The Baucom Hardaway Site (Peck and Painter)

also that the two cultures or peoples were so different from each other in physical appearance, language, and customs that they avoided contact whenever possible. Such cultural traits as warlike tendencies, cannibalism, and woman stealing, by one or another sides, cannot be ruled out as reasons for social avoidance.

Further work and more C-14 dates from the Baucom Hardaway Site, could possibly prove or disprove many of these theories and in the process generate even more such hypotheses .

Hardaway-Dalton

At and about the 8’ 9" level and in the hard, sandy, yellow clay, nine Hardaway-Dalton (Coe, 1964) projectile points were uncovered (Figure 13) . These points were accompanied by preforms, end and side scrapers, gravers, spokeshaves and numerous examples of workshop debris (Figure 14).

The Hardaway-Dalton projectile point first recorded, described and named by Joffre Coe (1964) is a most unusual point and without doubt the direct ancestor of the Hardaway Side-Notched projectile point. One may study the two types and very easily place selected projectile points into an evolutionary sequence of subtypes that blend into each other . This is easily demonstrated at the Hardaway Site and the Baucom Site by both projectile point morphology and vertical stratigraphy.

There are those who have always questioned the addendum "Dalton" to this evolutive link in the Hardaway Tradition. While a few selected specimens of the Hardaway-Dalton type do indeed resemble the "Dalton" types with which most are familiar, the maj0rity of the specimens from both the Hardaway and Baucom sites resemble the "Dalton" only superficially. It is possible, however, that the Hardaway-Dalton is the direct ancestor of both the Hardaway Side-Notched and the various "Dalton types".

If we accept the date of 11,100 years B.P. for the Hardaway Side-Notched, which we know to be of lesser age than the Hardaway-Dalton, then the Hardaway-Dalton must have an age of about 11,500 years. This age is far, far older than any "Dalton" type dated thus far. The accepted dates for the Dalton has traditionally been 8,000 to 10,000 years B.P., although Albert G. Goodyear (Goodyear, 1982) argues convincingly that the correct temporal position of the Dalton is 9,900 to 10,500 years B.P. This time span is still far short of the projected date of the Hardaway-Dalton. We look forward to additional C-14 dates from the lower levels of the Baucom Hardaway Site, even though future dates may alter our theories somewhat.

Joffre Coe’s findings at the well-known Hardaway Site in Stanly County, North Carolina, like all other major excavations and reports, has posed more questions than it has given answers. While placing most of the region’s projectile point types in their proper evolutionary sequence, Coe was unable to place them in their correct temporal span. Lacking C-14 dates for his older projectile point types he was forced to compare them morphologically with points exhibiting similar traits that had been dated in other geographical regions. Coe’s relative dating was remarkably close in many cases but a little on the conservative side in others. This is understandable considering the information available to him in 1964. The Baucom Hardaway Site, with better stratigraphy and more chances of uncovering dateable

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