rip. No^' 2lT" JOHN H. KERR RESERVOIR BASIN — MILLER 55 



and landed somewhere in the vincinity of Newfoundhmd. Who are 

 we to say what path lie took to enter the New World? Our whole 

 premise of Early Man's entrance into the New World has been built 

 upon conjectures which have taken on an appearance of fact and 

 which could not be proved if put to a rigid test. 



We can hypothesize on reasonable grounds that Early Man came out 

 of Asia, and all we can do to explain his culture is to extend the present 

 state of affairs backward into the past. Such a modus operandi is 

 likely to lead to either false conclusions or to the setting up of false 

 premises. The basic trouble is that only the most naive of empirical 

 methods have been used and a sound theory is lacking upon which to 

 erect a reasonable plant to explain the numerous cultural and eco- 

 nomic features for which independent invention and diffusion cannot 

 be held to account. 



It is thought that Early Man did not use the bow and arrow nor did 

 he succeed in taming the dog. Whether the earliest of man used the 

 spear thrower appears to be doubtful, for similar implements did not 

 make their appearance in Europe until Magdalenian times. The spear 

 thrower or dart thrower, better known to American archeologists as 

 the atlatl, was used to propel a light shaft tipped with a sharp projec- 

 tile point of stone, bone, antler, or wood. Usually one does not think 

 of the heavier projectile points being used with this accessory but 

 of their being attached to jabbing spear shafts, the lighter ones being 

 hurled with the force of the entire body, the other held in the hand 

 and used as a prod. 



On the banl« of the Roanoke River, in the vicinity of Clarksville, 

 Va., there are a number of sites on old river terraces in which the soli- 

 fluction has so modified the archeological deposits that the provenience 

 of the artifacts is almost meaningless and the geological problems 

 thus posed are perhaps more complicated than where these conditions 

 do not exist. In every case all cultural evidence appears upon the 

 present surface and evidence of their original cultural affiliation is 

 most tenuous. The similarity of the artifacts and their location within 

 well-defined areas postulate both cultural and temporal relationsliips 

 in the people who made and deposited the artifacts. Since Early 

 Man first occupied this area, physiographic changes of considerable 

 magnitude have occurred that have affected the habitation areas of 

 these people to the extent that these early deposits are intermingled 

 with those of a much later jjeriod. A nimiber of these sites were 

 located by J. V. Howe, formerly of Jeffress, Va. 



The early lithic cultures of Virginia, based primarily upon chert 

 forms, find their counterpart in other sections of the Eastern United 

 States, the Plains, the Southwest, and the Pacific coastal areas, each 

 displaying its own native peculiarity and synchronism. Some areas 

 are more encompassing than others in that forms are more flexible, 

 numerous, and varied. If the evidence of these loose surface finds is 



