Projectile point · Middle Archaic
Guilford
4500–3500 BCE, Archaic (Eastern)
Guilford was defined by Coe in 1964 from the Doerschuk and Gaston sites in North Carolina, where it followed Morrow Mountain in the Middle Archaic. It is a Piedmont type of the Carolinas and Virginia, most often in quartz, quartzite or rhyolite, and is among the most common points on Piedmont sites.
| Object | Projectile point |
|---|---|
| Dates | 4500–3500 BCE |
| Period | Middle Archaic |
| Cultures | Archaic (Eastern) |
| Regions | North America — Southeast, North America — Eastern Woodlands |
Diagnostic traits
Thick, narrow lanceolate with a diamond to thick lenticular cross-section, a rounded, straight or slightly concave base, coarse percussion flaking and no grinding or notching.
Identification
Guilford's thickness and lack of any notch or stem separate it from Morrow Mountain, which has a contracting stem, and from Savannah River, which is broad and stemmed. Paleoindian lanceolates are thin, finely flaked and ground; Guilford is neither.
Reproductions and fakes
Not worth faking; misidentified preforms are the concern.
Cite this article
Stratum Study. "Guilford" (Artifact type). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21. https://stratum.black/study/types/guilford. Accessed 2026-09-21.
@misc{stratum-guilford,
title = {Guilford},
author = {{Stratum Study}},
howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/types/guilford}},
year = {2026},
note = {Artifact type article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-21; sources: stratum. Accessed 2026-09-21.}
} Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.