An Archaic Quarry and Stone Knapping Location on Three Hat Mountain, North Carolina
- UNCG Author/Contributor (non-UNCG co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Joseph B. Mountjoy, Professor, Emeritus (Creator)
- Institution
- The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG )
- Web Site: http://library.uncg.edu/
Abstract: North American Indians relied heavily on stone as a basic material from which to shape a wide variety of tools and ceremonial objects. When an archaeologist excavates a prehistoric Indian camp or village it is often apparent that the one or more Indian groups which inhabited the site during various distinctive periods or phases preferred certain kinds of stone for the manufacture of utilitarian or ritual objects. It is not always so obvious, however, whether the selection of a particular kind of stone was determined by its proximity to the habitation site, its excellent quality, its aesthetic properties, its procurement from a special trading partner, or some kinship, religious, or sentimental attachment which the group felt toward the particular stone material. Furthermore, the acquisition of a particular kind of stone may have involved different sorts of technologies and socio-political relations. Appropriate raw material may be picked up on the surface or mined in several different ways. It may be acquired over long distances through intermediaries in a complex trading network, or through direct expeditions to the source. Furthermore, the material obtained may be in various stages of reduction, from rough pieces of raw material up to a finished product, and the control of the source or distribution of the material in raw or finished form may reflect the political system operating in a region. It is for such reasons that archaeologists are interested in locating and studying the sources of raw stone material which were exploited by North American Indians. This is a report on one such source recently investigated in Davidson County, North Carolina, designated site DV-51.
An Archaic Quarry and Stone Knapping Location on Three Hat Mountain, North Carolina
PDF (Portable Document Format)
5143 KB
Created on 4/1/2011
Views: 3901
Additional Information
- Publication
- In Mountjoy, J. (Ed.) Collected Papers on the Archaeology of North Carolina. (North Carolina Archaeology Council Publication, No. 19 pp. 57-79.) Raleigh: North Carolina Deptartment of Cultural Resources.
- Language: English
- Date: 1982
- Keywords
- Excavation report, Archaeology, North Carolina, Quarry, Stone tools, Tool making