Osseus remains of Erethizon dorsatum (American or Common Porcupine) were recovered by archaeological excavations at the Charles Church Rockshelter site in Watauga County, NC. Two specimens were successfully radiocarbon-dated to between 7670 and 7460 years before present, confirming the presence of Porcupines in the mountains of North Carolina in the middle Holocene. Climatic events and human predation may have led to its extirpation from the southern Appalachians by AD 1000.