Rocky River Basal-Notched

A rich humus and sand stratum was encountered just below the Palmer level, and at a depth of 7’ 6" to 7’ 9". Within this stratum was found a projectile point type that has long been an enigma to archaeologists on the eastern seaboard and elsewhere. This point, a large, well-made basal-notched type is hereby named the "Rocky River Basal-Notched" (Figure 6) (Peck, 1984, this paper) . This was the only point or tool found in this dark humus stratum and the only such point found at the Baucom site. Projectile points of this type, however, have been found at other sites along Rocky River and in other areas of the Piedmont from South Carolina to Virginia. A point very similar to the Rocky River was found on the Williamson Paleo-Indian Workshop Site in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. The Williamson point was made of the local Cattail Creek Chalcedony, the lithic material occurring on the Williamson site. The Baucom site specimen is made of silicified slate, a local lithic material available at the Baucom site. Basal notched projectile points have been found in the lower levels of many sites and must be of Late Paleo-Indian age. Little is known concerning basal notched points other than those of the Eva type (which the Rocky River does not resemble) for they usually occur singly, one here, one there, over many states east of the Great Plains. Now at last, we can put this point in a stratified sequence older than Palmer and younger than the Hardaway Side-Notched at the Baucom site. An approximate age would be around 10,000 B. P. or slightly older, firmly within the Late Paleo-Indian Period. Rather than solving an enigma, the finding of this point type at such an early time period adds to the mystery of its origin and ancestral types in its evolution from an even earlier form. Enigmas such as this add to the complexity of archaeological studies.

Hardaway Side-Notched

Immediately below the dark layer of sandy humus another deep stratum of hard, sandy yellow clay was encountered, and in this stratum lay many examples of the evolving Paleo-Indian cultural remains indigenous to this region of the Fall Line Zone. This complex of related types has become known as the "Hardaway Tradition".

At and near the 8’ 6" level a total of 52 Hardaway Side-Notched projectile points (Coe, 1964) were recovered along with numerous end scrapers, side scrapers, preforms, chips, spalls, and lithic workshop debris beyond counting. The Hardaway Side-Notched projectile point (Figures 7,8,9 and 10) first recorded and described by Joffre L. Coe (Coe, 1964) is the most unusual, easily recognized and most sought after projectile point in the Carolinas. Its most distinctive morphological feature is, of course, the "rams-horn" appearance of the base when viewed with the distal end pointing downward. This specialized type is found in the Piedmont and Coastal Plain from Florida to Virginia with the region of greatest occurrence being the Fall Line Zone of the Carolinas. Most students of Early Man in the Southeastern states are long familiar with the salient features of this projectile point but almost totally unfamiliar with its chronological age or placement among evolving projectile point forms. This abysmal gap in our knowledge could surely be closed by a few radiocarbon dates.

A theory has been proposed concerning two separate Paleo-Indian traditions, the Hardaway Tradition and the Clovis Tradition, the Hardaway being the older (Painter,