FOREWORD 



Virginia, a rich field for the historian, has recently become a rich 

 Held for the archeologist. A few initial studies have been conducted 

 in Virginia, but no serious investigations have been made to deter- 

 mine the extent of coverage of time Avhen Homo sapiens sapiens first 

 arrived, the tools he devised, and how his culture slowly developed 

 until contact was made with the recently arrived white man into 

 this country. 



At the present time the overall archeology of Virginia is based on 

 much too broad and superficial treatments to be of any practical value 

 to the serious student. Investigators in the past dealt mostly with 

 surface indications, wliich at their best are only cursory. 



Virginia, unfortunately, does not have a climate that preserves per- 

 ishable remains : only the most durable materials have persisted from 

 the earliest times to the present day. This has limited our laiowledge 

 of both the Early Hunters (Paleo-Indian) and the later Indian (Neo- 

 Indian) economies. We know from fictile remains that the Indian 

 was well cognizant of fibers and their associated industries, such as the 

 weaving of cloth, mats, and baskets and the making of string and 

 other cordage, as well as of companion arts. From the same source 

 we learn of the Indians' knowledge of tanning and working leather 

 goods and of their ability to construct various types of wooden uten- 

 sils and implements. 



A number of lithic industries from our earliest cultural horizons 

 are well represented. Several examples resemble a number of Old 

 World stages as to both shape and chipping tradition, but they are not 

 comparable as to time. Examples are sufficiently numerous to dem- 

 onstrate various phases of change that can be traced up to and beyond 

 the introduction of pottery into the later Indian occupation. 



The advent of pottery making did not enrich the lithic industry 

 but instead assigned it to a secondary role, since it made the Indian 

 restrict his sphere of roaming and eventually converted him to a seden- 

 tary, agricultural way of life. Thus he was made less dependent 

 upon his former hunting-gathering habits of life, and this was re- 

 flected in the many changes and modifications in his lithic tools. 



The area under consideration is virtually an archeological "no- 

 man's" land, since little is known of the cultures that formerly existed 

 here. Although some sporadic investigations were made in the past, 

 this region has remained a hiatus in knowledge up to the time of the 



