30 ...and there it was, just sittin' there...

The Amazingly Exciting, Curiously Spicey, Ultra-Cool Site Presentation (with pictures)

It's amazing, how, on any given piece of land, that evidence of ancient occupation occurs on one little 1/4 acre spot. And that one little spot seems to have been used again and again as a temporary "camp", sporatically, for millenia...

30 ...and here it is after the mud was washed off...

WHY: Well, this hobby I've undertaken of finding ancient stuff is rewarding for 4 reasons: 1) My dog and I get to go outside. 2) It's legal. 3) It's free. 4) It inspires me to read complicated stuff... However, I have felt an obligation as a mediocre citizen to display this stuff for everyone who is interested...

Can You Say Subdivision?

The site: The site is part of an estate, turned subdivision, in the NC Piedmont. It is located on a gently sloping ridge that forms a bluff which overlooks a 3rd or 4th order creek with a flood plain just a couple of hundred yards upstream from the confluence with another 3rd order creek. The soil depth to red, sticky, slimy clay is very shallow, typically less than a couple of inches. Like much of the NC Piedmont, this site must have been completely cleared of vegetation at some time allowing the soil to erode away. However, the presence of very large boulders would have rendered some of the site un-tillable by large, mechanized farm equipment. Most of the boulders have subsequently been removed by blasting. (Just after logging. Just before the Dozer) (Same spot. Sorta speaks for itself.)

How it happened: This site is less than 1/4 mile, as the crow flies, from my house. I noticed the site when a road corridor in the subdivision was cleared. Its gently sloping profile seemed to be a likely spot for an ancient camp. After several rains, I noticed chips on some of the bare spots. Before I knew it, the boulders had been blasted away, and the rock chunks were pushed aside. That's when I started finding stuff. Subsequent construction on the site went very slowly. Months went by, but after each disturbance by dozers, I would find stuff. It is unclear how much surface collecting had occurred, other than my own. I diligently tried to be the first there after every disturbance or rain (of coarse, that was... um... purely to make sure that I obtained a good sample of... forget it...). The last trip that I made was to take the "after" picture ('cause I moved). Here's a plan view of the site: The red numbers indicate the approximate position where each of the artifacts below were recovered.

Stuff I found: I did not find very much debitage, "single use stuff", cores, bifaces, or scrapers on this site in comparison to projectile points. I found one slightly large, heavy tool (36), a few fragments of clay vessel, and one small chunk of polished soap stone. The projectile points that I could identify were Archaic. The oldest was a single Kirk corner notched followed by some bifurcated stemmed points and a Kirk stemmed point. There was a passle of Morrow Mountain II points and a few Guilford points. Then there were a bunch of Savannah River points and possibly the tip from a Woodland point. The points were sometimes found in clusters by type. They seemed to be associated with the soil except for many of the Morrow Mountain points seemed to be associated with the clay which was beneath the soil. This obsevation may be arbitrary, but so is the dozer work that uncovered these things (oh well).

Savannah River Looking Stuff (14-18, 30, 32): A few of the Savannah River points that I found had been reworked many times. This seems unusual because most Savannah River stuff that I found in the area was made of poor material and rarely reworked. Point No. 16 is also made of some strange rock. It's relatively soft material, even in comparison to the metasedimentary materials. The tip appeared to be purposely square. The material has the feel of 100 grit sandpaper...

32

31

Morrow Mountain Looking Stuff: (4-8, 31) The Morrow Mountain stuff was found mostly together and mostly associated with clay and not soil. Everything else seemed to be associated with the soil. I have no explanation for this unless the Morrow Mountain points were pushed into the clay by the dozers or had been previoulsy buried as a cache and subsequently scattered by the dozers. My wife found No. 31 made of partially clear quartz. Most of the others were dozer damaged.

Kirk Stemmed Stuff (33): Two of these were found within a few feet of each other, one by me and one by a friend. 33

Bifurcated Stemmed Things: (2, 3, 34, 35, 38) These seemed to be randomly scatted accross the site.

34

Other Tools and Stuff (10, 20, 26, 27, 29, 36): There was also other stuff like utilized flakes and point parts and things that could have been used as tools. There is one large tool that is oval in shape. All of the edges are heavily ground either by design or use.