Kelly-Jane Cotter

@KellyJaneCotter

Girl finds pre-historic projectile point on Long Branch beach, less than a month after LBI discovery

Unfinished projectile point, designed for spears, likely from Early Woodland period, c. 500 BC

Victoria Doroshenko, 11, of Fair Lawn, found point while looking for seashells.

In August, Noah Cordle, 10, of VA, found Paleo point in Beach Haven, c. 10,000 years old.

Apparently, the beaches of the Jersey Shore are lousy with museum-worthy artifacts.

An 11-year-old Fair Lawn girl found a pre-historic projectile point in Long Branch on Labor Day, less than a month after a previous discovery on Long Beach Island.

Victoria Doroshenko was collecting seashells at Seven Presidents Park in Long Branch when she found what looked like a spear point made of stone.

The discovery is the second time this summer that a child has found a historically significant object on a New Jersey beach. In August, the Asbury Park Press broke the news that Noah Cordle, 10, of Virginia, found a Paleoindian projectile point in Beach Haven, estimated to be between 8,000 and 11,000 years old.

"Everyone was talking about that story," said Victoria's father, Pete Doroshenko. "And then my daughter came up to me and said, "Hey, Dad, is this an arrowhead?"

Technically, neither discovery was an arrowhead, because bow-and-arrow technology came many centuries later. The sharp objects were likely used as spear points and are simply called "projectile points" by scientists. This might seem like a fine distinction to most of us, but to some paleontologists, archaeologists and other scientists, the misuse of the word "arrow" is like the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard.

"I was looking for shells and then I just saw it," said Victoria, a sixth-grader at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Fair Lawn.

The Asbury Park Press showed images of Victoria's discovery to Greg Lattanzi, assistant curator of the archaeology and ethnography bureau of the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton and president of the Archaeological Society of New Jersey. Lattantzi earned his doctorate in anthropology with a focus on pre-historic Native Americans in the mid-Atlantic.

Victoria's projectile point looked similar to Noah's: Both were of dark-colored stone, about 2.5 inches long, roughly triangular, with flaking marks on the sides. Were they from the same era?

Lattanzi, in consultation with other experts, thinks not.

"What I'm leaning towards," Lattanzi said, "is that this is an Adena point, a type made by Early Woodland people. It's unclear at this point whether this is Late Paleo or Early Woodland, and those are two drastically different dates."

The Late Paleoindian date would make Victoria's point about 6,000 years old. If it was made in the pre-Columbian Adena culture, however, it would be from between 1,000 BC and 100 BC. The Adena culture originated in Ohio and the people and/or their technology migrated east to parts of Pennsylvania and New York.

Noah's projectile point, meanwhile, was from the early-to-mid-Paleoindian period, which stretches back to 13,500 B.C

"We don't think Victoria's is nearly as old as Noah's, but either way, it's a couple thousand years old," Lattanzi said. "It's a great find, in any event, and I'm glad it was brought to our attention, because we need to know what's out there."

By the time Victoria's point was made, Early Woodland people had begun to make pottery out of local clay and were therefore able to cook food more easily.

"That's really significant because it means they can stay longer in one site," Lattanzi said.

That stability led to bigger groups of people living in one place — and more people meant more projectile points, to be found by children many centuries later.

"We do find more Early Woodland points than Paleo points," Lattanzi said.

What complicates the identification process for Victoria's point is that it appears to be unfinished. The person who made that point either lost it before it was completed, or discarded it for whatever reason.

"It might have a vein of another stone running through it," Lattanzi said, "or an empty pocket, which might have hindered them finishing the piece."

Another factor is the ocean itself. A projectile point tumbling through the surf leaves few clues as to its origins. How far did it travel, and what conditions did it encounter, en route to a sunny day on the beach?

"We literallly have no way of knowing," Lattanzi said. "When we find something at an archaeological dig, we record its context, which is important in interpreting the site's story, because we are trying to reconstruct history so we can put all the facts together."

In Victoria's case, Lattanzi had to rely solely on the visual characteristics of the point.

"Archaeology is a destructive process, so we need to record everything we do at a site," he said. "You can't do that when someone discovers something on a beach."

"The Cordle find was distinct because of its fluting: We know 100 percent it's a Paleo point," he added. "This one is harder to place because it is unfinished, but that doesn't negate the fact that it's a spectacular find."

Since Noah Cordle found his Paleo point, Lattanzi's office has been deluged with calls, e-mails and letters from people who have wondered how old their discoveries might be. Last week, Lattanzi fielded 60 requests from New Jerseyans, and on the day of this conversation, three hand-written letters were delivered to his office. Lattanzi is working to respond to all of them.

"It's my job," he said, "and I want to help identify it for them. We can help them and also direct them to other resources. It's great that people are interested, and it's wonderful for science."