Handbook of Alabama Archaeology: Part I Point Types Part 17

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This is a medium sized, side notched, serrated point with expanded shoulders.

MEASUREMENTS: Seven cotypes from Limestone County, Alabama, provided the following measurements and traits: length--maximum, 66 mm.; minimum, 50 mm.; average, 59 mm.: shoulder width--maximum, 29 mm.; minimum, 25 mm.; average, 27 mm.: stem width--maximum, 29 mm.; minimum, 26 mm.; average, 28 mm.: stem length--maximum, 15 mm.; minimum, 11 mm.; average, 12 mm.: thickness--maximum, 9 mm.; minimum, 5 mm.; average, 7 mm.

FORM: The cross-section is usually biconvex but may be flattened.

Shoulders are narrow, tapered, and expanded. Blade edges are recurvate and serrated. The distal end is acute. The hafting area is side notched with expanded stem. The notches average about 9 mm. wide and 3 mm. deep.

Side edges of the stem are incurvate. The basal edge is thinned and incurvate.

FLAKING: Broad, shallow flaking was used to shape the blade and stem faces. Collateral or random flaking was used to retouch the sides of the blade faces to a near median ridge resulting in serrations. The side notches were formed by the removal of one large flake or several smaller flakes. Retouch was carried out along the basal edge. All examples are patinated and are made of local materials.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

COMMENTS: The type was named from points found on and near Cambron Site 76, the Pine Tree, (Cambron, 1956) in Limestone County, Alabama. The ill.u.s.trated example is from Cambron Site 4, Limestone County, Alabama.

An example was ill.u.s.trated by Webb and DeJarnette (1942) as type 54 from Colbert County, Alabama, Site Ct 27 (Plate 294). One example, of unknown provenience, from Site Ms 53A (Webb and Wilder, 1951) in Marshall County, Alabama, was recovered (Plate 29-C, No. 16). The type is pre-sh.e.l.lmound in North Alabama and is considered an early Archaic point type. One example was found on a site on Valley River at Andrews, North Carolina. Other than this occurrence the known distribution is Alabama and Southern Tennessee.

PINE TREE CORNER NOTCHED, =Cambron= (This Paper): A-70-a

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This is a medium sized, corner notched, serrated point with expanded shoulders.

MEASUREMENTS: Seven cotypes, including the ill.u.s.trated example, provided the following measurements and traits: length--maximum, 72 mm.; minimum, 40 mm.; average, 54 mm.: shoulder width--maximum, 32 mm.; minimum, 23 mm.; average, 27 mm.: stem width--maximum, 30 mm.; minimum, 25 mm.; average, 28 mm.: stem length--maximum, 12 mm.; minimum, 10 mm.; average, 11 mm.: thickness--maximum, 8 mm.; minimum, 7 mm.; average, 7 mm.

FORM: The cross-section is biconvex, rarely flattened. Shoulders are usually inversely tapered, rarely horizontal, and the barbs are expanded. Blade edges are usually incurvate, rarely straight, and serrated. The distal end is acute. The hafting area is usually corner notched, rarely side-notched, with expanded stem. Notches measured along the stem edge average about 11 mm. deep and about 5 mm. wide. Side edges of the stem are usually straight. The base is thinned and usually straight, but may be excurvate, rarely incurvate. Light basal grinding may be present.

FLAKING: Random flaking was first employed to shape the blade and stem faces. This was followed by collateral, rarely random, flaking, usually resulting in regular serrations along the blade edges. Blade edges were worked in to form expanded barbs. The corner notches were formed by the removal of one or more large flakes, with retouch along the stem edge.

Some retouch was used to finish the basal edge. All examples are patinated and are usually made of local materials.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

COMMENTS: The type was named from points found on and near the Pine Tree Site Cambron 76 (Cambron, 1956) in Limestone County, Alabama. The ill.u.s.trated example is from Cambron Site 19 in Morgan County, Alabama.

The type was formerly included with the Pine Tree point (Cambron, 1957) but was later referred to locally as Pine Tree Variant. It is a pre-sh.e.l.lmound or early Archaic type. Physical characteristics indicate a greater antiquity for this type than for the Pine Tree type, but surface collection a.s.sociations suggest a contemporaneous existence.

PLEVNA, =Cambron= (DeJarnette, Kurjack and Cambron, 1962): A-72

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: The Plevna is a medium to large, corner notched point with excurvate base and beveled on one edge of each face.

MEASUREMENTS: Nine cotypes from North Alabama and Southern Tennessee, including the ill.u.s.trated example, provided the following measurements and traits: length--maximum, 95 mm.; minimum, 46 mm.; average, 65 mm.: shoulder width--maximum, 35 mm.; minimum, 26 mm.; average, 30 mm.: stem width--maximum, 31 mm.; minimum, 24 mm.; average, 27 mm.: stem length--maximum, 17 mm.; minimum, 12 mm.; average, 15 mm.: thickness--maximum, 10 mm.; minimum, 7 mm.; average, 8 mm.

FORM: The cross-section is rhomboid. Shoulders are inversely tapered or horizontal. Where shoulder barbs are present they may be expanded. Blade edges are usually straight, but may be incurvate or excurvate and may be serrated. They are always beveled on one edge of each face. Distal ends are acute. The hafting area is corner notched, with deep narrow notches that average about 4 mm. wide at the blade edge, 2 or 3 mm. wide at the bottom of the notch, and about 6 mm. deep along the stem edge. The expanded stem usually has straight side edges, and the basal edge is always excurvate, thinned, and ground.

FLAKING: Broad, shallow, random flaking was employed to produce flattened faces of the blade. Most blades were probably excurvate with a gentle bevel before one edge of each face was reworked by short, shallow to deep, flaking which often created serrations. Repeated reworking of these blade edges resulted in steep beveling and often in incurvate blade edges. The notches were formed at the widest part of the blade by the initial removal of one broad deep flake from each side of each face.

The area thus thinned was then notched by removal of short fine flakes.

The hafting area was thinned by broad, shallow flaking followed by the removal of small, shallow flakes along the basal edge. Local materials were used, and all examples showed patination.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

COMMENTS: The point is named from points found on the Plevna Site (Cambron 79) in Madison County, Alabama, a.s.sociated with Eva and other early Archaic types. The ill.u.s.trated example is from Hulse Site 38, Limestone County, Alabama. The type is a.s.sociated with pre-sh.e.l.lmound materials in North Alabama and is considered an early Archaic type.

Physical characteristics suggest that Plevna points may be ancestral to the unbeveled, late Archaic to early Woodland St. Charles points (Bell, 1960) found throughout the Ohio Valley and in surrounding states. A date of sometime before 5000 years ago is suggested for the type in Alabama.

QUAD, =Soday and Cambron= (Cambron and Waters, 1959a): A-73

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: The Quad is a medium sized, broad, unfluted or fluted, point with an expanded-rounded, auriculate hafting area.

MEASUREMENTS: Fifty-one examples from thirty-one sites in the Tennessee River Valley (Soday and Cambron, n. d.) provided the following measurements: unfluted points--maximum length, 86 mm.; minimum length, 47 mm.; average length, 57 mm.; average width, 23 mm.; average thickness, 7 mm.: fluted points--maximum length, 79 mm.; minimum length, 39 mm.; average length, 52 mm.; width, 24 mm.; average thickness, 7 mm.

The ill.u.s.trated example provided the following measurements: length, 60 mm.; width at base, 31 mm.; width of blade above hafting area, 29 mm.; width of hafting constriction, 28 mm.; depth of basal concavity, 7 mm.

FORM: The cross-section may be flattened or biconvex. Blade edges above the hafting area are convex. The distal end is acute. The auriculate hafting area is expanded-rounded with a hafting constriction along the side edges near the auricles. The base is incurvate and may be thinned or fluted. Hafting area edges are usually ground, especially the constriction.

FLAKING: Flaking on the faces is usually random but may be collateral.

Retouch with short, fairly deep flaking, is usual on all edges. Because of the thinness of these points, fluted examples have short flutes similar to the Clovis points.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

COMMENTS: The type was named from points found on and near the Quad Site (Soday, 1954) in Limestone County, Alabama. The ill.u.s.trated example is from Cambron Site 76 (Pine Tree) near the Quad Site. The unfluted variant was described by Bell (1960), and he suggests a date of some portion of the period from 8000 B.C. to 4000 B.C. He ill.u.s.trates examples from Tennessee and Ohio. An unfluted example was found in Level 11 at the University of Alabama Site Ms 201 in Marshall County, Alabama, in the same stratum as Wheeler, Paint Rock Valley, c.u.mberland, Dalton, and other points. An example from Flint Creek Rock Shelter (Cambron and Waters, 1961) was recovered in pre-Archaic Stratum III along with a Beaver Lake point. A Quad-like point was recovered from the Quad Site in the same stratum as a fluted midsection, Dalton, and Big Sandy I points (Cambron and Hulse, 1960a). Coe (1959) found similar points a.s.sociated with Daltons on the lower levels of the Hardaway Site in Piedmont, North Carolina. The above evidence and surface a.s.sociations indicate a transitional Paleo a.s.sociation with an age of 10,000 years ago or more.

REDSTONE, =Mahan= (This Paper): A-75

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This is a medium to large, triangular, fluted point with an incurvate base.

MEASUREMENTS: Seven points from seven sites in the Tennessee Valley (Soday and Cambron, n. d.) range in length as follows: longest, 117 mm.

(from Soday Site 475 in Morgan County, Alabama); shortest, 67 mm. (from Serio 1, Madison County, Alabama); average, 89 mm. The average width of the seven points is 37 mm. and the average thickness, 7 mm. The ill.u.s.trated specimen measures in length, 110 mm.; width at base, 34 mm.; thickness, 6 mm.; depth of basal concavity, 9 mm.; longest flute, 70 mm.; shortest flute, 26 mm.

FORM: The cross-section is fluted. The blade is straight with an acute distal end. Grinding along the basal edge for about one-third of the length of the point designates the hafting area. The auriculated base is parallel-rounded and incurvate and may show multiple flutes on one or both faces. The basal edge is thinned on each side of the flute and ground.

FLAKING: The flakes removed in order to shape the blade and hafting area are narrow, shallow and random. The edges were finished by the removal of alternate flakes along the blade and hafting area edges, leaving a fine, irregular pattern. The short flute was removed first from a flattened face, the longer flute from a median ridged face that shows multiple flute scars (Cambron and Hulse, 1961).

[Ill.u.s.tration]

COMMENTS: The type was named after Redstone a.r.s.enal in Madison County, Alabama, where the ill.u.s.trated specimen, a cla.s.sic example, was recovered from Brosemer Site M-17, a site that has produced other early points. Several examples have been ill.u.s.trated in the Tennessee Archaeologist as follows: Vol. X, No. 1, p. 17, Fig. 45 (Morgan County, Alabama, Soday, 1954); Vol. X, No. 2, p. 40, Fig. 1, p. 48, Fig. 87, p.

50, Fig. 96 (Madison County, Alabama, Mahan, 1954); Vol. 12, No. 1, p.

36, Figs. 3 and 4 (Chickamauga Lake, Tennessee, Lewis, 1956); Vol. XIII, No. 2, p. 82, Fig. 7 (Weakley County, Tennessee, Taylor, 1957); Vol. XV, No. 2, p. 124, Fig. 19 (Limestone County, Alabama), p. 142, Fig. 1, (Humphreys County, Tennessee, Lewis, 1959); Vol. XVI, No. 1, p. 58, Figs. 18, 19 (Henry County, Tennessee, Lewis, 1960a). The Redstone type appears to be a variant of the Clovis and probably was in use at about the same time as Clovis points. Charcoal from hearths with which a Clovis point was presumed to have been a.s.sociated, gave dates in excess of 37,000 years ago (Crook and Harris, 1958). When dating methods were improved, dates in excess of 42,000 years ago were obtained at this site. This means the Redstone, as well as the Clovis, could have been in use as early as 42,000 years ago, but most archaeologists suggest a date of about 15,000 years ago.

RHEEMS CREEK, =Cambron= (This Paper): A-113

GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This is a small to medium sized stemmed point with straight blade edges.

MEASUREMENTS: Fifteen cotypes in the Harwood collection from Cambron Site 326 in Buncombe County, North Carolina, provided the following measurements: length--maximum, 60 mm.; minimum, 37 mm.; average, 41 mm.: shoulder width--maximum, 23 mm.; minimum, 18 mm.; average, 21 mm.: stem width--maximum, 16 mm.; minimum, 11 mm.; average, 15 mm.: stem length--maximum, 12 mm.; minimum, 7 mm.; average, 9 mm.: thickness--maximum, 10 mm.; minimum, 7 mm.; average, 8 mm. The ill.u.s.trated example provided the following measurements: length, 37 mm.; shoulder width, 19 mm.; stem width, 12 mm.; stem length, 9 mm.; thickness, 7 mm.

FORM: The cross-section is usually biconvex, rarely plano-convex.

Shoulders are tapered and fairly broad. Blade edges are usually straight, but may be excurvate, rarely incurvate. The distal end is acute. The stem is usually straight but may be tapered. The basal edge is excurvate and usually thick, but may be thinned.

FLAKING: The entire point appears to have been made by short, fairly deep, random percussion flaking. The lack of retouch along the blade edges leaves an irregular blade edge outline that somewhat resembles crude serrations on some examples. All examples from the site are made of vein quartz.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

COMMENTS: The type was named from the Rheems Creek Site (Cambron Site 326) in Buncombe County, North Carolina. A few examples approach Bradley Spike in size and flaking, but are broader with a more triangular blade.