A reconsideration of the seminal projectile point typology In the 1964 landmark publication The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont, Joffre Coe established a projectile point typology and chronology that, for the first time, allowed archaeologists to identify the relative age of a site or site deposit based on the point types recovered there. Consistent with the cultural-historical paradigm of the day, the “Coe axiom” stipulated that only one point type was produced at one moment in time in a particular location. Moreover, Coe identified periods of “cultural continuity” and “discontinuity” in the chronology based on perceived similarities and differences in point styles through time. In Time, Typology, and Point Traditions in North Carolina Archaeology: Formative Cultures Reconsidered, I. Randolph Daniel Jr. reevaluates the Coe typology and sequence, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. Daniel reviews the history of the projectile point type concept in the Southeast and revisits both Coe’s axiom and his notions regarding cultural continuity and change based on point types. In addition, Daniel updates Coe’s typology by clarifying or revising existing types and including types unrecognized in Coe’s monograph. Daniel also adopts a practice-centered approach to interpreting types and organizes them into several technological traditions that trace ancestral- descendent communities of practice that relate to our current understanding of North Carolina prehistory. Appealing to professional and avocational archaeologists, Daniel provides ample illustrations of points in the book as well as color versions on a dedicated website. Daniel dedicates a final chapter to a discussion of the ethical issues related to professional archaeologists using private artifact collections. He calls for greater collaboration between professional and avocational communities, noting the scientific value of some private collections.

Surveys the archaeology of North Carolina's three major regions--the Coastal Plain, the Piedmont, and the Mountains. Discusses the history of archaeological research in the state and suggests future directions of study. Contributors include archaeologists Joffre L. Coe, David S. Phelps, Burton L. Purrington, and H. Trawick Ward.

North Carolina's written history begins in the sixteenth century with the voyages of Sir Walter Raleigh and the founding of the ill-fated Lost Colony on Roanoke Island. But there is a deeper, unwritten past that predates the state's recorded history. The region we now know as North Carolina was settled more than 10,000 years ago, but because early inhabitants left no written record, their story must be painstakingly reconstructed from the fragmentary and fragile archaeological record they left behind. Time before History is the first comprehensive account of the archaeology of North Carolina. Weaving together a wealth of information gleaned from archaeological excavations and surveys carried out across the state--from the mountains to the coast--it presents a fascinating, readable narrative of the state's native past across a vast sweep of time, from the Paleo-Indian period, when the first immigrants to North America crossed a land bridge that spanned the Bering Strait, through the arrival of European traders and settlers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Book on eastern prehistoric stone tools, namely arrowhead and spearpoints. It covers Paleoindian throught Woodland times in American prehistory. Book is well illustrated.

This publication was written to provide a source for archaeological projectile point typology for a region of the U.S. that over the years has been traditionally divided into: Northeast culture area Middle Atlantic culture area Southeastern culture area These divisions are based primarily on lithic technology and settlement patterns. While this focus tends to serve archaeological investigations, most of the prehistoric Indian habitation/occupation requires greater definition and appraisal from other sources within the archaeological community. Even among artifact collectors, there is a tendency to parcel these areas into the classic culture area concepts. This publication makes no attempts to refocus archaeology, but to show the vast overlaps of numerous point technologies. This is especially true over time; so that, for lithic point technology in general, there is a Panindian focus that can be applied to almost every tool type along the Atlantic Coast. This publication provides most of the published types from along the Atlantic seaboard. Each type has a basic description and the illustration is an ideal point for that type. A set of point references is provided; these make excellent (and needed) sources for the study of projectile point studies.