Part of walking the fields and collecting artifacts is the all too familiar “heart-breaker”. For those who might be unfamiliar with the term, heart-breakers are large, or extremely well made, or even a rare point type that appears to be whole when you find it but is found to be broken when removed from the soil or can even be obviously broken upon being found. I personally still enjoy finding heart-breakers as it gives my imagination free license to think up what the whole point may have looked like. I, like most of you, still feel the disappointment and disgust of wishing the heart-breakers were whole. Sometimes I even root around in the dirt with my hands around where the point was sitting, just hoping that the other piece is there.
Three of my most frustrating heart-breakers were from the same site. For some reason this site produces an over abundance of large or high quality points that have been broken into heart-breakers (Fig. 1). Both drills in figure 1 are classic heart-breakers. They are made from Esopus or Eastern Onondaga that comes from a sources near Oneonta, NY and are of the New York Woodland period. They appear to have Susquehanna Broad or Perkiomen point bases with light basal grinding and were likely broke in use. Oddly enough, the other person who surface collects on this site never walks this section and skips around without rhyme or reason. Thanks, whoever you are! The third heart-breaker is a large Genesee point found by my son Nick in 2004. Genesee points are an archaic dart point or spear that got their name from the type sites which were near the Genesee River in and around Letchworth State Park. This monster point was likely 6 inches or larger when it was whole and suffered a nasty impact fracture by its ancient user. Oh, how my son and I wish that point had been whole.
So now you have your heart-breaker home & washed (and hopefully categorized by site). It sits drying on a paper towel sadly divorced form it’s completing piece. Now what do you do with it? Several people have written about creative ways to make them into pictures and even book ends, but one of the best solutions I’ve read to make the heart-breaker whole again was an article written by my friend Jim Fisher (IAM Vol. 18-4). His article went into great depth and discussion on digital restoration using your computer and photo imaging software. I read Jim’s article several years ago (and before I knew him) but only recently realized that my newly purchased digital camera software had the ability to digitally “restore” points. Figure 2 shows my first attempts at Jim’s idea of digital restoration of the three previously mentioned heart-breakers. What a feeling it was when I was finished and could finally see those points “whole” again. Quoting my friend Dan Long, who said “It’s too bad you can’t push a button on your computer and have it spit out the restored point”, after seeing my picture of the restored points. I agree!!!
Of course, another way to remedy the divorce is physical restoration. Having only made one attempt at this process, I admit that I do not know a whole lot about it (Figure 3). What I do know is that it is expensive if done professionally, but worth the investment. My understanding is that colored epoxies or resins, such as Bondo, are used to fill in and sculpt the missing sections, and when done by an expert it is hard to distinguish the repair without magnification or a UV lighting system. The repaired sections are then painted by acrylic paints or professionally by using an airbrush. This seems to be where the really good restorations are separated from the rest of us. Matching those colors can be a challenge!! I also hear that acceptance and values of restored artifacts are going up. It also seems like a good way for small collectors with limited funds to own artifacts that would command a premium if they were unbroken. The only down side is that when an avocational like myself finds nice points like those pictured here, it just isn’t logical to spend the money to have them restored so we end up doing the best we can to make it as professional as possible.
So what is the best way to resolve the divorce of the heart-breaker you ask? Well, of course, it’s to find its separated mate and remarry them! This is such a rare occurrence but has happened to me twice. The first time is just truly remarkable. One day in the mid 1980’s, my father and I were surface collecting a favorite Lamoka to Early Woodland site in Cortland County, New York when part number one was found. I remember Dad finding an Orient Fishtail projectile point split cleanly in half from tip to base. You could lay the half he found on a level table as it was sawed in half by a rock saw. In June of 1990 I was surface collecting at the same site and found an Orient Fishtail point split in half just like my Dad’s. When I brought it home with my other finds, I remember my Dad saying “Hey, I found one like that once!” For some reason, I forgot about him finding it, and it faded into the back of both of our minds for safe storage I guess.
One day in 2004, I was looking through my Dad’s collection and photographing his nice stuff, and I pulled out his half Orient Fishtail point. The fog suddenly cleared. I said to him that I thought I had the other half of that point. We commented several times over the next year about how we need to dig out our two halves to see if they match. One day in 2005 I finally located my half and gave it to Dad to see if they matched. Two days later I received a call from my Dad with the unbelievable news that the two pieces fit exactly together!! (Fig. 4). It appears that the Esopus material had a crack that separated upon impacting game or something else thousands of years ago. The ancient hunter probably brought the dart or forshaft back to his camp on the Otselic River and realized his point was broken. From my experience knapping and hafting points with sinew and pine pitch glue, I wouldn’t be surprised if the hafting held the split point together nicely until the aboriginal closely inspected it and discarded it. Remarkably, after hundreds of years of farm activity and collecting, both pieces were recovered and brought together. What are the odds of this account happening? A million to one? I guess we should have bought a lottery ticket that week!
The second time this happened was in July 2006. I was surface collecting on the same site where the objects in figure 1 were found, and the day was warm and raining lightly. The mosquitoes were so awful; I think I saw three trying to make off with a pitted stone. As I started to look in the more productive area, I spotted a 2 ½ inch blade sticking out of the soil (Fig. 5 insitu). It was completely exposed except for the base. As you may have already guessed, there was no base and the break area was patinated to a light grey so I knew it was an old break, par for this heart-breaker divorce site. Two rows away and 30 feet from the blade discovery, I bent to pick up what I thought was a chip (a good reason to bend for all those chips), but soon discovered it was actually a point base. When I turned the base over I saw that the break was patinated and at the same angle as the previously found blade. I quickly pulled out the base from my point pocket and was so excited to find that they mated completely (Fig. 6). Once again, the divorced pieces came together after uncountable years apart. Remarriage can be so sweet when it happens to a good point!
As I’ve demonstrated, miracles can happen in ways you least expect it. Bend down for all those chips, because you just never know, one may be the base or tip to one of your heart-breakers. It’s also worth while every so often to take out your broken pieces by site location and see if you have any matches. Divorce is nasty when it happens to points, but there are several ways to mend the broken collectors heart and I hope you try them – you won’t be sorry you did. |
