Limestone

The Limestone is a small to medium size, incurvate-based point with tapered shoulders. 10 examples from Cambron site 12, Limestone County, Alabama, measured a maximum of 52 mm and a minimum of 38 mm with an average of 48 mm in length. The cross-section is bi-convex. 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 basil edge is always incurvate and thinned.

The blade and stem are shaped by broad, shallow, random flaking. Secondary flaking along the blade edges ranges from crude to find. 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 basil 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 basil edge was often finally retouched. Bangor flint appears to have been the most frequently used material in manufacture of these points.

The type was named for examples taken from an Archaic shell mound on the Tennessee River 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 MS201 in Marshall County, Alabama, two examples were covered from level 4 and one from level 7. This is an indication of Late Archaic or Early Woodland association at this site.

Information for this article was derived from James W. Cambron and David C. Hulse, Handbook of Alabama Archaeology, Alabama Archaeological Society