Today I learned something about arrowheads

The embedded photo was posted in the Arrowheads subreddit with the question "why so small?"

The short answer is "because it is a true arrowhead."  Here are a couple comments from a good discussion thread:

"That’s a true arrowhead. Most of the technology used was atlatl and the atlatl points are very large compared to arrowheads. Once the bow was invented, they could hunt game from further away and with more penetrating power using smaller points. These little points can still kill a deer. An atlatl dart point is like a .45, versus an arrowhead which is more like the stopping power of a 9mm."

"In archaeology we call them PPK'S (Projectile Points/Knives) because bow and arrows didn't appear in the Americas until around 600 years ago. The larger stuff that people call "arrowheads" are actually spear or lance points, atlatl points, or knives. You would be surprised by how many arrowhead shaped items are actually just knife blades."

"General rule about artifacts, Oldest hunting points were the Spear and Knife designed for Mega-Fauna in Paleo Era requiring LARGE ROBUST POINTS. Archaic are large to medium sized designed for new technology of the Atlatl and the smaller available game, deer elk, bear, beaver, antelope, Pronghorn Sheep, etc. The "bird points" are mostly modern Woodland Era and made more effective due to the near extinction of the main food source for the lower 48, the American Bison, Mule Deer, Elk and White Tails. Prairie Chickens, Grouse, Ducks, Geese, Rabbits, etc became the alternative out of pure necessity. Feed an entire village with Bison VS Small game, what could go wrong."