Are there any other blades in the city that hunt for artifacts? Whether they be ancient stone tools, to modern relics. Archaeology is one of my favorite hobbies; it's been a hobby since I was 10 years old. Although music is my trade, archaeology will always have a fond place in my heart. Feel free to post pictures of artifacts you've discovered while out in the field. In fact, pictures are recommended Here are some of mine: OPEN THESE PICTURES IN A NEW TAB TO AVOID OVERLY LARGE PICTURES. This is a hide scraper I found during an excavation a few weeks ago. Some arrowheads & a drill I discovered on the same dig: Obsidian drill. If you find a drill in any excavation site, it indicates that, that area was once a long-term dwelling site, and not a smaller nomadic site. Obsidian point A nice basalt arrowhead; one of the barbs is broken, unfortunately. A nice obsidian bird point. Various others: A crude scraper I found in a desert region. I'm guessing it's paleo, due to the crudeness of it. A nice mano. (Mah-no). A mano is a semi-rounded, and semi-polished stone used to grind corn with a metate. In comparison with my hand: This is what a mano looked like when used with a metate: Anasazi pottery discovered near the four corners region.
I live in Anasazi country. Archaeologists and Anthropologists are crawling all over the Four Corners area. You can't swing a stick without hitting one. First of all you did say excavation so I'm assuming you're on a legit Archaeological dig. Which is the ONLY LEGAL way to obtain artifacts. When you remove an artifact from the ground you destroy 90% of the information that can be gleaned from the object. The artifact is important, of course, but the surrounding soil and placement in the dig area offers far more information than just the artifact itself. I know the OP isn't encouraging everyone to dig ancient artifacts out of the ground but I think it's important that everyone knows the consequences.
Arizona, and the rest of the four corners region is wonderful for archaeology. I normally surface hunt on my free time, which is legal, as long as you're not on reservations, or national monuments/parks. I do legit excavations a few times a year, with some other friends of mine. I'm all for preserving ancient cultures, so I don't condone looting of ancient sites/ruins, which a lot of people do. I often visit ancient ruin sites, only to find them destroyed and vandalized - it's unfortunate. Prior to moving out west, I did a lot of hunting and excavations in Florida, which is where you'll find large Clovis points, made from agatized coral. This is a good example (I didn't find this one)