300 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 182 



ing down to a much later culture and slightly modified can only be 

 postulated. One would venture that this form is later than the ac- 

 cepted Folsom but with a definite tie-in technologically. One thing 

 seems relevant and that is that they are post-Folsom and preceramic 

 in cultural concept and date near the close of Early Man and the 

 beginning of the Archaic. 



Coe (1952), on the other hand, has found a number of pentagonal 

 points which he has assigned to his Peedee cvMure on the Yadkin 

 River. The only thing they have in common with the Elys Ford point 

 is their general outline. Outside of this the North Carolina points 

 are much thicker in cross section, mediocre in chipping, blunter or 

 shorter in overall size, and do not belong in the same general time 

 scale as those referred to above. 



Then, we have a third type which is long, slender, and roughly 

 lanceolate possessing a short receding stem, diamond shaped in cross 

 section and at times called "diamond-shaped." Obermaier (1924) and 

 others have attributed a corresponding shape to Early Man and placed 

 it in Solutrean times of southern Spain, but this does not necessarily 

 connote a comparable date for the similarly shaped points of southern 

 Virginia, but it does indicate a certain technological affiliation. Har- 

 rington (1933) found these same shaped points in Gypsum Cave and 

 he placed them in late Pleistocene or Early Recent times. He stated : 



In the Eastern States, we have evidence indicating a fair degree of antiquity 

 for the lozenge-shaped or Gypsum type of point. I have found them myself in 

 the lowest levels of shell heaps about New York City, and it is interesting to 

 note that Skinner (1917) agrees with me in considering this "Diamond" shape to 

 be archaic. 



This type appears again in Georgia under conditions indicating age, associated 

 with what has been called the "Stallings Island Culture" which William II. 

 Claflin, Jr. (1931) says, basing his conclusions on stratigraphy, "precede the 

 makers of paddle-stamped and other types of Southeastern pottery in the 

 Savannah River Valley." The "lozenge" or "Gypsum Cave" type of point is 

 second in point of abundance here. Claflin thinks these may have been attached 

 to atlatl darts, and in fact he illustrates an object of bone or antler which 

 resembles the spur or crochet-end of an atlatl, but is not so described by the 

 author. 



. . . , I think I have cited enough evidence to show that the "lozenge" or 

 "diamond" type of point, of which the Gypsum Cave style is a variation, while 

 not so old as the "Folsom" type, is one of the older forms characteristic of 

 North America. It is my opinion that while in some regions it gave away en- 

 tirely to the side-notched dart-point, considered in the Southwest to be typical 

 of Basketmakor culture, in other places it lasted until the introduction of the 

 bow-and-arrow rendered darts and dart points obsolete. That this change from 

 one type of weapon to the other did not take place all at once and everywhere it is 

 suggested by such finds as Lovelock Cave, where an overlapping is indicated, and 

 by the fact that some people, such as the Aztec and the Eskimo, used both 

 atlatl and bow up to the coming of the whites. 



