Analysis of a Paleoindian Stone Tool Assemblage from the Pasquotank Site (31Pk1) in Northeastern North Carolina

The Pasquotank site (31PK1) is a shallow, multicomponent site located in the vicinity of the Dismal Swamp along the Pasquotank River in northeast North Carolina. Intermittent surface collecting over several decades has yielded three fluted points and over 100 chipped stone artifacts that are attributable to a Paleoindian occupation. The artifact assemblage is dominated by nonlocal stone whose source might be located along the Fall Line of Virginia near the Nottoway River. Three design characteristics of the assemblage that provide insight into prehistoric foraging adaptations stand out: high-quality tool-stone, tool curation, and tool recycling. The Pasquotank assemblage appears unique in North Carolina and represents one of the few known Paleoindian assemblages in the Southeast. Most of the Paleoindian archaeological record in the Southeast is known from typological studies in the form of statewide fluted-point surveys. Sites with sufficient stratigraphie depth or integrity to document fluted-point assemblages are exceedingly rare (Good-year 1999). The Pasquotank site reported here is an exception to this pattern because it represents a shallow, virtually single component fluted-point site with a recognizable Paleoindian component. To the best of our knowledge the Pasquotank assemblage is unique in North Carolina and one of the few known fluted-point assemblages in the Southeast. Here we document the discovery of the site and describe the artifact assemblage. Our analysis also considers the broader implications the assemblage has for Paleoindian technological organization, settlement mobility, and site function in the Southeast. We also address theoretical issues with regard to forager technological organization. Background The Pasquotank site is located in the vicinity of the Great Dismal Swamp on the south side of the Pasquotank River, 6.5 km northwest of Elizabeth City, North Carolina (Figure 1). The site is situated near the head of a ravine along the western edge of a large flat terrace that overlooks the river, which is less than 500 m to the north. James Pritchard of Suffolk, Virginia, discovered the site based on the surface collection of a few dozen stone tools-including fluted points-in a cultivated field on his family farm during the early 1960s (Traver 1964:15). The collection was subsequently reported by Traver (1964) and three fluted points from the site were described by Perkinson (1971:10-13) in his North Carolina fluted-point survey. At that time the points were described as coming from "an essentially "pure" surface Paleo site... in a cultivated field near the Pasquotank River" (Perkinson 1971:10). Meanwhile, Pritchard continued to collect the site, although nothing further appeared in the literature regarding its potential significance until now. Pritchard surface collected adjacent fields covering about 21 ha, although he focused his collecting on an area covering about 7 ha from which the majority of artifacts were recovered. Virtually all the known artifacts from the Pasquotank site are in Pritchard's personal collection. The site came to the senior author's attention a few years ago through a graduate student whose analysis of the assemblage forms the basis of this paper (Moore 2002). Although no claim can be made with respect to a systematic collection strategy, we nevertheless believe the assemblage is representative of the archaeological remains at the site for several reasons. First, Pritchard has collected the site intermittently since its discovery in the 1960s, attempting to recover any object perceived to be an artifact including both tools and flakes. Repeatedly examining the cultivated field for some five decades has allowed Pritchard ample opportunity to surface collect under conditions of high surface visibility. Moreover, the lengthy duration of his collecting has significantly increased the assemblage total from the few dozen artifacts reported in the early 1960s (Traver 1964) to the nearly 500 specimens collected to date. …