They Just Keep Rolling Out	by Bob Reeves
Central States Archaeological Societies 2023 April Journal	Dandridge, Tennessee

Figure 1. Three of the blanks in the rain-washed gully as I first found them.

The other day I didn’t have much going on around the house so I decided to do a little fishing and arrowhead hunting at a place a few miles from home. When I arrived there, I found about a gazillion foot prints and every piece of flint had been flipped. I spent a little time casting for bass around a rocky ledge, but all I managed to do was hang up and lose a good lure. There is another spot just down around a bend from where I was, so I headed off in that direction. Same thing there, foot prints on top of foot prints. And that’s how it went at the next two places. No rocks and no fish. Having enough of that, I decided to load up and head over to a place where I had found numerous arrowheads and tools many years ago but had only found a few flint flakes the last three or four years. Maybe one more decent point might have eroded out since my last visit.

Even though I was a bit discouraged about this old site, I was elated to find no foot prints when I finally got there. I started walking along the shoreline making a cast or two and then moving forward a bit to repeat the process. As I walked and made my casts, I was watching the ground for flint chips. After about thirty minutes of no fish or flint, I gave up on the fish and just started ambling along up and down the gently sloping bank checking the rain-washed gullies hoping something might have washed out. I had walked up and down a number of these small gullies when right there a few feet ahead of me was a point. As I approached it, I saw another one only an inch away and then there was another a bit further up the wash. I took out my camera and took a picture of the three before picking them up, one of my rituals, and then stooped to admire them a moment more before touching them. At that closer distance, I saw that they were not actually points, but instead, they were preforms. Regardless, I was happy to have found anything.

After stowing them in a plastic zip bag, I continued up the gulley and immediately found another preform. Only seven or eight inches away I could see several more pieces of ..

 

Read the complete "They Just Keep Rolling Out" column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2023 April Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2024