THE MUD VALLEY SITE: A LATE PALAEO-INDIAN LOCALITY IN HOLMES COUNTY, OHIO1

The Mud Valley Site is a multi-component locality at which two distinct Late Palaeo-Indian components have been isolated on the basis of typological analysis of the projectile point assemblages. These components are dated on grounds of analogy with similar and related assemblages of known date from other parts of the Great Lakes region. An 'unfluted fluted ' point component is dated from ca. 6,000 to 8,000 B.C., and a later lanceolate point component is dated within a range of 5,000 to 7,000 B.C. These two components are culturally and chronologically distinct, representing two distinct occupa-tions at the site. The Mud Valley Site is located in Section 17 of Walnut Creek township in eastern Holmes County, a few hundred feet southeast of Mud Valley School above the right bank of Walnut Creek. The site is situated on a spur, at an elevation ranging from 1075 to 1100 ft, overlooking the confluence of Goose Creek and Walnut Creek. At the confluence, the elevation above sea level is approxi-mately 975 ft. From the base of the spur, in the floodplain of Walnut Creek, to the elevation at which the site is centered, the terrain rises sharply by 100 ft over a horizontal distance of circa 1500 ft. Walnut Creek, from the confluence of Goose Creek on, meanders for a distance of ca. 4 miles in a northeasterly direction through a narrow valley, until it joins, near Dundee in Tuscarawas County, the South Fork of Sugar Creek. After itsjunction with the North Fork, Sugar Creek winds its way to the Tuscarawas River, which it joins in the Canal Dover-New Philadelphia area of Tuscarawas County. The Tuscarawas River, in turn, is one of the headwater streams of th