Thought I'd share some finds from MDW.

Nice. The chert they used on that bottom one is particularly artful.

Those are some sweet finds, thanks for sharing!!

Buddy's place in the hill country, uvalde co. He's on em big time. This photo is from one mound over the past month or so.

Skid steer and sifting table. Would be impossible to find these points by hand. The specific part of the mound we dig is called a midden and it's a lot of burnt and cracked cubic stone densely packed.

I really like to dig. Here's a point from several weeks ago on a private dig.

I've dug quite a few sites. People do dig with shovels. I have myself. It is much slower and much more difficult although most digging is slow. The standard method is using a skid steer and tables with expanded metal tops. Most of the time when I have dug we average 3' in depth. However, some sites are much deeper. I have dug one site where we averaged 5". Obviously older stuff is deeper.

How do the arrowheads get so far under ground? Is it a localized geological process that isn't happening where the surface arrowheads are?

There are some areas near my house where million year old shark teeth are laying on the surface or barely covered. Just curious how thousand year old artifacts are deeper than million year old fossils. I assume it's different combinations of silt deposits from floods and erosion?

I'm not saying what to do or not do, but for me personally, I would not dig into a burial mound and take anything. I've been around many mounds in west Texas where you could see arrowheads and other tools used, and even the rancher advised against taking anything. IMO, it's the same as grave digging. Just my .02

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/10/the-bodies-in-the-cave

This was an interesting read. Ive never posted a link to an article before on Texags, so if it doesn't work I apologize.

Also not condoning digging gravesites. I don't think anyone above in this thread has either. If you are able to access and read the article, the author does make a point I had not heard before. He says that there are obviously looters, but also that many diggers are people who would have been archeologists if their lives had taken one or two different turns. He goes on to say that the natives are no longer around to be caretakers of this stuff and many of these people are the next best thing. I'm paraphrasing what I recall reading of course.

I'm pretty busy so I hope everyone has a good Saturday.

I think most people are going to be a little cautious about posting pics of too much on a public forum. But to touch on your question about "mounds" briefly. We are not talking burial mounds or some kind of ceremonial mounds. Most are talking about middens, which were/are earthen ovens. The use process resulted in lots of burnt and fragmented rock. Well-used middens sometimes may be a foot or so above ground level and are easily spotted. They are very common in areas. Sometimes they are barely visible and the trained eye notices rock and lithic debris. People dig middens because they are simply an area of concentration within a camp site.

Midden site (type of mound) mentioned above

Middens can be found by locating piled up cubic cracked rock (cracked from heat). Lots of times you can see this rock on the surface, however it's "just the tip of the iceberg". The midden can go surface level all the way down to the bed rock several feet sub surface. The deeper you get the older the points. Mounds were used by different native groups over the span of thousands of years. Lots of ash is usually a good sign when trying to dig for artifacts as well.

this is arrowhead hunting

Surface finds from Junction this weekend.
I don't even know if these are artifacts or not but the kids liked them

Surface find Milam county

No TV, internet or books back then. They sat around after work and made arrowheads and spear points.

Doc Hayworth said:

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I'm not saying what to do or not do, but for me personally, I would not dig into a burial mound and take anything. I've been around many mounds in west Texas where you could see arrowheads and other tools used, and even the rancher advised against taking anything. IMO, it's the same as grave digging. Just my .02

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Meh, if I bury a hammer I really don't care if someone digs it up 500 years from now.