LAMOKA POINTS
Middle to Late Archaic: 6,000 to 4,000
BP
DESCRIPTION: Lamoka points range in size from 25 to
65 mm in length, averaging about 40 mm. These are small, narrow,
thick points with weak to moderately pronounced side notches.
They can also be straight stemmed with slightly sloping shoulders.
The blade is basically triangulois in outline, biconvex or median
ridged on cross section, with edges straight or slightly incurvate.The
Base is often straight, but also oblique or slightly convex, and
usually unworked and just as thick as the blade. This thick, unfinished
condition of the base is a prime diagnostoc feature of the Lamoka
point wherever found.
DISTRIBUTION: The Lamoka type has a very wide range beyond
the known area of the defined Lamoka complex in central and western
New York, northern portions of Pennsylvania, and west into the
Niagara Peninsula of southern Ontario. East of the Lamoka culture
area it is present in eastern and southeastern New York and it
has a still broader random distribution.
RAW MATERIAL: Lamoka points appear to have been made from
local materials, principally cherts, quartz and quartzite. A pebble
industry was indicated at the Lamoka Lake site. The knapping is
generally coarse and marginal retouching is rare.
AGE AND CULTURE: This is the characteristic point form
of the Lamoka complex, and radiocarbon dated at about 3,500 B.C.
to 2,500 B.C. Both the side notched and stemmed versions occur
togerther in the same Lamoka components at the same levels, but
the proportions vary somewhat from site to site. The type apparently
survives in very minor proportions right down to the middle Woodland
times, at least in central New York.
REFERENCES: Ritchie, 1961 pp. 29 - 30, 83. Overstreet,
2003. pp. 138 - 139.