Paleo and Archaic

Artifacts from the Paleo period, from 14,000 to about 10,500 years ago, are extremely rare. I have found one complete Clovis point and have been present at the finding of two fragmentary points. All were found on upland sites along small streams or branches; in each case a mile or more from any river or large creek.
The Clovis point that I found was made of Indiana Green flint(Attaca chert) from Indiana. The others were made from what appears to be Burlington chert. In addition to the Clovis points I have four Agate Basin points and two Daltons, all but one of which were found on upland sites. One of the Daltons is worked down to a hafted scraper and it was found on a broad terrace, or secondary bottom of the Kaskaskia River. They are all made from local flint. According to Greg Perino Agate Basin and Daltons are not true paleo points but rather are very early archaic. At the Olive Branch site in southern Illinois, Dalton points were preceded by Agate Basin points and followed by Hardins. The Archaic period is divided into early, middle, and late. Early Archaic is characterized by the classic Hardins, Dovetails, Thebes, Corner Notched, and Bifurcate based styles of points starting about 10,000 years and ending with early styles of sidenotched points about 6000 years ago. While these classic early points are not completely absent from the Kaskaskia River bottoms they are rare. I have found relatively few, mostly fragmentary, Early Archaic points on the sand knolls in the river bottom. They are, however, found along bluff egdes and are fairly common on upland sites. In fact, they are by far the most common point types found around prairie potholes on the Shelbyville Moraine. With few exceptions, all of these early points are made from local flints or Burlington chert. The exceptions are one Nueberger point made from Cobden chert, a few pieces made from Indiana Hornestone, a handful more of Indiana Green. I can think of a couple reasons why these points are so rare in the river bottom. Perhaps these points are buried so deeply that the plow
does not often bring them up. Or, maybe the river bottoms were not all that hospitable during this time and the uplands, particularly glacial lakes, were more attractive. At any rate, the later archaic points are common on these river sites.