GUILFORD, Coe (Coe, 1952): A-44
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This is a medium to large, lanceolate point with incurvate base.
MEASUREMENTS: Bell (1960) gives the range of the length from about 60 mm. to 135 mm. Measurements listed by Coe (1959) range as follows: length—maximum, 120 mm.; minimum, 50 mm.; average, 90 mm.: width—maximum, 35 mm.; minimum, 20 mm.; average, 30 mm. The illustrated plesiotype measures 84 mm. long, 24 mm. in width, 11 mm. wide at the base, 12 mm. thick, 1 mm. deep in basal concavity.
FORM: The cross-section is usually biconvex and thick but may approach median ridged. The blade is usually excurvate but may be nearly straight. The distal end may be acute or apiculate. The hafting area is contracted with short, rounded auricles, incurvate base and some basal thinning. Side edges of the hafting area are usually lightly ground. The hafting area may be defined by a break in the contour of the side edges or may be described as extending to somewhere near the widest part of the blade.
FLAKING: The blade and hafting area are usually shaped by well controlled, random flaking. Coe (1952) describes some flaking as being transverse-oblique. Careful secondary flaking in the form of short, often deep, flaking appears along the side edges. The basal concavity is formed by the removal of broad flakes. A variety of local materials including quartz, quartzite, porphyritic rhyolite, andesite and varieties of argillite or novaculite were used (Coe, 1959).
COMMENTS: The type was named after the Guilford focus of the Carolina Piedmont. The illustrated example is from Cambron 326, Buncombe County, North Carolina. The type was described by Bell (1960). At the Doerschuk Site Coe (1959) recovered Guilford points above Morrow Mountain and below Halifax types. He suggests a date of around 6000 years ago in the Carolina Piedmont area. He gives the distribution as widespread throughout the Piedmont of North Carolina but points out that they "do not have a distribution much north of Virginia or south of Piedmont, Georgia." Examples appear on several sites in western North Carolina. Examples were illustrated by Miller (1962) from Sites 44Mc66 and 44Mc75, Mecklenburg County, Virginia (Plate 39 W and X, Plate 40 N, Plate 44 P, T and V, Plate 45B). An early Archaic association prior to 5000 years ago is suggested. Recent evidence from Randolph County indicates that the Archaic Guilford complex may extend into the Alabama Piedmont (O'Hear and Knight, 1975).