By Billy Berger

My friend Jason and I crept quietly down the sandy dirt road, listening intently for the subtle sounds that would give away the presence of the South Georgia pigs we were hunting. As the dirt road curved gently to the left, Jason whispered, “This is where I shot that huge hog last year. He was up on that rise when I saw him.” Jason pointed to the spot where the hog had been feeding when he crept within bow range. I scoured the ground, looking for any tracks or droppings suggesting the pigs had been there recently. There were none, but I did notice that small white chips of stone littered the ground. Someone else had been here and very likely considered this an ideal ambush spot many centuries ago.

The Bolen Bevel point in the exact spot it was found. The real surprise came when I learned of its age.

The dirt bank next to the road had eroded with each rainfall, and it revealed the stone chips left by the Indians who once lived here. As I scanned the dirt bank, I noticed a piece of stone that looked different from the rest and, as I took a step closer, I immediately recognized it as an arrowhead.

“Jason . . . look right there!” I said, pointing at the arrowhead.

“Oh my God!” he exclaimed.

I took out my digital camera and snapped several pictures of the arrowhead exactly as it lay. I wanted to preserve that moment before it was removed from the spot where it had rested for an untold number of years.

I carefully picked up the point, and we both inspected it in intimate detail. After several minutes I put it in my pocket, and we continued the hunt for pigs. Any spare moment I had, I took it out, looked at it, and wondered how old it was and who made it—these and a hundred other questions flooded through my head.

The pig sign was nonexistent, indicating that our quarry had long since left the area, so we elected to head back to the truck. After our pig hunt was over, Jason and I drove the two hours back home, and the first thing I did when I arrived was to try to identify the arrowhead in my Overstreet’s Arrowhead Identification Guide. I found several point types that were similar, but not a match. And suddenly . . . there it was. The point I was looking at in the book was almost identical to the one I had found. The descriptions confirmed it.

Then and Now: On the left is the author's stone utility knife, made of the same type of stone and resharpened just like its ancient predecessor. On the right is the point found by the author.

It turns out the point is called a Bolen Bevel, and it was not a true arrowhead because it was made long before the invention of the bow and arrow in North America. Instead, it was most likely used as a knife and had been resharpened numerous times by flaking each edge in opposite directions, giving the point a rhomboid-shaped cross section. Bolen Bevel points are common in the area of southern Georgia where Jason and I were hunting and are made of a material called coastal plains chert. The stone it was made of did not come from the area where I found the point and was either carried there or traded many miles to the Indian who made it. But the biggest surprise was its age; Bolen Bevel points were made between 7,000 and 9,000 years ago! The point is so old that it has weathered to a chalky, off-white color. According to my reference book, archaeological digs in northern Florida have found Bolen Bevel points in association with the remains of the extinct North American horse, indicating that they may have been used to kill and butcher those animals.

It’s amazing to think that an Indian made that stone point shortly after the last ice age and either lost it or left it to be discovered 9,000 years later. That Indian was engaged in the very same ritual of hunting that we continue today. Even though the weapons today are much more advanced, I like to think that the spirit of the craftsman who made the point that I found looks down from heaven and smiles, knowing some of us still use stone arrowheads and wooden bows in the pursuit of game. And each fall, as man ventures into the woods to partake in the age-old struggle of predator and prey, the legacy will continue, for the blood of our stone-age ancestors still flows through each one of us.