NYSAA Bulletin No. 107 — Dogan Point Archaeological Site — Passage 26 (part 3)

[Herbert C. Kraft et al. (1994)] Since a Dalton-like complex has not been conclusively established for the Northeast, Indian populations may have been relatively small at this time. (Funk 1991:9). A corrected date of 9115 B.P. (Beta-32366, ETH5671) has been obtained from Olive Branch, a Dalton site on the Mississippi River in Alexander County, Illinois. It is expected that even older dates than this may occur as Dalton points at Olive Branch were recovered 1.0 m (3.3 ft) below the charcoal sample area (Gramly and Funk 1988:32). Radiocarbon dates associated with Dalton elements from Early Archaic rock shelters in Kentucky range from about 9000-8000 B.P. These occupations apparently followed Paleo-Indian in that area (Rolingson and Schwartz 1966:158). Dates ranging from 8739 to 7660 B.P. were obtained at the Turkey Swamp Site in New Conclusions The main purpose of this paper is to report the finding of Paleo-Indian artifacts in east-central Washington County.

The three artifacts described above merely suggest Paleo Indian and initial early Archaic presence. A Paleo-Dalton overlap may have occurred here as suggested by the appearance of the two points within the same field less than 1.0 m (3.3 ft) apart. Archaeologists in the Northeast would be pleased to find deeply stratified, neatly layered transitional Paleo-Early Archaic sites to answer ques tions about chronology and associations, a prospect that is extremely slim. For various reasons, we may never have this unequivocal proof.