Producer unknown to us
Projectile / Arrowhead
Americas, USA, Illinois
Prior to 1912
Stone, flaked
Frederick Weygold (painter, photographer)
Purchased by the museum from Weygold in 1912
NAm 03160
Collectors have delivered hundreds of stone implements such as knives and arrowheads from all regions of the Americas to the museum. Frederick Weygold, for example, has also sold stone objects from the widest possible range of sites in the USA, in addition to this unidentified piece from 1912.
The size, shape, and workmanship of the pieces allow conclusions about settlement and migration patterns in the Americas prior to European colonization. For example, the assumption that America was settled via a land bridge between Asia and Alaska during the last ice age ("Bering Strait Theory") was long supported by comparisons of stone weapons from the so-called "Clovis Culture" with objects from Siberia.
At the Leipzig museum, however, there were no staff members with the necessary regional archaeological knowledge to evaluate the collection. Systematic "collecting" thus initially only created a potential for research and mediation, which remained unused for the time being without further institutional support or research visits by external specialists.
Frank Usbeck