Is the arrowhead you found in the river a
Floater, sinker, flier, or a tumbler?
By Tammy and Bill Breckinridge
Autumn is a mysterious season. There's Halloween, of course, and the tricks the
changing light plays with our eyes and minds. Last October my wife Tammy and I
were exploring the Arkansas River to find new spots to artifact hunt. It was a
beautiful fall afternoon, fairly typical for this area. It was blue sky overhead and
warm, but without mosquitoes and chiggers. We found a pullout where the local
teen-agers had been partying at night, apparently for quite some time judging by the
number of beer cans. Sticks in hand, water bottles strung around our shoulders,
and packs in place, we headed out for the water. I walked to the nearest island of
rocks and my wife took off up river. We both hunted until the sun was about to set.
Even though the gravel seemed perfect for flint artifacts, I had found nothing.
Tammy headed my way right at sunset, and we started to leave. I wanted to hunt on
the way out, and was staring at the ground when I heard my wife shout "I found a
Gary!" Quickly, I ran toward her and knelt down beside the new found point-sure
enough it was a Gary. It was about 2 inches or so, and gray and white striped.
Unbelievably it was just lying on top of the sand with a slightly concave side down to
the riverbed. It looked as though it had been flying through the sand!
Since finding the memorable "Flying Gary" I have given some thought as to how
stone artifacts, arrowheads and knives in particular, move through the various
strata in rivers and eventually are re-deposited on the surface. I have a theory.
Funny as it seems, by the time we pick up an arrowhead it has experienced many
lives. First, it was just a rock, a piece of flint, quartzite, slate obsidian, dolomite, or
whatever. Then, some one knapped a useful weapon or tool from the stone.
Sometimes artifacts were so useful they got "all used up", and just a nub was
discarded. However, a few tools/weapons were lost soon after manufacture and
spent the next few hundred or thousand years hidden away from human eyes. What
transpired in the span of time between the moment the artifact was lost or
discarded and the moment it was found by another human being? Has the artifact
spent most of this time just laying on top of the sand or was it cycled though great
floods and tons of silt to lie on the bottom of the river? Was it wedged between two
huge rocks for centuries? Did it wash out of a feeder creek or was it lost on the river
itself when a canoe overturned? Was it lost on the same spot it was found, or did it
travel downstream in the current, swimming like a fish? The dynamics of movement
through river strata are completely unknown to me. But that hasn't stopped me from
developing my own theory regarding artifacts that fly, tumble, float, or sink their
way into my life. So, just for fun allow me to explain.
First, I will describe how an artifact can mysteriously "fly" through sand. If the
arrowhead is shaped aerodynamically like a bird or an airplane, it gets lift from the
current and stability from its tail. For example, the Gary that my wife, Tammy, found
looked like an F-15! It has a sharp nose, delta wings, and a short stubby tail.
Although it looked like it had just landed, I suspect that it was on the verge of taking
off! Sometimes after a flier "lands" on the surface of the river, wind or rain will
erode the sand around the point, leaving it on a little pedestal. These arrowheads
are an artifact hunter's dream come true: a fully exposed artifact gently raised on
its own bed just waiting to be picked up.
Tumblers, on the other hand, have a lot of surface area but poor to no
aerodynamics. Once they make their way up from the depths to the surface of the
river they catch the current but they can't sustain any lift, and just tumble along
through the churning gravel like an autumn leaf. Many are partially covered when
found, as they are thoroughly mixed in the gravel. Tumblers often receive more
wear and tear from the river than other classes of traveling artifacts.
That brings us to floaters. Floaters are artifacts in which the lift cancels out the
drag. Floaters move along the river like old logs, their surfaces just barely above
the sand. You may see only a patch of the blade, a small flat area of worked flint.
Lucky artifact hunters are always on the lookout for these glinting patches that hint
at buried treasures. Floaters often appear after a heavy rainfall or windstorm that
washes or blows away the sand that previously covered most of the artifact.
Floaters basically maintain a balanced, even keel as they make their way
downstream.
Last, but not least, are those artifacts I've named sinkers. Sinkers tend to be
round in cross section. Let me describe a classic sinker that I found. This sinker is a
Woodland Knife, about 3" long. Three fourths of the knife, from the base to near the
tip, is a brownish limestone. The tip itself is a glossy black flint that is fairly well
flaked. But, right smack in the middle of the limestone section is a thick clam
fossil-believe it or not! This gives the knife a distinctive, lumpy look and feel. There's
a lot of usage on the knife, so its owner apparently didn't mind it's strange
lumpiness. When I found this sinker it was lying at the bottom of a small sea of mud
and sludge among black, slimy rocks as big as my head. It had softly sunk into its
smelly bed of sludge, just as low as it could sink. Sinkers are usually found among
large rocks or along the actual streambed, and are rarely seen in sand and gravel.
Well, that about wraps up my artifact hydrodynamics theory for now. It will, I'm
sure, evolve as I find more flint on the river. Dear Reader, if you have discovered
some of the mysteries surrounding arrowhead movement though river strata,
please share. And, the next time you spot a flint tool on the river, please refrain from
touching it until you have asked yourself:
According to Bill's theory of artifact dynamics, is my point a....
Flier, floater, tumbler, or a sinker?
Floater, sinker, flier, or a tumbler?
By Tammy and Bill Breckinridge
Autumn is a mysterious season. There's Halloween, of course, and the tricks the
changing light plays with our eyes and minds. Last October my wife Tammy and I
were exploring the Arkansas River to find new spots to artifact hunt. It was a
beautiful fall afternoon, fairly typical for this area. It was blue sky overhead and
warm, but without mosquitoes and chiggers. We found a pullout where the local
teen-agers had been partying at night, apparently for quite some time judging by the
number of beer cans. Sticks in hand, water bottles strung around our shoulders,
and packs in place, we headed out for the water. I walked to the nearest island of
rocks and my wife took off up river. We both hunted until the sun was about to set.
Even though the gravel seemed perfect for flint artifacts, I had found nothing.
Tammy headed my way right at sunset, and we started to leave. I wanted to hunt on
the way out, and was staring at the ground when I heard my wife shout "I found a
Gary!" Quickly, I ran toward her and knelt down beside the new found point-sure
enough it was a Gary. It was about 2 inches or so, and gray and white striped.
Unbelievably it was just lying on top of the sand with a slightly concave side down to
the riverbed. It looked as though it had been flying through the sand!
Since finding the memorable "Flying Gary" I have given some thought as to how
stone artifacts, arrowheads and knives in particular, move through the various
strata in rivers and eventually are re-deposited on the surface. I have a theory.
Funny as it seems, by the time we pick up an arrowhead it has experienced many
lives. First, it was just a rock, a piece of flint, quartzite, slate obsidian, dolomite, or
whatever. Then, some one knapped a useful weapon or tool from the stone.
Sometimes artifacts were so useful they got "all used up", and just a nub was
discarded. However, a few tools/weapons were lost soon after manufacture and
spent the next few hundred or thousand years hidden away from human eyes. What
transpired in the span of time between the moment the artifact was lost or
discarded and the moment it was found by another human being? Has the artifact
spent most of this time just laying on top of the sand or was it cycled though great
floods and tons of silt to lie on the bottom of the river? Was it wedged between two
huge rocks for centuries? Did it wash out of a feeder creek or was it lost on the river
itself when a canoe overturned? Was it lost on the same spot it was found, or did it
travel downstream in the current, swimming like a fish? The dynamics of movement
through river strata are completely unknown to me. But that hasn't stopped me from
developing my own theory regarding artifacts that fly, tumble, float, or sink their
way into my life. So, just for fun allow me to explain.
First, I will describe how an artifact can mysteriously "fly" through sand. If the
arrowhead is shaped aerodynamically like a bird or an airplane, it gets lift from the
current and stability from its tail. For example, the Gary that my wife, Tammy, found
looked like an F-15! It has a sharp nose, delta wings, and a short stubby tail.
Although it looked like it had just landed, I suspect that it was on the verge of taking
off! Sometimes after a flier "lands" on the surface of the river, wind or rain will
erode the sand around the point, leaving it on a little pedestal. These arrowheads
are an artifact hunter's dream come true: a fully exposed artifact gently raised on
its own bed just waiting to be picked up.
Tumblers, on the other hand, have a lot of surface area but poor to no
aerodynamics. Once they make their way up from the depths to the surface of the
river they catch the current but they can't sustain any lift, and just tumble along
through the churning gravel like an autumn leaf. Many are partially covered when
found, as they are thoroughly mixed in the gravel. Tumblers often receive more
wear and tear from the river than other classes of traveling artifacts.
That brings us to floaters. Floaters are artifacts in which the lift cancels out the
drag. Floaters move along the river like old logs, their surfaces just barely above
the sand. You may see only a patch of the blade, a small flat area of worked flint.
Lucky artifact hunters are always on the lookout for these glinting patches that hint
at buried treasures. Floaters often appear after a heavy rainfall or windstorm that
washes or blows away the sand that previously covered most of the artifact.
Floaters basically maintain a balanced, even keel as they make their way
downstream.
Last, but not least, are those artifacts I've named sinkers. Sinkers tend to be
round in cross section. Let me describe a classic sinker that I found. This sinker is a
Woodland Knife, about 3" long. Three fourths of the knife, from the base to near the
tip, is a brownish limestone. The tip itself is a glossy black flint that is fairly well
flaked. But, right smack in the middle of the limestone section is a thick clam
fossil-believe it or not! This gives the knife a distinctive, lumpy look and feel. There's
a lot of usage on the knife, so its owner apparently didn't mind it's strange
lumpiness. When I found this sinker it was lying at the bottom of a small sea of mud
and sludge among black, slimy rocks as big as my head. It had softly sunk into its
smelly bed of sludge, just as low as it could sink. Sinkers are usually found among
large rocks or along the actual streambed, and are rarely seen in sand and gravel.
Well, that about wraps up my artifact hydrodynamics theory for now. It will, I'm
sure, evolve as I find more flint on the river. Dear Reader, if you have discovered
some of the mysteries surrounding arrowhead movement though river strata,
please share. And, the next time you spot a flint tool on the river, please refrain from
touching it until you have asked yourself:
According to Bill's theory of artifact dynamics, is my point a....
Flier, floater, tumbler, or a sinker?
This article was first published
in Indian Artifact Magazine,
and is reprinted for
educational purposes.
in Indian Artifact Magazine,
and is reprinted for
educational purposes.