What NC Material Is This?

[NC_Stone_Collector]

This is an interesting artifact. I have a Guilford Round Base or an Archaic lanceolate from Buncombe County, NC (Asheville area). Actually, I'm not real sure what I have here. It has a slight bluish color and doesn't look like any NC materials I have seen before. Is it a type of rhyolite? Does anyone have any suggestions?

[Truett]

Looks like rhyolitic tuff. Tuff comes in various shades of green and grey.Check-out "Hardaway Revisited" by Randy Daniel. This book has a good section on N.C. lithics. Nice Guilford, BTW!

[NC_Stone_Collector]

Cool!  It does have that bluish-greenish-grayish color.  I read your posting on NC Lithic Materials.  You mentioned it will have a fine-grained to sugary texture.  It has that also.  I can finally label/classify it more appropriately now.  I will have to check that book out too, sounds like some good reading material.  Thanks for your help!   B)

[Truett]

The gift shop in The museum of History in Raleigh has "The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont" by Joffre Coe, which is an excellent source of data, too.

[Bill]

NC_stone_collector and Truett, it looks to me like Rhyolite but not tuff at all.

[Butch Wilson]

Here is a link to a rather lengthy discussion on NC material from a while back .

http://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/general-discussion-gc5/learn-about-lithic-material-types-gc24/25822-carolina-rhyolite

[Truett]

Rhyolitic tuff forms from volcanic ash or dust depositions. To quote Dr.Randy Daniel, "The tuffs seen in this study, both in artifacts and at quarries, are variable in color and texture. This variability includes various shades of green to light grey and both fine and somewhat coarse-grained stone." (Hardaway Revisited,p44) "Felsic tuff" corresponds to plagioclase porphyritic rhyolite. This type of rhyolite is characterized by rhe presence of phenocrysts : (1) plagioclase porphyritic,(2)quartz porphyritic,  and (3)plagioclase-quartz porphyritic. These phenocrysts are quartz and/or feldspar. This type is often called speckled rhyolite. The colors are quite variable.
I've included a photo of a green rhyolitic tuff that's very similar to the material found here in N.C.

[NC_Stone_Collector]

That looks like what I have with age and patina.  There is a fresh chip at the tip and I can see a smooth surface.  The color is a light-blush, greenish, grayish color.  I'm about 99% thats it, Truett.  Thanks!

[Bill]

Truett, what you posted, while very interesting, doesn't look to me like the Rhyolites that the majority of NC points I have seen from were made out of.
The tuffs I have seen that were made into points by the NC Indians were colors that varied from dark to lighter grays.
However, mostly the Tuffs were used were charcoal gray in color. I found a SC Clovis that had been made from a high quality, North Carolina charcoal colored Tuff.