Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2017
Previous publications have called attention to the problem of flint decomposition or alteration in artifact and workshop materials from Archaic horizons in coastal Georgia. On the Macon Plateau, Georgia, there are stratigraphic indications of a prepottery horizon characterized by an old artifact assemblage of stemmed and concave-based projectiles, a wide range of cutting tools, both scraper and knife categories, all exhibiting partial or complete chemical alteration of the material (Kelly 1938). Related sites showing similar phenomena of altered flint, in contexts implying Archaic quarries or workshops, have been found in archaeological surveys at Lane Springs in northern Decatur County, Georgia, and in Kinchafoonee, in a Highway 19 road profile on the outskirts of Albany, Georgia (Kelly 1950). Recently, Kelly summarized these and other occurrences indicative of the widespread distribution of such materials over the entire coastal plain of Georgia (Kelly 1954). The difficulties of utilizing decomposed flint for chronometric studies were also summarized (Kelly 1953).