Finding Prehistoric Artifacts In the Desert - Obsidian Points & Rattlesnake

Western Stemmed Tradition.
That is what the style of projectile point I found in this area of the Great Basin Desert is called.
The age of this style is old, real old. Overlapping Clovis, the Western Stemmed Tradition could range in age from 9 to 12,000 years old according to my research.
So I had to return to the area for another look to possibly come across more artifacts.
The elevation of this area is around 5500ft so the temps are still miserably hot in the summer but the mornings are quite nice so I had a good window to do some searching before temps got bad.
I ended up discovering lots of obsidian lithics, pretty much everywhere and did indeed come across more artifacts. Had a little drama with a Rattlesnake, nothing serious, encounters with snakes are guaranteed during warm/hot months. However, time ran out and it got hot so we had to head back once again before making it to an area with a spring. More to come in this area for sure!
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Visitation to sites such as this should be done with the utmost respect. The artwork is not simply graffiti, it is a window into the past and it is culturally significant. Please take great care when visiting and observing these places.

[@EnigmaClandestino]

Like The Video(s)? Hit That SUBSCRIBE!! Really Helps The Channel!! Thanks For Watching!!

[@BeerJaq]

So VERY cool to find those pieces that fit together & giant piece of Obsidian!!! BEAUTIFUL !!!

[@donwagner7395]

Incredible journey today! This area continues to be a treasure trove with the abundance of points, hand knives, what appeared to be an axe, and that massive worked stone, which I believe was used for busting bones to access the marrow. Dude, I about jumped out of my skin at that rattlers' encounter. Phoenix really obeyed your command. What a good companion! Can't say enough about this episode but I can give a big gracias! Adios for now

[@user-pe7jy9ww6v]

thanks for taking us on the journey

[@rosalindafaye5668]

This was an awesome adventure! Glad to see none of you were bit, looks like the dog knew it was there and was sniffing 😮 those were some cool finds, thanks for sharing and be safe out there 😊

[@TrailStrider909]

15:02 is a great piece! Love the drone shots in the beginning to! 😍😍😍

[@-JoinMyAdventures]

You found some amazing obsidian lithics! Where I am there are no natural obsidian sources for hundreds of miles, so when I see shiny and black... I keep my eyes peeled! Great video! I PM'ed you about some petroglyphs I found! Keep up the great videos!

[@user-xz8bi1yj6b]

Another very interesting video - good thing nothing bad happened during the snake encounter!

[@stevenhigby3512]

You always come across some great finds. Hopefully once they piece my back, back together. I will be able to get out and look for some in my area.

[@rockcountry]

Great video! I appreciate the historical background as well.

[@docholliday5439]

@ 10:10 looked like a small scraper... 🤠🌵🌵🌵

[@wingartner]

Definitely one of my favorite channels…Came for the content stayed for the witty banter 🔥

[@rockcountry]

I've always understood these terms to mean the following: A "piece" usually refers to a part or piece of a broken point. You can tell that it is a piece if it is worked. They are generally identified as the base, middle, or tip of a projectile. A "chip" is a part of a nodule that has been chipped off. Chips are usually sharp due to the way they were broken off, though they are not "worked". If I'm not sure what it is, I typically refer to broken obsidian pieces as "chips." You will learn how to identify worked and not worked the more you explore and find points. Keep exploring, Love the Videos

[@jersey63]

You're like an archeology detective. You do more than just find artifacts. You research and come up with possible scenarios and historical time lines. 👍

[@davidperry5631]

No secondary flakes on it, I would say it’s just a quarried piece that was going to be knapped into something later. The first piece was a projectile point. Must be a quarry site near by. It’s strange that you are not finding any pottery. The 3rd piece is a Brocken knife blade. 4th piece was just the way it comes out of the ground. Anything over an inch is probably a projectile point. Anything over that would be so heavy that they would have to aim very high to even hit a close target. Remember that the bows that they were shooting were small and not very heavy poundage. Some early points were most likely dart points thrown with a atl atl. Very interesting site.

[@pajiad191]

D rock, The point you found at 14:30 is a Humboldt style lanceolate. It is on the smaller side for its type but you can see the fluting at the base if you pause at 14:34. It is from the mid-glacial time period 7000-3000 years before present and is extremely common throughout the great basin. This culture is associated most often with pluvial lakes but there is some evidence that Humboldt culture entered into the Colorado plateau during a short and wet period.

[@EnigmaClandestino]

Awesome! Appreciate it!

[@user-yo1pk4ky4k]

The Canine-American had a close call! Right, snakes tend to be in the rocks -- or anywhere else you can't see. Wear snake protection and watch where you reach.

[@ronreed4466]

Looks like a Triangle arrow point type to me

[@terryflack447]

Grab yourself a hammer stone and knock some flakes off the nodules. Its fun and addictive. Soon youll be making points and blades. Plus you can learn what your seeing by experience. Its actually fasinating.

[@westho7314]

As for finding pottery in the southern Great Basin whether traded or technique influenced by central or southern Mexico out in southern Nevada is not far fetched. Nor is it that old considering what your searching for early archaic/ paleo & pre clovis "western stemmed" material. The "Virgin River people" (for lack of a better term in dating) in the Las Vegas area was the western edge of the Anasazi and/or ancestral pueblo peoples domain, as well as Paiute/ Shoshone. Pueblo people of that area made pottery both painted and plain (but mostly plain), has been found as far west as Death Valley California and even a couple examples found in the southern end of the Owens Valley (still within the Great Basin).Though exceedingly rare and likely most of it out there has been already collected like so many remote places that have been cleaned out by arrowhead hunters who have searched and scoured the Great Basin pretty hard over the past 75 years, Looking at the lustre/ patina and fluting style of the 2 points says early archaic or paleo same as the broken tool you put back together that piece is called a "spoke shave" due to the large half circle fluted in the edge on one end, used for wood and bone work, peeling or shaving bark and smoothing off wood from smaller diameter branches as well as cleaning up bones. In more modern times similar shape tool bits were made out of metal in different size diameters of 1/2 circles used for in building of wagon wheel spokes hence the name spokeshave. i have seen large stone spokeshaves with 6-8"+ diameter half circles made of obsidian and chert with extreme use wear/ completely worn out likely from working small tree logs. 2 turtlebacks you found 1 complete obsidian and 1 broken in half basalt, both worked unifacially are interesting tools. i think they are tool cores that have been reduced for useable flakes eventually becoming turtleback scraper.

[@Orlcmb]

Another great video. Those obsidian points just laying on the surface are amazing! I’m sure you are aware of it, but there is a known issue with YT unsubscribing people randomly. I’ve had to resubscribe to you several times. Just in case you see your subscription levels going up and down randomly..

[@EnigmaClandestino]

Figures. Thanks for sticking with the channel!

[@darrelllogan1274]

I'm no expert, but the small triangle is what I have seen called a Madison in the eastern US.

[@stuartfoster9693]

At 24 Minutes, It looks an Teck Tite , meteorite type , we find in Aussie ! If it is it’s a large one ?

[@raymondwolken7975]

The shards walking up to where you found the scraper and finer points were they knapping points on the move? Great content and lesson.😊

[@raymonddettlaff1386]

How fast could they manufacture a point? It seems like they were knapping as they hunted. Maybe they sat around in the evening and manufactured points for the morning.

[@raymonddettlaff1386]

In Arizona, some areas that are Clovis zone are 3 feet under ground. Size of points dictates Era and technology for the hunt. You are definitely finding spear or Atlatle points.

[@tomhinkle2517]

It was a atlatl point

[@rockcountry]

The piece at 16:30 is not a piece. It's not worked at all