My lease in Comanche County has provided years of artifact hunting opportunities. Most of the finds are flint (arrow heads, drills, lots of scrapers, the "tang" end of a corner tang knife, etc.). I have located three separate areas that have lots of hard sandstone type rocks. Some of these have been fashioned into tools.

The tools might just seem like rocks to the casual observer. But, the beveled or chiseled edges and points indicate human altering of the rocks. They also fit the hand (always the right hand; left handed Indians must have been converted to right hand early on).

Anyway, I have enough stuff to place groups of tools or large single tools on here each day for about a week. So, stay tuned for new photos each day. If you enjoy this stuff half as much as I do, we should have lots to talk about. I look forward to opinions and thoughts from the Outdoor Board.

Looking forward to this thread.

I look forward your other threads as well!

I'm going to tack on a photo of a couple of broken points I've found. These came from Burnet County:



I've got some more in my office I'll post tomorrow.

Bone crackers maybe. To get the marrow or shape bones for use as other tools or needles, etc.

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The tools might just seem like rocks to the casual observer

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Yep, I know of some rocks that I have stepped over for years, sometimes casually looking at them. Finally it dawns on me that a rock has been shaped by human hands.

I have a piece of limestone that is worn and shaped sort of like a long bar of soap. The best I can figure is that they used it to grind something. And there are several others around similar to it.

That is a nuttin stone. It looks like something, but it really is nuttin.

^^^
Top one is a sex stone. Just a f*ckin' rock!

The stone "awls" definitely look like they had a use...

fishing-looks like two broken Pedernales points and 1 ChapStick

Look forward to seeing the other posts...

One thing I've noticed over the years about tool artifacts: the good ones not only look worked on the edges or points; they are shaped to fit the hand. Good scrapers will have a large cut-out or flake for the palm below the thumb and/or the thumb. The stone pictured in the first photo, while not a scraper, has both plus an extended rounded area that fits deep into the right palm.

We'll look at some good scrapers later. The three tools pictured below are obviously grind stones. I have not found intact bowls; however, a lease buddy found the corner and bottom of one that was about two inches deep. We can understand the reason that tribal skulls found in burials often have teeth ground down to the gum line. Imagine the sand that was in every meal from grinding tools and bowls.

Those are some great manos! Be great to find you a metate to set one of those in...

Perd I knocked out in Leakey
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Nice manos. The metates will be there. Are all these surface finds?? Agree on the broken projectile points above as Pedernales.

Keep the pics coming!

Someone asked if the pics are all surface finds. Everything that I have found is on the surface. Of course that subjects those finds to cattle stomping on them, plowing, grading, grubbing, vegetation, etc. I guess that is the reason that so much on the surface is broken; that, and the fact that it might have been broken by the user in the first place.

hey thx for making this thread , neat stuff

Here are some various scrapers I've found (Bell, Travis, Williamson, Burnet, Mason Counties)


Here's a larger piece from Guadalupe County


This is a piece of fired limestone that has had an edge put on it from Travis County


Point with base broken off from Bell County


And this is the only fully intact intact point I've ever found. I believe this is a Nolan point, found in Williamson County
Finally got the top picture to work.

Just curious what area of Comanche County you are in. I am familiar.

Off Hwy. 590 southwest of Mercers Gap. Part of the lease is Brown County.

Nice. Fairly close to Blanket then. ...sort of.

The photos this morning are two large hammer stones; the largest one is about seven pounds and is nicely beveled on the edges although it cannot be readily seen in the photograph. The second one is blunt on both ends. I guess they were used for crushing bones and opening skulls. Both stones were found in a camp ground area.
In the next few days look for photos of more stone tools, "holy stones", variations of flint scrapers, tomahawk heads, and some decent arrowheads.

The photos this morning are two large hammer stones; the largest one is about seven pounds and is nicely beveled on the edges although it cannot be readily seen in the photograph. The second one is blunt on both ends. I guess they were used for crushing bones and opening skulls. Both stones were found in a camp ground area.
In the next few days look for photos of more stone tools, "holy stones", variations of flint scrapers, tomahawk heads, and some decent arrowheads.

I found these recently at a project site west of Medina along the headwaters of Rocky Creek. Whoever made the one on the bottom had a Ph.D in arrowhead crafting. I've found lots of pieces before and even some fully intact points, but only one other small bird point I found comes close to rivaling the detail, symmetry, and fragile construction of this one.

Middle one looks like someone got started and decided it wasn't heading the right direction, or their squaw came over and nagged them about finding some meat for dinner so they set it aside and forgot about it. The top one was a piece of something large like the bottom corner of a lance or spear point, just not enough of it to tell much.

fishing - that point have a bifurcated base? kinda looks like it in the pic. Not characteristic of a Nolan I don't think. Could be a heavily resharped pedernales.

raider, I deduced that from some Google research I did, so the odds I'm wrong are good. Archeologist I know has suggested the following:

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Probably a Darl point from a hand- or atlatl-thrown dart, maybe 1000-3000 years old, something like that.

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ETA: yes, it is slightly bifurcated.

Construction - that looks like a Scallorn. Would've been a real beauty!

Not as nice as yours would've been but this Sabinal is one of my favorite personal finds. About 1 1/8"
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Construction and Raider,
Those are some nice points. Reminds me of the best point I ever found. While at TAMU, a vet student told me about a big feed lot west of town on the Brazos; said there had been lots of points found there; Varisco's Lot or something like that. Anyway, hunted there a few times and found a really fine perfect point in a muddy lot with a hundred head of cows. It disappeared from my desk drawer. Only thing I ever had stolen while in Aggieland.

Bookmarking so I can look at it tonight.

FTR, the archeology crowd tends to gets the red ass about people digging for arrowheads. Everything I've found has been surface finds.

And metal detector people are generally regarded as lowlifes as well.

My fiance found this on her dad's land in NE Texas. It's small, thin and has delicate serrations, not sure how it survived the first shot/throw. The craftsmanship is outstanding.

First time posting pics from a mobile, apologies if this doesn't work...

If she has that kind of talent, you should marry that girl. That is a very unusual find with the upswept barbs.

It's a bit of a mystery as to what these were used for. Each has beveled edges. Any ideas???

Another mystery is the number of triangular shaped stones located in and around these camps.

The last photo is the back of a scraper with a handle. The leading edge is worked. The inside is dished out. It's an unusual piece.