and food processing. That year I got married and moved a little ways away, but far enough away to make it hard to get back to the site. It wasn't until 2002 that I made it back. My dad and I got there right after it was plowed and I found a celt with pecked finger holds on the face (Figure 2), an atypical vertical notched net sinker and a few Lamoka and Vestal Side Notched dart points (Figure 3). Dad found a couple broken points, but darkness and a crisp spring night air pushed us back to the truck.
A week later I spoke with dad on the phone and he saidd that the field had been disked and dragged. I knew when it rained Tuesday night that Wednesday was not going to be spent in the office, but in the field doing what I enjoyed the most...artifact collecting. I arrived at the site early, and there was a slight fog still rising from the river flats. I walked down to the rise before the portion that slopes to the river, and started scanning the surface.
While working my way to the middle I spotted what looked like plastic because it was so smooth and dark. As I bent down I knew it was slate and a million possibilities ran through my head until my hand pulled out a broken atlatl weight (Figure 4). I knew then that this field was up to a repeat performance of 1979. My first point and my first bannerstone; it was very satisfying to find both at the same site. For some reason bannerstones are pretty rare in this area of New York State, so right at the start I was exicited. I continued down the slope to the river flat, and counted several cooking and fire pits on the rise, but I forced myself to "do a good job hunting" and start at the river flat and work my way back up to the rise. I didn't find much down on the river flat portion, but once I started to scan the lower side of the rise I soon had my best day since that first day when I was a small boy.
Starting up the rise, I began finding Lamoka and Vestal Notched dart points, and then I saw....IT. IT was a point sticking straight up in the air at me as it clung to a clod of soil. I plucked it loose and discovered it was a whole, 3" long, side notched Brewerton point made of Onondaga Chert. You could still see th indentation of the point on the side of the clod of dirt. The next pass produced a 2"+ Genesee point made of Esopus Chert. This point was strikingly similar to my first point found only 20 feet or so from where I found this one, but recovered 23 years apart. It may have been knapped by the same person, as the style and flake scars are similar.
What a day! I found several more points, pitted stones, and several netwights that day and chalked it up as my best day ever! Little did I know what lie just ahead.
The fall came, the corn was harvested, and I pulled my car up to the site early one morning. Out of my passenger-side window I saw a sign that made my heart sink: "No Trespassing". There was new owner, and I drove to his house down the road and he denied permission for me to go on the site. I've respected the new owner's wishes, of course, and I have not returned because that is the right thing to do, not to mention the legal thing as well. Each year I plan to return and ask the new owner for permission and try to woo him to get permission by knapping a knife or a point for him (yes, I knap and cast darts with my atlatl too), but ultimately there will be nothing I can do if he keeps saying no.
It saddens me why people are so strange even after you explain what you do; however, I had been blessed with my first artifact at this site, and blessed with a great last day as well. We must be responsible amateurs if we are to keep this wonderful hobby alive. There are always other sites and fields to discover, and instead of seeing it as a closed door (or in some cases a door slammed in your face), we should see permission denials as an opportunity to discover new sites.
I did just that! The site I found is even better than the one I'm denied on and, it's right near my home on the Chenango River. My wife and I recovered over 130 artifacts this year! I hope to detail that in a future article.
