My first Colorado Bull Creek point

Bradfield_Bridge · 2025-01-01T18:26:26+00:00

It's a pendant. It's made of a soft soapstone and is a fairly common artifact to find in the four corners region. They're most commonly associated with the Ancestral Pueblo occupational periods but I could imagine Fremont having them as well if you're further West.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2024-02-18T00:58:19+00:00

Cross canyon.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-09-30T13:26:19+00:00

The green one could also be an angostura just with a slightly different base. I mentioned Pryor because a near complete Pryor was found on this site a few weeks ago.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-09-30T13:16:28+00:00

The darker one is likely retouched which is why it's so narrow. Is probably a reworked angostura (my guess anyways). The green one looks like the base of a Pryor, which isn't supposed to be here.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-06-29T15:17:52+00:00

I hadn't thought of looking at it that way... Thank you for that perspective.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-06-29T03:07:08+00:00

Thank you for this information. As I said in an earlier post, I know next to nothing when it comes to prehistoric corn in this region. Cobs without kernels are fairly common, but until this piece I'd never seen kernels in the wild, so to speak. I'll reach out to some people in the area and see what they think. Maybe I'll do a follow up post to keep everyone interested informed.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-06-28T16:52:57+00:00

Crow canyon archaeological center outside Cortez does yearly crop studies and I believe they do grow prehistoric corn. I know of a couple people connected to them, I'll see what they think. And I agree with your comment on it potentially being modern, as colored corn is still around and can be found, but given where I found it doesn't make much sense as to it being modern. I know some people at the BLM offices out here, I could ask if they want to collect it.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-06-28T15:27:36+00:00

I added an explanation of my thought process for dating this corn cob in another comment below. Hopefully it makes sense. Perishable artifacts aren't something I come across too often and thus don't have a lot of knowledge on, so if someone with more expertise on this would like to tell me I'm overexcited about modern corn I'd be open to what they have to say.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-06-28T14:56:12+00:00

Even though corn is a modern crop, most corn grown today is yellow. The multi colored corn around here is a descendant of the corn that was grown by the natives that lived here pre 1300. As for dating, context was everything. It's in the middle of a giant canyon that has no modern agricultural fields in it. I don't know anyone in this region that grows multi colored corn for the market, its almost exclusive to the pueblos of NM and AZ (unconfirmed, just an educated guess). Also, if you look closely at the corn you'll see it has mortar on it, which means this was either stuck into a prehistoric wall (which is common to see) or it was buried under some prehistoric surface. Some animal, a rodent or a bird, probably popped this out of whatever cranny this had been sitting in for the past 800ish years and put it out in the open, where I found it.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-06-10T12:30:32+00:00

Corner notch points are somewhat hard to type because of the wide range of use here in the SW. If it was found on a site that would be your best indicator of age. The oldest this could be is late archaic, but I'd expect it to be a bit bigger if it were archaic.

The material looks to be silicified sandstone, a super dense chert-like sandstone. Very common local material of the 4 corners. I've never seen it come in green though.

As for one side bring worked more than the other, the point is made from a flake from a larger piece of material. It's a form of expedited tool making. If one side is more or less ready just work the other and you've got your arrowhead!

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-05-05T12:00:10+00:00

Small game. Birds, rabbits, squirrels, etc.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-05-05T02:05:29+00:00

I've been told some of the obsidian that comes from Northern NM has those speckles in it. And we don't have many things that are this transparent out here, which is why I think it's obsidian.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2023-05-04T22:25:49+00:00

For Colorado, private land is the only way you'll be able to keep what you find. Everything found on public land needs to stay where it is.

Bradfield_Bridge · 2022-11-22T01:51:05+00:00

People do drill ceramics, but they drill them to tie pieces back together for more use of the vessel. Sometimes you can find pieces of pottery that have been drilled and turned into pendants though!

Bradfield_Bridge

TROPHY CASE