Real or fake ??

[mart]

These were given to my daughter !!  Something different for you to think about !!

[KC]

They are real because you posted it.

Interesting arrowheads......... ...

[greenacres]

Neat aarowheads, mart. The small ones are so small they look like teeth!

[mart]

The bird points are 3/4 in or slightly less,, Spear is 4 1/2 inches !!

[IlliniGuy]

Sometimes it can be tough to authenticate items like this from a pic but I have my doubts. They show no obvious patination I would expect to see from something this old. Sorry, I think these appear to be modern made.

[mart]

As the old saying goes they are as phony as a three dollar bill !!  Thanks IlliniGuy !!   The small ones are just flakes that have been roughly shaped The spear point is a resin molded one !! Note the perfection !!  Each side is absolutely identical to the other,,exactly 4 1/2 inches not a hair over !! Smooth top ridges, smooth sides, perfect shape !!  That doesn`t happen with an authentic spear point !!

[IlliniGuy]

I thought that might be a molded piece. I enlarged to 400x and thought the little hole near the center was curious. Reproductions in Native American artifacts have been a real problem for many years. In fact the very first mail fraud case in the US involved just this. It was in the 1890's.

[rockandrollrods]

I grew up in the Southwest where this stuff abounds. An antiques dealer told me when I kid what the easiest way to tell if a spear head is fake. Simple really. It's a spear head.

They were exaggerating of course, but there was more truth to that than not.

[cogar]

Note the perfection !!  Each side is absolutely identical to the other ....

But Mart, we couldn't see the other side of the large one.

Some of the present day "nappers" are really good at creating such items ..... and one really has to trust the word of the owner as to the item's origin.

And I'm pretty sure that all "napped" arrowheads, knives, axes and spearpoints are like snowflakes, ......none of them are identical to any other one.

[mart]

I  didn`t mean front to back even though they are the same,, I meant left to right !!  There are no ridges where rock would have been chipped away,,it is smooth !! Note the smoothed area under the barb,,!! 

[KC]

My neighborhood has a creek running through it.  The original owners of the property were friends (before they passed and before it built up around here).  They showed the kids and I the area that had been a trading post for the early settlers and Indians.  They helped us hunt for arrowheads and showed us their amazing collection of artifacts.  So exciting.

[mart]

There is a huge campsite not far from here !!  Caddo Indians occupied most of this area !! Before the divorce back in the 80`s we had over 1000 perfect points and trash cans full of broken ones and blanks !! Also had scrapers, awls, war clubs, grind stones, knives and spear points and of course pottery pieces !!  Several people here dug mounds before Cypress Springs lake flooded the area !! One man I knew found a huge red clay ball and no one could figure what it was !!  So one day he got it and a water hose and started washing the mud off layer by layer !!  In the center he found an indian skull !!  Only thing they could figure out was that he died as a crazy person and they didn`t want the spirits making anyone else crazy so they covered his head in clay !!

[IlliniGuy]

It is really nice to see the interest here in Native American artifacts. I have hunted Central Illinois (primarily) for over thirty years and have found somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 artifacts. I have also been a dealer although I have been out of that for some years. My collection now consists of only personal finds other than a few pieces of pottery. I posted these pics when I first joined but here they are again. All personal finds.

[KC]

Nice!!!!!

[mart]

Now look at the difference in his and the ones I posted and you can tell that mine are obvious fakes !!  Very nice points !!