Mendacity and Avarice: Arrowheads, by another name
Submitted by coldrum on Thursday, 15 February 2007 Page Views: 2030
Pre-ContactAlthough the details in this article are from the United States, it has equal application to other countries."It if looks like a rose, and smells like a rose, and feels like rose, it's probably a rose. The same can't be said for an arrowhead. If it looks like an arrowhead, and smells like an arrowhead, and feels like an arrowhead, it might not be a bona fide, 5,000-year-old killing tool crafted by the hand of ancient man at all. It might be nothing more than a hunk of rock.
"Woody Blackwell is something of a legendary figure among flintknappers. Those are the folks who can take a piece of flint and beat it into the likeness of an 11,000-year-old mammoth-stabbing Clovis point, or a sleek and graceful Agate Basin.
"The trouble starts when a flintknapper forgets to tell someone who might be interested in buying his semi-translucent, Knife River Flint beauty that it was not actually made 11,000 years ago. That's when a reproduction becomes a fake.
"Jeb Taylor, who lives near Ucross, buys, sells and authenticates projectile points. That's how he and Woody met up.
"But first, there's something you need to know about fake artifacts. Some people go to extraordinary lengths to make fakes look like those fascinating artifacts from the distant past grandpa collected on the ranch during the Depression years.
"They'll bury them, bake them and paint them, sand them, coat them in all manner of age-imitating concoctions and then lie without shame about where they came from.
"Most often, the motive is unvarnished greed. Genuine old-time artifacts might be worth hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. It's the fakers goal to separate the unsuspecting from their hard-earned cash, by convincing you that their fakes are as real as those points grandpa kept in his top drawer.
"And there's no shortage of fakes. Taylor says shows and flea markets and Internet auctions are clogged with such products of mendacity and avarice.
"Taylor didn't set out to become an authenticator. He kind of backed into it. He has no archaeology degree, but his experience with projectile points and things aboriginal is considerable. He's a flintknapper of long-standing and has made thousands of bows. He has killed deer with stone-tipped arrows, run trap lines in Alaska and lived for months on end without metal tools. He also has written a book about projectile points -- spear points, darts thrust with a device called an atlatl and arrowheads -- of the High Plains.
"In the beginning, Taylor didn't charge for looking at points and offering his opinion. The late Greg Perino, an authenticator who lived in Oklahoma, took to sending Folsom-style points to Taylor because of his familiarity with the type. Over time, his standing among collectors grew, and authentication is now part of his business.
"It's a thankless job," Taylor says. "You feel good when you save somebody from making an expensive mistake. But frequently, what you're doing is telling someone they've already made an expensive mistake."
More about the dark world of phoney artifacts from the Jackson Hole Star Tribune.
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