Prehistoric Stone Tools. These stone points, typically referred to as “arrow heads,” were actually not used on arrows (they were made by Native Americans many years before the bow and arrow were developed in North America). Prehistoric people in Florida had no access to metals like iron and used local chert (also called flint) to craft spear points, knives, scrapers, drills and a variety of other tools. The earliest evidence of people in North America dates to the last Ice Age about 14,000 years ago. True arrow points are not found in archaeological sites that are older than about 2,000 years ago. Thus, most of what we call arrow heads are actually knife blades, or points for darts that would been thrown with an “atlatl” or spear thrower. These points were found in the Ocklawaha River near Silver Springs, Florida by a diver in the 1960s searching for relics and fossils (Alvin Hendrix Collection 173, 775, 960).
