Spearheads have been common finds in New Jersey.
(Mirror Daily, United States) – Another accidental discovery has seen to a 10,000 year old spearhead found on New Jersey shores, which begs to question of how exactly artifacts are washing up to the beaches. This is not the first, but the third artifact to be gladly stumbled upon around Seaside Heights.
Audrey Stanick, 58 years old, was scouring the beach along the Seaside Heights shoreline in New Jersey for sea glass. Instead, the beachgoer accidentally found a black, smooth and shiny object. According to Stanick, the piece of rock caught her attention because her sister, who collects shark teeth, had warned her to be on the lookout for black, shiny things within the sands.
Stanick remembered another discovery made not even a year earlier, and promptly called the New Jersey State Museum. Gregory Lattanzi, who works as an assistant curator of archaeology at the museum, identified the small rock as an ancient object. While Stanick initially believed it might be an arrowhead, Lattanzi revealed it preceded the invention of bows and arrows by centuries.
The black, shiny object was, in fact, stated to be a spearhead, dated between 10,000 and 11,000 years ago. It was reportedly made by Paleoindian people, natives who arrived in North America during the Ice Age. The black projectile point was as long as a thumb, with smooth edges and flattened center, where its base was likely secured.
The discovery was agreed upon later on that it was made by flint, and was used as a tool in the Middle Period. The formerly sharp edges had been blunted by thousands of years of tumbling through the ocean.
The artifact, however, was not the first of its kind found along the New Jersey shoreline.
In 2014, 10 year old Noah Cordle, found a similar object in Beach Haven while vacationing with his family. He later donated the spearhead to the Smithsonian Museum. It has been described as an “especially fine example” of Paleoindian artifact.
Following Cordle’s find, children began scouring the New Jersey shorelines in hopes of finding more of the ancient and historically valuable objects. The museum received an incredible number of pictures from locals asking if their find was of any historical meaning. Not all were successful.
However, only a few weeks later, 11 year old Victoria Doroshenko stumbled across another black spearhead in Long Branch.
The question now stands what has been churning the waters near the New Jersey coastline that is suddenly unearthing all these ancient artifacts. Researchers believe that the most recent find was caused by Hurricane Joaquin, after it stirred the waters near the East Coast.
More might be found in the future, so people should certainly keep an eye out for shiny, black objects while walking around the beach in New Jersey.
Image source: trailtraveler.wordpress.com
John Birks
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