PALMER, Coe (Coe, 1959): A-67
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: The Palmer point is a small corner notched point with a straight, ground base and pronounced serrations (Coe, 1959).
MEASUREMENTS: Coe (1959) lists the following measurements: length—maximum, 60 mm.; minimum, 28 mm.; average, 35 mm.: width—maximum, 25 mm.; minimum, 15 mm.; average, 20 mm.: thickness—maximum, 12 mm.; minimum, 5 mm.; average, 8 mm.: average width of notches, 3 mm.: length of notches, measured along stem edge, 5 mm. to 7 mm. The illustrated example provided the following measurements: length, 46 mm.; width at shoulders, 25 mm.; width of stem, 21 mm.; thickness, 7 mm.; width of notches, 3 mm.; depth of notches, 6 mm.
FORM: The cross-section is biconvex. Shoulders are barbed. Blade edges are usually straight, but may be slightly incurvate or excurvate. Most examples are serrated, some quite deeply. The hafting area is corner notched. Side edges of the stem are usually incurvate. The basal edge is usually straight but may be slightly incurvate or excurvate. It is thinned and ground.
FLAKING: "These points were made by pressure flaking upon a prismatic flake of the proper proportions. The serrations apparently were made at the time when the point was finished, since the flake scars produced by the serrations were long and overlapped toward the center of the blade." (Coe, 1959). The notches were formed by the removal of deep broad flakes. Local materials were used.
COMMENTS: The type was named from points recovered from the Hardaway Site in Piedmont, North Carolina. The illustrated example is from Cambron Site 92 in Madison County, North Carolina. Concerning the type at the Hardaway Site, Coe (1959) states, "Following the Hardaway occupation, the style of projectile points changed to a small corner-notched serrated variety with extensive grinding along the base. Along with this the use of the small hafted snub-nosed scraper increased considerably." He gives distribution as "Camp Creek Site in Tennessee and northward along the Atlantic Coast into New England." He further states, "On the basis of excavated data, this type must have an antiquity of nearly 8000 years." Two examples are listed by Cambron and Waters (1961) from the bottom of Stratum II (Archaic) at Flint Creek Rock Shelter. Three Palmer points were classified by Cambron from the surface collection of the University of Alabama from Guntersville Basin on the Tennessee River. The type is also found on western North Carolina sites.