Fifty Years Of Collecting

One of the rewarding things about attending the big Indian artifact shows is the chance to talk with others about the unique world of artifact collecting. Many people began either surface hunting or buying (or both) in the 1950s, and can look back at some major changes. Here are some observations on half a century of activity, many of the thoughts obtained from talking with others who also began collecting in the mid-1900s.

For field-walkers, it was a marvelous time. Farmers plowed every year unless a field went into pasture for awhile, so there was plenty of turned earth to examine. Permission was readily given to look for arrowheads and not that many people even collected them. One usually did not see footprints of others that had already searched the fields.

While it indeed sounds like stretching the truth, in many places it was possible to get eight or ten unbroken points or blades an hour on a good site, and fill a pocket with damaged points before the day was over. At that time, half a century ago, fields had not been turned as often as today, and less damage had been done to artifacts. Some areas were so productive that it was very likely that no one had ever surface hunted there before.

For artifact buyers or those with no nearby fields to hunt, one could go to farm auctions and bid on the contents of cigar boxes and toolboxes. It was indeed possible then to get a box full of ‘relics’ for eight or ten dollars and be assured that there would be at least a few fine pieces. There are collectors who recall being given nice collections simply because other people learned of their interest and wanted the artifacts to go to someone who appreciated them.

High-grade artifacts, the kind rarely found, could be obtained in the 1950s from dealers, and these were artifacts like bannerstones and gorgets, and pendants and plummets. Often the dealers sent personal letters with the artifacts described, and points and blades were traced around the edge with lead pencil on paper. Actual artifact prices: Bluish-red hematite plummet, pear-shaped, 1-1/4” x 3”, fine $3.00; discoidal, cupped both faces, spotted green-white hardstone, 1 x 2-1/2”, smooth, $2.25; and, vase-shaped pipe, reddish quartzite, 1-1/2 x 2”, fine, $4.25.

Today things are very different. Thousands of people collect prehistoric Indian artifacts, and the better pieces are worth a great deal of money. Those old Indian rocks that people overlooked fifty years ago are not only considered prehistoric art today, but also the cultural patrimony of various modern American native groups. This in turn has given rise to new laws on the state and federal levels that relate to everything from possible grave goods to important ritual objects and even the feathers of certain birds and animals parts like teeth and claws.

Indian activists also object to some aspects of artifact collecting, and demonstrations have been made at shows and auctions and earthworks. Some archaeologists have long considered collectors to be uneducated pothunters or money-grubbing grave robbers, and this prejudice largely continues.

Many farmers no longer plow each year, but engage in conservation agriculture (low-till/no-till). These fields are not rewarding to hunt most years. Permission to surface hunt is much more difficult to obtain, for several reasons. Some artifact hunters simply trespass, so farmers refuse to allow even careful collectors into their fields. Too many collectors have heard “I know you’re all right, but if I let you in, everyone will want in.”
Some farmers, aware that Indian artifacts can be valuable, don’t want to see strangers in their fields, essentially picking up money. And, in a litigious society, there is the growing problem of liability if someone is hurt on the property. Too, some farmers themselves collect and refuse to let competitors on the land.

To confuse matters, there are now many modern flintknappers that have learned to replicate every kind of North American chipped artifact and can do it convincingly. While many chip for personal reasons, or the challenge, many modern replicas end up being offered as old and authentic. And, another problem, many beginning collectors have been hurt by fakes and have dropped out of the field. This leaves fewer young people to fill the ranks as older collectors disappear.

This fast and simplistic review of half a century of collecting might seem to stress the negative aspects, but there is more to the story than that. Science has come to the rescue of knowledge. Fifty years ago, we didn’t have a good idea of how old some of the artifacts were. Today, C-14 and other dating methods have given at least a general idea of age or time period.

Professional excavations, at such sites as Koster in Illinois, have provided knowledge of how people really lived long ago – their food, clothing and shelter. This has opened our eyes to advances and innovations – from the bow and arrow to agriculture – that were made in the long struggle for survival and a better life in long-ago North America.

With all the changes that have taken place in five decades, it is sometimes difficult to explain why some of us have stayed the course and put up with the problems and complications involved. The answers as to why we continue are probably the same as to why we began in the first place.

This would be a fascination with a strange world, distant not in space (it all happened right here), but in time. It involves touching and holding pieces of the past, at least for a while, here in our own life spans. While involvement is partly hard facts (identified artifact material and type) it also goes beyond that.

There is no other feeling like being the first to touch an artifact since it left the maker’s hand countless generations ago. There is also the special feeling of owning a fine artifact and having a sense of pride in it, and an appreciation for it, that is very likely akin to that of the ancient maker.

And as we all know, bending over and picking up an arrowhead gives the same surge of emotion today as it did fifty years ago. Treasure lost, treasure found – the connection is made and the sharing is complete.