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Good am !. To start my son and I had an experience the ARK in Kentucky where we paid & sifted/washed through dirt to find fossils and gem rocks and they even threw in (fake) arrowheads and it gave me the idea to dig shelter L1 this way . As you know a couple years ago I moved here and this was first shelter I dug but the water table is so high and the trees above have made this shelter really hard to dig because the water seeps from above and below when the creek gets up. It a fantastic shelter with tons of surface find pottery and points that I have posted in previous videos . So we took a screen down and decided to wash our dirt and was pleasantly surprised at the amount of stuff we found . My son found a nice projectile point . It was so neat to see it come up on the screen like that. We were able to find carbonized stuff that would normally get crushed when we sift but we’re able to have some amazing examples of an acorn and a hickory nut husk and even a piece of thin outer acorn shell. Found tons of burned up bones possibly squirrel, rabbit &turtle. We added a broken deer antler tine that had been ground on as well. Various small shell fragments , flint , & looks like turtle carapace . The highlights were a drilled broken diamond shaped pendant & a beautiful lance shaped point. I also posted a picture of what looks like a typological match found in shelter L5 about 400 yards upstream , let me know what y’all think. On typology? We posted a YouTube video of what we were doing as well. I’ve posted videos of shelter in the past if anyone is interested . Here’s YouTube link https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FtWr_SdifY0. I will have to make a few posts to fit pictures
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Here’s some more
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We also found a broken nutting stone, pitted against n both sides and a broken rounded stone (purposely broken) that we have found many examples of in all shelters we believe was their preferred tool to break the nut shells and fits the hand nicely.
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We dug there yesterday the 27th not the 28th which is today 😀Comment
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Super fun days 👍👍👍Floridaboy.Comment
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Good morning back at ya Sgt. You had a super great day and am happy for you. As usual you are very thorough at the sites you excavate and in the presentation to us of the results of your efforts. Another good show for sure. If I understand correctly you were washing dirt back through a screen that you had previously sifted. Surely you didn't miss the nutting stone, points and pendant when you first sifted. Or have I misunderstood what you said? The photo of the creek had me trying to twist my head sideways so I thought I would straighten it up to see it better. Now to go click on the link to your video.
After I finish looking at it I will see if I can figure out a possible type or types for your 2 willow leaf shaped points as nothing comes to mind now.
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Thanks for the input!!! As far as depths I am taking about 6” off the top. These willow shaped points from both shelters came right under the bird point layers . There are bird point layers right on surface to about 2-3” under soil. The pottery goes to about 6” . The points would be in between what I call a larger triangle layer that’s around 12” deep and the above bird layers Maddison/Hamilton (I’ll post a pic below I’m sure you’ve seen them before) There is a heavy rock hearth layer lower down lower but is in the water table . It rains so much here that I’ve never been able to dig the lower layers , when you dig deeper and take the weight off the top water starts to pour in a flood the hole. I initially thought that the first Indians there improved the shelter by creating drainage (putting sandstone rocks)in the shelter floor . I still haven’t really been able to confirm wether or not they are either hearthstone or a floor structure. It start about 14-18”down . The rocks are put there on purpose either one or the other . They are sharp and angular/small pieces typical of hearth material but really lack the black/ash dirt and charcoal. Directly on top of the rocks there is plenty of charcoal and ash but get flooded so quickly I can’t assess it properly. A side note supposedly the oldest structure in North America was a floor the paleo put in a cave off the sabinal river in the area I grew up in . They put in for just this purpose for drainage. -
Thank you for your further description of your site and your evaluations. The two points then must be Nodena. Because this type is from the Mississippian times and most of the people in your general area were living in villages growing corn and other vegetables, the people who made those points were probably using this site as a falll hunting camp after most crops were harvested. The abundance of bones from small animals and the hulls of hickory and walnut nuts which mature in the fall is evidence for this. Small groups consisting of one or two families at most would do this before winter seriously set in. It would be interesting to know how far this shelter is from larger river valleys which would have enough flat land to sustain a small village and their fields. -
To answer your question sailor the area is on top of the plateau where there are year round creeks that feed larger creeks which end up in the Tennessee river . With the way they have dammed up the river the tributaries are a lake now but the actual main river is 8-10 miles . There is such an abundance of food up here with all the various nuts by the tons . Black berry and even wild grapes which we harvested Monday and made jelly . Mushrooms by the dump truck load in our area start really popping in July and even growing now . I’ve seen oysters growing into January. The hickory and walnuts have been falling heavy for past two weeks , most of the acorns are already on the ground. There is a 5-7 degree difference at our altitude 2000’ than the valley below . There are many areas Along the creeks that are farmed that have lithic scatter everywhere and they were not dependent on the rock houses although it’s a great place for artifacts to be concentrated
. The shelters I’ve dug and field finds within a 1 mile radius indicate to me that the groups,families, & artifact typologies show that the area could have supported small tribe or groups through the millennia. One thing remains constant and that’s the hard stone technology. I find anvil stones , grinding slabs, pitted hammer stones and nutting stones, pestles etc at every level of occupation. The only thing that changed was their point styles/ types. This area must have been wooded for the past 1500-2000 years based on the nutting stones at the various depths.
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Looks like a very productive dig, gotta love the drilled stuff.Near the PA/Ohio state lineComment
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Here’s the birds with a picture of what depths and a picture of these fire pits that cover the floors everywhere . There usually little to no rock in these but ash and dirt although I did find a pitted hammer stone/nutter and ha e found small fragments of pottery in them too . Judging by the small bones I’m guessing they were for mostly cooking shellfish and small game as well as for light/ warmth. These pits are intrusive into deeper layers so it’s possible that a surface find was an artifact that came lower down . Also these holes were dug with sticks because they come to a point and are very narrow. Ps I have found close to 100 pieces of surface pottery as wellOriginally posted by sailorjoe View PostGood morning back at ya Sgt. You had a super great day and am happy for you. As usual you are very thorough at the sites you excavate and in the presentation to us of the results of your efforts. Another good show for sure. If I understand correctly you were washing dirt back through a screen that you had previously sifted. Surely you didn't miss the nutting stone, points and pendant when you first sifted. Or have I misunderstood what you said? The photo of the creek had me trying to twist my head sideways so I thought I would straighten it up to see it better. Now to go click on the link to your video.
After I finish looking at it I will see if I can figure out a possible type or types for your 2 willow leaf shaped points as nothing comes to mind now.
Last edited by SGT.Digger; 10-28-2021, 12:04 PM.Comment
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looks like a good time. good on ya.UtahComment
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Good times!South CarolinaComment
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Agree with Joe nice nodena points. I look forward to all you posts.Last edited by Hoss; 10-31-2021, 08:12 PM.TN formerly CT Visit our store http://stores.arrowheads.com/store.p...m-Trading-PostComment
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Amazing day 👍Floridaboy.Comment
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Good times with the boy . We are planning a way to have a more effective water sifterOriginally posted by Hal Gorges View PostComment
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Excellent presentation Sgt..!SW ConnecticutComment
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Hey Sgt...pic #8 in first group...are those the turtle shell? and the drilled piece looks like soapstone!SW ConnecticutComment
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Not sure on the soap stone I have no exp with that stuff . I had thought I found a piece of soap stone is in this shelter before only to later realize it was an in unfired broken piece of pot. It had dried for a few days and when I went to make a post and wet it for better pics it crumbled in my hand lol 😆. It’s probably an alligator turtle or a Terapene Carolina , there are lots of both around here. I’ll know more when I continue to dig in that same area later the week .
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