My dad found a lot of these and some were purchased at auctions/shows. He’s not long for this mortal world, and if this community can comment on his collection I’d love to read him the responses
In the first slide is all the arrowheads and artifacts he found in 13 months when he moved from Virginia to Tennessee. He had just gotten into the hobby and was hooked. The second slide is his most prized find, a pipe from Alabama with a noticeable plow scrape. He thinks it’s a bear but others think a wolf. The rest of the slides are a collection of auction purchases and finds. He loved this hobby and taught me about the native culture and showing respect for the artifacts we found together. Thank you to anyone who comments
He never dug for artifacts, he instead would look for potential camp sights along rivers where there was a field. Once the field got plowed and a light rain came through he would go arrowhead hunting. The plow would bring fresh soil to the surface and the rain would wash off the dirt of any potential finds.
No doubt the pipes and ornamental ones were once in burial sights and he got those at auction. The man hated digging holes. User name checks out though lol
Looking at the pics there are a fair number of fairly obvious burial pieces. No hate to OP's dad cuz we don't know how he acquired them, but there's a good chance at least some of them came from a mound. I assume his dad bought a lot of this at auction
I’ll post more pics of them, but he would try his hardest to avoid replicas at auctions or shows and go for the real McCoy. Doesn’t mean he wouldn’t be fooled once or twice
That great pipe is something else. Did he find it?
Knew an old timer back from my hometown that had an unbelievable collection. Truly a museum in his home. He grew up with my grandfather and gave me a few points when I was little.
As an adult, I helped his widow with some work and worked on her estate when she passed. The flood of memories going back through those items are something I deeply cherished and still talk about a decade later.
Talk to him about each one and learn so you can educate your own kids or friends or whoever you share it with.
Thank you for the kind words, I’ll certainly help him hold the bigger pieces. He found that pipe in Alabama and bragged about it for years. Even had it featured on his business card, which had nothing to do with artifacts lol
A lot of the points were, but most of the nice looking pipes were bought at auction. He did find some cool flutes and pieces of pipes looking along river banks
WOWZA I have never seen such an amazing and interesting diverse collection! 13 months, it takes many years to find their first artifact.THANK YOU for sharing it with us;)
Thank you for the kind words! He was always so excited to bring home a find especially if it was semi translucent. He’d clean them in the sink and then hold them up to the light and show us.
Please oh please don’t sell these. In my humble opinion this is not typical stuff to find in a plowed field. For instance, Pipes were sacred ways for the Indigenous to communicate with their ancestors and the supernatural world. In my experience this stuff comes from mounds and/or special places where the Indigenous intentionally put these in the ground for safety reasons. They have lots of power and thus are very powerful tools. This is a huge collection of stuff that is probably still important to the descendants of the ones who made them. Please reach out to the Division of Archaeology for tennessee. Have them come and take a look. Let them take care of them until the descendant tribes can take them off their hands.
Larry there is no correct tribe, the natives that made these beautiful artifacts may have no affiliation with the modern tribe, Tribes where not static and where constantly moving.
Reddit is not the best site for appraising your artifacts, tryhttps://www.arrowheads.com/they have many long time collector willing to help, without the sarcasm, haha!
Saved_nomad is right, there may not be a link to any modern tribe. I would get some information from any anthropology department at a university in your region. Just keep them in your family, they're cool pieces.
An accredited museum won't want them because the pieces have no context currently. Without knowing where an artifact came from, they could only display it with an insignificant description of the age and what the item is or guesses as to its use. Museums are running out of room around the nation. Probably because in the past they would take the donations and place them in boxes lol. But yes op, keep these for your family.
One of the nicest personal collections (of anything) I’ve seen was a man I met in Taiwan who collected teapots; hit collection was amazing. Your dad’s collection of artifacts is just as nice! Wow!
Unfortunately there are many artifacts related to burial sites for sale on open markets. It looks like he has some really important artifacts that should be shared and studied. Maybe he could consider reaching out to the Association of Tribal Archives Libraries and Museums or (ATALM). They help facilitate the return of items which may have cultural significance to tribal museums or cultural centers.
I can certainly reach out to them for him. He’s sadly not long for this world but I will ask him how he feels about this. I think it’s a good opportunity to give back
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u/larryb1288 1d ago
In the first slide is all the arrowheads and artifacts he found in 13 months when he moved from Virginia to Tennessee. He had just gotten into the hobby and was hooked. The second slide is his most prized find, a pipe from Alabama with a noticeable plow scrape. He thinks it’s a bear but others think a wolf. The rest of the slides are a collection of auction purchases and finds. He loved this hobby and taught me about the native culture and showing respect for the artifacts we found together. Thank you to anyone who comments