The artifacts, called Clovis spear points, are only part of a
much larger collection of American Indian artifacts the museum
received from a private donor last week. William A. Sims, an
orthopedic surgeon in Decatur, donated between 700 and 1,000
items to the museum. Sims and his father, the late William
Finley Sims, began collecting the items in the 1930s from farm
land and creek banks in southeastern Tennessee during the 1930s.
By the time he handed the collection over to the museum it
included hundreds of arrowheads, several pieces of pottery,
ceremonial pendants, rolling pins, grinding stones and several
miscellaneous items. “I would like for them to be enjoyed by the
public,” Sims said. “It’s just a very interesting collection.”
The Clovis arrowheads are the earliest spear points found in
North America. The Clovis points look like flint domes with
sharp points at the tip, making them distinctly different from
later arrowheads, which are often triangular in shape, said
archeologist Harry Holstein, a profe