Rare Find

We had a new crewmember join us on our weekly rounds of the Cienega sites.

He had just been introduced to archaeology through the Site Steward classes.

He was quick to identify ceramics - pottery sherds - on the ground but was having trouble identifying lithics – stone tools or debitage.

We found four projectile points one day and he was disgusted that he was not one of the ‘finders.’

Last week I heard this emphatic “YES!”

He walked to me hand outstretched on which he had a projectile point.

It was dirty so I cleaned it off a bit.

“Wow! Bingo!” I said to him.

“You have an archaic point and it is obsidian! A rare find indeed!”

I held the point up to the sun and by golly it was green obsidian - very rare in this area.

“You have green obsidian to boot. It comes from Mexico,” I said to him.

“Yep! I purchased it for $2.00 at the Gem and Mineral Show last week!”

I am such a fish and get hooked easily!