HALIFAX, Coe (Coe, 1959): A-112
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: The Halifax is a small to medium-sized, side-notched point usually made of vein quartz or, occasionally, quartzite.
MEASUREMENTS: Coe (1959) lists a range of length from 56 mm. to 29 mm. with an average length of 44 mm. and a range of width from 25 mm. to 17 mm. with an average width of 20 mm. Measurements of the illustrated example are: length, 30 mm.; shoulder width, 21 mm.; stem width, 18 mm.; stem length, 9 mm.; thickness, 8 mm.; depth of notch, 3 mm.; width of notch, 10 mm.
FORM: The cross-section is usually biconvex. Shoulders are tapered. The blade is usually straight but may be excurvate. The distal end is acute. The stem is expanded with straight or incurvate side edges and straight or excurvate basal edge. The stem base edge and side notches of the hafting area are usually ground.
FLAKING: The blade and stem are shaped by broad, often deep, random flaking. Some examples show good secondary flaking along the blade edges. The notches were worked out by the removal of several flakes. Some points are asymmetrical due to variation in depth and location of notches. According to Coe (1959) "The typical specimen was relatively thick and worked from a core. These cores, however, frequently originated as thick spalls struck from quartz or quartzite boulders common to this area of the Roanoke River."
COMMENTS: The type was named after Halifax County, North Carolina, where examples were recovered from the Gaston Site on the Roanoke River. The illustrated example is from Cambron Site 94, Buncombe County, North Carolina. A radiocarbon date of 5440 ±300 B. P. was secured for the type at the Gaston Site, where it appeared above Guilford and below Savannah River points. Coe (1959) suggests "a relationship to Lamoka points of the New York area." This, in turn, indicates that the type is ancestral to Lamoka points, similar to Swan Lake points, of Alabama and Tennessee Valley area. In Alabama Swan Lake is associated with the Woodland culture. Halifax points are found on several sites in Buncombe County, North Carolina. Miller (1962) illustrated examples (Plate 42, Figs. J, K, M and U) from Site 44Mc73, which is described as a pre-pottery site. Swan Lake points from Site 44Ha7 (Plate 52, Figs. F, N, T, V and DD) are described by Miller (1962) as "typical Woodland types." Thus both Halifax and Swan Lake points appear in the John H. Kerr Basin of the Roanoke River, Virginia and North Carolina. A type resembling Halifax has been isolated in Randolph County in an Archaic context (O'Hear and Knight, 1975).