Archaeologists most often find lithic flakes, i.e., waste from stone tool production, at Stone Age sites. However, sometimes stone tools can be dated more precisely based on their shape or the used stone knapping technologies. One such find, a so-called even-based arrowhead knapped of quartzite, has been located at River Tsahkaljoki. The find dates to the Early Metal Period between 1800 BC and 500 AD. Another even-based arrowhead has been located at Koltalahti in the northwestern corner of Lake Kilpisjärvi.
Fine-grained quartzite is a widely used Stone Age and Early Metal Period raw material in Lapland, and the first archaeological find made at the mouth of River Tsahkaljoki was a quartzite raw material cache with over 1 kg of high-quality quartzite within a 30x40-cm area next to a large rock (NM 25175). It included several quartzite artefacts and cores from which flakes had been struck.
Left: Early Metal Period even-based quartzite arrowpoint found at Enontekiö Pöyrisjärvi, length 49,5 mm, width 21 mm, and thickness 8 mm (Museovirasto KM20131:1/Markku Haverinen). Right: Drawings of some of the quartzite finds from the River Tsahkaljoki lithic raw material cache (Museovirasto NM25175).
Several Stone Age and Early Metal Period raw material quarry sites are known from around Kilpisjärvi, the nearest one on the eastern shore of Lake Čáhkáljávri, where quartzite has been knapped from the side of a large boulder. Other quartzite quarry sites are known from the highlands up on Teemalovaara and Guonjarvárri Fells. These also commonly have large boulders from which the raw material has been knapped.