09/04/2026
Museum Monday’s Mystery were all examples of Brewerton points. These stone points are mostly made of Onondaga chert, date to about 5000 to 4000 BP , in the middle to late archaic period.
In 1961 William Ritchie wrote his publication “A topology and nomenclature of New York projectile points”
(NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM AND SCIENCE SERVICE BULLETIN NUMBER 384)
In this publication, besides defining many other projectile points found in New York State, Ritchie defined four types of points found in Brewerton, New York.
The most common was the side notched Brewerton point, defined by it’s notches going straight into the sides of the point. In larger forms it could serve as a spear point or a thrown dart weapon.
A minor type of this was the corner notch Brewerton point and is probably the second most common. Its notches go upwards into the point at a 45° angle from the corners of the point. This was most likely used as a thrown dart weapon.
Rarer still is the eared notched Brewerton point. These points tend to be smaller, have weaker notches that typically go in from the side and protrusions at the broad, curving base, forming small “ears”. This was most likely used as a thrown dart weapon.
The least common type is the eared triangle Brewerton point. A rare variant of the eared notched Brewerton point, it lacks the notches, tends to be a little smaller and a little wider and shorter. It also tends to have less prominent “ears”. This was most likely used as a thrown dart weapon.
I struggled to find an example of this particular point in our collection, but during my wrap up of this weeks mystery items, I reviewed some of our newest donations and found probably the most perfect example we now have.
None of these points were used as arrowheads, as the technology was not believed to have existed at the time. Instead, these were used as spear or thrown dart weapons by the people of the Laurentian tradition. This network of semi nomadic hunter gatherers would spend the summer months in places like Brewerton fishing and gathering acorn, nuts, and fruit, and then move deeper into the woods in smaller groups during the winter, eating gathered food and hunting big game. They did not plant crops or possess pottery technology. Instead, they would carve bowls and smoking pipes out of soap stone. They also traded for advanced copper tools, utilizing extensive trade routes throughout the area that connected them to material from the copper mines of the Lake Superior region.
