FORM: The cross-section is flattened. Shoulders are tapered. The blade may be excurvate or straight with fine serrations and is beveled on each side of both faces. The distal end is usually acute but may be acuminate. The hafting area displays broad, shallow side notches and is well defined by a sharp change in the contour of the edge of the point at the junction of the blade and is auriculated with expanded-rounded auricles. Side edges of the hafting area are incurvate and ground. The basal edge is straight, usually ground, and is thinned.
FLAKING: The blade and hafting area were shaped by broad, shallow, random flaking. Blade edges are steeply beveled on each side of both faces by the removal of deep, short, narrow flakes which resulted in fine serrations along the blade edges. The shallow notches that form the hafting area are steeply flaked. This usually leaves expanded shoulder barbs.
COMMENTS: The type was named from sites along the Harpeth River in Cheatham and Dickson Counties, Tennessee, where 60% of the 50 odd examples were recovered from one site which had also produced Big Sandy, Dalton, Greenbrier, P-8 Corner Notched, Pine Tree, Cumberland, LeCroy, and Copena points. These points are in the collection of Wayne Crabtree, Pegram, Tennessee. In general outline the Harpeth River points may somewhat resemble Dalton, Russell Cave, Greenbrier or Pine Tree points. One example has strong basal thinning on one face and what appears to be a flute struck from a prepared striking platform on the other face. One example has been recovered from Overton County and one from Humphreys County, Tennessee. One site along the Harpeth River from which 5 examples were recovered produced Big Sandy, Pine Tree, Turkey Tail and Cotaco points. The associations of Harpeth River points with other Early Archaic and Transitional Paleo points, as well as their hafting area and flaking characteristics, indicate a placement of the type in very Early Archaic or late Transitional Paleo cultural association. Forty-eight cotypes of Rockport variety of Harpeth River are described along with eighteen illustrations in the Tennessee Archaeologist, Vol. XXVI, No. 2 (Adair and Sims, 1970).
JACKS REEF CORNER NOTCHED, Ritchie (Ritchie, 1961): A-21
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This is a medium-sized, corner notched point with a thin, flattened, excurvate (or often parallel-angular) blade.
MEASUREMENTS: Nine examples, including the illustrated example from Limestone County, Alabama, provided traits and the following measurements: length—maximum, 60 mm.; minimum, 30 mm.; average, 42 mm.: shoulder width—maximum, 24 mm.; minimum, 15 mm.; average, 18 mm.: stem width—maximum, 20 mm.; minimum, 13 mm.; average, 16 mm.: stem length—maximum, 9 mm.; minimum, 6 mm.; average, 8 mm.: thickness—maximum, 5 mm.; minimum, 3 mm.; average, 4 mm. Ritchie (1961) gives the following approximate measurements: length—maximum, 57 mm.; minimum, 25 mm.; average, 47 mm.: approximate average width—38 mm.: thickness—maximum, 6 mm. (most examples are under 5 mm.). Alabama examples tend to be longer than New York examples. Corner notches average about 7 mm. deep and 5 mm. wide.
FORM: The cross-section is usually flattened, rarely, plano-convex. The shoulders are tapered with sharp thin barbs. The blade may be excurvate or parallel-angular. The distal end ranges from narrow to broad-acute. The hafting area is corner notched. The base of the expanded stem is usually straight; rarely, incurvate. It is thinned and may be lightly ground. These features are similar to those of New York points.