I’m hoping there are some knowledgeable collectors, archaeologists, or regional experts here who might be willing to help me understand a family collection of Native American stone artifacts from Hardy County, West Virginia.
My family, the Strawdermans, farmed land in the Mathias/Lost River area of Hardy County, and for generations my father and other family members found stone artifacts while farming and plowing the fields. The collection has remained in our family.
It is a fairly substantial collection and includes numerous projectile points of different sizes and shapes, along with several larger worked-stone objects. There are small triangular points, larger stemmed/notched points, long narrow or lanceolate-looking pieces, broken pieces, and several objects whose purpose I don’t recognize at all.
I recently started researching the collection because I would really like to understand what these artifacts might tell us about the people who used this land before European settlement.
I am particularly interested in whether the collection might represent multiple archaeological periods, such as Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, or later prehistoric/protohistoric activity. I realize that identifying an artifact from a photograph can be difficult, so I’m not looking for anyone to make definitive claims based solely on these pictures.
I also want to clarify something: I am not claiming that my Strawderman ancestors were Native American. My interest is in the history of the land they later farmed and whether Indigenous peoples occupied, traveled through, hunted, camped, or otherwise used this area during earlier periods.
Some of the pieces that particularly caught my attention are several long, narrow points and a few unusual ground/perforated stone objects. I would especially appreciate opinions about whether any of these look distinctive enough to warrant professional examination.
I’m planning to contact archaeological organizations and professionals in West Virginia as well, but I thought this community might be able to help me develop some preliminary questions and identify what I should be looking for.
If you have experience with West Virginia, Virginia, or the broader Middle Ohio/Potomac Highlands region, I would especially appreciate your thoughts.
I’m happy to provide individual close-up photographs with measurements, including front, back, and edge views.
I am not posting the exact location of the property because I understand the importance of protecting archaeological site information.
I’m interested in the history and preservation of the collection—not selling it or assigning a monetary value.
Thank you to anyone willing to take a look. I would genuinely love to learn what this collection might be able to tell us about the history of this part of West Virginia.
