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TAAA Artifact Collecting Tips
TAAA Artifact Collecting Tips 
Recognizing Ancient Indian Camps
Through the years one of the most asked questions I have answered is, "How do I find an Indian campground?" With this series of tips I will address that question...
When searching for a place to look for artifacts, obviously a place where the ancients once lived would be a great place to start looking.
Beginning artifact collectors are perplexed when they tramp out through the bushes looking for signs of past habitation. What should he or she be looking for?
There are many keys...
Burnt Rock - This can be tricky at first but once mastered there will be no doubt when you happen upon a burnt rock midden. Sounds easy, right? Just look for a mound full of burnt rock!
Well, like most things it goes a little deeper than that! Unfortunately for the amateur it is not that easy. First, many middens are buried from natural the erosion of the environment surrounding it. Lots of middens were built at the base of a hill, so that the people would have a natural wind break. As the hill surrounding the midden deteriorates through the thousands of years and washes down over it, the campsite is gradually covered. Personally, I like this type of mound the best because it is as if the dirt has locked the living areas of the ancients into a time capsule, waiting for you to uncover the living room floors that they walked on so long ago.
So, to find this type of midden we would look for hills on the high side and above creeks. Remember, just like you the ancients had to have water! Just because there is no water there now it does not mean that there was not then so check those dry creek beds and draws (what appears to be draws now could have had springs in them thousand of years ago)!
You can usually tell if it was a winter camp or a summer camp by which side the midden was built on. Summer the prevalent wind is from the South and winter its hardest coldness comes from the North winds.
To recognize burnt rock from natural rock can be a little tricky because time has "patinated" the stone nearly back to its original color and it is once again covered with lichen, but there are some things that will designate a burnt rock from a natural rock.
Look for rocks that are "fist sized," that have right angles - sometimes nearly squared and/or rectangular. This is caused from the stone being heated and fracturing. If you are in doubt just take another stone and hit a corner at an angle (watch those flakes, the put your eye out)! Stone that has been in a fire will be brittle (enough so that you will be able to tell from the inside that there is evidence of extreme heat). The rock will have a gray or pink color on the inside (sometimes on the outside too). You should always be aware of these colors when searching for burnt rock middens.
Some burnt rock middens may be an actual mound (or rise in the soil) when you look at it. A search around the midden will tell you that it is made up of these burnt rocks. Middens can be as small 10 to 15 feet to hundreds of yards long.
In some areas the middens will be washed out! South Texas practically has no middens intact today. They have nearly all eroded out. This leaves some great surface hunting but leaves practically no place to dig for artifacts.
Other areas to look for burnt rock middens are along any creeks, water ways or dry draws that appear to have had water in them at one time. Areas to search there are high places (remember, they did not want to get washed away), usually at the bends of the waterway or junctions of other creeks and tributaries.
Out in the pasture lands mounds can be found, especially in the hill country but for an unknown reason many times these middens do not contain artifacts and are said to be sterile of artifacts. Occasionally one will produce so always check!!!
There are many types of middens and campsites. The main ones are: Occupation sites (major areas where they ancients lived, usually a honey hole for artifact hunting), kill sites (small areas where buffalo and deer etc. were butchered after a kill - only some skinning tools, bone choppers are usually found there), over night camping areas (used to spend the night when hunting or traveling from one occupation site to another (broken artifacts can be found there as their extra time was spent flintknapping and retipping AtlAtl spear points), ceremonial sites (sometimes accompanied by petroglyphs or pictographs - these areas have been known to produce some the finest artifacts), rock shelters and wind tunnels, anything large enough for a person to get into (a place to get out of the weather, usually a great place to find artifacts left behind so long ago - be prepared to find broken artifacts here too as this was another place use to prepare their AtlAtl tips) and look outs on tops of hills (here an occasional artifact can be found, usually broken as once again their spare time was used to repair broken tips of their spears).
This pretty much covers burnt rock middens as I can recall off the top of my head. If some of you want to e-mail me with other ideas about middens from your part of the country I will pass them on to our other members in future mailings.
In the next issue of "Collecting Tips" I will cover other things to look for when searching for "Ancient Indian Camp Grounds)"!
If any of you are still confused after this series of tips and feel the need for a guide, I am available by the day (for a fee of course) to search your property with you and designate your middens so that you can get to hunting! Just E-mail me for the cost if interested. All sites are kept confidential, you keep any artifacts that I find that day. I have pointed out some great sites to landowners in the past and would be glad to help those of you willing to pay my fee.
Displaying Artifacts -
It is my opinion that the higher quality points should be put in lockable display cases that are made to be held in place by the pressure of the glass against a soft foam backing. These are available from the Meadows display case company. See his ad and a link at our site (this site is currently not available) http://clik.to/rockart (if this link does not work please contact me). The cost is minimal in comparison to the value of artifacts in today's world. The artifacts of lesser quality and value can be attached using Elmer's white glue on a decorative board of some kind. The Elmer's can be removed by simply immersing the board and points in water at some later date. The artifacts can then be easily removed and the glue will not harm the artifacts. Be careful not to use a cloth backing that will bleed its color though. Just check it in water before using.
Consider having the artifacts appraised because some artifacts that do not
look valuable to the laymen could in fact be worth thousands of dollars,
even for just one.
