Old Find Revisited

[The_Real_TCIII]

My brother found this head in the water in Lake Hopatcong NJ @1980. We lost it for 30 years and it turned up a couple months ago. I brought it to our resident geologist / primitive archery sherpa @Dinorockswho reached out to a colleague and here are his findings: 

 

Good info provided below for context...it helps a lot.  Point types and raw material names tend to change with geography
so I'm talking in New York lingo about something from NJ so need to be aware it may not apply.
This looks to me like maybe slate or possibly rhyolite, also silicified sandstone could be a possibility and there is even something called dacite 
that I purchase from time to time for flintknapping.  I say rhyolite or slate.   
The point type is similar to Dustin, Lamoka and Normanskill points from NY and the Great lakes area so Middle-to-Late Archaic in age,
maybe about 4-5,000 years old.

Definitely NOT bow-and-arrow...its much too old for that.  No bow in eastern woodland until after about 700 AD as far as we know.
Most likely a dart thrown by Atl-Atl or a spear.  Its big and clunky    

 
Douglas J. Perrelli, Ph. D., RPA
Chair, NYS Board for Historic Preservation
President, New York Archaeological Council (NYAC)
Director, Archaeological Survey

 

 

 

[mowin]

Glad you (re)found it.  Interesting history. 

[Splitear]

Very cool!

[Cabin Fever]

Cool find! 

[grampy]

Very cool find. And some great history behind that head. My mind goes back to the person who made it four or five thousand years ago! 

[crappyice]

16 minutes ago, grampy said:

Very cool find. And some great history behind that head. My mind goes back to the person who made it four or five thousand years ago! 

I wonder if @Pygmy knew him!?!

[Robhuntandfish]

very cool! I was reading this the other day. Not too solidly sure on the methodolgy here but interesting. https://www.themeateater.com/conservation/anthropology/mammoth-discovery-would-double-timeline-of-humans-in-north-america

[Pygmy]

11 hours ago, crappyice said:

I wonder if @Pygmy knew him!?!

He was my great ,great, great, etc.  Uncle " He Whose Testicles Drag on the Ground"......

[grampy]

3 minutes ago, Pygmy said:

He was my great ,great, great, etc.  Uncle " He Whose Testicles Drag on the Ground"......

Does that condition still run in the family????    

[Pygmy]

3 minutes ago, grampy said:

Does that condition still run in the family????    

It used to..Now that I'm in my 70's all that drags are my butt cheeks....

[Bucksnbows]

12 hours ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

My brother found this head in the water in Lake Hopatcong NJ @1980. We lost it for 30 years and it turned up a couple months ago. I brought it to our resident geologist / primitive archery sherpa @Dinorockswho reached out to a colleague and here are his findings: 

 

Good info provided below for context...it helps a lot.  Point types and raw material names tend to change with geography
so I'm talking in New York lingo about something from NJ so need to be aware it may not apply.
This looks to me like maybe slate or possibly rhyolite, also silicified sandstone could be a possibility and there is even something called dacite 
that I purchase from time to time for flintknapping.  I say rhyolite or slate.   
The point type is similar to Dustin, Lamoka and Normanskill points from NY and the Great lakes area so Middle-to-Late Archaic in age,
maybe about 4-5,000 years old.

Definitely NOT bow-and-arrow...its much too old for that.  No bow in eastern woodland until after about 700 AD as far as we know.
Most likely a dart thrown by Atl-Atl or a spear.  Its big and clunky    

 
Douglas J. Perrelli, Ph. D., RPA
Chair, NYS Board for Historic Preservation
President, New York Archaeological Council (NYAC)
Director, Archaeological Survey

 

 

 

So, Lake Hopatcong is today a man made lake dammed in the 1800s by the Morris Canal and Banking Society to flood the Morris Canal. It is very near the headwaters of the Musconetcong River, a 45 mile long trout river in NJ’s Highlands region that flows southwest into the Delaware River above Phillipsburg, NJ. The Musconetcong or “Musky” as we locals call it comes from the Lenni Lenape Indians who lacked a written language. Musconetcong is the spelling reached after English, Scotch/Irish and German settlers wrote down after hearing the Indians’ word that sounded more like “musk-ah-net-kunk” which to them meant “two lakes flowing from a river” as before white man built the dam in the 1800s, the river in fact formed above this area and flowed through two small glacial lakes and back out as the river. 
 

The river was an important area for the Lenape. They caught American Shad, eels, brook trout, and likely other fish to eat through the seasons and the Plenge Site along this river was one of the most important early settlements discovered centuries later. That is your history lesson of the area for the day. 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Bucksnbows
Clarity

[The_Real_TCIII]

45 minutes ago, Bucksnbows said:

So, Lake Hopatcong is today a man made lake dammed in the 1800s by the Morris Canal and Banking Society to flood the Morris Canal. It is very near the headwaters of the Musconetcong River, a 45 mile long trout river in NJ’s Highlands region that flows southwest into the Delaware River above Phillipsburg, NJ. The Musconetcong or “Musky” as we locals call it comes from the Lenni Lenape Indians who lacked a written language. Musconetcong is the spelling reached after English, Scotch/Irish and German settlers wrote down after hearing the Indians’ word that sounded more like “musk-ah-net-kunk” which to them meant “two lakes flowing from a river” as before white man built the dam in the 1800s, the river in fact formed above this area and flowed through two small glacial lakes and back out as the river. 
 

The river was an important area for the Lenape. They caught American Shad, eels, brook trout, and likely other fish to eat through the seasons and the Plenge Site along this river was one of the most important early settlements discovered centuries later. That is your history lesson of the area for the day. 

I lived on Musconetcong Ave in Lake Hopatcong and caught a lot of catfish in Lake Musconetcong. I plan to fish the river someday, I know its a highly touted trout stream

[Bucksnbows]

14 minutes ago, The_Real_TCIII said:

I lived on Musconetcong Ave in Lake Hopatcong and caught a lot of catfish in Lake Musconetcong. I plan to fish the river someday, I know its a highly touted trout stream

Reach out if you do. I was on Trout Unlimited’s Eastern Conservation staff for 7 years as their Musconetcong Home Rivers Initiative coordinator. I know every inch of the river and have been involved in 8 dam removals and several miles of river restoration on the mainstem and tributaries. I also used to guide fly anglers on it for over a decade. 

[nywaw]

What a cool find!

[The_Real_TCIII]

24 minutes ago, Bucksnbows said:

Reach out if you do. I was on Trout Unlimited’s Eastern Conservation staff for 7 years as their Musconetcong Home Rivers Initiative coordinator. I know every inch of the river and have been involved in 8 dam removals and several miles of river restoration on the mainstem and tributaries. I also used to guide fly anglers on it for over a decade. 

Count on it!