Charles visited Long's Fish Camp & Arrowhead Dig, in Kingsland, TX, and was shown the artifact featured here.... email Bob or Charles if you've seen anything like this before!!!

"But by far the most interesting find of the weekend was found by talking to a fellow, James Carroll, who caught m'attention with his handmade 16 reflecting telescope.  We got to talking, first about the
little mini gold rush out there since some geologist reported finding a trace of gold flakes in the gravel.  James was talking about how he probably wasn't going to go through the gravel up in the digs since he respected the artifact hunters and their passion.  One thing led to another, and he said he had something to show me.

    He got to talking with one of the caretakers up there during this stay, who showed him, among other things, a phoenix flint artifact he claimed to have found.  He says later he was with this caretaker later and, for twenty dollars, bought an artifact from him that the caretaker said he had found in a cave up on one of the nearby mountains.  Of course the provenance is shot to hell on this piece, and I can't help but be as skeptical as the caretaker's wife, who later told James that her husband was too lazy to have climbed up the mountain he said he'd found it on.   But the piece is fascinating none the less. 

    At first I made it to be Precolumbian, though it was clear that James had no real idea of what this meant.  On further speculation, I don't really know where or when it might have come from, but if the story of it being found in a local cave is true it may well have been an item in trade from some other part of the country.