Piscataway: Top Row: quartz, quartz, quartz, chert, tuff; Bottom Row: quartz, quartz, quartzite, quartzite, tuff, quartz.
Type Tapering Early Woodland
Defining Attributes
The Piscataway is typically a small, narrow, thick point with rudimentary shoulders, a sharp tip, contracting stem, and pointed or rounded base.
Chronology
The Piscataway point dates to the Early Woodland period, 1000 to 500 BCE. This placement is based on the repeated occurrence of the type on Early Woodland sites on Elk Island in Goochland County (Mouer et al. 1981).
Description
Discussion
The Piscataway point is similar to the Rossville type, but smaller and narrower, with a smaller stem. Some researchers believe that the Piscataway and Rossville types are the same and date to the Middle Woodland period (Dent 1995). The narrow, finely flaked Piscataway point is reminiscent of the Will’s Cove point of the Early Woodland period. The main difference is that the Piscataway point has a tapered stem and the Will’s Cove has a square stem.
Defined in Literature
This type was originally defined by Stephenson (1963) based on points recovered from the Accokeek Creek Site in Maryland.
References
Updated: July 23, 2018