LIMESTONE, Cambron (This Paper): A-105
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This is a small to medium sized, incurvate-based point with tapered shoulders.
MEASUREMENTS: Ten cotypes from Cambron Site 12, Limestone County, Alabama, provided the following measurements: length—maximum, 52 mm.; minimum, 38 mm.; average, 48 mm.: shoulder width—maximum, 35 mm.; minimum, 24 mm.; average, 28 mm.: stem width—maximum, 21 mm.; minimum, 14 mm.; average, 17 mm.: stem length—maximum, 9 mm.; minimum, 6 mm.; average, 8 mm. Measurements of the illustrated example are: length, 51 mm.; shoulder width, 29 mm.; stem width, 20 mm.; stem length, 14 mm.; thickness, 9 mm.
FORM: The cross-section is biconvex. Shoulders are usually tapered or, rarely, horizontal and are occasionally rounded. The blade is straight and the distal end acute. The stem may be straight or slightly expanded with straight or incurvate side edges. The basal edge is always incurvate and thinned.
FLAKING: The blade and stem are shaped by broad, shallow, random flaking. Secondary flaking along the blade edge ranges from crude to fine. Several examples show fine retouch on only one side of each blade edge, but this does not appear to be an attempt to bevel the blade edges. Large deep flakes were often removed from the basal corners of the original blade in order to shape the stem. These "notches" were then usually retouched as a final measure. After having been thinned, the basal edge was often finely retouched. Bangor flint appears to have been the most frequently used material in manufacture of these points.
COMMENTS: The type was named after examples taken from a shell mound on the Tennessee River in Limestone County, Alabama. The illustrated example is from the type site, primarily an Archaic shellmound site, Cambron Site 12 in Limestone County, Alabama. Surface collections from sites in this area indicate a late Archaic and/or Woodland association. At the University of Alabama Site Ms 201 in Marshall County, Alabama, two examples were recovered from Level 4 and one from Level 7. This is an indication of late Archaic or early Woodland association at this site.