10,000-year-old arrowhead found off Jersey shore – by a 10-year-old

A boy playing on a New Jersey beach has found a 10,000-year-old 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, Virginia family contacted the Archaeological Society of New Jersey to check it out.

The president, Greg Lattanzi, who is also a curator at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton, tells the Asbury Park Press that the arrow point probably dates back 8,000 to 11,000 years. Back then, just after the glaciers had retreated, the New Jersey shore was a cold and treeless place.

"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 archaeological 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.