Drawings of Paleo-Indian point phases as part of the paper 'Aboriginal Settlement in New Jersey During the Paleo-Indian Cultural Period ca. 10,000 B.C. - 600 B.C.. Photo by Sydne B. Marshall/New Jersey State Department

TRENTON, N.J., Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Another spearhead believed to be handmade by Native Americans at least 10,000 years ago has been found along the New Jersey coastline.

New Jersey native Audrey Stanick discovered a dark, pointed object while gathering sea glass early this month in Seaside Heights. The find, according to state museum scientists, is a projectile point thought to have donned Paleoindian spears thousands of years ago.


The black point, as long as a thumb, is roughly triangular in shape, with a flattened center where a base was most likely secured. Gregory Lattanzi, the assistant curator of archaeology and ethnography at the New Jersey State Museum, said Stanick's find, recognized as a flint spearhead, was from the Middle Period, about 10,000 to 11,000 years old.

"Both agreed the point appears to have been tumbled in the ocean for some time, smoothing the formerly sharp edges, not unlike what happens to sea glass Ms. Stanick was seeking," the museum said in a statement.

The discovery is the third in a little over a year, after two children stumbled upon other projectile point specimens at other beaches. In 2014, Noah Cordle, then 10 years old, unearthed a Paleoindian point in Beach Haven and later donated it to the Smithsonian Institution. Weeks later, an 11-year-old girl named Victoria Doroshenko found another point.

Her father told the press at the time the first finding had the state abuzz over archeological artifacts. "And then my daughter came up to me and said, 'Hey, dad, is this an arrowhead?'"