After many years of absence from hunting arrowheads, Danny wanted to show Jared aound some of his old point hunting grounds. Walking down a friend's creek they found a promising looking sandbar exposing lots of gravel. Even so they certainly weren't really expecting to find a 9,000 year old Scottsbluff point laying there exposed!
Scottsbluffs are a Cody Complex artifact found over much of North America. They are highly prized by collectors, both for their parallel flaking and their relative scarcity. They are probably a continuation of the earlier Alberta type from the Northern plains. Western Cody Complex point types include Firstview and Eden points. In Texas almost all of the doucumented Scottsbluff sites are found in the Eastern half of the state. Noting Red-River knives as refurbished Scottsbluff points, TURNER & HESTER list possible age of ca. 7120 BC - 6650 BC. "Scottys" are often made of high quality exotic materials, indeed the Schanfish Scottsbluff appears to be made of an Edwards flint that originated a couple of hundred miles from where the point was recovered.
These late paleo points are prized for their beautiful parallel flaking. Even after ancient use including several ancient resharpenings and some recent tumbling in the creek this point is a masterpiece of stoneage art.
This semi-translucent Edwards Plateu material came from many miles away, backing up the widely held idea that the Cody Complex people migrated along the trails of the late ice age animals that they hunted with these types of artifacts.
This point has all the quality that anyone could ask for.
I wish to thank Danny for recording the details of their find and suggesting we share these details with the visitors to www.texasarrowheads.com
References Cited:
Turner & Hester
“FIELD GUIDE TO STONE ARTIFACTS OF THE TEXAS INDIANS”
Timothy K Perttula
“THE PREHISTORY OF TEXAS”
Mr. Danny Schanfish
Personal communications
Photos & Text (c) David Crain / Texasarrowheads.com