There are few things I love more than a visit to a good museum, and they're often a fascinating look back into the history of humanity or the creatures that lived before us - and they're often very low-priced or even free to enter! But one free museum in New Jersey is bridging the gap and giving us a look into a unique part of human history that often gets overlooked. The Alan Ewing Carman Museum of Prehistory, part of the Cumberland County Historical Society's network of small museums, is a museum dedicated to early man, focusing on the Native Americans who lived here before recorded history - hunting, gathering, crafting simple tools, and creating the building blocks of human civilization. This is the kind of place that looks small, but is well worth exploring for a fascinating look into the past.
Located in a tiny shed, the Museum of Prehistory is easy to miss - but history buffs won't want to drive on by.
This one-room museum specializes in artifacts belonging to the earliest native Americans, who developed many of the basic tools that formed the foundations of human civilization.
One of the most impressive exhibits in the museum is its massive collection of found arrowheads.
There are also some impressive fossils of the animals the Native Americans hunted and coexisted with preserved here.
What's this? It's a Bannerstone. What's a Bannerstone? We don't know! This is one of the most mysterious artifacts on display here.
The museum is staffed by a skilled team of volunteer archaeologists who examine the ancient tools and figure out where they came from and what they were used for.
The museum is only minutes away from the Nicholas Gibbon House, one of the oldest houses in New Jersey and a fascinating historical site in its own right.
Have you visited the Alan Ewing Carman Museum of Prehistory? What's your favorite free museum in New Jersey? Let us know in the comments section! You can find out more about this whole network of museums by following the Cumberland County Historical Society Facebook page. While you're in South Jersey, take a quick trip east to Millville, where you'll find some of the most fascinating art history in New Jersey. That's also where you'll find the Fairfield Inn & Suites By Marriott Millville/Vineland, which is a reasonably priced and well-reviewed hotel with an Art Deco design.
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