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Notes on the Archaic of the Appalachian Region

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

John Witthoft
John Witthoft*
Affiliation:
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Harrisburg, Pa.
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Abstract

The long stratigraphic sequence of separate archaeological horizons at the mouth of the gorge of the Pee Dee River in North Carolina necessitates changing earlier reconstructions of Piedmont archaeology. The stratigraphically documented series of projectile points from this site makes it possible to separate in time the varied forms of points originally assigned to the Baden and Guilford foci. Moreover, this evidence contradicts the typological arrangements of points in terms of logical evolutionary development and suggests that Archaic sequences in other parts of the Appalachian region may have to be radically changed when stratigraphic data become available. Stratigraphy at the Duncan's Island site in Pennsylvania, though less precise than that at the Pee Dee site, indicates that the local typological reconstructions for parts of Pennsylvania are in need of revision. Basal levels at Duncan's Island produce quartzite tools of types scattered throughout central Pennsylvania and often considered to represent an extremely early Archaic industry. The concentration of quartzite tools at the DeTurk site, though not dated stratigraphically, provides typological justification for the idea that the quartzite industry may be a survival of an earlier forest-based proto-Archaic tradition.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , July 1959 , pp. 79 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1959

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