Family unearths ancient spearhead at their Paris, Ont., farm in 'freak' discovery

Aastha Shetty · CBC News

· Posted: Jul 16, 2025 6:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago

The 2 pieces were buried nether the world for perchance much than 12,000 years. This summer, they were accidentally unearthed on a Paris, Ont., dairy farm.

For Laura Vellenga, uncovering what are believed to beryllium 2 parts of an ancient spearhead is a once-in-a-lifetime discovery.

"I knew close distant this was thing special," she said, cautiously admiring 2 pieces of airy grey flint successful her cupped hands.

"You tin archer that it was made by a idiosyncratic and chiselled by a person.... We recovered it present successful the cornfield, at the backmost of the farm, about kilometre away from the house. It was just a freak accidental that we recovered this here."

The 2 pieces she recovered link similar a puzzle to create a astir seven-centimetre-long piece. Vellenga wonders if a 3rd portion remains hidden connected their workplace due to the fact that the spearhead is missing its tip.

Vellenga found the pieces while working connected the workplace with her husband, Mike Vellenga. He was driving their ATV done the cornfield erstwhile helium heard it bump against thing hard successful the soil.

"My hubby looked down present and helium sat benignant of fractional buried successful the dirt; he thought [it] was similar a portion of plastic."

After picking the 2 pieces up and tapping them against their ATV, the Vellengas instantly knew they were nary mean rocks. They decided to instrumentality the pieces home, carefully, and began looking for an archeology adept to archer them much astir their unsocial find.

"A human being from 13,000 years ago, earlier the pyramids, before any of the past that we cognize astir of civilization held this successful their hand and made it, and utilized it and lived here," Laura said.

"It's breathtaking to deliberation however antithetic the world was backmost past during the [last] crystal property ... then it got mislaid and present we're holding it 13,000 years later."

'Scarce arsenic hen's teeth'

To assistance larn much astir what the household believes is simply a uncommon find, the household turned to Christopher Ellis, a starring adept successful Paleo and Archaic archeology from the Great Lakes area.

Ellis, a prof emeritus astatine London's Western University, has spent his 50-year career unearthing and identifying spearheads similar the 1 discovered by the Vellengas.

He has not had a accidental to clasp the artifact, but has studied it using detailed pictures. He said the benignant of constituent the household found "is a benignant that we cognize is diagnostic of the oldest documented radical successful Ontario," and noted that with the modern calendar, it would day it to 10,000 BC.

Ellis said he was shocked to spot that the family had accidentally stumbled upon a fluted constituent spear tip.

"Fluted points ... are scarce arsenic hen's teeth. They are similar a needle successful a haystack," Ellis told CBC News.

"I lone cognize of possibly seven points from each the Brant County that person been reported implicit the years. There's not precise galore of them and they're distinctive."

Material from present-day Ohio

Ellis said the spearhead is made of chert flint rock — a material not people recovered successful the country wherever the workplace is located.

"It's from an Ohio source, from southbound cardinal Ohio, which would beryllium astir 300 oregon 400 kilometres away," helium said, adding the spearhead whitethorn person been carried implicit to Ontario by a hunter-gatherer looking for food, household and love.

"Part of the crushed [for travelling] is that radical were surviving successful precise tiny groups. The full colonisation of confederate Ontario mightiness person been 150 radical and successful tiny groups, truthful they support interaction implicit wide areas because... they're exchanging tools and raw materials with radical successful Michigan, and Ohio, and New York state and truthful connected implicit ample areas."

Ellis described the chert flint stone arsenic casual to flake and glass-like. He said it would person taken sizeable accomplishment and patience to signifier the spearhead into a cleanable point.

"They were astir an creation form. It was a batch much to them than conscionable tools. They went retired of their mode to get definite earthy materials for them, the champion quality. They wanted them to look precise nice."