The period between 6000 and 8000 years
ago is the most poorly understood time in the prehistory of the Middle Atlantic
region. The reason it is difficult to recognize, is that the usual diagnostic
artifacts, such as projectile points are not very distinctive and are easily
confused with point types from other periods. We are dependent on radiocarbon
dates to confidently identify this period in the archaeological record and C-14
samples are not always available. This week’s blog will review the projectile
point types associated with this period in Pennsylvania, highlighting the
problems with their identification.
The Middle Archaic period dates between 9000
and 6000 years ago and begins during the warm and dry Boreal climatic episode. A
pine and birch forest was gradually changing to a pine-oak forest during this
time. The beginning of this period is characterized by bifurcate based
projectile point types such as MacCorkle, St. Albans and LeCroy types. These
are distinguished from other points by a bifurcated base - a deep notch in the
base of the point. They are very distinctive and although there is a great deal
of variation in the shape of the blade and the nature of the bifurcation, there
are no other projectile points like these in the eastern United States and in
Pennsylvania they date between 9000 and 8100 years ago. We know this because charcoal associated with
bifurcate points has been radiocarbon dated at several sites and except for a
few outliers, the dates fall within this time range. This pattern established
from tested sites, allows us to assign them to the Middle Archaic, even when
they are found on the ground surface and not associated with carbon 14 dates. Therefore,
they are very useful as chronological markers and dating archaeology sites.
Bifurcate projectile points are diagnostic
for the period between 8100 and 9000 years ago. These are from the Lewistown
Narrows site (36Ju104) along the Juniata River
Around 8400 years ago, the climate changes
to the warm and wet Atlantic climatic episode that signals a significant
increase in food resources, especially acorns for Indian populations in
Pennsylvania. Edible seeds, nuts, berries, roots, fish, waterfowl and a variety
of mammals were very common. In fact, the late Middle Archaic period is the
beginning of a 4000-year period of optimum conditions for hunting and gathering
populations adapting to the temperate climate, deciduous forest. Bifurcate
based points gradually decrease in frequency and are replaced by Kanawha
stemmed type. This is the beginning of a projectile point sequence that is not
especially distinctive and therefore this time is difficult to identify. The
Kanawha point type is described as having a small triangular blade with a short
rounded and shallow notched base (Broyles 1971:59). Although considered by some
to have a bifurcated-base, the notch is diminished, and this author considers
the base more concave than truly bifurcated. These are found from West Virginia
to the Atlantic coast and date between 8200 and 7700 years ago.
In the archaeological record of
Pennsylvania, the Kanawha type is replaced by stemmed points that are generally
more narrow than bifurcate points. These are defined as Stanly or Neville
types. The Neville point was defined by Dena Dincauze in New Hampshire
(Dincauze 1976:26-29) and the Stanly type by Joffre Coe (1964: 35-36) in North
Carolina. A large number of these points were found in a stratified context at
the West Water Street (36Cn175) and Memorial Park (36Cn164) sites in Lock
Haven, Pennsylvania along the West Branch of the Susquehanna river dating to
between 8200 and 7600 years ago. The problem with the Kanawha and the
Stanly/Neville types is that they are basically stemmed points, sometimes with
a concave base and sometimes not. They can be easily confused with each other
or other stemmed points that have been re-sharpened such as the Piney Island
type that commonly dates later to between 5000 and 2000 years ago or even
re-sharpened Lehigh broadspears. At the Memorial Park site, Stark and Merrimack
points were found above the Neville points. The stemmed Stark point is
characterized by a long narrow blade, a short contracting stem and a relatively
thick cross-section. Merrimack points are also long and narrow but with a
longer straight stemmed base. These date to approximately 7000 to 6000 years
ago. Again, unless found in a stratified context, these are easily confused
with a variety of point types that date between 5000 and 2000 years ago such as
Bare Island, Lehigh, Piney Island, Poplar Island, and Lackawaxen types.
Neville/Stanly projectile points from the
West Water Street site (36Cn175) illustrating the variety of shapes
characterizing this type
To complicate the situation further, at
this same time, triangular points known as Hunterbrook, Beekman or simply Archaic
triangles are found with the stemmed points. Triangular shaped points are the
hallmark of the Late Woodland period and have long been regarded as arrow
points. However, it is now recognized that triangular points have been found in
stratified contexts at sites throughout the Middle Atlantic region dating from
Middle Archaic to Transitional times. Archaic triangles are not found in high
numbers at any one site but begin to occur with other point types beginning at
approximately 8000 years ago and extend to the end of the Late Archaic at 4300 years
ago. There has been an effort to distinguish Archaic triangles from later
Woodland triangles however, Katz (2000) presents extensive data that demonstrate
that Archaic through Early Woodland triangles are difficult to distinguish from
Late Woodland triangles.
Archaic Triangles from several levels of
the P-12 site, associated with Neville, Otter Creek Brewerton and Stemmed
projectile point types
Finally, Otter Creek points appear about
6000 years ago. Ritchie (1965: 85-86) considered this side-notched type to be
the diagnostic projectile point type of the Vergennes Phase, Laurentian
tradition, and it was associated with the ground slate semilunar knife, gouge,
adze and the winged atlatl weight. This is a relatively distinct point type with
a squared off base. Ritchie (1961: 40) describes this as a narrow to medium
wide point with a distinctive squarish tang. The base is usually concave,
sometime straight but squarish and relatively thick. They frequently exhibit
extensive re-sharpening resulting in a smaller, sometimes asymmetrical blade
but with a squarish base.
Otter Creek points from the Fort Hunter
site (36Da159)
Interestingly, notched points of the
Brewerton tradition begin to appear at about 5800 years ago during the same
occupations as Otter Creeks and Archaic Triangles. Brewerton side-notched and
Brewerton Corner-notched usually outnumber the Otter Creeks and Archaic triangles
but they are frequently found in the same occupations. At the Memorial Park and
Raker I (36Nb58) sites along the Susquehanna river, Otter Creek points were
found with Hunterbrook/Beekman triangles and Brewerton corner-notched
projectile points. At the East Bank site (36Nb16), Otter Creek points were
found in several strata, but they are concentrated in Stratum IV dating between
6220+40 BP. and 5510+40 BP. (East et al. 2002). Hart et al.
(1995) suggest that the Otter Creek type dates slightly earlier than and
overlaps with the Brewerton series. An average of three radiocarbon dates from
this site produced a date of 6022 BP. for the Otter Creek-dominated Early
Laurentian level. At Raker I, these three types (triangles, Otter Creek and
Brewerton) were all found in the same level (Wyatt et al. 2005).
Brewerton notched points from the P-14
site (36Ju93) associated with Archaic triangles and Otter Creek points
Some archaeologists have suggested that
the Brewerton type functioned as the spear point, the Otter Creek functioned as
a knife and the Archaic triangles as arrow points. Testing this hypothesis
would require a systematic microwear study of these artifacts. The Otter Creek type
seems to disappear by at least 5200 years ago or much earlier. After this time,
traditionally defined as the Late Archaic period, in the Susquehanna and
Delaware drainages, narrow contracting stemmed or straight stemmed points such
as Bare Island, Piney Island, Poplar Island, and Lackawaxen types dominate
artifact assemblages along with a few Archaic triangles. In the Upper Ohio
Valley, Brewerton notched types remain common. This is the beginning of the
Late Archaic period and projectile point types continue to be problematic in
dating sites because they seem to be used over a two to three-thousand-year
time spans.
We hope you have enjoyed this discussion of
the confusing projectile point types of the late Middle Archaic period. Perhaps, you have your own thoughts on these
issues that you would like to share. Also, please visit our other blog posts
where we discuss the projectile points of the Paleoindian (7/14/11) and Early
Archaic (1/19/18) periods or other point types such as the bifurcates,
broadspears, the Meadowood (5/12/17), Hellgrammite (5/12/17), Jacks Reef and
triangular types (9/15/17).
Please join us in preserving our
archaeological heritage and if you do actively collect artifacts, please record
your finds in the Pennsylvania Archaeological Site Survey files (PASS) . This data is important information for archaeologists in
understanding the past and developing these point typologies.
References
and Additional Readings
Broyles, Bettye J.
1971 Second Preliminary Report: The St. Albans
Site, Kanawha County, West Virginia, 1964-1968. Report of Archaeological
Investigations No. 3, West Virginia Geological and Economic, Morgantown.
Carr,
Kurt W., and Roger W. Moeller
2015 First Pennsylvanians: The Archaeology of Native
Americans in Pennsylvania.
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum
Commission, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Coe, Joffre L.
1964 The Formative Cultures of the Carolina
Piedmont, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, New Series,
Vol. 54, Part 5.
Dincauze, Dena F.
1976 The Neville Site: 8000 Years at Amoskeag,
Manchester, New Hampshire. Peabody
Museum Monographs No. 4. Harvard University, Cambridge.
East, Thomas C., Christopher T.
Espenshade, Debra R. Langer and Frank J. Vento
2002 Northumberland and Union counties,
Pennsylvania, I80, Section 52D, Bridge Expansion and Highway Improvement
Project, Phase I/II/III Archaeological Investigations, E.R.#99-8000-042, Volume
III: Interpretations and Conclusions. Submitted to the Pennsylvania depart
of Transportation, Engineering District 3-0, Submitted by Skelly and Loy, Inc.,
Monroeville.
Hart, John P., David L. Cremeens,
Jeffrey R. Graybill, Michael G. Spitzer, John P. Nass, Nancy
Asch Sidel, Cheryl A. Holt, Grace
Brush,
1995 Archaeological Investigation at the Memorial
Park Site (36Cn164) Clinton County, Pennsylvania. Submitted to the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, Baltimore District, Baltimore by GAI Consultants, Inc.
Monroeville.
Katz, Gregory
2000 Archaic Period Triangular
Projectile Points in the Middle Atlantic Region. Paper
presented at the 65th
Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology,
Philadelphia.
Ritchie, William A.
1961 A
Typology and Nomenclature for New York Projectile Points. New York State
Museum
Science
Service, Bulletin No. 384, Albany
1965 The Archaeology of New York State.
Natural History Press, Garden City.
Wyatt,
Andrew, Robert H. Eiswert, Richard C. Petyk, Richard T. Baublitz
2005 Phase
III Archaeological Investigations at the Raker I Site (36NB58), Route 147 Climbing Lane Project, S.R. 0147, Section 061,
Upper Augusta Township, Northumberland
County, Pennsylvania, Er#00-6173-097, Volume I – Text. Prepared for: Pennsylvania Department of Transportation,
Engineering District 3-0, 715 Jordan Ave, Montoursville,
Pennsylvania by McCormick Taylor, Inc., Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
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