Fossilized Dad Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 Hello All, My daughter and I went to the Santa Fe River and dove down even though the water was really deep and moving fast. At the bottom, she found a deer bone tool artifact that was fossilized after thousands of years. We put together a video clip of it all for you. Everything I've read says that this type "pin" is uncommon or rare. Have any of you found something similar? I'd love to hear. https://youtu.be/5rfnghopAjk best wishes, Lloyd 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 These bone pins are fairly common. A few of them are decorated with incised lines. How they were used by NA is open to speculation. The decorated pins may have been used as hairpins. Some pins have expanded heads, some are pointed on both ends. Concentrations of these pins around kill sites suggest they were used in butchering large prey. Probably, these were utility tools, used for a variety of purposes. It is currently illegal to take a NA artifact from a Florida river bottom. 2 http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossilized Dad Posted October 5, 2021 Author Share Posted October 5, 2021 46 minutes ago, Harry Pristis said: These bone pins are fairly common. A few of them are decorated with incised lines. How they were used by NA is open to speculation. The decorated pins may have been used as hairpins. Some pins have expanded heads, some are pointed on both ends. Concentrations of these pin around kill sites suggest they were used in butchering large prey. Probably, these were utility tools, used for a variety of purposes. I'm amazed you find them fairly common! You must be pretty good at finding them compared to other people who post and I haven't watched any Youtube video where people are finding them nearly as much as arrowheads, shark teeth, and other fossils. How many have you found? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossilized Dad Posted October 5, 2021 Author Share Posted October 5, 2021 Also, we definitely don't want to do anything illegal, but I researched the whole dispersed artifact issue and it seems a gray area, so I'm not sure, but we will be reporting our finds as per our permit, and we weren't even sure what it was when we found it, but as you see in the video, she guessed fairly correctly as that's what it looks like. It's a tricky issue, I think, and lots of confusion out there and videos showing many people of repute picking up artifacts from river and creek bottoms. Lloyd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sacha Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 In Florida it really isn't a tricky issue. It is well defined and Harry is correct these are very common in the Santa Fe. Artifact collecting in Florida and especially in the Suwannee Water Management District, is an issue of concern by the state unfortunately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry Pristis Posted October 5, 2021 Share Posted October 5, 2021 Dear Dad, You may be in for a rude awaking before long. Florida artifact laws are a contentious issue, but it is the law. Just Google it. Don't be upset with me; I'm just telling you how it is these days. You're lucky to have found a broken bone pin (most are broken). I thought I had gotten all of them from the Santa Fe! I would say that I've found scores, if not hundreds, of these pins. I display a few. I've sold many more while it was legal. Here are a few: http://pristis.wix.com/the-demijohn-page What seest thou else In the dark backward and abysm of time? ---Shakespeare, The Tempest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossilized Dad Posted October 5, 2021 Author Share Posted October 5, 2021 Ha ha, not mad at you at all. Good to know the laws. Seems like they're not well followed and there's lots of conflicting information out there. We will happily turn in the bone pin if the state wants it and we were ignorant at the time my daughter collected it as we weren't sure of it being an artifact until we got home, thinking it was some unusual spear-like bone (which I guess it is). Lloyd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fossilized Dad Posted October 5, 2021 Author Share Posted October 5, 2021 Also, I know you were joking, but if you "found all of them" then finding any more would be quite rare, haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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