The Baucom Hardaway Site

(Peck and Painter)

If future radiocarbon dates bears out the recently received date of 11,100 B.P. for the Hardaway Side-Notched projectile point, then the projected age of the Alamance point must be between 11,500 and 12,000 years B.P. This would be older than any "accepted" date for projectile points in North America.

HAW River-like

The last projectile point to be considered, the Haw River-like point (Painter, 1959 in Bottoms, 1970) was also found at a depth of 9'4" in the same stratum of yellow, sandy clay, and at the same approximate depth as the Alamance point discussed previously (both points illustrated in Figure 15). There is some controversy, however, surrounding the relative depth at which the two points were found. Since the Alamance-like was found in Stratification #2 and the Haw River-like specimen was found in Stratification #1 (figures 1 and 2) we were unsure which was at a greater depth. But since the differences could only involve an inch or two it is considered a small matter. The Haw River type is generally considered to be ancestral to the Alamance type and we will assume here that the Haw River is at least slightly older than the Alamance, even though they were found at the same approximate depth.

The Haw River point like the Alamance point is but one of several types classified as the " Hardaway Blade" by Coe (Coe, 1964, p.65, row C). Coe states: "this type is the earliest type to be excavated in the Piedmont and should date close to 10,000 B.C. (12,000 B.P.). With this estimate we concur wholeheartedly.

Here again we have labeled this specimen "Haw River-like" for it lacks basal smoothing and secondary retouch, and we believe it to be an uncompleted preform of the Haw River type, either lost or rejected before receiving its finishing touches. The Haw River projectile point in its finished state has some has some secondary flaking and grinding on the base and basal concavity. This is really all that distinguishes it from some preforms. It is a projectile point in its primary or basic form and may in fact be the oldest in North America (Painter, 1983), with a date of 12,000 or more years B.P. It is a candidate for the classification "Early Man" rather than Paleo-Indian.

Lithic material in use at the site

Fully 95% of the lithic material used in all the various cultural periods at the Baucom Hardaway Site was argillite and novaculite of the Carolina Slate Series more commonly called "silicified slate". The remaining 5% consisted of rhyolite, andesite, white quartz, quartzite, crystal quartz,are labeled "Q" in the illustrations. All these lithic materials occur locally in either bedded outcrops or river gravels. No unusual, locally unfamiliar or "exotic" lithic materials was noted in projectile points, tools, or lithic debitage of the site. Silicified slate occurs as a bluff outcrop at the site itself. This lack of exotic lithic materials would indicate that the aboriginal inhabitants were not footloose and free-wandering nomads such as we believe the Clovis tradition to have been, but semi-sedentary or seasonal-round nomads who chose a region to their needs and moved from place to place within that region, sometimes returning yearly to the same camping spot.

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