Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:25:54.813Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bullen, R. P. 1949 Excavations in Northeastern Massachusetts. Papers of the Robert S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology, Vol. 1, No. 3. Andover.Google Scholar
Coe, J. L. 1951 Report of a Site on the Yadkin [Abstract]. Southeastern Archaeological Newsletter, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 4. Baton Rouge.Google Scholar
Coe, J. L. 1952 The Cultural Sequence of the Carolina Piedmont. In Archeology of Eastern United States, edited by Griffin, J. B., pp. 301–11. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Fairbanks, C. H. 1942 The Taxonomic Position of Stallings Island, Georgia. American Antiquity, Vol. 7, No. 3, pp. 223–31. Menasha.Google Scholar
Greenman, E. F. and Stanley, G. M. 1943 The Archaeology and Geology of Two Early Sites near Killarney, Ontario. Papers of the Michigan Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters, Vol. 28, pp. 505–31. Ann Arbor.Google Scholar
Harrington, M. R. 1934 A Camel-hunters’ Camp in Nevada. Masterkey, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 22–4. Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Harrington, M. R. 1956 The Latest from Tule Springs. Masterkey, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 108–9. Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Hurt, W. R. Jr. 1953 A Comparative Study of the Preceramic Occupations of North America. American Antiquity, Vol. 18, No. 3, pp. 204–22. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Johnson, Frederick (Editor) 1956 Chronology and Development of Early Cultures in North America. Preliminary transcript, proceedings of a conference sponsored by the R. S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology with the assistance of the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. Andover.Google Scholar
Krieger, A. D. (Assembler) 1955 Early Man. In “Notes and News,” American Antiquity, Vol. 21, No. 2, p. 202. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Lee, T. E. 1954 The First Sheguiandah Expedition, Manitoulin Island, Ontario. American Antiquity, Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 101–11. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Lee, T. E. 1955 The Second Sheguiandah Expedition, Manitoulin Island, Ontario. American Antiquity, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 63–71. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Meighan, C. W. (Editor) 1956 [Conference on Early Lithic and Archaic Cultures in North America.] In “Notes and News,” American Antiquity, Vol. 22, No. 2, p. 217. Salt Lake City.Google Scholar
Stewart, P. R. and D. W., Dragoo 1954 The Gay Shriver Archaic Site, Greene County, Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Archaeologist, Vol. 24, Nos. 3-4, pp. 106–14. Milton.Google Scholar
Witthoft, John 1947 Smoothed-base Projectile Points from Eastern Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Archaeologist, Vol. 17, No. 1, pp. 123-30. Harrisburg.Google Scholar