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Latest auction find.

Picked this Hopewell Cache Blade (100 B.C.- 500 A.D.) up at a recent auction I was working. I coordinate the phone bids and am one of 5 bidders. The cash I make goes straight into the auction on a goodie or two for me.
This blade is made of grey with blue hues, Flint Ridge flint. It measures three and a half inches in length.

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Cache blades are occasionally found in Hopewell mounds and less often in isolated caches of only a few blades.
Most classic Hopewell Cache blades appear to have been made as preforms rather than intentionally fashioned burial pieces.
As preforms the blades were deposited/hidden by their aboriginal owner. They were later retrieved when needed and then notches were added so it could be hafted as a knife or tool.

Here is a classic Ohio Hopewell point.
Note the large corner notches at the base where the blade was hafted to a wood or bone handle.
So had the above blade been finished by adding the corner notches, it would resemble this one.

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HH

Analog Rules! Knobs and Switches are cool!
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Comments

  • dcamp78dcamp78 Posts: 1,082 ✭✭
    Sweet. I used to find arrow heads all of the time when I was a kid...
    Big Dave
    -------------------------
    Good trades with: DaveN, Tydye, IStillLikeZARCoins, Fjord, Louie, BRdude
    Good buys from: LordMarcovan, Aethelred, Ajaan, PrivateCoinCollector, LindeDad, Peaceman, Spoon, DrJules, jjrrww
    Good sale to: Nicholasz219
  • I'll say it again John. That's gorgeous. image
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  • laserartlaserart Posts: 2,255
    How do you date something like that?
    "If I had a nickel for every nickel I ever had, I'd have all my nickels back".
  • phutphut Posts: 1,087
    Nice looking piece.



    << <i>How do you date something like that? >>

    Dinner and a moonlit walk on the beach?
  • >><< <I>How do you date something like that? </I>>>

    Dinner and a moonlit walk on the beach? <<

    LOL...That's the ticket---and a little detecting by moonlight. Just the way to make an impression on your date.image


    Jerry
    CROCK of COINS
    imageimage


  • << <i>Nice looking piece.



    << <i>How do you date something like that? >>

    Dinner and a moonlit walk on the beach? >>




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    The Hopewell culture is dated from Carbon-14 results taken from their once numerous mound and geometric earth works.
    This was a very flamboyant burial culture that left plenty of evidence of their exhistance...though most of that evidence has been destroyed.
    Analog Rules! Knobs and Switches are cool!
    imageimage
  • dtkk49adtkk49a Posts: 2,489 ✭✭✭
    I'm not too familiar with arrowheads. How do you know this wasn't made just yesterday?
    Follow me - Cards_and_Coins on Instagram



    They call me "Pack the Ripper"


  • << <i>I'm not too familiar with arrowheads. How do you know this wasn't made just yesterday? >>



    I've collected artifacts for the past 20 years and have studied literally 100,000's of artifacts. Fakes are quite common but once you get to know correct chipping patterns, blade styles, and the presence of good patination, the fakes are usually easily identified.
    In the left hand view of the blade above you will see two small chips on the right hand blade edge. Those chips and the rust colored spots were caused from riding the iron plow over numerous years of farming. The patination change is easily seen in the chipped areas as they don't have the gloss and sheen of the rest of the blade. Fresh quarried flint is dull and has no gloss or patination.
    Also the auctions I attend only allow good artifacts to be sold. Most people in attendance are the top collectors in the surrounding states and many are officers and members of the Archeological Society of Ohio.
    Analog Rules! Knobs and Switches are cool!
    imageimage
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