A young girl on holiday with her grandmother has discovered a 5,000-year-old flint arrowhead that the local authorities say “opens a new chapter” in the history of the town.
Seven-year-old Miriam was collecting pebbles with her sisters at Jeziorak lake in the northern Polish town of Iława. One that she fished out of the water, around 5 centimetres long, particularly caught her eye, so she decided to take it back with her.
She then showed it to her grandmother, Maria Poniewierska, who immediately recognised it as being manmade. Poniewierska had during her student days done an internship working at an archaeological dig in a prehistoric burial site.
To make sure, Poniewierska consulted her godson, an archaeology graduate, who confirmed that the discovery was no ordinary stone. By law, such finds are the property of the state, so Miriam’s family, who are from the southern city of Kraków, handed over the item to the municipal authorities in Iława.
Subsequent expert analysis has confirmed that it is an arrowhead made of flint and is “most likely from the Stone Age, the Neolithic, about 4,500-5,000 years ago”, says Iława’s official responsible for public spaces, Wiesław Skrobot.
“On the basis of a preliminary comparative analysis, this arrowhead can be associated with a Funnelbeaker culture or – perhaps more likely – with the so-called Corded Ware cultures,” he added, noting that traces of the latter have been found in digs at a former burial site in the village of Babięty Małe, near Iława.
The municipal authorities will hand over the item to specialists in Stone Age flint products, who will be better able to date and identify the arrowhead. They have also expressed their “thanks to Maria Poniewierska and her plucky granddaughters for donating the valuable find to the local authorities”.
“Although the arrowhead is seemingly unimpressive, and its size is not imposing, this discovery opens a new chapter in research on the most ancient history of Iława and Jeziorak,” they wrote.
Main image credit: Iława town hall
Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
