FORM: The cross-section is biconvex. Shoulders are narrow, usually horizontal but may be inversely tapered and occasionally expanded. Blade edges are usually excurvate but are recurvate on examples with expanded shoulders, and about half the examples have serrated blade edges. The distal end may be acute or mucronate, rarely broad. The hafting area is composed of a rounded, rarely pointed, stem that is occasionally ground along the edges.
FLAKING: Rather narrow, shallow, random flaking was used to shape the blade and stem. Some fine retouch was used to complete the shape of all edges. Short, fairly deep flakes were removed to form serrations along the blade edges of serrated examples. These serrations may appear the full length of the blade near the basal end or near the distal end. A variety of local flints and cherts were used.
COMMENTS: The type was named from sites near Morrow Mountain in the Piedmont of North Carolina where many examples, designated by Coe (1959) as Morrow Mountain I, were recovered. The illustrated example is from Cambron Site 76 (Pine Tree) in Limestone County, Alabama. The type had been illustrated as Rounded Stem Gypsum Cave points by Cambron (1958a) and designated Three Mile by Kneberg (personal communication). Morrow Mountain was adopted at the suggestion of James B. Griffin (personal communication). Coe (1959) places the type later than Stanley and earlier than Guilford points in the Piedmont of North Carolina, where he suggests a date of about 4500 B. C. He also lists dates in Nevada of Gypsum Cave points between 6000 and 8000 B. C. Examples were found associated with two burials at the Stanfield-Worley Bluff Shelter (DeJarnette, Kurjack and Cambron, 1962) along with Morrow Mountain Rounded Base and other early Archaic points and artifacts. Other examples recovered from this site as well as from Flint Creek Rock Shelter (Cambron and Waters, 1961) and Little Bear Creek (Webb and DeJarnette, 1948b) suggest an early Archaic association, as do surface collections in the Tennessee River Valley.
MORROW MOUNTAIN ROUNDED BASE, Cambron (DeJarnette, Kurjack and Cambron, 1962): A-61-b
GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This is a medium to large, rounded base point with an excurvate blade.
MEASUREMENTS: Ten plesiotypes from Limestone County, Alabama, and Lincoln County, Tennessee, provided the following measurements: length—maximum, 58 mm.; minimum, 37 mm.; average, 45 mm.: width—maximum, 41 mm.; minimum, 24 mm.; average, 30 mm.: thickness—maximum, 10 mm.; minimum, 7 mm.; average, 8 mm. Larger examples are known from North Alabama, especially from the Stanfield-Worley Bluff Shelter (DeJarnette, Kurjack and Cambron, 1962).
FORM: The cross-section may be flattened or biconvex. Blade edges are excurvate and rarely serrated. The distal end is usually acute but may be mucronate. The hafting area is rounded and thinned, but rarely ground.
FLAKING: Variable, random flaking was used to shape the faces. Some examples were finely retouched along the blade and hafting area edges, while others were not retouched at all. In general the flaking is cruder than that of Morrow Mountain or Morrow Mountain Straight Base. Local flints and cherts were used to make the points.