The Dalton tradition is a Late Paleo-Indian and Early Archaic

projectile point In North American archaeological terminology, a projectile point is an object that was hafted to a weapon that was capable of being thrown or projected, such as a javelin, dart, or arrow. They are thus different from weapons presumed to have ...

tradition. These points appeared in most of Southeast

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...

around 10,000–7,500 BC. :''"They are distinctive artifacts, having concave bases with "ears" that sometimes flare outward (Fagan 2005)."'' These tools not only served as points but also as saws and

knives A knife ( : knives; from Old Norse 'knife, dirk') is a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, knives appeared at least 2.5 million years ago, as evidenced ...

. They were often changed in form and function because the

hunter Hunting is the human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/hide (skin), hide, ...

s would sharpen the points over and over and would eventually turn them into knives then

chisel A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, s ...

s or

scraper Scrape, scraper or scraping may refer to: Biology and medicine * Abrasion (medical), a type of injury * Scraper (biology), grazer-scraper, a water animal that feeds on stones and other substrates by grazing algae, microorganism and other matter ...

s. A variant on the Dalton point is the Hardaway point of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th largest and List of states and territories of the United ...

References

* Fagan, Brian. ''Ancient North America.'' Thames & Hudson Ltd: London. 2005

External links

Dalton Tradition in No Carolina

{{Pre-Columbian North America Archaeology of the United States Archaic period in North America Paleo-Indian period Projectile points