Pap. No!' 25^' JOHN H. KERR RESERVOIR BASIN — ^MILLER 109 



of the object. Engraved upon one of the flat surfaces were a number 

 of crude lines forming no definite pattern. 



Like the steatite gorget, a slate specimen was also engraved with a 

 design that might be termed diamond shaped. The lines are thin, 

 shallow, and "V-shaped" in cross section but not regular. 



AECHAIC HORIZON « 



It is estimated that the Archaic Period started around 5000 B.C., 

 about the same time that the Altithermal Period set in bringing about 

 a warmer and drier climate, which not only dried up numerous rivers, 

 swamps, and lakes but caused the prairies with their typical fauna and 

 flora to shift eastward and northward. As this shift gradually de- 

 veloped, it also affected the human element in that man was compelled 

 to migrate as did the herds or to change his basic living habits if he 

 were to remain in the present area. 



Man had to give much serious thought to the problem of maintain- 

 ing life as this shift developed, for food became scarcer and harder to 

 procure. This was but one of the factors that brought about a greater 

 diversity of form in the projectile types. True stems were being fash- 

 ioned to blades so that they could be more securely attached to the 

 shafts of their darts. Various methods of shaping these stems were 

 devised or invented. Some stems had parallel sides, others were con- 

 tracting, expanding, or bulbar ; bases were either expanding, receding, 

 flat, acute angular, bifurcate, concave, convex, or rounded; while the 

 notches were developed either at the base, the side, or at the corners. 

 Such treatments were to be maintained well into the prehistoric and 

 the protohistoric period. 



Since the survey party does not have sufficient stratigraphic evidence 

 to back up any of their contentions, they caimot designate which of 

 these various types appeared as outgrowths of the earlier early hunter 

 types. Then, too, there is no sharp line of demarcation between the 

 Archaic and the late paleo-American forms, a fact that is not only to 

 be expected but one that has not been satisfactorily demonstrated. 



During the initial survey of the reservoir basin, a large number of 

 flint workshops were visited. The following sites were mapped in 

 Mecklenburg County, Va. : 44Mcl2, 44Mc24, 44Mc25, 44Mc26, 44Mc27, 

 44Mc28, 44Mc29, 44Mc30, 44Mc32, 44Mc33, 44Mc34, 44Mc38, 44Mc40, 

 44Mc41, 44Mc42, 44Mc43, 44Mc44, 44Mc45, 44Mc46, 44Mc47, 44Mc48, 

 44Mc49, 44Mc50, 44Mc55, 44Mc56, 44Mc57, 44Mc58, 44Mc59, 44Mc65, 

 44Mc67, 44Mc68, 44Mc69, 44Mc70, 44Mc74, 44Mc75 ; Charlotte County, 



» The writer objects to the use of the term "Archaic" in that: (1) it is a misnomer, and 

 (2) it leads to a misconception as to age. "If the term 'Archaic' must be used, it should 

 have been reserved for the oldest manifestations In North America, if and when such 

 assemblages are identified" (Sears, 1948, p. 123). 



