Feb 11, 2019 2 min read

Projectile point/knife

These pre-contact projectile point/knife is a stone tool made by Native Americans who inhabited Washington County thousands of years before European contact.

Although often referred to as arrowheads, many of these tools served as projectile points and/or knives. In Southwestern Pennsylvania, hard stones that flake easily, such as chert and jasper, often were used to make tools. Stones were sharpened into projectile points or knives using a chipping process called knapping. Stone tools changed in shape, size and use over time as Native Americans adapted to environmental changes brought by receding glaciers and warming climate.

In 1973, excavation of a dry rock shelter in Avella discovered projectile point/knives dating back 16,000 years, making this one of the earliest and most continuously occupied archaeological sites in North America. Meadowcroft Rockshelter is listed as a National Historic Landmark and World Heritage Site. According to the 2018 Pennsylvania Archaeological Survey, Washington County has the highest number and density of archaeological sites (1,754 sites and 2.05 per square mile) in Pennsylvania. By studying the tools found on these sites, archaeologists are able to tell us about early Native American life ways and cultures for which no written record exists.

Projectile points/knives from each pre-contact archaeological period are on display at the Washington County Historical Society.

Linda Zelch is a volunteer for Washington County Historical Society and a member of the antiquities committee.