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Early Archaic Abandonment of the Southeast: In Search of Compiled Radiocarbon Data

3/13/2016

10 Comments

 
As I mentioned briefly in a post yesterday, I've become interested in looking into the evidence for an abandonment of large portions of the Southeast at the end of the Early Archaic period.  

This (2012) paper by Michael Faught and James Waggoner provides an example of how this could be done on a state-by-state basis.  Faught and Waggoner use multiple lines of evidence to evaluate the idea of a population discontinuity between the Early Archaic and Middle Archaic periods in Florida. One of the things they discuss is the presence of a radiocarbon data gap between about 9000 and 8000 radiocarbon years before present (RCYBP). They are able to identify that gap (which is consistent with a significant drop in or lack of population at the end of the Early Archaic using a dataset of 221 pre-5000 RCYBP radiocarbon dates from Florida. 
PictureGeographical distribution of LeCroy cluster points (roughly following Justice 1987).
Assembly of radiocarbon datasets for states across the Eastern Woodlands would be really useful for seeing if there is a similar "gap" in other areas of the Southeast that correlates with technological and statigraphic discontinuities. It seems to me that small bifurcate points (e.g., LeCroy cluster) and/or larger lobed points (e.g., Rice Lobed cluster) are good candidates for marking a contraction or retreat of late Early Archaic hunter-gatherer populations.  While common in the Midwest, such points are absent (?) from Florida and present in only parts of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama. 

I'm aware of the Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia Radiocarbon Database published by Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc. I'm wondering if there are similar existing compilations (either print or electronic) for other eastern states, especially those south of the Ohio River. I've only spent a short amount of looking, but I haven't come across any yet. At the risk of being accused of being lazy, I thought I'd throw the question out there and see what turns up. I will be very surprised if radiocarbon compilations haven't been produced for many areas of the east, and it seems worthwhile to ask about existing resources (which may not yet be easily "discoverable" online) before I contemplate yet another large-scale data mining effort.  Please let me know if you can help.


Update (3/27/2016): I've created this "Eastern Woodlands Radiocarbon Compilation" page to store links and references to radiocarbon compilations.
10 Comments
Stuart Fiedel
3/13/2016 08:45:22 am

Jane Eastman compiled North Carolina dates in 1994 in Southern Indian Studies vol. 42. Up in the Northeast,Curtis Hoffman compiled dates for Massachusetts, Stuart Reeves for Connecticut, and, more recently, Matt Boulanger for Vermont.

Bifurcates are quite common in VA and WV and relatively numerous from PA northward. In New England they are regarded as Early Archaic (since, as I've noted before, Kirks are virtually absent here).

Reply
Andy White
3/13/2016 10:55:06 am

Am I correct that there's nothing like an Early Archaic side-notched horizon in New England?

Reply
Stuart Fiedel
3/13/2016 12:05:04 pm

A handful of Thebes-like points were found in a pipeline survey near the chert sources in the Hudson valley. Some odd notched points, called "Swanton" were found at the St Johns site in Vermont.

Derek Anderson
3/13/2016 10:40:55 am

I put together a list about 5 years ago that Dave Anderson uploaded to PIDBA. Shane and Joe Gingerich also had a publication out a few years ago that looked at radiocarbon in the eastern U.S. And I have a bunch that are currently unpublished from Topper (some of them will be published this year). Have you asked Chris Moore?

Reply
Derek Anderson
3/13/2016 10:48:17 am

Also- since I started recording points for the MS paleo database a couple of years ago, I have probably seen 500 Early Archaic points. Only a few bifurcates, and based on the material it looks like they're coming down from Tennessee. But It looks like Northern Mississippi was a happenin place in the Early Holocene.

Reply
Andy White
3/13/2016 10:51:14 am

Where the small bifurcates in northern MS, as the map suggests we should expect?

Reply
Derek Anderson
3/13/2016 10:56:28 am

The few that I have seen personally were, yes. Maybe one from Oktibbeha County, which is kind of north-central. I can check later this week.

Jeff Plunkett link
3/13/2016 01:33:55 pm

Hey Andy,

A few years ago I found and conducted a Phase II test excavation on a buried archaeological site (~8 ft. below surface) in the floodplain of the Ohio River in Lawrenceburg, IN. All of the points we recovered were bifurcates and we also got good radiocarbon dates as well. I'll try and find a copy and email it to you.

Reply
Matt Boulanger
3/15/2016 08:18:16 pm

I've got the northern portion of your area covered (New England, New York, PA, and NJ). Been slowly compiling 14C dates from the gray and published literature for about 15 years now.

Reply
Stuart Fiedel
3/17/2016 09:33:18 am

Virginia DHR has an Excel sheet with 14C dates on its web page. I think these were compiled by Wayne Clark.
Correction to previous: Swanton points were found at John's Bridge (not St Johns).

Reply



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