Honors Program
Midway Honors
Date of Award
5-2021
Thesis Professor(s)
Chris Widga
Thesis Professor Department
Geosciences
Thesis Reader(s)
Reagan Cornett
Abstract
Projectile points/ knives (PPKs) are categorized by morphology, also called typology, and associated with cultural periods. A total of 64 PPKs in collections in the Archaeology Lab at East Tennessee State University were curated as untyped and without provenience. They were allegedly collected from ground surveys in Upper East Tennessee, but without archaeological context research had not been prioritized. The importance of such research lies in the fact that few publications exist on the region of Upper East Tennessee and many reference books on lithic typology portray PPKs through illustrations of the ideal morphology of each type. The challenge herein is that the lithic technologies excavated by archaeologists are typically used, worn, broken, or abandoned. A comparative collection of projectile points found in the field from the region of Upper East Tennessee is a valuable research resource. The 64 PPKs yielded 25 typologies that are, indeed, published from Upper East Tennessee and show variability from resharpening, wear, and other means. The comparative collection is curated at the East Tennessee State University Archaeology Lab at Valley Brook.
Publisher
East Tennessee State University
Document Type
Honors Thesis - Open Access
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Recommended Citation
McLachlan, Zoen, "Typology of Projectile Points/Knives from Upper East Tennessee" (2021). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 643. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/643
Copyright
Copyright by the authors.