You’re scrolling through your phone and you see it. A sharp, triangular silhouette against the dirt. Finding a picture of an arrowhead online is easy, but understanding what you’re actually looking at is a different beast entirely. Most people think they’re just looking at "Indian arrows." Honestly, that’s a massive oversimplification that skips over roughly 13,000 years of human engineering.
It’s small. Usually stone. Sometimes it's chipped flint, other times it's translucent obsidian that looks like black glass. But here’s the kicker: half the things you see in a search for a picture of an arrowhead aren't even arrowheads. They’re "projectile points" or "lithic tools." If it’s bigger than your thumb, it probably wasn’t shot from a bow. It was likely a spear tip or a knife used for butchering a bison that’s been extinct for millennia.
Why Your Picture of an Arrowhead is Probably a Spear Instead
Context is everything. If you see a photo of a massive, six-inch stone point, call it a spear. Bow and arrow technology didn't really show up in North America until about 1,500 to 2,000 years ago—which is basically yesterday in archaeological terms. Before that, people used the atlatl. It’s a throwing stick. It launches a dart with terrifying force.
Take the Clovis point. You’ve probably seen photos of these. They are the "holy grail" for collectors. They have these long, beautiful flakes taken out of the base, called flutes. If you find a real Clovis point, you aren't just looking at a rock; you're looking at a piece of technology that was used to hunt mammoths. Mammoths! The sheer balls it took to walk up to a multi-ton elephant with a piece of sharpened chert is hard to wrap your head around.
When you look at a digital picture of an arrowhead, pay attention to the edges. Is it serrated? That wasn't for "extra damage" like in a video game. It was often because the tool had been resharpened so many times it eventually looked like a steak knife. These tools were precious. You didn't just chuck them away. You fixed them until they were too small to use.
The Problem with "Authentic" Photos Online
Go to eBay or any auction site. Search for a picture of an arrowhead. You’ll see thousands of "perfect" points for five bucks.
Spoiler alert: they're fake.
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There is a massive industry of modern "flintknappers" who make beautiful points. There's nothing wrong with that—it’s a skilled craft—but many of these end up being buried in dirt, "aged" with acid, and sold to unsuspecting tourists. A real ancient artifact has "patina." It’s a chemical change in the stone’s surface from sitting in the ground for three thousand years. You can’t fake that easily. If the photo shows a point that looks too perfect, with zero mineralization or wear, stay skeptical.
Identification: What the Shapes Actually Mean
Archaeologists use "typology" to categorize these things. It’s basically a massive catalog of shapes. You’ve got side-notched, corner-notched, stemmed, and lanceolate.
- Lanceolate points: These look like leaves. No notches. These are usually the oldest. Think Paleo-Indian era.
- Stemmed points: These have a little "tab" at the bottom for tying it to the wood.
- Notched points: These have little cutouts on the sides or corners. This allowed the hunter to use sinew (animal tendon) to lash the stone to the shaft.
If you see a picture of an arrowhead with a very deep, narrow notch, it might be a "Bird Point." People think these were for hunting birds. Actually, they were just standard arrowheads from the Mississippian or Woodland periods. They’re small because they had to be aerodynamic. A heavy stone would make the arrow nose-dive. Physics doesn't care about your feelings.
Material Matters: More Than Just "Rock"
The material in the photo tells you where the person traveled. If you find a picture of an arrowhead made of Alibates Flint in a field in Kansas, that stone traveled hundreds of miles from its source in the Texas Panhandle.
- Obsidian: Volcanic glass. It can be sharpened down to a molecular level. Surgeons sometimes use obsidian blades today because they cut cleaner than steel.
- Chert/Flint: The bread and butter of the ancient world. It breaks in a "conchoidal" fracture, which means it ripples like a pond when you hit it.
- Quartz: Pain in the butt to work with. It’s grainy and unpredictable. If the photo shows a quartz point, the maker was likely desperate or lived in an area where better stone was scarce.
The Ethics of the Image
We have to talk about the "looting" aspect. It’s a touchy subject.
In many places, picking up an arrowhead on federal or state land is a felony. The Archaeological Resources Protection Act (ARPA) is no joke. When you see a picture of an arrowhead on social media where someone is holding twenty of them in their palm, there’s a good chance they’ve disturbed a "site."
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Once a point is pulled out of the ground, its "context" is gone. Archaeologists learn more from the dirt around the point than the point itself. Was it near a hearth? Was it inside a ribcage? Once it’s in a shoe box in someone's garage, that data is deleted. If you’re taking photos of finds, keep the GPS coordinates but leave the stone. Or, at the very least, check your local laws before you start "surface hunting" after a rainstorm.
How to Take a Useful Photo of a Find
If you actually find one and want to get it identified, don't just take a blurry top-down shot.
First, put a coin or a ruler next to it. Scale is everything. A two-inch point and a six-inch point are totally different tools. Second, take a photo of the "profile." How thin is it? High-quality points are incredibly thin. If it’s chunky and looks like a "turtle back," it might be a "preform"—an unfinished tool that was abandoned because the rock had a flaw.
Third, use natural light. Side-lighting is the best because it casts shadows into the "flake scars." This shows the craftsmanship. It shows the "pressure flaking" where the maker used an antler tine to pop off tiny slivers of stone to create a razor edge.
The Digital Legacy of Stone
There’s something weirdly poetic about using a smartphone—a device made of silicon and rare earth metals—to look at a picture of an arrowhead made of silica and quartz. It’s the bookends of human tool-making.
One thing people get wrong is thinking these were "primitive." Go ahead, grab a piece of flint and a deer antler and try to make one. You’ll end up with bloody fingers and a pile of gravel. It takes years to master the geometry. You have to understand "platforms" and "striking angles." It’s physics. It’s art.
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When you see a photo of a truly fine point—something like a Cumberland or a Folsom—you are looking at the work of a master. These weren't just "functional" items; many were over-engineered. They were beautiful because the maker took pride in their work.
Actionable Steps for the Amateur Archaeologist
If this has sparked an interest beyond just looking at a screen, here is how you actually engage with this hobby without being a "looter" or getting scammed.
- Join a Local Society: Almost every state has an archaeological society. They have "point guides" that are specific to your region. A "Scallorn" point in Texas is different from a "Levanna" in New York.
- Visit "In-Situ" Displays: Go to places like the Smithsonian or local state museums. Seeing them in the dirt, exactly where they were found, changes your perspective.
- Learn to Knap: Buy some copper boppers and some obsidian glass. Try to make one. You will gain a profound respect for the people who did this to survive.
- Use Digital Databases: Use sites like ProjectilePoints.net. It’s basically the Wikipedia of lithics. You can filter by shape, region, and time period to identify what you’re seeing in that picture of an arrowhead.
- Check the Provenance: If you are buying a piece for a collection, ask for the "provenance." Where was it found? Who found it? If the seller can’t give you a straight answer, it’s either fake or illegally obtained.
The next time you see a picture of an arrowhead, look closer. Look for the tiny ripples in the stone. Look for the wear on the base where it was tucked into a wooden shaft. That stone has survived thousands of winters, several civilizations, and the birth of the internet just to end up on your screen. It deserves a bit more than a two-second thumb-swipe.
Understand the difference between a decorative piece and a functional tool. Realize that every notch was a conscious choice by a person who was probably just trying to feed their family. That connection across time is the real value of the image.
Record your finds with photographs and precise location data. Share them with state archaeologists if you find a concentration of items. Most importantly, keep the history intact. A stone in the hand is a trophy, but a stone in the ground is a story.