Arrowheads, Fossils, and Forgotten Stories — The Mystery of Archaeology Art

Evan Stuart Marshall, Cave Paintings, mixed media on canvas, 24" x 30" x 1.5"

A single fragment from the past—a fossil, an arrowhead, a shard of pottery—can tell an extraordinary story. An arrowhead, for example, may look like just a piece of stone. But in its shape and sharpness, we sense the person who once shaped it, carried it, and depended on it for survival. It becomes not only an artifact, but also a story.

The same is true of fossils. An imprint of a shell, a fern, or even a dinosaur track isn’t just a mark in stone. It’s time collapsed into an image. Something alive left its trace, and millions of years later we can still hold it, see it, and imagine the world it belonged to.

History is often preserved not in books but in objects. A tool, a coin, a pottery shard—these can outlast entire civilizations. They speak across time, even if their language is one of suggestion rather than certainty. We may never know exactly who used a particular arrowhead, but we know they were here. They lived, they worked, they left a mark.

That sense of continuity is what I’m exploring in my Archaeology painting series. In archaeology art, shapes and textures become a way of honoring forgotten stories—of recreating the moment of discovery, when something buried is brushed off and suddenly connects us to the past.

For collectors, living with a piece like this can be more than decoration. It’s a reminder that even fragments hold meaning. It’s proof that beauty and memory can be found in the quiet persistence of what endures.

The first works in the series, Cave Paintings and Arrowheads, are now available. I invite you to view them, and I hope they bring a spark of discovery into your space.

Evan Stuart Marshall, Arrowheads, mixed media on canvas, 24" x 30" x 1.5"