Brooklyn Rolph studies biology at Mary Baldwin University in Virginia. On 21 September, she looked for shark teeth during a university trip to Virginia’s Eastern Shore. Instead, she found the stone tip of a spear. Experts think it is about 4,500 years old.
It was the last day of the trip. After lunch, Rolph went to look at a pile of shells on an island. She saw the stone near the water and quickly told her teachers. The sea was coming in and would soon cover it, said biology professor Paul Callo.
The stone is about 15 centimetres long. Native American people along the east coast of the United States made this kind of tool between 4,500 and 3,000 years ago. People may also have used these tools as knives.
The students visited the islands to study plants and animals. Their teachers had permission from the state to explore there. Virginia owns the natural area, so the stone now belongs to the state. Experts who study objects from the past collected it and took it to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to study it further.
