Boy Finds on Beach Arrowhead Used By Ancient Indians

A boy playing on a New Jersey beach has found an arrowhead possibly used by ancient Native Americans to spear fish or hunt mastodon.

Ten-year-old Noah Cordle and his family were vacationing on the Long Beach Island last week when he found it at the edge of the surf in the community of Beach Haven. It was sharp enough that it hurt as it hit his leg. He thought it was a crab until he picked up the object.

The Springfield, Va., family contacted the Archaeological Society of New Jersey to check it out. The president, Greg Lattanzi, said that the arrow point probably dates back to when the New Jersey shore was a cold and treeless place centuries ago.

“I was basically blown away,” he said. “Finding these is rare.”

Lattanzi says his museum has about two dozen of these Paleoindian points, but most were found by professionals at archeological digs. Only one other in the collection washed up on a beach.

Lattanzi said he believes that a beach-replenishment project probably scooped up the tool and pushed it toward the shore.

The Cordle family visited the State Museum after the discovery and learned how the arrowheads were made.

The family says they plan to donate it to a museum after Noah has a chance to show his class what he found.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the August 26th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.