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.

Describes the state's prehistory and archaeological discoveries

The Native American tribes of what is now the southeastern United States left intriguing relics of their ancient cultural life. Arrowheads, spear points, stone tools, and other artifacts are found in newly plowed fields, on hillsides after a fresh rain, or in washed-out creek beds. These are tangible clues to the anthropology of the Paleo-Indians, and the highly developed Mississippian peoples. This indispensable guide to identifying and understanding such finds is for conscientious amateur archeologists who make their discoveries in surface terrain. Many are eager to understand the culture that produced the artifact, what kind of people created it, how it was made, how old it is, and what its purpose was. Here is a handbook that seeks identification through the clues of cultural history. In discussing materials used, the process of manufacture, and the relationship between the artifacts and the environments, it reveals ancient discoveries to be not merely interesting trinkets but by-products from the once vital societies in areas that are now Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, the Carolinas, as well as in southeastern Texas, southern Missouri, southern Illinois, and southern Indiana. The text is documented by more than a hundred drawings in the actual size of the artifacts, as well as by a glossary of archeological terms and a helpful list of state and regional archeological societies.

The name Joffre Lanning Coe (1916-2000) is synonymous with North Carolina archaeology, and the original publication of this book in 1964 represented a landmark in American archaeology. In it Coe reported the results of investigations at three North Carolina archaeological sites and revolutionized perspectives about the age and depth of archaeological sites in the Eastern Woodlands. This work is the original source for many projectile point types identified with the Archaic period (8,000 - 1,000 B.C.) and is frequently cited as such by archaeologists, scholars, and collectors.

Jack Hranicky is a retired U.S. Government contractor, but he has been involved with archaeology as a full-time passion for over 40 years. His main interest is the Paleo-Indian period; however, he has worked in all facets of American archaeology. He has published over 250 papers and over 35 books in archaeology with his most recent being a two-volume, 800-page, 10,000-artifact book on the material culture of Virginia. In Virginia, he is considered an expert on prehistoric stone tools and rockart. The prehistoric Spout Run Observatory site was investigated by him which dated 10,470 YBP. He has served as president of the Archeological Society of Virginia (ASV) and Eastern States Archeological Federation (ESAF), and been past chairman of the Alexandria Archaeology Commission in Virginia. He is a charter member of the Registry of Professional Archaeologists (RPA). And, since he joined the Archeological Society of Virginia (ASV) in 1966, he is its senior member. And finally, his major publication is Bipoints Before Clovis.