Untyped Paleoindian Lanceolate Projectile Points in the Upper Roanoke River Basin at Smith Mountain Gap, Virginia

ABSTRACT

This paper documents a previously unrecognized Paleoindian presence in the Upper Roanoke drainage (UR) defined by a series of unfluted Early Narrow Lanceolate points (ENLs), some of which resemble Plano types from regions to the west and the northeast. The context of the recoveries is briefly described and discriminant analysis is applied to distinguish ENL forms, as a group, from possible pre-Clovis Early Triangular Lanceolates (ETLs) also found at Smith Mountain and Middle Archaic Guilford Lanceolates, which are common throughout the Piedmont Southeast including the Roanoke drainage. An additional metric study based on plan and sectional landmark ratios of Upper Roanoke ENL forms is used for initial morphometric comparisons to similar, lower Middle Atlantic early lanceolates and Plano types from the American West and Northeast in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Paleoindian Program collection.

KEYWORDS:

• Paleoindian
• Virginia
• Eastern Plano
• upper Roanoke drainage
• morphometrics

Acknowledgements

The author would like to express my appreciation to Joseph A. M. Gingerich and Jeanette S. Cole for reading this paper and providing valuable feedback and advice. Also, the author is particularly grateful to Dr Gingerich for arranging access to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History collections and to Dennis Stanford for his interest in Smith Mountain Gap Archeology and his gracious hosting of several visits to his department to research the Paleoindian collections.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

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Notes on contributors

William A. Childress

William A. Childress is a retired professor from CUNY and Parsons-New School in New York City. He is a member of the Archeological Society of Virginia and Smith Mountain Gap Archeology and is designated FERC Consulting Party regarding cultural resources for American Electric Power Company’s relicensing of the Smith Mountain Hydroelectric Project. Over the past 30 years, Childress’ research in archeology has been focused on the southwestern Piedmont of Virginia and the greater southeastern United States.