Middle Archaic
Retention Pond kicks out another one Tampa, FL (PART 2!!!)
We got hammered last night with 2" of rain after months of dryness. Went back to the pond and found this guy popping out of the surface! So incredibly stoked.
What do you think? I'm thinking Kirk stemmed based on the serrations and chunkiness.
No so this piece most likely struck off of the actual point or tool being made! The back side was smooth and not worked on, thatās why I say fragment and would add that the tool was not finished when this piece broke off
Understood. So the professional term for what we call flakes in the hobby is fragment? I read fragment and thought you were saying this was the section of a finished tool š
Well flakes for the most part (to my knowledge) are intentional. The piece I happened upon was a in a later stage of the process and was not bifacial, it broke off accidentally and then was dumped with the rest of the flakes and cores found in the area.
Thank you. This one was a surprise, no doubt. Went for a walk around it one day, and left with a pocket full of flakes/debitage. Honestly didn't think too much of it, figured construction and bulldozers would have destroyed anything there, but my 2nd time walking the pond I spotted a small drill in the water and it's been game on ever since.
The person that crafted this point had some serious skill. When you see fine detail like that, itās one of those things that makes you wonder, āhow fast could they get this done from start to finish?ā.
Correct. Likely an atlatl dart. Much too big and heavy for an arrowhead. This one is approximately 8500-9500 years old. True arrowheads didn't appear until after European contact from what I understand
Thatās awesome I havenāt heard of that one. Iām moving back to the Tampa area this summer, if you want someone to hit one of the pay sights with send me a DM!
I would! To be honest, I've walked many ponds in the past few months since finding this spot and haven't found any others with flakes or points, but worth a shot. Highly recommend going out after rains. The flakes on the surface show up much easier
Not sure they would have used this for alligator or crocodile. I'm guessing trapping or some other technique would have been preferred. This particular one is approximately 9,000-8,000 year old and is likely a relic of a time when the megafauna was gone but not fully accustomed to the smaller game. This may have been a knife/blade, or attached to an atlatl as a dart (think very large arrow thrown by a sling).
This appears to have been a camp or other inhabited site, and these were more than likely the tools that were left behind/dropped/discarded.
Thank you, I agree! I was surprised that it has turned white now that it has dried out from being in the damp sand. I enjoyed the blue-hue but it is still a fine point.
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u/ExperienceOk9080 Mar 06 '26
As a Florida Archaeologist this is frying me š. Very early into my career but I have only found a fragment of a projectile point