Dalton Tradition
The Dalton Tradition refers to a prehistoric hunting culture that thrived in the southeastern United States from approximately 8000 to 7400 B.C.E. This tradition is characterized by the use of distinctive chert or flint projectile points, known for their slender triangular shape, concave base, and occasionally, "ears" on the sides. A notable variant is the Hardaway point, which features a more defined triangular form along with side notches and flaring ears. These tools were frequently resharpened for use as spear tips and, when too worn, repurposed into knives, scrapers, or chisels.
The environment during this period was dominated by deciduous forests, which replaced earlier coniferous vegetation as the climate changed. The inhabitants of the Dalton Tradition likely supplemented their primarily meat-based diet with nuts and other plant materials available in their oak-rich surroundings. Archaeological excavations, such as those at the Sloan site in Arkansas, have uncovered a variety of stone tools and burial artifacts, including Dalton points interred as grave goods. Ultimately, the Dalton Tradition was succeeded by new tool styles around 7400 B.C.E., marking a significant transition in the prehistoric cultures of the region.
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Dalton Tradition
Date: 8000-7400 b.c.e.
Locale: Much of the southeastern United States, from North Carolina and Alabama to Illinois and as far north as New England
Dalton Tradition
Chert or flint Dalton points (called Hardaway in North Carolina) mark a hunting tradition prevalent throughout the American southeast from about 8000 to 7400 b.c.e. They are distinguished by a slender triangular shape, a concave base, and sometimes by “ears” projecting from either side of the base. The North Carolina variant, the Hardaway point, has a truer triangular form, as well as side notches and flaring ears. These projectile points were often repeatedly resharpened and, when too reduced by sharpening to tip a spear, recycled as knives, scrapers, or chisels. Dalton and Hardaway points remained in use until about 7400 b.c.e., when they were replaced by new styles.
Although it is impossible to paint an in-depth portrait of the peoples associated with the Dalton tradition, it is known that their world was marked by deciduous forests, which had gradually replaced jack pines and spruces as glacial sheets receded northward throughout the early Holocene epoch. It is likely that the people of the Dalton tradition supplemented their diet of wild meat with nuts and other vegetable matter present in these oak-dominated woodlands.
Excavations of Dalton sites in the Little Tennessee Valley and northeastern Arkansas have produced stone tools—points, hammerstones, knives, and choppers—primarily associated with hunting and butchering. The Sloan site in Arkansas, believed to have been a burial site, has produced bone fragments and artifacts that were probably interred as grave goods, including groups of Dalton points (probably originally hafted and placed in bundles).
Bibliography
Chapman, Jefferson. Tellico Archaeology. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985.
Smith, Bruce. “The Archaeology of the Southeastern United States: From Dalton to De Soto, 10,500 to 500 b.p.” Advances in World Archaeology 5 (1986): 1-92.