'Incredible' 900-year-old copper arrowhead discovered on Canadian mountain

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'Incredible' 900-year-old copper arrowhead discovered on Canadian mountain | Fox News

By James Rogers | Fox News


Close up of barbed antler arrow point with copper end blade shortly after it was removed from the ice. (Government of Yukon photo)

A rare copper arrowhead discovered on a remote Canadian mountaint is almost 900 years old, archaeologists have confirmed.

The arrowhead, which is at the tip of a perfectly preserved antler arrow, was found sticking out of an ice patch in Canada’s Yukon Territory. The find, which was made in 2016 on an unnamed mountain, surprised experts.

“It was found near the top of a snow-capped mountain in South West Yukon,” Yukon Archaeologist Greg Hare told Fox News. “It was an incredible discovery, we really didn’t intend to be on that [ice] patch on that day."

The archaeologists were travelling in two helicopters with a documentary film crew when they noticed caribou on the ice patch they were planning to land on. Instead, the helicopter landed on a small nearby patch of snow where Senior Project Archaeologist Christian Thomas quickly spotted the arrow. “While we were there we thought we would look around and within five minutes Chris found this massive barbed antler point sticking out of the ice patch,” said Hare.


Close up of massive barbed antler point still entombed in ice. (Government of Yukon photo)

Including the barbed antler and the copper end blade, the arrow is about 11-inches long.

The weapon was sent to the University of Ottawa’s A.E. Lalonde laboratory for radiocarbon dating, where it was found to be about 850 years old.

The discovery, which was made in partnership with the Carcross/Tagish First Nations, is shedding new light on the history of the Canadian Territory.


Yukon ice patch researchers (left to right - Greg Hare, Nahanni Dynes and Michael Campbell) examining a barbed antler point shortly after its discovery at the edge of a small Yukon ice patch. (Government of Yukon photo)

“This is one of the earliest examples that we have bow and arrow technology in the Yukon and it’s the earliest known example of copper use in Yukon,” Hare said.

Archaeologists have recovered about 250 objects from melting ice patches in Southern Yukon, almost all of which have been bows and arrows or throwing darts.

“The advantage of the ice patch project is that most of what we’re finding has an organic element that lets us radiocarbon date it,” he added. “We will never find things like this in a lowland setting – [the arrow] is only preserved because it has been locked in the ice for basically 1,000 years,” Hare said.


The ice patch where the arrow was discovered, known locally as "Deuces Wild," seen from the helicopter. (Government of Yukon photo)

“Secrets from the ice,” the CBC documentary on the Yukon ice patches, aired late last year.

The arrow is not the only stunning archaeological find that has been preserved by ice. Last year a reindeer hunter found an 1,100-year-old Viking sword on a remote mountaintop in Southern Norway.

 

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[WaterScoop]

Awesome! Amazing discovery.

 

[Yak1366]

Great Article, Thanks for Posting!!!

 

[sandchip]

Beyond cool. It don't get any better than that!

 

[arrow86]

Somebody posted this a few weeks ago but still a good read

 

[RGINN]

Definitely different.

 

[joshuaream]

Those ice finds are cool, there are an amazing number of them coming from remote places near the Artic and high altitude camps in mountain ranges around the world.

It's also fascinating to me that we really only know the stone/metal part of arrowheads and tools that most of us find. That cool bone shaft/harpoon looking edge might have been used on a lot of points and we wouldn't know.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Somebody posted this a few weeks ago but still a good read

I know that one of our members got a Banner on the one he found, but I don't remember seeing this posted. But, one can't see everything. It's just too cool not to post.

 

[newnan man]

That thing is pretty bad ass looking!

 

[rock]

Very neat

 

[sprailroad]

Perhaps they should not have picked up that surface find, instead leaving it there for future generations? You can get your hand slapped in the SW for it, I'm just saying........OK, got that out of my system, very neat item, along with the "barbed" shaft. Have never seen that before.

 

[welsbury]

Perhaps they should not have picked up that surface find, instead leaving it there for future generations? You can get your hand slapped in the SW for it, I'm just saying........OK, got that out of my system, very neat item, along with the "barbed" shaft. Have never seen that before.

In a short span of time the antler portion of piece would deteriorate, I think better to collect piece so future generation can even see it. JMHO

 

[Kray Gelder]

Thanks for sharing that, Deepseeker. Really cool. I am trying to figure out the utility of that thing, though. Shaman piece, perhaps?

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Thanks for sharing that, Deepseeker. Really cool. I am trying to figure out the utility of that thing, though. Shaman piece, perhaps?

I think maybe the utility of it is that, embedded in the flesh of the prey, that barbed antler shaft could not be pulled out by the prey. Making it more deadly?

 

[joshuaream]

Thanks for sharing that, Deepseeker. Really cool. I am trying to figure out the utility of that thing, though. Shaman piece, perhaps?

I think it's a foreshaft, so technically a dart point versus an arrow point as mentioned in the article. (Google Eskimo Spear and you'll see how this could look.)

Historic harpoons, spears and atlatl darts used by Artic groups (Inuit, Eskimo, Yupik in Siberia, etc.) almost always have a compound, or multi-piece dart. There is a point (the copper point) mounted to a foreshaft (the bone piece with barbs) and a long shaft that is the body of the dart. The thought is that it was extremely difficult to replace a shaft, so their compound dart was designed to deliver the point and the foreshaft and then drop off where the body of the dart could be recovered by the hunter. They probably carried multiple points and foreshafts, but probably only a few long shafts. It makes sense as well, as you look at the picture of that landscape you don't see a lot of long strait trees there to make spear from...

In a way it's a similar to a modern rifle. The lead bullet is disposable when compared to the brass casing and the rifle itself.

 

[sprailroad]

In a short span of time the antler portion of piece would deteriorate, I think better to collect piece so future generation can even see it. JMHO

I was just being a tiny bit sarcastic, I was seen just picking up an arrow head one time, and you would of thought I'd just robbed a bank and beat the manager.

 

[1320]

I think it's a foreshaft, so technically a dart point versus an arrow point as mentioned in the article. (Google Eskimo Spear and you'll see how this could look.)

Historic harpoons, spears and atlatl darts used by Artic groups (Inuit, Eskimo, Yupik in Siberia, etc.) almost always have a compound, or multi-piece dart. There is a point (the copper point) mounted to a foreshaft (the bone piece with barbs) and a long shaft that is the body of the dart. The thought is that it was extremely difficult to replace a shaft, so their compound dart was designed to deliver the point and the foreshaft and then drop off where the body of the dart could be recovered by the hunter. They probably carried multiple points and foreshafts, but probably only a few long shafts. It makes sense as well, as you look at the picture of that landscape you don't see a lot of long strait trees there to make spear from...

In a way it's a similar to a modern rifle. The lead bullet is disposable when compared to the brass casing and the rifle itself.

Are the barbs on the fore shaft an aid to limit penetration? I can't imagine that even with the hardest of throws that maybe two barbs might penetrate. A number of factors would come into play to determine depth of penetration. I'm inclined to say that the barbs wouldn't be necessary to ensure a lethal hit given the mass of the point. If the barbs did in fact penetrate, retrieval of the point and fore shaft would have to pushed or cut out. I want to believe that the entire assembly would pass through, that would be the most effective use of power, energy, time, materials, etc., not to mention...one heck of a blood trail. Interesting piece of technology without a doubt.

 

[tamrock]

Yeah I read this story and posted it here last month. I would think there could be more examples like it still preserved under the ice?

 

[joshuaream]

Are the barbs on the fore shaft an aid to limit penetration? I can't imagine that even with the hardest of throws that maybe two barbs might penetrate. A number of factors would come into play to determine depth of penetration. I'm inclined to say that the barbs wouldn't be necessary to ensure a lethal hit given the mass of the point. If the barbs did in fact penetrate, retrieval of the point and fore shaft would have to pushed or cut out. I want to believe that the entire assembly would pass through, that would be the most effective use of power, energy, time, materials, etc., not to mention...one heck of a blood trail. Interesting piece of technology without a doubt.

Good observation, I hadn't really thought of that.

You see them more on whales and fish spears, where they are going into I assume softer flesh/blubber, but caribou spears often have the same barbs.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Yeah I read this story and posted it here last month. I would think there could be more examples like it still preserved under the ice?

Yep, you sure did and I missed it: http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/n...rtifacts/566028-copper-point-found-yukon.html

I must have been out detecting or something......