Part II - Prehistoric Material Culture of Virginia

Book excerpt: Part II (L to Z) along with a separate volume Part I (A to K) is a 1600-page prehistory of Virginia and its surrounding states. These two books contain nearly 10,000 prehistoric artifacts. Also, it contains the entire McCary Fluted Point Survey. It was written for the layman, and avocational archaeologist, and especially, the breadth of coverage will benefit even the most experienced professional archaeologist's understanding of Virginia prehistoric archaeology. This volume covers the archaeological concepts of macrotools, microtools, tool types, and tool classes. It discusses cultural resources and sites, offer artifacts dates, Virginia cultural divisions (NAGPRA responsibilities), tool functions and usages, artifacts lithics and production methods, and how to record artifacts. The artifact focus is projectile points, axes, celts, bannerstones, pottery, and hundreds of other tools. In addition, a list of Virginia collectors, an extensive bibliography, and an index. For most of the artifacts presented, provenance, material, and measurements are given. These data make the publication a valuable resource for others performing archaeological investigations. Because so many of these prehistoric tools also are found outside Virginia, the publication can be used for comparative examples and data for the entire eastern U.S. and beyond. This publication is the only record of thousands of artifacts in Virginia. Related book by the author: Clovis Points in Virginia.