Ancient Past

On a walk in the rain yesterday, I found my first artifact of 2025. Half buried in the mud, the notch in the side of this quartz projectile point is what caught my eye. The typology is Lomoka, which were made and used for a long time in the Late Archaic through Middle Woodland periods. If on the earlier side, it means who ever held it last may have lost it around 5,500-4,500 years ago. Either way, this stone point predates the bow and arrow. Instead it was the tip of a spear or dart that was launched from a handheld device called an atlatl. This was a great find for me. 

Next was a real heartbreaker, yet still a good pickup. This Orient Fishtail must have been quite impressive when it was fully intact. I think the mottled brown-gray lithic type is Onondaga Chert, which was likely quarried in what is now New York and made its way here via trade. The Fishtail-type points were made in the Transitional Archaic through Early Woodland periods, which means it could be more than 3,000 years old. 

Wild Peninsula

    Whales have summered here
    Before the Wampanoag,
    And long after us.

Heartbreaker

Finding a broken artifact is much more common than coming across a full, intact piece these days. As my uncle has told me more than once, "there are only crumbs left." Of course there are some great stone tools left to be found, but compared to what has been picked up or built upon already, he has a point. This morning was no different, except that I was very surprised when I saw these two broken pieces laying right next to each other. Was this point broken then discarded by the native who made it?  Or was it lost on a hunt and broken sometime in the hundreds or thousands of years since? I'll never know but it's pretty cool to think about. It was a very cool way to start my day and now it goes into the shadow-box table it goes with the other crumbs.

Jackpot!

I will let the photos do the talking in this post. Needless to say, I am on cloud nine right now after finding the most impressive Native American artifact in my collection. Jackpot indeed!

Good Looking

In heavily developed southern Connecticut, it is very difficult locating spots that still consistently yield Native American artifacts. Many of the farm fields that gave up museum-worthy stone tools to our predecessors are now sub-divisions or shopping malls. And most of the places that we do have left, have been picked over for centuries. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of stuff still out there and, occasionally, we do stumble upon something nice. My friend Derrick and I have been doing much more looking than fishing this spring and it is starting to pay off. I found this intact quartz beauty last week. It was not easy to spot being caked in mud and blending in very well with the other rocks. It is a great feeling when you find a full piece after picking up so many crumbs and it is a great incentive to keep on looking.   

  

A Shore Thing

Long Island Sound has sparked quite a few hobbies of mine over the years, one of which is beach combing for sea glass. I love walking the shoreline on a dropping tide and picking up decades-old shards of frosted glass worn down by the elements. While glass is the most common thing I pick up at the beach, on occasion I'll hit the jackpot with something much older and more rare, Native American artifacts. It is not always easy determining what is a stone tool or not after hundreds, if not thousands, of years tumbling in the surf. Glass is much easier to spot, but uncommon colors like shades of blue, red, purple, and yellow are the coveted pieces. Sea glass is cool to give as gifts to friends and I am sitting on a stockpile at home that I'd like to turn into jewelry someday and make a buck or two. My younger brother and I visited a sea glass hotspot yesterday. We filled two 30-gallon bags with trash before the karma bank coughed up this nice find below. 

Later that day I kept the shore theme going and tried something I had been meaning to for a long time, clamming! As a seafood lover, it only seems natural that I hunt and gather my own on occasion. Whether it's bluefish or blue crab, the meal always tastes better when you catch it and cook it yourself. Soft-shell clams (a.k.a. steamers) are a favorite summertime appetizer in New England and beyond. As with many types of harvesting from the Sound, successful shell-fishing requires good location. I stumbled upon a productive spot just by watching veteran clammers fill their buckets each weekend. Shellfish regulations vary from town to town, so be sure to check your municipality's website before heading out. Clean water is a must for safe human consumption and without recent heavy rains, we had a perfect window give it a shot.

Soft-shell clams from Long Island Sound

The tools for digging steamers are easily attainable; a garden or spading fork, work gloves, a pad to kneel on, and a bucket.  The tasty bivalves are sometimes called "piss clams" for good reason, as their long necks or siphons, used to filter water for food, give up their location by squirting water when pressure is applied to the ground around them. Shell-fishermen simply throw rocks or bang their tools against the mud to locate their pissing quarry. Soft-shell clams have, you guessed it, soft shells, so be careful not to break them while digging. They are usually not much deeper than six inches and are often found in bunches. We dug more than five dozen clams in one afternoon session--not bad for a couple of rookies.   

An afternoon's haul of steamer clams

The clams should be kept in a bucket of saltwater so they can filter out the sand inside their shells. A few water changes and an overnight soak is ideal, but there is at least one way to speed up the purging process.  I learned that by adding a cup of cornmeal to the bucket helps. Apparently the steamers filter the cornmeal laden water, which causes irritation and forces them to spit out any silt and sand quicker. Some seafood fans prefer the sandy grit when eating shellfish, but I gave the cornmeal a try and it worked quite well. A few water changes and some cornmeal and we had a ready-to-cook appetizer in a few hours time. The cooking process is the easiest part of the deal. Steam the clams in a pot with an inch or two of water (cup of beer optional) until the shells open wide. After that pour water from the pot into a bowl for a dipping broth. You can melt butter in another bowl for some added post-broth flavor, although these clams were so sweet they didn't need it!

There is no better appetizer for summer in New England

A Good Find

A friend and I hunted a corn field today. We weren't after deer or upland birds, we were surface hunting for Native American artifacts. This particular spot abuts a large river and is full of evidence of early man. More than likely there was a large village at this site on and off for thousands of years. The field has been picked over by collectors for decades, but after each big rain or spring till we are presented with a new look. On this trip we some flakes of quartz and flint that were refuse from when the American indians produced projectile points. We also found some clam shells, a good sign when you're more than 30 miles from the coast. The best find of the day, however, came right before the sun sank behind the tree line, as I picked up a small broken point; a big addition to my growing collection. It's what I would call a "heart-breaker;" not a full point, but complete enough to know how much skill was needed to make it. Needless to say, we'll be going back to this site again soon. 

Wolf Moon

Moon phases play a major role in Native American culture. Each month's full moon was given at least one name by the natives; sometimes several. One of January's full moon names is the Wolf Moon, which derives from when hungry wolf packs would howl outside indian villages on winter nights. 

It was under a bright Wolf Moon that I last walked on the ice. Our headlamps were more or less useless during setup in the predawn hours. The temperature dropped to zero degrees, yet we still worked up a sweat. After base camp was settled, the sun rose over the tree line and tip-up flags started popping. Maybe the full moon turned on the trout bite? It was a great day on the ice either way. 

Point Well Taken

I stumbled upon an amazing find while walking the shoreline with my better half today. My heart nearly skipped a beat as I picked up a fully intact Native American projectile point. It's just the fifth full point in my modest collection, but definitely the most rewarding because of where it was found--right in my hometown on Long Island Sound. Below is a photo of the artifact worn down by the elements. I believe the typology is known as "Bare Island" and the tool was most likely last touched by human hands a couple thousand years ago. Pretty cool to think about.