Triangular Point

This small triangular projectile point was found in the burial of a young boy, nearly touching his left femur and close to his knee. Most likely, the wound from this projectile was ultimately the cause of the young boy’s death.

Of the hundreds of projectile points recovered by archaeologists at Jamestown, over 200 small triangular projectile points like this one have been found. This size and shape are a common projectile point type for the Late Woodland (AD 900) to Contact period in the Tidewater region. Quartzite is an abundant resource in Virginia, meaning that indigenous peoples likely did not have to travel far to obtain it. Small triangular points found at Jamestown are also made from quartz, another abundant local resource used for making stone tools.

The small size and aerodynamic shape of small triangular points made them ideal weapons or tools for hunting when attached to a wooden shaft. Because bows, arrows, and spear shafts were made from organic materials, often it is only the stone projectile point that is recovered archaeologically as the other elements have long since degraded.

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