Digging at a previously dug shelter and finding lots of flint and some cool artifacts. #kentucky #arrowheadhunting #arrowhead #artifacts #relics #cavesandcliffs #nature #archaeology #nativeamerican #digging
Typical looters rarely dig past 6”-12”. You guys need to get into that shelter and go deeper. For digging, use a grinding wheel to round off the edges of a flathead screwdriver. Also try digging by inserting the screwdriver horizontally, most points are buried flat and coming at them from a vertical angle increases the chances of a heartbreaker. Dig and screen that shelter until you hit bedrock, and you’ll be spending the rest of your free time filling display cases. Take depth measurements to help tell the story of their timeline. Thank You for sharing! Please keep us updated
We will definitely be sifting off all that material inside the shelter. I agree that most don’t dig very deep in the dry of the shelter because I’ve found some killer stuff digging down past where others have stopped excavating. We’ve already found a couple small pieces of bone in there and lots of flint just from test digging. Thanks for watching and for your helpful hints! I’ll definitely keep y’all posted on how it goes!
This is not good advice for Kentucky. It is illegal to dig without a permit. You speak of looters but this is what he’s doing, looting. Taking depth measurements is only effective if he knows what he’s looking at. Without the proper excavation techniques and knowledge of analyses he’s removing these artifacts from their context and nothing can really be learned about them other than possible what type of tool it is. Also, there is more to know about the people who made the tools than lithics. Botanicals are an important part of understanding the climate and the diet of the people who were there. They didn’t always have cultivation techniques and once the dirt is all jumbled up there’s no way of getting a timeline.
What if they are on private property? And I see your point but there are already more sites that are undisturbed that archeologists don’t have time to get to as it is. Plus this has already been disturbed.
You do realize that digging for artifacts without a permit in Kentucky is a federal offense? Regardless of how badly it’s been hit before it’s still unethical.
cool knapping floor you have discovered , shame it will be mostly stuff broken during the manufacture . try the creeks and sites 100 yards or so away , you may start to find the finished pieces lost during use . hopefully you find a stash of finished first stage bifaces that had been "mis cached" somewhere and forgotten about , new sub
I keep hoping also to find a nice finished cache there but time will tell. Lots of material there that’s for sure. Thank you for watching and subscribing!
Wow... I just opened this up and it took me back to my days growing up in KY. Over in the Jackson Purchase we don't quite have this topography, but I traveled a lot to the east, Berea, Albany, Cumberland Falls.. Stayed in a lot of parks out that way
Yeah there’s a lot of beautiful country over here in the eastern part of the state. But y’all in the western part of the state have much better artifacts where the big rivers are out that way and were occupied more heavily by native peoples. Thanks for watching!
I’ve got a place very similar to that in North central Arkansas in the Ozarks. We also dig below the cave. I use a 3 pronged handheld trencher and find that large tree roots are good places to start looking.
We don’t have much luck creek hunting in this area because our creeks are full of sediment from mining and logging. Digging is fun and can be very productive even in a field if you can zero in on good spots. Thanks for watching and wish you luck on your artifact hunts!
You and Mackie did pretty well! I'm still not sure what's going on with that site. But, I remain convinced that somebody is gonna find something monumental there! Take care Josh! (I'll call you in a day or two.)
Yeah I agree, there’s just so much material there that the odds of finding something killer are great! Good to hear from you buddy, just holler at me anytime.
Looks like a cave in Letcher/Bledsoe/Harlan area we dug lightly in 30 yrs ago...got ringworm around my beltline that took 2 years to eradicate!! And I was an Rx! Pine Mountain area...used to hang out at Pine Mtn Settlement School where best friend was head cheese
You should get a come along and move those big rocks they would have fallen from the top of the shelter hundreds of years ago probably all kinds of stuff under them they couldn't get at you could hook it to that tree right in front of shelter
Another great video, man. You've inspired me to dig some places well outside the main shelter. I bet them folks that looted it never thought to check way down the hill...the drip line, maybe. But, not way down yonder. So, good on ya for beating them to it! Y'all are bound to turn out a smoker before too long. As always, thank you for sharing and keep up the good work. It's much appreciated.
I think it’s sure worth a persons time to really check below the drip line of any shelter where there’s material inside the overhang. After years of digging behind other people I’ve learned how to get creative in finding what others have overlooked lol. It’s a lot of work going through all those rocks and roots but sometimes the payoff is sweet. Good luck on your digs and thanks as always for watching and for your insightful comments!
The only place I personally knew that said wharsh. Instead of wash. Was this county in the south western part of North Carolina in the Appalachian foot hills. I was born and raised in the piedmont. That a gold mine awesome
Not trying to be disrespectful because I love to hunt too, but if you're going to call these other folks digging in the shelter looters, what does that make you
If possible in your location join your local archeological society and/or your local mineralogical society. Joining either or both will be a real informative and eye opening experience. The horror stories told by members will pop your top. Here's and example, Which museum dumped three truck loads of donated Native American artifacts into a land fill because "they needed the space." AND there are countless stories of lifetime collectors who, having passed away, had their life time accumulation of minerals/artifacts trashed by their remaining family members who were clueless and couldn't care less. So let your family know what you've got and what it's worth.
My father in law was a biology professor and the things he collected out of trash at Wake Forest in the 60-70s would blow your mind. Whole numbered and cataloged collections. He gave them all to me...I love em but wish I'd found them!!
Maybe but I figure if we start at the tail end of where the material begins and slowly work our way uphill towards the cave we won’t miss anything. I’d rather be thorough and try not to miss everything than hot spot dig and miss a bunch of stuff.
Bro that is a beautiful looking shelter! Killer looking too bad it was wiped out.. keep digging. Why do you think there is so much material way down low below the shelter?? I’m digging a site overlooking a river your insight would help me. Thanks
My opinion is that people were sitting in that area where they could be in the open and see better as well as keeping all that sharp debitage out of their living space. I believe some of the larger rocks embedded there were likely used as seats or work stations where they kept resources like flint cores, bifaces, or tools stashed. Thanks for watching and good luck on your dig!
@@quicksandoutdoors6538 I first started finding flakes in motorcycles ruts, this was totally by accident. I don’t think anyone has been at this site! So far after 2 digs super shallow 6-8” we found 2 broken cashe blades and a mid archaic tip and a bunch of flakes. I found this late fall only dug it 2x before winter so I’m dying to get back on it. We hardly moved much material at all.
I don’t believe they’ve been there hundreds of thousands of years. Humans have only been in North America for around 14,000-15,000 years. As to how they got on the surface I’m not sure, could be several explanations
So the people who ripped out the interior of the rock shelter were looters? And what exactly do you think you are doing by simply ripping up the ground outside the mouth of the shelter and down the slope? You record nothing, document nothing and make it so that any serious study of that are is now pointless. You have contributed to destroying the history of that place as much as those you call "looters".
Typical looters rarely dig past 6”-12”. You guys need to get into that shelter and go deeper. For digging, use a grinding wheel to round off the edges of a flathead screwdriver. Also try digging by inserting the screwdriver horizontally, most points are buried flat and coming at them from a vertical angle increases the chances of a heartbreaker. Dig and screen that shelter until you hit bedrock, and you’ll be spending the rest of your free time filling display cases. Take depth measurements to help tell the story of their timeline. Thank You for sharing! Please keep us updated
We will definitely be sifting off all that material inside the shelter. I agree that most don’t dig very deep in the dry of the shelter because I’ve found some killer stuff digging down past where others have stopped excavating. We’ve already found a couple small pieces of bone in there and lots of flint just from test digging. Thanks for watching and for your helpful hints! I’ll definitely keep y’all posted on how it goes!
Good advice
This is not good advice for Kentucky. It is illegal to dig without a permit. You speak of looters but this is what he’s doing, looting. Taking depth measurements is only effective if he knows what he’s looking at. Without the proper excavation techniques and knowledge of analyses he’s removing these artifacts from their context and nothing can really be learned about them other than possible what type of tool it is. Also, there is more to know about the people who made the tools than lithics. Botanicals are an important part of understanding the climate and the diet of the people who were there. They didn’t always have cultivation techniques and once the dirt is all jumbled up there’s no way of getting a timeline.
What if they are on private property? And I see your point but there are already more sites that are undisturbed that archeologists don’t have time to get to as it is. Plus this has already been disturbed.
You do realize that digging for artifacts without a permit in Kentucky is a federal offense? Regardless of how badly it’s been hit before it’s still unethical.
Looted... just like what ur doin. Lol
The time spent making your finds available to us is much appreciated.😊
I learned something today. If someone else does it, it's "looting".
If l do it it's just "digging".
Good to know! 👍
..
ALL these findings are proof that there are great things there friend. Much vestige that they were there. Greetings and blessings.
I just hope they dropped or forgot a few nice big artifacts for us to find lol. Thanks for watching and commenting🙏
As always enjoyed watching thanks for sharing 👍
Glad you enjoyed it!
Looked like a great day out.
Thanks for sharing and God bless.
Thanks Robert, glad you enjoyed it!
Good video guy’s that shelter looks amazing. Good luck and God bless
Thank you 🙏
Good to see someone for KY with a CZcams channel for Native American artifacts!!! You can find some awesome artifacts here!
Thank you! Artifact hunting is my favorite hobby and I’m glad to be able to share my finds and experiences with others who are interested.
I appreciate y'all for your puttin videos on here.im wayne county and been digging round here all m to life,. Middle tn is were it's at
cool knapping floor you have discovered , shame it will be mostly stuff broken during the manufacture . try the creeks and sites 100 yards or so away , you may start to find the finished pieces lost during use . hopefully you find a stash of finished first stage bifaces that had been "mis cached" somewhere and forgotten about , new sub
I keep hoping also to find a nice finished cache there but time will tell. Lots of material there that’s for sure. Thank you for watching and subscribing!
Wow... I just opened this up and it took me back to my days growing up in KY. Over in the Jackson Purchase we don't quite have this topography, but I traveled a lot to the east, Berea, Albany, Cumberland Falls.. Stayed in a lot of parks out that way
Yeah there’s a lot of beautiful country over here in the eastern part of the state. But y’all in the western part of the state have much better artifacts where the big rivers are out that way and were occupied more heavily by native peoples. Thanks for watching!
I’ve got a place very similar to that in North central Arkansas in the Ozarks. We also dig below the cave. I use a 3 pronged handheld trencher and find that large tree roots are good places to start looking.
Just found your channel. Looks like a great spot to be! Good luck!
Thank you and hope you enjoyed watching!
Great video I also hunt artifacts mostly creek walks. But I may just start digging.
We don’t have much luck creek hunting in this area because our creeks are full of sediment from mining and logging. Digging is fun and can be very productive even in a field if you can zero in on good spots. Thanks for watching and wish you luck on your artifact hunts!
You and Mackie did pretty well! I'm still not sure what's going on with that site. But, I remain convinced that somebody is gonna find something monumental there! Take care Josh! (I'll call you in a day or two.)
Yeah I agree, there’s just so much material there that the odds of finding something killer are great! Good to hear from you buddy, just holler at me anytime.
Looks like a cave in Letcher/Bledsoe/Harlan area we dug lightly in 30 yrs ago...got ringworm around my beltline that took 2 years to eradicate!! And I was an Rx!
Pine Mountain area...used to hang out at Pine Mtn Settlement School where best friend was head cheese
Ni e finds. That long blade is nice. Looks like it fractured lengthwise. Thanks for sharing.
You should get a come along and move those big rocks they would have fallen from the top of the shelter hundreds of years ago probably all kinds of stuff under them they couldn't get at you could hook it to that tree right in front of shelter
Another great video, man. You've inspired me to dig some places well outside the main shelter. I bet them folks that looted it never thought to check way down the hill...the drip line, maybe. But, not way down yonder. So, good on ya for beating them to it! Y'all are bound to turn out a smoker before too long. As always, thank you for sharing and keep up the good work. It's much appreciated.
I think it’s sure worth a persons time to really check below the drip line of any shelter where there’s material inside the overhang. After years of digging behind other people I’ve learned how to get creative in finding what others have overlooked lol. It’s a lot of work going through all those rocks and roots but sometimes the payoff is sweet. Good luck on your digs and thanks as always for watching and for your insightful comments!
You are digging in the flint workshop.
It looks like a lot of chips that were produced in the manufacture of flint tools. That’s probably why you just found broken pieces.
Looks like the debitage pile. Where they threw the broken stuff
I've dug out beyond the dripline over the bank like that and I've seen plenty of points come out of that
Thank you for for showing me to look for Flint. This is a good learning experience for me.
You’re very welcome, glad to help!
Get those big roof rocks in the shelter flipped over and search under there. Bound to be something good hiding beneath them
The only place I personally knew that said wharsh. Instead of wash. Was this county in the south western part of North Carolina in the Appalachian foot hills. I was born and raised in the piedmont. That a gold mine awesome
Not trying to be disrespectful because I love to hunt too, but if you're going to call these other folks digging in the shelter looters, what does that make you
Those pieces on top are discards from the people who were digging above
If possible in your location join your local archeological society and/or your local mineralogical society. Joining either or both will be a real informative and eye opening experience. The horror stories told by members will pop your top. Here's and example, Which museum dumped three truck loads of donated Native American artifacts into a land fill because "they needed the space." AND there are countless stories of lifetime collectors who, having passed away, had their life time accumulation of minerals/artifacts trashed by their remaining family members who were clueless and couldn't care less. So let your family know what you've got and what it's worth.
My father in law was a biology professor and the things he collected out of trash at Wake Forest in the 60-70s would blow your mind. Whole numbered and cataloged collections. He gave them all to me...I love em but wish I'd found them!!
I've found lots of pieces like these. My guess is that they failed in the process of manufacture and were discarded.
I think you are digging in there trash pile you should move up closer to the base of the cave but it all looks good though
Maybe but I figure if we start at the tail end of where the material begins and slowly work our way uphill towards the cave we won’t miss anything. I’d rather be thorough and try not to miss everything than hot spot dig and miss a bunch of stuff.
Bro that is a beautiful looking shelter! Killer looking too bad it was wiped out.. keep digging. Why do you think there is so much material way down low below the shelter?? I’m digging a site overlooking a river your insight would help me. Thanks
My opinion is that people were sitting in that area where they could be in the open and see better as well as keeping all that sharp debitage out of their living space. I believe some of the larger rocks embedded there were likely used as seats or work stations where they kept resources like flint cores, bifaces, or tools stashed. Thanks for watching and good luck on your dig!
@@quicksandoutdoors6538 thanks brother good info. I am finding flakes over my hill but it might be runoff? But I need further inspection..
@@scottnock5241 Surface chips could be from runoff or others diggers but if you start finding them a few inches deep you’re on the right track.
@@quicksandoutdoors6538 I first started finding flakes in motorcycles ruts, this was totally by accident. I don’t think anyone has been at this site! So far after 2 digs super shallow 6-8” we found 2 broken cashe blades and a mid archaic tip and a bunch of flakes. I found this late fall only dug it 2x before winter so I’m dying to get back on it. We hardly moved much material at all.
@@scottnock5241 Sounds like you’re on the right track then! I’d say just keep digging there and you’ll turn up something killer
ya'll oughta rent a rotary tiller and run it slowly through all of that stuff being careful not to let it break things.
I was wondering why flakes would be on top after hundreds of thousands of years?
I don’t believe they’ve been there hundreds of thousands of years. Humans have only been in North America for around 14,000-15,000 years. As to how they got on the surface I’m not sure, could be several explanations
It was supposed to read or not of !
Get to work 😂😂😂
So the people who ripped out the interior of the rock shelter were looters? And what exactly do you think you are doing by simply ripping up the ground outside the mouth of the shelter and down the slope? You record nothing, document nothing and make it so that any serious study of that are is now pointless. You have contributed to destroying the history of that place as much as those you call "looters".