# What's your oldest find?



## southern Maine diver (Jan 29, 2010)

After watching the Mudlarking" video posted by Red Ginger, where diggers are finding ancient items (some 2,000 years old) I was wondering what some of our oldest finds have been....[8|]

 Mine was an Iberian Olive Jar.  It was found in New Hampshire in 55' of water. It is decorated with what looks like a tree, some clouds... possibly a bird and a rising sun.[:-]  It is intact. From what I can tell, it dates from the mid 1600's to the very early 1700's.

 When I found it, the guy that was with me said, "Yeah, right... that isn't that old. I can buy one of those all day long at the Home Depot in the garden section."[][]

 Definitely my oldest find.[sm=tongue.gif]
 Wayne


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## southern Maine diver (Jan 29, 2010)

Another angle...


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## riverdiver (Jan 29, 2010)

Hi Wayne,

 This pre-contact Native American Indian Shard is my oldest. The state of NH Archaeology Bureau stated it could be up to 1,300 years old.


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## bearswede (Jan 29, 2010)

Hey, Wayne...

 These are at least 2-3000 years old... But I guess I've had a slight advantage having been an archeologist in a former life...

 Ron


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## Road Dog (Jan 29, 2010)

I'm an Arrowhead Hunter too. The oldest artifact I found with some others is from an quarry in Wisconsin. The whole area used to be an ancient Sea or Ocean that dried up around 400 million years ago. Here is a pic of part of a critter of some sort. It is segmented like a worm and is over 1 inch wide at the fat end.


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## RedGinger (Jan 29, 2010)

I would say the oldest thing I have is a fossil too.  I will try to get some good pics of them.  I had some arrowheads, but don't know where they ended up after a few moves.  I also had a fossilized crocodile tooth from Calvert Cliffs in MD.  Maybe Cobaltbot will know when the Indians first inhabited Baltimore County Md.  That is where I found my arrowheads and I believe they are from the Susquehannock tribe.  

 Great pictures everyone.


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## southern Maine diver (Jan 29, 2010)

Well... well... well...

 You guys have me all beat! I'm not worthy... I'm not worthy... I'm not worthy...[&o][&o][&o]

 Wayne


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## Dabeel (Jan 29, 2010)

> You guys have me all beat! I'm not worthy... I'm not worthy... I'm not worthy...


 
 I don't buy that for a second............that olive jar is an incredible find! Congrats!

 Doug


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## LC (Jan 29, 2010)

Nice piece of a Cephlapod Road Dog , could be Ordivician period . I am like you , the oldest thing I have ever found was trilobites , dating around 4000,000,000 years or more , but you can't compare that against human made relics , or at least I don't .


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## Road Dog (Jan 29, 2010)

Very true LC. Here are my next oldest.


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## LC (Jan 29, 2010)

Excellent , there are some nice points there . I hunted for Indian artifacts off and on for years , and the only arrowhead I ever found was found in the creek while hunting fossils . There are a lot of super nice Indian artifacts that are found in my area , only thing is , I was never lucky enough to be one of the guys who has found them . I have never to this date ever found one sticking out of or laying on the ground .


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## blobbottlebob (Jan 29, 2010)

Man. If I manage to hit the 1870s, I get excited! I don't find anything like that stuff. When I was a kid, I found a few trilobites and brachoipods but I haven't found any since I began dving for stuff. If I hit pontils, I figure I've reached back to Neanderthal!


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## madman (Jan 29, 2010)

heres my oldest finds


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## madman (Jan 29, 2010)

and even older


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## cobaltbot (Jan 29, 2010)

Here's my oldest find!


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## cobaltbot (Jan 29, 2010)

Sorry Warren (ya know I love ya![])


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## madman (Jan 29, 2010)

lol


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## LC (Jan 29, 2010)

You have a good variety of brachoipods  Mike , as well as a pretty nice piece of briyazoan ,,,, not sure if I spelled that right !


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## madman (Jan 29, 2010)

hey lc whats up ? were having some crazy snow here right now  thanks for the reply,  all the fossils were found along the maumee river in toledo ohio, whats briazoan?? thanks ...........


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## LC (Jan 29, 2010)

Hello Mike , good to hear from you , it has been a while . Cold as all get out here  ,Just got rid of the white stuff over last week , do not have any flying here at the moment . I hate the snow anymore , have an awful time trying to shovel it . Nerve damage in the forearms pretty well put me out of doing a lot of things regretfully . Briazoan is the piece at top left hand corner of your picture .


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## RedGinger (Jan 29, 2010)

Those are very nice examples, Mike.  Where did you find them?  Joe has one that has a tiny footprint on it.  I think it was a baby dinosaur.  Any fossil experts out there??  I haven't felt up to it, but one of us will post a picture or two of our finds.  We have fossils EVERYWHERE here.  The state PA fossil is the Trilobite.  We're just over the line.  We even have them in our driveway.  Whatever was used to fill it in, was taken from nearby.  Sometimes, if I'm super-bored, I'll go out and pick around in the driveway.  The first time Joe ever took me bottle digging up here, I was amazed at the fossils and held us up for awhile while I examined them.


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## LC (Jan 29, 2010)

I just did a search on Google and found I was off quite a bit as for the spelling of it Mike . It is spelled BRYOZOA .


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## RedGinger (Jan 29, 2010)

> ORIGINAL: cobaltbot
> 
> Here's my oldest find!


 
 LOL!  Everyone likes Cap.  
 Oops, I replied before I saw Mike's response about where he found his fossils.


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## LC (Jan 29, 2010)

Here are a few of the enrolled trilobites I have found Mike . They are the Flexicalymene Ratrosa species , they are found up to around one and a half to two inches in length . I have others that are layed out flat in cases , I have posted them on here before some time back .


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## madman (Jan 29, 2010)

thanks laur and lc love to see some trilobites ginger ,  i think i may try fossil hunting again in the spring.........


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## bearswede (Jan 30, 2010)

> enrolled trilobites


 
 Did something cause them to curl up at the time of interment...?

 Ron


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## sandchip (Jan 30, 2010)

RoadDog, you must be from NC, with all those killer Hardaways and rhyolite.

 And LC, if you found one, there are probably more in your creek.  I'd never found one in the creek I bottle hunted for 30 years, until I heard of folks finding points in creeks, and having "programmed" my eyes for bottles, there's no telling how many points I walked over.  So now, I set my eyes more for points, that way if the usually larger items like bottles enter my field of sight, I'll still see them, if that makes sense.  Here's one I found after changing my way of looking.


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## sandchip (Jan 30, 2010)

Here's my oldest lithic find.  I found it in a little creek not 3 feet wide where spring floods had busted a beaver dam.  The impact fracture broke my heart, but at least it's prehistoric damage.


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## sandchip (Jan 30, 2010)

This Cowhouse Slough probably runs a close second with the Simpson.


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## sandchip (Jan 30, 2010)

Backlit shot.


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## sandchip (Jan 30, 2010)

And a smaller Cowhouse I found about a mile or two from the other one.


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## Road Dog (Jan 30, 2010)

Yeah, I'm in Johnston County, N.C.  Those are some killer points you have found.


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## LC (Jan 30, 2010)

Those are good size points . I understand what you mean about field of sight . When I first started hunting the trilobites I walked over a good many of them ,  but once I trained my eyes to focus more on the segments of their bodies there was not too may of them that I missed . I must have seen that point I found in the creek from fifteen feet or so from me , it just stuck out there like a sore thumb. Always wanted to hunt the Indian rocks but I think my lack of finding them was I just was never in the right areas to find them . There have been a lot of camp sites found in my area , and the guys that know where they are always do good finding flint when out hunting .


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## southern Maine diver (Jan 31, 2010)

Hey cobaltbot...

 Steve, you're cracking me up!!![sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif][sm=lol.gif]


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## bostaurus (Jan 31, 2010)

These are the arrow heads my son picked up at a friend's place in San Antonio and in the church parking lot.  They are all broken and not near a 'pretty' as the ones we have seen here.  He was mighty proud of himself when he found them.


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## bostaurus (Jan 31, 2010)

The rest of them.


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## bostaurus (Jan 31, 2010)

He was about 11 when he found them.  he is 19 now and has graduated to this...


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## mr.fred (Jan 31, 2010)

> ORIGINAL: bostaurus
> 
> He was about 11 when he found them. he is 19 now and has graduated to this...


   Arrowheads would be much cheaper[8|]---but military stuff would be much more fun at that age[]-----Fred.


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## bostaurus (Jan 31, 2010)

Yeah, the arrowheads he just picked up from the dirt.  The helmets and bayonets he had to save up for or get for Christmas.  The helmets he would really like to have will have to wait until he finishes college and gets a VERY good paying job.


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## mr.fred (Jan 31, 2010)

> ORIGINAL: bostaurus
> 
> Yeah, the arrowheads he just picked up from the dirt. The helmets and bayonets he had to save up for or get for Christmas. The helmets he would really like to have will have to wait until he finishes college and gets a VERY good paying job.


  He has some keepers there---The Viet Nam era helmet is a few $$--2nd shelf 1st to the left.  Handgrenades  in the back row????[8|]


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## surfaceone (Feb 3, 2010)

Here's an old bottle & an older point:


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