Arrowhead found in Monroe backyard hints at Connecticuts ancient history – CTPost

Xue Davis was planting dahlias in the backyard of her home in Monroe when she had what she called a no-way moment.

There are a lot of rocks in her yard, and at first, she thought the object she had dug up was just another piece of slate. Then she realized, it clearly had been worked by human hands.

My first instinct was that it must have been a replica, Davis said.

As it turned out, the arrowhead she uncovered was older than Connecticut itself, preexisting modern society.

It was made and used by some of the first people to walk Connecticuts woods, approximately the same time as the birth of Jesus.

Projectile points vary in size and shape. While larger and heavier projectile points are referred to as spears or darts, smaller and lighter ones are commonly called arrowheads or arrow points that are associated with a bow and arrow.

The arrowhead Davis dug up is estimated to be anywhere from 1,200 to 2,700 years old.

I guess for these projectile points, especially the ones that are so old, we dont know very much about the people or specific tribes, Davis said. We don't know what they called themselves.

Davis is a scientist by trade, a neuroscientist working at Yale, but she turned to Sarah Sportman, Connecticuts state archaeologist, for more information.

Its not that uncommon to find ancient arrowheads in Connecticut, but the kind Davis unearthed is not usually found in this part of the continent. Sportman identified it as a relic of a culture known as the Adena.

The Adena, named after the site the culture was first identified, are known as mound-builders. They were centered around the Ohio River valley, though they did have extensive trade networks.

We don't have a great handle on whether people from the Midwest were coming this far east, or if it was just ideas and goods that were coming through trade, Sportman said.

So its possible the arrowhead was knapped and shaped near the Ohio River, traded from person to person, and used and lost millennia ago, only to be dug up by a Yale neuroscientist as she planted dahlias.

Thats the part of it that I think Im most enamored by, holding it and looking at it, thinking that a person did this, they made it by hand, Davis said. It connects them to me in a way. Your imagination can run wild in thinking about how their experience was so different than ours, and what is the human experience going to be like 2,000 years from now.

Though Connecticut may not often be thought of as an archaeological mecca, Sportman said the oldest artifacts in Connecticut are older than Davis arrowhead by an order of magnitude.

In 2019, a site in Avon was uncovered that put any projectile point to shame.

It was found through a development project for a bridge, Sportman said. It is very deeply buried, and we have a radiocarbon date for 12,500 years ago.

Whether or not the Native American tribes that inhabited Connecticut when Europeans first arrived in the 1600s bear any relationship to the people who used Davis arrowhead is an open question.

When Davis arrowhead was made, is what we refer to as the early woodland period here in Connecticut, Sportman said.

The modern groups are the groups that are around today, and that were around at the time of colonization, they may not have been exactly the same a couple of thousand years before, she said.

As for the first people in Connecticut, such as those who inhabited Avon and the rest of the area 12,000 years ago, how they may or may not be related to the people who used Davis arrowhead is not known.

Those are still some of the questions that archaeologists are researching, Sportman said. Trying to figure out those identities and how these people are related is really complicated. It's about looking for similarities in the material culture, in the ways that they made their stone tools and their pots and things like that, and trying to figure out if there are similarities in different areas, and maybe those were related groups of people sharing ideas.

There is not much evidence left.

All we have to go on is the material that people left behind, and most of the time, with archaeology, youre dealing with people's garbage, Sportman said.

It's the stuff that they left, she said. Their broken pots, and their broken arrowheads and the things that they didn't feel were worthwhile to pick up and take with them.

Davis discovery led her on a bit of an internet journey. She discovered a robust trade in antiquities, collectors of projectile points willing to pay hard cash for a piece like hers. Its not worth much, though, maybe 20 or 30 bucks, she said.

That fact is bittersweet for Sportman. Trade in antiquities makes preservation more difficult.

In this part of the country, its not as robust as it once was historically. In the 19th and first half of the 20th century, it was rampant, but it still happens, she said. If you go on eBay and other places like that, and auction sites, you'll still see collections of artifacts up for sale.

On the other hand, a lot of archaeologists actually got their start as children finding arrowheads and fields and things like that. That's what got them interested, she said.

Davis agreed: I actually find it hard to imagine that it wouldnt spark imagination to find something like this.

Though she is excited about her discovery, Davis is not tearing up her lawn looking for antiquities. She lives in one of those 60s raised ranches, and believes its unlikely the dirt had not been disturbed over the last few centuries.

Also, the Pequonnock River runs through her neighborhood, and the arrowhead may have traveled downstream.

Over the last 1,000 years, who knows? Maybe the course of it ran through my yard, she said. I dont think I'm sitting on top of a deposit of arrowheads.

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Arrowhead found in Monroe backyard hints at Connecticuts ancient history - CTPost