Native American "bullets"

I was helping backfill some trenches that had been dug on our golf course, and in one shovel full of dirt, I found these three goodies. Don't know anything about flint arrow heads/spear points, but have found a couple of small, broken pieces before, in this same general area. Seemed strange that they were all in the same place. Any ideas? Any place I could go to find out more about them? The trench is 18 inches deep, but I have no idea at what depth these were turned up.

Beautiful! Congrats on the find.

X2

Digging Texas facebook page is excellent.

Wow. Awesome they are not broken! I’d try and go back and look for more if you can.

X2

there are some members that know much more than I about the various points.

That's a remarkable find! Congrats!

Outstanding!

Greg, the Board of Directors of the golf association would probably have me arrested, or at least "brought in for observation" if they caught me digging up what I just covered up a couple of days ago! I might go out there and poke around with a 9 iron or a sand wedge to see what I could find. They wouldn't bother me since they've seen me chili dip enough shots that they would not think anything about it! Seriously, I may go out and ask the groundskeeper if I could do a bit of digging and sifting as long as I repaired my digs.

PM HWY_MAN, he's more of an expert on arrowheads than most.

Very nice.

Don’t know anything about them but, cool find and those look to be in remarkable condition

Texas Chert

https://www.facebook.com/groups/texaschert/

All in the same place is possibly a cache. Bet there is more

Nice! Reminds me of an ex-gf. Her dad's hobby was arrowhead hunting. He had awesome displays all over his house. Her uncle lived in a house between she and her father. Both are VN vets with PTSD. He father's therapy was finding arrowheads, her uncle's therapy was making him happy by knapping them and tossing them out for his brother to find.

I only found out 'cause I went to see her one afternoon and she wasn't home, so I walked over to her uncle's house. I knocked but he's even more deaf than me, but I heard noises in the back yard so I walked around. He was sitting on his patio knapping an arrowhead. When he saw me he put a finger to his lips and went, "Shhhh!" then laughed out loud. Yeah....he was about as nutty as Earnest T. Bass.

The point being held by one of the guys looks almost exactly like the big 'un I found. To my uneducated eye, all the little ones appear to be so similar that I can't tell a whole lot of difference. I'll try to get some better pictures tomorrow, and include measurements, to see if they will help in the identification.

You may be right, Pitman. Either a cache or an accidentally lost bag of points. But I would think the Native Americans would not "accidentally" lose such a valuable batch of points. I would think that when you consider the time it took to locate the flint, knap it, and then attach it to whatever stick they wanted to use it for would make these bullets extremely important to themselves, their families and their tribes.

Heck of a find!!!

Hwy is our arrowhead guy, maybe he will chime in

Here's a bit better pic of the big point, with a tape alongside to add perspective.

I was a member of that group for some time, had too many people posting fake points and quick look tells me they're still doing it.

Need pictures from the side and better light. Two of the points look to be made out of the same agate, the smallest may be also. I've probably got more questions than answers.

Thanks, HWY_MAN. I'll see if I can get some better pics for you to look at.

A few more pics with a bit better lighting:

interesting , Anyone know if these were for hunting man or animal? Is there a difference?

Was there anybody else around while you were doing this?

I don't understand your question. I was working, shoveling dirt back into the trench that the DitchWitch had made for our irrigation system repairs. There were people on all 3 of the fairways that we were working on, but each of us had one trench to refill. So, yes, there were other people around, but we were all working our assigned trenches by ourselves. Is that what you mean?

Or do you have a crazy uncle?

What I'm trying to say and not doing a very good job of is someone may be having a little fun with you. Earlier I made mention of the material being agate a not very common material in Texas. That particular material looks like the agate that comes from India and shipped by the thousands to the US daily in the form of fake arrowheads. Try googling fake arrowheads from India.Agate and Jasper seem to be the more common materials. They don't have the common cherts like we do. I'm also seeing what looks like fresh fracture marks on the bigger piece leaving tiny flakes on the edge. On original pieces these small flakes will have popped of due to time, conditions and moisture. I hope I'm wrong, that would be a heck of a find.

It's a assumption that barbed stem were for hunting animal and straight stem were war points
The idea is that the straight stemmed point would fall off the shaft dislodged in the enemy body. Also the points were hafted vertical for game animals and horizontal for war points. The same theory goes here that it was the purpose of the point to slip in between the ribcage of said target.

OK, so you're thinking maybe somebody "seeded" the trench leavings with the points that were not authentic Native American. I guess that's possible, but I can't imagine any of our group of volunteers doing such a thing, since none of them (us!) know anything about arrowheads and are certainly not collectors. Since the site is about 100 yards from the rodeo arena, and we have hundreds of people, a couple of times a year, visit us to watch and participate in the 2 rodeos we have each year, one of these people might have lost or placed them out in the fairway. A bit of a stretch, but who knows.? They were still a "find" for me and I get a kick out seeing them sitting on my computer desk. If they came from India, they could have been made by one of the "help desk" techs I talk to on a regular basis!

wow , them cats were genius. Now I know . Thanks for the info.

Thanks for the information! I had no idea that there was any more "science" to the making of the various points than to get them to take down the game they were after or "stop the threat."

I wonder if it was some ceremonial area or a burial spot.