Jack Hranicky is a retired government contractor who has been involved with archaeology as a full-time passion for over 50 years. His main interest is the Paleo-Indian period, but he has worked in all facets of American archaeology. Mr. Hranicky taught anthropology at the Northern Virginia Community College and St Johns College High School and has published over 200 papers and over 50 books about archaeology. He has served as president of the Archeological Society of Virginia (ASV) and Eastern States Archeological Federation (ESAF), been past chairman of the Alexandria Archaeology Commission, and he is a charter member of the Registry of Professional Archaeologists (RPA). He runs the Virginia Rockart Survey formerly the McCary Fluted Point Survey. He has honorary-life memberships in six Virginia historical societies. Also, Mr. Hranicky received Meritorious Service Awards from the U.S. State Department for his governmental work and the Smithsonian Institution for his anthropological work. He is currently overseeing 20 archaeological Pleistocene sites. His numerous books on prehistoric tools have made him a national authority in the U.S.

This book provides a single-source for projectile points in the literature of American archeology. Its purpose is to provide a quick lookup for point types; the user then utilizes the basic references that are provided for more research information, point comparisons, data, distributions, etc.

A reconsideration of the seminal projectile point typology In the 1964 landmark publication The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont, Joffre Coe established a projectile point typology and chronology that, for the first time, allowed archaeologists to identify the relative age of a site or site deposit based on the point types recovered there. Consistent with the cultural-historical paradigm of the day, the “Coe axiom” stipulated that only one point type was produced at one moment in time in a particular location. Moreover, Coe identified periods of “cultural continuity” and “discontinuity” in the chronology based on perceived similarities and differences in point styles through time. In Time, Typology, and Point Traditions in North Carolina Archaeology: Formative Cultures Reconsidered, I. Randolph Daniel Jr. reevaluates the Coe typology and sequence, analyzing their strengths and weaknesses. Daniel reviews the history of the projectile point type concept in the Southeast and revisits both Coe’s axiom and his notions regarding cultural continuity and change based on point types. In addition, Daniel updates Coe’s typology by clarifying or revising existing types and including types unrecognized in Coe’s monograph. Daniel also adopts a practice-centered approach to interpreting types and organizes them into several technological traditions that trace ancestral- descendent communities of practice that relate to our current understanding of North Carolina prehistory. Appealing to professional and avocational archaeologists, Daniel provides ample illustrations of points in the book as well as color versions on a dedicated website. Daniel dedicates a final chapter to a discussion of the ethical issues related to professional archaeologists using private artifact collections. He calls for greater collaboration between professional and avocational communities, noting the scientific value of some private collections.