Is this an arrow head?

[Sunshine40]

Last week while antalope hunting in Idaho I was walking back to camp from a failed stalk through a river bed and found this piece of obsidian in the creek bottom. To me it looks like a broken arrow point but I'm not sure. It appears to have napping or tooling marks along the top edge. The bottom edge appears to have broken off a long time ago. The entire piece is quite worn down and rounded from being in the water for so long but you can still see what looks like where it was worked on. I know quite a few points have been found in the area but I'm not sure. I attaced some pictures for your guys opinions.

 

[RockAndSage]

It's definitely been worked, but what it was is hard to say. Could have been anything from a failed attempt at making a point, to part of a scraper, or part of a core of some kind. Whatever it is, it was definitely worked by humans at some point.

What really stands out is that erosive/abrasive wear - I've never seen anything like that. While it may be possible it was tumbled in a flash-flood type of turbulence, causing that much wear, it may also be possible that that is also just a very old item. Definitely cool to see.

 

[Nickofthewoods]

Really hard to tell from those photos but it could have been an attempt at one or part that was chipped off during construction of whatever was being made. Here are a few different types of broken projectile points made from black obsidian that I found on my property.

 

[roadrunner]

A lot of times what we think may be a tip for an arrow, spear (or atlatl) is really a small handheld cutting tool for butchering - think along the line of a small paring knife of sorts.

 

[Sunshine40]

I found it in the bottom of a pretty active creek bed where most of the rocks showed considerable wear and erosion. It's probably had water running over it for quite some time.

 

[Dos Perros]

@Sunshine40, can we make this the master "is this an arrowhead or other sort of artifact" thread? I got a few I'd like to throw up.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Aside from you referring to it as a possible arrow head, I would have thought tomahawk head. I agree, if it is actually an artifact, it's likely a small cutting tool.

 

[5MilesBack]

I found these pieces right outside of my camp a few years ago.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I found these pieces right outside of my camp a few years ago.
View attachment 753708

Bingo.

 

[Schism]

I found this in my backyard after moving snow that was on top of a fill dirt pad made for a detached garage. It must have been in the fill dirt. Knowing where the dirt came from it seems an obvious spot an archer would have sat and observed the landscape while hunting.

 

[Beendare]

A buddy in KS has a huge collection.

He says most of the arrowheads are pretty small- like 1” long or so….and what we think of as arrowheads are actually spear points.

 

[5MilesBack]

When I was a kid we'd always hunt for arrowheads while my dad was flyfishing on our trips. One year we found part of a broken spear head. The next year we found another piece of it. And the year after that we found the last piece of it. It's about 6" long and about an inch wide. Cool stuff.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

I found this in my backyard after moving snow that was on top of a fill dirt pad made for a detached garage. It must have been in the fill dirt. Knowing where the dirt came from it seems an obvious spot an archer would have sat and observed the landscape while hunting.


View attachment 753721

That's an absolute.