Untyped Paleoindian Lanceolate Projectile Points in the Upper Roanoke River Basin at Smith Mountain Gap, Virginia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper documents a previously unrecognized Paleoindian presence in the Upper Roanoke drainage (UR) defined by a series of unfluted Early Narrow Lanceolate points (ENLs), some of which resemble Plano types from regions to the west and the northeast. The context of the recoveries is briefly described and discriminant analysis is applied to distinguish ENL forms, as a group, from possible pre-Clovis Early Triangular Lanceolates (ETLs) also found at Smith Mountain and Middle Archaic Guilford Lanceolates, which are common throughout the Piedmont Southeast including the Roanoke drainage. An additional metric study based on plan and sectional landmark ratios of Upper Roanoke ENL forms is used for initial morphometric comparisons to similar, lower Middle Atlantic early lanceolates and Plano types from the American West and Northeast in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Paleoindian Program collection.