The LaGrange Rock Shelter is an archaeological site located on private property between Leighton and Muscle Shoals in Colbert County, Alabama, United States, near the original campus of LaGrange College.
[2] Excavations of the site occurred over two seasons, beginning in 1972 with Charles Hubbert as principal investigator and ending in 1975 with Vernon J. Knight Jr as principal investigator, with both seasons under the direction of David L. DeJarnette of the University of Alabama.
Lower levels of the shelter produced charcoal samples that were radiocarbon dated to approximately 11,280 BC, placing estimates of the site's habitation within what is believed to be the Paleoindian Period.
At the time of the discovery, only one other site east of the Mississippi River had been dated to that age.
[3] The charcoal consisted of small flecks associated with light debitage below a definitive Early Archaic to Late Paleoindian (Dalton culture) zone.