pLp. nI)!" 2^5Y' '^^'^^ ^- ^^^^ RESERVOIR BASIN — MILLER 301 



Even the Maya, if Joyce (1927) is right, used the Gypsum Cave form of dart 

 point, for he illustrates some typical Gypsum Cave points and calls them "Maya 

 spearheads from British Honduras." 



Coe, on tlie other hand, has assigned points with similar configura- 

 tion to his Morrow ]\Iountain II culture with a tentative culture date 

 of around 2500 B.C. 



Parallels cannot be drawn at this time inasmuch as geological 

 studies, particularly in relation to dating the various finds attributed 

 to Early Man, have not been made, as far as the writer knows, in the 

 Piedmont section of Virginia and North Carolina. There is a rather 

 noticeable range in size in this Gypsum Cave form and it has been 

 found to vary from 1% inches to 3% inches in length, while its great- 

 est width is more or less constant, being fifteen-sixteenths of an inch 

 in extent. All of the Virginia specimens were made of chert. Some 

 of them display well-worn and deeply oxidized surfaces in that the 

 cortex has undergone a certain physical change, both as to composi- 

 tion and color, involving a time factor. Others show sharply chipped 

 surfaces and very little if any physical change in the cortex. 



This extreme surface "oxidation" does not necessarily indicate or 

 argue for any great antiquity, for there are certain factors which 

 must be taken into consideration : soil conditions and the chemical con- 

 tent of the stone itself, which would tend to play a major role in the 

 physical reactions that take place on the surface of certain artifacts. 

 Before any great age can be attributed to or assigned to these heavily 

 "patinated" artifacts, a study must be made of the soil and the cataly- 

 tic action which must take place on the surface of certain types of 

 stones to determine, if possible, the rate of penetration of those oxi- 

 dizing agents. 



Elam Service (1942) and Winchell (1913) made a series of studies 

 on lithic patinations and weatherings as an age criteria, and both have 

 come to the conclusion that the term "patina" has been loosely used 

 in a warped sense in archelogical literature. Weathering and oxidiza- 

 tion actions have almost obliterated all of the fine, sharp angularities 

 featured by the fractured chert artifacts, but the coarse angularities 

 produced by the intersection of the fracture ]planes are not entirely 

 destroyed. Even the edges of the artifacts, in a number of instances, 

 have been smoothed by this same action. Several of these artifacts 

 have been subsequently rechipped and a distmct color difference is 

 shown in the coloration between the old cortex and the newly worked 

 surface, in that the weathered surface is light buff or gray contrasted 

 with the freshly worked surface, which is a dark bluish black or a deep 

 buff. This change varies both as to degree and depth of penetration. 

 Cross sectioning of the various weathered artifacts, by breaking them 

 in half, shows that there is a thin outer covering of lighter material 



