[Various (1967)] 1 THE TACONIC TRADITION AND THE COE AXIOM Louis A. Brennan Metropolitan Chapter THE COE AXIOM In his recently published report (Coe 1964) on the Archaic cultures of inland North Carolina, "The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont," Joffre L. Coe drew up his statement of conclusions (p. 8) on several years work done on naturally stratified sites along the banks of Fall Line rivers as follows: "The work at these sites demonstrated two important facts: first, that stratified sites of depth and antiquity do exist in the alluvial float plains of the Piedmont; and second, that when an occupation zone can be found that represents a relatively short period of time the usual hodge-podge of projectile point types is not found - only variations of one specific theme." (Underscoring mine.) The first of these conclusions should serve as a strong hint to those working in areas where streams have built up alluvial plains by periodic flooding that these are the places to look for sites of "depth and antiquity," but it is the second with which this paper will be concerned. What Coe makes clear that he intends by this second conclusion is that projectile points have high diagnostic cultural-chronological utility, especially during the Archaic where they are the only artifact with sufficient stylistic variability to reflect cultural-chronological change.