Hillsborough

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The Hillsborough point was noted by Lyman O. Warren at the Culbreath Bayou site (Warren et. al. 1967). Ripley P. Bullen described and named the type for examples from this site and from the Simpson collection at the Florida State Museum.

The Hillsborough is a medium to large sized point, measuring from 1.25 to 4.25 inches in length. The blade is developed through broad, shallow random percussion flaking with pressure flaking along the blade edges. The blade edges are straight and meet at in acute distal end. The blade is thin and bi- convex in cross-section. Workmanship is generally excellent. The shoulders or barbs are sharply angular and nearly always meet the stem with an acute angle less than 90°. The primary characteristic of the Hillsboro which distinguishes it from the related Newnan point is the extremely small stem. The small size of the stem gives the shoulders a “batwing” appearance. Examples having tangs of increasingly larger size are eventually identified as Newnan points. The basal tang is tapering with a flat, rounded or pointed basal edge. Over 80% of all Hillsborough points have been thermally altered (St. Clair 1987).

The Hillsboro point is related to the Newnan point and is frequently found in context with Newnan points. Unlike the Newnan point, it does not seem to have survived into the Late Archaic period in great numbers. The late recovery of one very nice example in mound B at the Fort Center site may indicate either a holdover or some survival into the early Woodland period as the mound produced a radiocarbon date of A. D. 260 (Sears 1994). Four examples were recovered at the Bear Creek  II site in Pinellas County with one example of a Marion point (Warren 1967). Twenty-eight extremely fine 4 to 5 inch examples were recovered by Mr. Thorton (Gomer) Pile from the 43rd Terrace site in Alachua County, Florida (Pile 1992). These examples were stacked and buried by the knapper, presumably to protect them for later trade. This site, located a few miles from Lake Newnan, contained predominantly Middle Archaic Newnan and Hillsborough points that had been thermally altered.

The distribution of Hillsborough points is more limited than that of the Newnan point, perhaps because there period of use seems to be shorter. The Hillsborough has been recovered from North Florida to Lake Okeechobee. Their heaviest distribution centers around the Tampa Bay region and Marion and Alachua counties, Florida. A few examples have been recovered as far east as the St. Johns River at the TIck Island site.