Archaeology Blog

Documenting the Late Prehistoric Period Village

2011-11-24T11:59:00.001-05:00

Another research question of ours has to do with the age of the apparent stockade enclosure we first identified in 2010. We now know that there were at least two, and possibly three, concentric lines of large wooden posts that formed a defensive barrier around the eastern section of the Heckleman site. In 2010 we learned that one line of this fortification crossed over the filled oval enclosure trench, placing its construction sometime after the Early Woodland period. We also discovered that this same post line was interrupted by a Late Prehistoric period pit feature (Feature 10-02) that contained sherds of Mixter Dentate pottery. Thus, this line of posts must have been removed before the digging of the pit feature, which I guessed to be sometime around AD 1350 based on the presence of the Mixter type pottery. As mentioned in my July 17, 2011 post, we were fortunate to discover one post mold (PM-18) in the outer line of the stockade that contained a rather large piece of wood charcoal, something that has rarely occurred at Heckleman. The figure below shows the location of PM-18.

I submitted this charcoal sample for radiocarbon dating and the results reveal that the material was burned between AD 1410 and 1450. This is a very tight date range as calibrated radiocarbon dates go, so I was very pleased. We are not sure if the large chunk of charcoal in PM-18 is an actual introduction of some burned firewood after the post itself rotted, or if it represents a surviving fragment of the post itself, which were often charred at their tips to prevent rotting. In either case, the burning of such a large piece of wood most certainly occurred near to the time of the erection of the stockade wall. Thus, we now have direct evidence to confirm the presence of an enclosed Late Prehistoric period (Sandusky Tradition) village site at the Heckleman site during the early fifteenth century AD.

Even Older Than We Thought

2011-11-11T10:08:00.002-05:00

In October, I submitted five samples of charred plant material from the 2011 excavations at the Heckleman site for radiocarbon dating. Some of the results were what I expected, but others surprised me. Perhaps the most surprising was the rather ancient date on charred food(?) residue found on the interior of a large, thick pottery body section from the oval enclosure ditch (Feature 11-01). These section was found in the bottom fill layer of the ditch and is similar to sherds found within the ditch over the last two seasons. This particular sherd--carefully reconstructed by Meghan M.--appears to retain the base of a broken lug handle as shown in the image below.

The resulting radiocarbon age on the residue produced a calibrated date range of 800 BC to 670 BC. This new date places the construction of the oval enclosure some 300 to 500 years earlier than previously thought, making it one of the oldest such constructions in Ohio. The only other enclosure of comparable age, to my knowledge, is the Dominion Land Company earthwork in Franklin County, Ohio, near Columbus. This early age also indicates that the oval enclosure was likely constructed prior to the parallel ditches which enclose the eastern end of the promontory. FARC excavations over the last three seasons have recovered more recent (Middle to Late Prehistoric period) artifacts in the fill of these twin ditches. So, it seems that the Heckleman site is getting older all the time.

Pottery Everywhere

2011-10-26T10:36:00.007-04:00

It has been a busy fall as we work away on the Heckleman site collection. As our faithful readers know, we recovered quite a bit of ceramics last summer. Intern Catie G. spent three weeks reconstructing and measuring one particularly large vessel from Feature 11-09. Here she is working diligently on her project.

This was the vessel from the "pottery cascade" described in an earlier blog posting (6/24/11). Contrary to our hopes in the field, this vessel was not complete, but Catie was able to reconstruct a decent portion of this large, thick pot. It had at least two thick lug handles which were attached around the shoulder area and a distinctive fabric-marked exterior surface. Unfortunately, we recovered no datable material from Feature 11-09, so we cannot say exactly how old this vessel is. I would suspect it dates to the Early Woodland period, perhaps 2,000 or more years ago, based on its form.

Village Stockades and a Possible House

2011-07-26T22:37:00.007-04:00

We are back in the lab now and starting to sort through our discoveries. Brian S. has spent much time this week tabulating post mold data. We recorded 477 of the things this season! As mentioned in a recent post, the stockade lines are the most obvious post mold configurations and clearly extend to the northeast as a set of shallow arcs as shown in the map below. Post line "D" is a new one. It either represents a third stockade line outside the first two (A and B) or possibly a structure (bastion?) attached to line B.

Post line C, located just inside A, was first identified last season as a straight line of very small post molds, each measuring only 3 to 5 cm in diameter. Our work this season in unit 514N 512 E exposed what appears to be a right angle or turn to the northeast in this line, which is interrupted in part by Feature 11-46. I spent several hours one day tracing this line toward the northeast corner of the unit, when it abruptly turned to the southeast and out of the eastern wall of the unit. As shown in the diagram, this configuration looks like the squared-off end of a structure, possibly a longhouse-like dwelling measuring about four meters in width. Similar post configurations were found by us back in 1998 and 2002 at the White Fort village site in Lorain County. The latter structures dated to the Late Prehistoric period, around AD 1300. So we may have found our first Late Prehistoric period house at the Heckleman site. As usual, only more excavation will tell for sure.

The Invisible Pit Feature

2011-07-21T15:44:00.005-04:00

Another last day surprise was the discovery of another large concentration of pottery--while cross-sectioning a post mold! Usually this doesn't happen, since you can't cram many pot sherds into a tiny post mold. It does happen, however, when the post mold is within a previously unidentified pit feature. This was the case with Feature 11-52 shown below.

Michelle N. spent all the remaining day exposing one pot sherd after another in a necessary hurry. Her careful and efficient efforts revealed a large concentration of sherds sitting in a small basin. I assisted with the final removal using my trusted long-handled trowel (no pictures permitted!). The vessel came out in a minimum of fragments and quick examination revealed it to be a plain-surfaced vessel, somewhat rare in our Woodland assemblages found to date.

I find all these busted vessels in small pits quite interesting. I suspect that we will not find all the pieces to any of these pots, which would seem to suggest that these are places of disposal rather than storage. But we need to remember that more than 100 years of plowing at this site very likely removed significant portions of the upper sections of these vessels. In fact, we tend to recover a lot of base sherds and few rim sherds, which seems to support a view of these features as small "pot pits"(not to be confused with "post pits"). Some historic Native American households were known to place storage vessels within shallow pits dug into the floors of their dwellings. This practice would have been most practical with large storage pots, which are less amenable to suspension on the walls or from rafters. We won't be able to confirm this, however, until the laborious washing and inventorying are underway, and we see what parts of the original vessels have survived.

Some Final Day Surprises

2011-07-21T15:22:00.004-04:00

Every season interesting things tend to be found on the last day of excavation. This year was no exception. The finishing touches were put on the excavation of the large pit Feature 11-39 by Allison Z. and Marcia R. At the very bottom they discovered a large post mold, similar in form to the two "post pits" found last season and Feature 11-37, just 1.5 meters to the southeast. As with the last feature, it wasn't until all the fill had been removed from 11-39 that three-quarters of a circular cavity was detected at the very base of the pit. Note the steeply inclined sides of this pit and large post "hole" in the image below.

As with the other post pits, this deep, funnel shape seems impractical for use as a storage facility or cooking pit. Our crew did find additional fragments of at least one vessel in the fill (see below), but the artifact content was rather meager.

No, I think these features are the locations where large posts were set up and then taken down. It seems likely that the pit itself was the result of the removal of the post, since no clear mold of an in situ post was apparent in the cross-section of the feature. Only the very end of the post was visible as it protruded beneath the surrounding pit and protruded into the subsoil. As will be discussed in a future post, this particular prehistoric post may have supported a large structure. More on that later.

A Hopewell Point Turns Up (or Down)

2011-07-17T21:09:00.007-04:00

One distinctive aspect of this year's field season is the true scarcity of stone tools. Of course we have found several triangular, Madison-type, arrowheads which date to the final site occupation (Late Prehistoric period) but nothing earlier except the nice stemmed point from Feature 11-39 described in an earlier post. As I believe I have noted before, the lack of such lithic artifacts from the Early and Middle Woodland period components at Heckleman is informative. I believe it tells us that stone tool manufacture--except for the specialized knapping of ovate bifaces (see earlier posts)--was not a common activity at this site. Not just tools, but flint flakes and cores are also significantly lacking. So, we were very surprised when an exquisite example of a Lowe Cluster Middle Woodland point was discovered by Meghan M. in Feature 11-45.

As shown below, this point is made of a translucent variety of Flint Ridge chert. It has deep, wide corner-notches and a well-thinned, convex base. This point is an excellent diagnostic for the Middle Woodland, Hopewell, occupation of the site. Found at the same level were two or three fragments of a thin, well-smoothed rim sherd with an outcurved profile. A type most readily identified as Esch Plain.

Curiously, this point was found tip-down in the fill, as if someone had shot it downward into the pit. I'm not sure this is how it ended up in our feature, but it's presence does make us wonder why such a complete, still usable artifact was discarded. Perhaps it was not discarded, but placed in the pit deliberately as an offering, or, more mundanely, as a temporary kind of storage. In any case, its discovery brightened up the spirits of our sun-baked crew for a time.

North to the Stockade Line

2011-07-17T20:40:00.007-04:00

This past week we finally moved part of our crew to the northern bulldozer transect to explore for additional segments of the stockade lines, which were first discovered in 2009. You will remember that last year we traced two parallel lines of rather stout post molds which arced northeastward and across the oval enclosure. We demonstrated that the innermost line ran across the filled enclosure ditch and thus post-dated this Early Woodland feature. My gut feeling is that these lines represent a defensive perimeter that was constructed by the Late Prehistoric period inhabitants of the site. Very similar evidence for such constructions have been found at Late Prehistoric village settlements in the area, such as White Fort on the Black River in Elyria, Ohio. This season I wanted to expose additional segments of these lines to learn more about the shape and size of this defensive enclosure. So, we resumed shovel-scraping.

We quickly recognized the two post lines curving gently to the northeast. We even found evidence of a third, outermost line as well. The image below shows the post line in our first unit, 514N 506E. They are a bit hard to see in this image, but they were very clear on the freshly-scraped surface of the unit (indicated by the arrows). Beneath this line we could just make out an oval pit feature which, unfortunately we did not have time to investigate. We could tell, however, that the post line ran across this feature, thus post-dating it.

As I mentioned, I believe that these lines were constructed during the last major occupation of the site, but so far, I do not have any evidence to prove this. Only the super-positioning of the line over the Early Woodland enclosure ditch. Luckily, we noticed that one of the post molds in the middle line contained a large chunk of charcoal that was carefully extracted by Katie M. You can just see the dark gray chunk of charcoal at the top of the post molds in the image below. Hopefully, this sample will result in a radiocarbon date on this important feature. I will let you know in a month or two.

Of Points, Pottery, Pits, Posts, and Middens

2011-07-10T09:17:00.007-04:00

The archaeological record of the Heckleman site is proving to be quite complex. On several excavation unit floors we have detected broad areas of stained soil containing FCR, charcoal, burned animal bone fragments, and a few flakes. These stains, which have indistinct and irregular edges, appear to be the remains of thin sheets of cultural debris called middens that were deposited during one or more groups of prehistoric inhabitants. We examined one area of midden staining more closely in unit 505N 512E this week and were surprised to find below a large pit feature, Feature 11-39. This feature was also very indistinct but is visible in the following image in which the contrast has been increased.

As we removed the fill from the southern half of this feature, Allison Z. found a complete Early Woodland stemmed point. This small, thick point is similar to the type called Leimbach Stemmed in northern Ohio. It is made from the distinctive Flint Ridge chert from eastern Ohio.

As we wound down our work on Friday, Marcia R. and Allison uncovered a large fragment of a Leimbach Cordmarked vessel just a few centimeters south of where the point was found. The vessel fragment can be seen to the right of the point and at the edge of the pit in the image below.

The discovery of sherds of similar ceramics in midden deposits nearby suggest that the latter are contemporary with Early Woodland features like 11-39 and were deposited after the filling of these pits.

In all these areas, numerous post molds and other features have been detected within, or penetrating through, the midden staining, which indicates that structures were constructed after the midden deposits were laid down. As yet, no clear post mold patterns of houses or other structures have been recognized; but the sheer volume of post molds is impressive. Did some of this building activity take place during all three occupations or mostly during the final one in the Late Prehistoric period? Are there any Middle Woodland structures out there? I don't think we will answer that question during this field season, and perhaps only after we have time to sort out the hundreds of post molds by shape and size to look for recognizable patterns. But who knows? We still have a week to go!

More Pottery from Pit Features

2011-07-07T20:21:00.003-04:00

Today we excavated a small pit feature that contained portions of a finely cordmarked vessel. Watch the video of its discovery!

A PPM with Pottery

2011-07-05T04:33:00.006-04:00

Speaking of the little things which help us reconstruct the past, one minor but potentially important discovery was finding a rim sherd in a post mold. OK, so what? Well you must realize that we have been cross-sectioning post molds for much of our time in the field this year. This can be a tedious task for the students, since it involves excavating a little hole in a confined space, while kneeling on gravelly soil. Then if the light is not just right, you cannot see the profile easily and must contort your head and neck in various orientations until your supervisor tells you it is just a "root stain" or "rodent burrow" and then instructs you to fill the hole up. Luckily, about a third of the time, the "PPM" (Possible Post Mold) is a good one, and you get to draw a little profile of the thing on a piece of graph paper--a suitable reward for all your efforts. Even more underwhelming is the fact the usually nothing is found in the post mold. So, the discovery of diagnostic artifact in a post mold is a cause for celebration, or at least a pat on the back. This was the case with PPM 17 in unit 505N 509E.

In this medium-sized post mold, Katie M. found several fragments of an Esch Cordmarked rim sherd along with several pieces of FCR. She points to the spot in the image below.

As seen in next image, this sherd is finely cordmarked with a plain lip and slightly out-turned profile which is typical for this Middle Woodland pottery ware. Although you can't see it in this image, the cordmarking is of the S-twist variety (see previous post) which supports its placement in the Middle Woodland period.

We did get some charcoal as well which may permit a date. But why date a post mold? Well, in this case I suspect that PPM 17 may be part of a structure. If so, then discovering a rim sherd in a post mold becomes much more than just a nice break in a day of post mold digging.

A Pot with a Twist

2011-07-05T03:59:00.004-04:00

Over the past week we made several interesting discoveries. One was the uncovering of a small pottery vessel in Feature 11-19. This pot appears to have been stored or cached in a small pit lined with fragments of gray shale. It was a big surprise to simply find such an artifact just below the plow zone. In fact, it looks like only a small section was taken away by more than a century of cultivation in this field. Although somewhat crushed by the weight of the soil overburden, the little pot was in pretty good shape as shown in the image below.

The accompanying pieces of shale perplexed us at first, until we realized that most of the fragments lay at the sides and beneath the vessel. I suspect that the small pit containing the pot was lined with these fragments. Such preparation of a pit feature may have been necessary to preserve its shape for use as a permanent storage pit or cyst for holding things like this vessel. Little storage pits like this have been found in association with house structures (stay tuned for more on this intriguing inference). Nothing else was found in the pit except shale and pot sherds, in fact there really was not room for anything else. Unfortunately, the lack of bone fragments or charcoal means that we will not be able to obtain a direct date on this feature. One clue to its age does exist, however.

As I examined some of the cordmarked body sherds, I could see that they bore the negative (reverse) impression of an S-twist fiber cordage. Nearly all of the Early or Middle Woodland cordmarked pottery found in northern Ohio exhibits a similar twist pattern. Interestingly, most Late Prehistoric pottery have the impressions of Z-twist cordage. The differences in twist pattern reflect different methods of hand-spinning cordage, which may seem trivial, but appears to be a reliable indicator of culture change and time. This shift in cordage twist is also seen across much of the Midwest and Northeast. With the lack of datable material, the twist pattern may be all we have to place this interesting artifact in a general time frame. In archaeology, we are happy for the little things which help us reconstruct the past.

A Cascade of Pottery

2011-06-24T22:51:00.007-04:00

So far this season, pottery has been the predominant class of artifact recovered from feature contexts. This is a bit unusual because normally stone tool debris, primarily flint flakes, are much more common at sites in the region. The rarity of lithics says something significant about the kinds of activities not carried out in and adjacent to the oval enclosure That is, stone tool making was not a primary task for the Early Woodland inhabitants. So what does the relatively frequent occurrence of pottery tell us? Well, the direct inference, of course, is that pottery was broken and disposed of on-site. The behavior inference linked to this is that the cooking and perhaps storage of food in pots were common activities. The most vivid evidence for this interpretation is the dense concentration of Early Woodland ceramics found in Feature 11-09. As the image below reveals, a large quantity of pot sherds was deposited in this medium-sized pit.

The pottery is confined to one side of the sloping pit wall, as if the sherds were unceremoniously dumped into the pit. This virtual 'cascade' of pottery includes several large rim sections of a single vessel. One of the rim sherds shown below has a plain, out-turned lip, below which is a distinctly fabric-marked neck. Also found in this cluster was a riveted lug handle and many body sherds with this same surface treatment.

But is this simply a case of trashing an old pot or something more? Given our working hypothesis that the enclosure served a non-domestic function (community area, dance ground, communal feasting site, etc.), such a deposit may represent the ceremonial disposal of a pot used in a ritual context. Ritual disposal of this kind appears to have been the case at another Early Woodland enclosure, the Adena culture Dominion Land Company site in Columbus, Ohio. Here, numerous Early Woodland vessels were disposed of in pits found beneath the circular ditch that enclosed two burial mounds. Very little pottery was found outside these particular contexts. It is thought that these vessels were used during mortuary feasts inside the earthwork and then deliberately buried beneath the ditch. "Food for thought" when we examine the Heckleman pottery deposit in the lab this off-season.

Deep Post and A Tight Squeeze

2011-06-22T20:20:00.013-04:00

One of the most perplexing features this season has been Feature 11-03. This feature was recognized last week in unit 502N 503E as a faint gray-brown stain with rather diffuse margins. Early stages of excavation indicated that it was a shallow midden stain, since the most evident staining extended only a few centimeters into the subsoil. The discovery of the bladelet fragment (see earlier post) gave us hope of something significant here, and further excavation revealed, not a midden layer, but rather a medium-sized pit feature. As the cross-section continued to increasingly greater depths, we realized that this was not a pit but a deep post mold. A large, cordmarked pot sherd was found in the fill about halfway down, but the feature kept getting deeper and deeper.

At 100 cm bd the fill changed abruptly to a consolidated mass of sand, gravel, and charcoal fragments unlike anything I had seen before in a post mold. As I picked away at this sediment cast (shown below), I found a few pieces of FCR and a thick plain-surfaced pot sherd. I continued to remove the cast down to 120 cm bd and found another thick sherd.

By now, there was barely room for me to fit in the excavation pit. (I needed to step into this hole myself once I lost Allison, who fit nicely in the confined space and didn't mind bending over for long periods of time.) Anyway, I had had enough and used the 1-inch soil corer to see how much of this post molds was left. To my surprise, the core revealed another 23 cm of cemented fill! I decided to take the rest of the fill out with the "long-handled trowel" (you veterans know what I mean).

So what is this thing? It looks like another large post of the kind discovered in two "post pits" last season. Unlike these features, this year's version is located outside the oval enclosure ditch; however, its pottery contents places within the Early Woodland period and likely close in time to the use of this enclosure. And what of the weird sediment cast? Can't yet say, but stay tuned.

A Ghost from the Past

2011-06-18T16:10:00.005-04:00

Back at the beginning of our 2009 season, I believe I mentioned that this site had been excavated before by Kent State University summer field schools in the late '60s and early '70s. I may also have commented that we don't know exactly where on this farm the group worked, since no field notes are available. This week we encountered the remains of what I believe is a back-filled excavation unit from that not-so-distant time.

As we removed the plow zone soils from unit 502N 503E, we noticed a dark area of staining in the southern half of the unit. What was unusual is that this stain had one straight edge--something very unlikely for a truly ancient prehistoric feature in northern Ohio. As we cleared and troweled the floor, what appeared to be the corner of an excavation unit materialized. In the image below, you can see this corner in the upper left (northwest) portion of our excavation square. Covering it are several large, amorphous soil stains, which we now know to be back-filled feature excavations. The soils here are very soft and wet, just as would be expected from re-filling a hole with plow zone soils.

In the southwest corner of our unit, we removed the dark soil and found two small features which had only been partially excavated during the earlier project. You might say that we are doing archaeology of archaeologists from the late 1960's--real groovy man!

Digging the Oval Ditch, Again

2011-06-18T15:47:00.011-04:00

Late this week, work began on the cross-section of Feature 11-01, the oval enclosure ditch. The southwest half of the feature was subdivided into four sections for better control of artifact provenience and to track stratigraphy. As layers of fill were removed, the soil darkened, making it much easier to distinguish the ditch from the subsoil matrix.

Like the other sections of this ditch we have tested, the contents includes moderate amounts of FCR, flint flakes, and pottery sherds. Marcia R. uncovered a relatively large sherd of an Early Woodland, Leimbach cordmarked vessel of the kind dated to 350 BC in 2009. In the image below, the sherd looks rather eroded, as does most of the pottery found in the ditch. So, how well would you preserve after 2,300 years underground?

Post Molds and the Nearly Invisible Ditch

2011-06-15T20:04:00.010-04:00

Three days into the 2011 field season has brought new discoveries and some puzzles. Our expectations of tracing the possible stockade line from last season were realized when Brian S.'s crew exposed a nice extension of that line at 505N 503E. Several of the sectioned posts are shown below. It appears the line heads southwestward to parts unknown. I don't think we will try to chase it any farther this year, but we should see a few more meters exposed on the other end.

Very unexpected is the remnant of the oval enclosure trench we exposed in unit 495N 512E. This part of the ditch showed up vividly on the magnetic survey map, but is nearly invisible on the floor of the unit. Can you see it in the image below? It is there!...I think.

This apparent invisibility may have to do with the low organic content of the fill; however, the distinct magnetic signature promises that burned rocks, pottery, or something else of interest lies beneath the surface. Late this afternoon MaryLou's crew began the cross-section of this nearly four meter long feature. We will see.

Finally, our primo artifact find of the day was a Flint Ridge bladelet fragment found by Catie the Intern. It caused quite a stir, since just about everybody else was digging post molds, which usually contain no artifacts. By that's enough excitement for one day.

2011 Season Begins on a Cool June Day

2011-06-13T21:09:00.011-04:00

Today we got underway, and the weather was terrific. We held our usual orientation session for new participants and then began removing the remaining plow zone soils on the southern

bulldozer transect at 502N 503E and a 3x3 meter unit over the oval enclosure ditch at 495N 512E. All soils were screened and relatively large quantities of flint flakes were found in all units.

One possible bladelet fragment was found, as well as a triangular point. Only one pot sherd was recovered. By day's end, we began to expose subsoil in all units, so tomorrow we should be able to define some features and post molds.

Getting Ready for Third Season at Heckleman

2011-06-09T15:56:00.009-04:00

Tomorrow morning we will begin stripping plow zone deposits in preparation for our third season of excavation at the Heckleman site. Our plan is to expand our block area from last season to the north and to the south. This will allow us to ground-truth (excavate) additional magnetic anomalies (pit features) and continue to examine the oval enclosure ditch. We also have two possible stockade lines to trace and a possible house pattern, both of which were discovered last season. So stay tuned!

"Featherstone" from the Wash Tray

2010-09-24T14:57:00.008-04:00

Most of our artifacts are discovered in the field, but on rare occasions they turn up in the lab. This was the case with an engraved siltstone pepble found this past summer at the Heckleman site. What appeared to be just a rock in the field, turned out to be a finely-engraved siltstone pebble, but it was only recognized once it had been washed. It measures about 5.5 cm in length and came from Feature 10-30, a large cooking pit that contained abundant charcoal in a matrix of greasy black soil. Not much else was found in the pit other than FCR, but luckily we kept this inconspicuous stone. Once washed, it revealed an intricate engraving of what look like turkey or hawk features, arrayed in a fan-like pattern.
Engraved stones are rather uncommon, and we do not understand why they were made or how were they used. Over the years, fragments of slate celts or pendants have been unearthed on Late Prehistoric period village sites in northern Ohio. Some of these bear depictions of birds or human faces and cross-hatched lines which somewhat resemble Mississippian iconography more common in the southeastern United States. But to my knowledge, the depiction of bird feathers on the Heckleman "featherstone" is unique. I liked this design so much, I had it put on our annual field school T-shirt. So, the lesson is, keep your eyes open in the field AND in the lab.

Fine Pottery from an Ordinary Pit

2010-07-20T20:28:00.009-04:00

Over the course of our five week field season, we have found pottery of varying quality. In general, the Early Woodland ceramics from the region are the most coarsely made, as exemplified by the Leimbach series pottery recovered from the oval enclosure ditch and several pits. The net-impressed sherd discussed in an earlier post is a notable exception to this general trend. Another surprising discovery is the collection of pot sherds recovered from Feature 10-16, a large, but not very distinctive pit feature found during week four. Unlike most other features, the pottery in Feature 10-16 was concentrated into two clusters. These can be seen near the bottom of the pit in the cross-section image shown below. These sherds were very fragile when uncovered and could not be examined closely in the field. Once I had time to inspect

the sherds, I discovered several fragments of the rim and body sections of a medium-sized vessel. The rim sherds exhibited a surface treatment of very fine cord-impressions oriented vertically to the lip of the pot. These impressions were most likely made by the application of a wooden implement wrapped in some of the finest cordage I have ever seen impressed on a Woodland vessel. This cord-wrapped paddle would have been applied when the pot was still wet, prior to firing. The closeup of a rim and neck segment shown below reveals the great expertise of the Native American potter who made this fine vessel. If you look closely, you will note that the parallel cord impressions change orientation on the lower neck (just left of the nickel) from

vertical to horizontal. This is a rather common convention on Middle and early Late Woodland pottery of the region. Also found in this pit was a Flint Ridge bladelet fragment which suggests that this vessel was made during the Middle Woodland period, although we cannot be sure unless we run a radiocarbon date on charcoal from the pit. We have additional fragments of this pot now being cleaned in the lab. Hopefully we will be able to reconstruct enough of this vessel to reveal the overall shape and size of the pot and thereby determine is function and period of origin.

Following the Stockade

2010-07-18T16:43:00.008-04:00

During our last two weeks of the 2010 field season at the Heckleman site, we had several tasks to complete. One of the most important of these was one last ditch effort (no pun intended) to trace the stockade lines eastward. You will remember from earlier posts that in Week 1 we uncovered two distinct lines of large post molds, which I interpret as stockade posts. In the map below, both lines are clearly visible running obliquely across the western end of our excavation.

The inner or east line was traced for about 12 meters to the northeast, at which point it crossed the fill of the oval enclosure ditch (Feature 09-18, shaded in gray above). A much shorter section of the outer or west line was exposed. In the image below both lines are marked by orange survey flags and indicated by arrows; green arrows show the western line, white the east line, and the location of Feature 10-02 is indicated by the red arrow (my most colorful image yet!).

We cross-sectioned short sections of posts in each stockade line, and they proved to be rather large and deeply set. The posts of the east line (shown below) are slightly larger than the west line and range from 7 to 10 cm in diameter and extend from 23 cm to 40 cm below datum.

To trace the east line even farther, I decided to excavate a one by ten meter test trench running northward from the 520N, 520E stake. We had some assistance in this task from students and CMNH Education Division staff as part of a two-day class in Archaeology. These young folks and their instructors: Mark, Nancy, and Char, shovel-shaved some of the hardest, driest, and dustiest plow zone soil we have encountered all year from this trench and made our job much easier (see image below). In the process they found a good quantity of chert flakes and other debitage, FCR, and even one triangular point, which probably dates to around AD 1400.

The point of this trench-digging was to intersect one or both of the stockade lines as they made their way to the northeast. Despite our best efforts, we could not confirm the presence of either stockade line within the trench, although we did exposed several scattered posts and two pit features. One of these small pit features contained a bladelet fragment and a plain-surfaced pot sherd, both are indicative of the Middle Woodland occupation of the Heckleman site. The other pit contained nothing. I should note that it is difficult to identify even a distinct line of post molds in a one-meter wide trench, but I gave it a shot. But this will give us something to shoot for again next season.

Big Fires and Little Fires

2010-07-11T19:07:00.013-04:00

During the very hot and steamy Week 5, we investigated several pit features which showed evidence of burning. As you can easily imagine, native peoples of Ohio used fire in numerous ways. Perhaps the most common was the simple hearth, what most of us today would call a campfire. Most hearth features appear as thin layers of burned soil, charcoal and ash. The small hearth found in the pit house last year is a very well-preserved example. More frequently, though, these shallow hearth features are destroyed by plowing long before any archaeological work is done. We have now uncovered three different kinds of pit features which once contained fires. The smallest is Feature 10-23, a shallow, flat-bottomed basin that contained heavily charcoal-laden fill and burned siltstone fragments. This small pit (shown below) is reminiscent of the smudge pits we found in abundance at the Burrell Orchard site back in 2008. As their name indicates, these specialized features were used to smoke deer hides.

A functionally different kind of thermal feature is Feature 10-30, a large but shallow pit that contained dark soil and FCR. As the image below reveals, this feature consisted of an upper layer containing gray-colored ash above an inky black layer of carbon-rich soil. Traces of

fire-reddened sediment could be seen along the margins, which tells us that a fire had been made in this pit. Just a few cordmarked body sherds and one rim were found in the fill, but the more noteworthy aspect of this pit was the greasy feel of the soil. It stuck to the trowels and brushes used for excavation, as well as to the hands and clothes of the excavators. A really sticky mess! My guess is that that slick soil may actually contain the residue of animal fats derived from the cooking of meat in or over this fire pit. A prehistoric Woodland barbecue, perhaps.

Feature 10-21 turned out to be the biggest and most visually spectacular fire pit found so far. This large, ovoid feature was shaped like a bathtub, as seen in the cross-section image below, and showed vivid red oxidation on its sides caused by a very hot fire. Beneath the layers of fill

was a layer of carbonized logs that undoubtedly represent the fuel for the fire. The closeup image below shows that the grain of the wood is still visible in the charred remains.

Further excavation exposed large patches of red soil along the walls, again indicating the intense heat of the blaze (see image below). Unfortunately, very little cultural material was

recovered from the fill. Strangely, no bone or other food remains were found, which may mean that cooking was not the function of this firepit. Possibly the fire was kindled for some kind of ceremony or ritual display. In addition, a second, probably intrusive pit, Feature 10-32, was identified at the west end of the large firepit. The cross-section image shown below reveals that this too is another thermal feature, but much smaller. Feature 10-32 contained several pieces of Woodland pottery, FCR, and a basal layer of burned soil. It appears that this small hearth was constructed after the large firepit was filled in.

So is this co-occurrence of fire pits simply a coincidence? This is surely a possibility at such a heavily used site; however, I don't suspect it is. Instead, I think these features share a location within the oval enclosure that has some particular significance, perhaps they both existed within a structure or at a spot where certain ceremonies or feasting events took place. The proximity of the large post (Feature 10-13), just two meters to the southwest, may also mark this location as somehow important to the Woodland inhabitants of the site.

Overlapping Pits, Points, and Pottery

2010-07-06T21:16:00.005-04:00

In an earlier post, I described the large magnetic anomaly in unit 508N 515E and the cluster of overlapping pits that made up its source. One of these pits, Feature 10-14, contained diagnostic Middle Woodland artifacts such as the base of a Snyders point--a distinctive, corner-notched projectile point made of Flint Ridge chert--,and a Flint Ridge bladelet, the small flint cutting tool that is a hallmark of Ohio Hopewell. Such artifacts typically date to the first few centuries A.D. Careful excavation revealed that Feature 10-14 intruded into Feature 10-20, a pit of similar form but considerably older. Artifacts of clearly Early Woodland affiliation were recovered from Feature 10-20, including rather thick, coarsely cordmarked pottery and a small, stemmed projectile point. The image below shows one of these thick sherds with overlapping cordmarks on its exterior and characteristic coil break on the upper edge.

This early form of pottery was made by building up coils of clay paste one on top of the other. Upon breaking, the sherds often separate along the joins between the coils. Such coil "breaks" are telltale markers of Early Woodland pottery in northern Ohio. The projectile point, shown below, is missing its tip but is still a good Early Woodland diagnostic. The juxtaposition of two pits of such significantly different ages would seem to be an unlikely occurrence but is in fact not uncommon on such an intensively occupied site as Heckleman.

A Pit and a Post

2010-07-04T16:33:00.006-04:00

Happy Independence Day!

Last week we completed the excavation of Feature 10-13. You will remember from my last post that this is one of the features that was clearly detected by the magnetic survey. As expected, it did contain a significant amount of FCR but also quite a bit of rather thick, cordmarked pottery. I suspected that these sherds belonged to the Early Woodland occupation of the site, since they did resemble much of the pottery taken from the oval enclosure ditch this season and last season. This cultural assignment was confirmed when Eric discovered a complete, contracting stemmed projectile point at the very bottom of the feature. The point and a representative pot sherd are shown below. The point is typical of the Early Woodland Leimbach point type found in this area of

northern Ohio or more generally like a thick version of the Adena Stemmed type of the middle Ohio Valley. This is a good diagnostic artifact and appears to place Feature 10-13 with the Early Woodland folks at Heckleman. What is even more interesting is the fact that this point, and several more pottery sherds like the one pictured, were found in a pocket of dark soil that appeared to extend below the base of the basin-shaped pit feature. In profile, this zone looked like a large post mold. Once the feature was completely removed and we could examine the actual shape of the pit, as shown in the image below, the large post hole was evident.

Since no remains of the wooden post were found, it must have been removed in antiquity. The large pit above the post hole may have been dug to remove the large post and afterword it was filled with refuse. Note the asymmetrical shape of the post hole in the image above. One margin inclines gradually to the northeast. Perhaps the hole was dug this way to facilitate the erection of the heavy post or perhaps the side wall of the post hole was damaged during the removal of the post. In either case, it appears that Feature 10-13 was the place where a large wooden post was erected and then taken down during the Early Woodland period. Such an event would be expected within a enclosure like our oval ditch feature. Large, isolated posts were often used to mark some significant point on the landscape, possibly for making astronomical alignments, or commemorating a significant event or personage. We really don't know. This discovery does not prove that the oval enclosure functioned as a ceremonial or ritual construction, but it does give us something to think about as we continue to explore this amazing site.

The Joys of Ground-Truthing

2010-06-29T19:00:00.011-04:00

In past posts I have noted the importance that geophysical survey has played in our project. From the initial magnetic survey carried out in 2008 to our efforts to "ground-truth" the results by excavating where significant magnetic anomalies have been recorded, magnetic gradient survey has proven its value many times over. Its most spectacular success was the detection of the pit house, Feature 09-04, last season, but this year's work reveals how truly sensitive the instrument is, and, of course, the great proficiency of its operator and data-cruncher, Jarrod Burks.

In this post, I provide some of the results of our ground-truthing for a quite busy section of our current excavation area. The image below is a closeup view of the magnetic survey map for the western section of our bulldozer transect. The dark anomalies with feature numbers are those that mark prehistoric features. Note that every significant anomaly turned out to be a feature! No duds in the bunch. Pretty darn good and a great help to our efforts.

Probably the most indistinct feature is 09-18, a section of the oval enclosure ditch. It contained little of the oxidized soils, pottery, or fire-cracked rock that make for a strong anomaly. And it wasn't very easy to see when we dug into it! Feature 09-14 was a large but very thin lens of midden soil, charcoal and patches of burned earth. Still, the two small decorated pot sherds it contained proved very useful for placing its origin in the Late Prehistoric period. In contrast, Feature 09-26 was a large and deeper pit that contained nothing but charcoal, FCR, and a few flakes--very uninformative by comparison. Feature 09-34, shown below, was small but magnetically powerful since it was filled with fire-cracked rock.

Feature 10-13 was just opened today. It appeared as a rather indistinct, gray-brown feature stain in plan. Excavation of one half revealed a healthy amount of FCR, pottery, and charcoal-laden soil. A respectable amount of magnetic stuff but seemingly not that different from other features we have found that did not show up on the mag map. But we still have the other half to dig, so we will see.

Finally, there is what I have been calling "the big blob," a very large, somewhat irregular mag. anomaly, the north half of which lies within our transect. Now I suspected that this was more than one feature, but upon excavation it proved to be very complex. What we found were at least three overlapping pit features with some dark soil zones between them. We have spent the last several work days carving these features up in such a way as to sort them out. We are still

at it, but at least one we now know dates to the Middle Woodland period. I will have more to report on these interesting features later, but for now they reveal how complex the relationship is between the archaeological record and our high-tech methods of reading it.

Soggy Site

2010-06-27T09:01:00.006-04:00

A series of thunderstorms from Wednesday to Thursday dumped over an inch of rain on our beloved site. We were forced to 'bug-out' on Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 pm as an impressive thunderstorm approached us rapidly from the northwest. We were so busy packing up equipment and taking down our canopies that we didn't even feel the minor earthquake that came through about that time--what a dedicated crew!

We spent part of Thursday morning bailing water out of the units. This is a vital task that must be learned by all budding archaeologists; the trick is to get as little water on yourself as possible and to avoid slipping on the slick plastic tarps.

The upside of all this is that, because all but one of our currently open units were much too wet to excavate, we were forced to open up two new 3 x 3 meter units eastward along the transect. The wet remnants of the plow zone soil shoveled off rather easily and the weather was cool. Soon the subsoil was reached, and we were met with a wealth of possible post molds and some very interesting-looking feature stains (note some of the dark stains in the image above). One unit, 508N 515E came down on several distinct pit features that had shown up as half of a huge magnetic anomaly during the geophysical survey--mag anomaly no. 79 for those of you keeping score. More on this and other new discoveries later. A muddy time was had by all.

Following the Stockade Line

2010-06-26T11:28:00.003-04:00

Last Monday, we opened another 3 x 3 meter unit, but unlike the others, this unit was placed just to the north of our bulldozer transect at 514N 509E. This spatial deviation was designed to expose more of the eastern stockade line discovered last week. As expected, more of the distinct line of post molds were seen clearly on the floor of the unit and the line continued to the northeast. This particular segment of the line told us even more since it clearly ran across Feature 09-18, the filled ditch of the oval enclosure which was also exposed in this unit. Thus, we now know that the stockade line was erected after about 300 B.C., which is our current date for the filling of the enclosure ditch. How many years after is still uncertain.

The image below shows unit 514N 509E with the stockade post molds marked by red flagging tape. The line runs directly southwest (toward the corner where Jim and Debbie--with the fancy knee pads--are standing). You will notice that the line runs through an oval feature stain that is

partially excavated. This is Feature 10-11, a shallow pit or lens of dark soil that contained FCR and a few pot sherds. Interestingly, the post mold line disappeared at this feature, but upon excavation, the two missing post molds were exposed. As the image below shows, the post molds were 'hidden' under the pit (one is indicated by the arrow), which means that this small feature was constructed after the eastern stockade line came down. Unlike Feature 10-02, which also interrupted the post line, we recovered no good diagnostic artifacts from Feature 10-11 which could give us some chronological information. We will not chase this stockade line farther for the time being; we have much still to do in our main transect.

Beaver for Dinner?

2010-06-22T22:23:00.006-04:00

So far this season animal bones are scarce and, when we do find them, poorly preserved. A few bits of deer bone and teeth have turned up along with the occasional fish bone. One interesting bone did turn up late last week as we excavated Feature 09-33, a small pit feature left over from last season's dig. It contained a relatively rich assortment of artifacts including a Madison triangular point and several pottery sherds that I believe belong to a Late Prehistoric period vessel, possibly Mixter Dentate. One oddly-shaped bone that was found amid the cluster of pot sherds was the femur (thigh bone) of a beaver (do beavers have 'thighs'?). The image below shows the beaver bone (about 9 cm long) among several pot sherds (the one in the upper left corner is decorated).

In my many years working in northern Ohio archaeology, I have run across numerous fragments of beaver incisors (front teeth which made good chiseling tools) but rarely post-cranial elements from this animal. To find one complete femur among pot sherds and other debris seems odd to me, but I am at a loss to explain it other than as a random bit of food remains. The bone is poorly preserved, but I think we can reconstruct it in the lab to see if it was indeed from an animal that was cooked for a meal. Beaver for dinner may have been tasty!

More Pottery from the Oval Enclosure Ditch

2010-06-20T18:15:00.004-04:00

As we moved eastward with our 3 x 3 meter excavation units, we once again encountered the oval enclosure ditch (Feature 09-18). As before, it appeared as a 1.5 to 2.0 meter wide, north-south oriented soil stain running along the eastern wall of unit 508N 506E. In the image below, you can see the enclosure ditch as a darker brown stain on the right (east) side of the unit. The horizontal dark streaks are plow scars and the pretty s-shaped curvy stain is a rodent burrow. The round spot at the west end of the curve is actually a small basin called Feature 10-01. Feature 10-02, described in the last post, can be seen in the upper left (northwest) corner of the image.

As this image shows, the fill of the oval enclosure ditch is relatively light in color, compared to other sections of the ditch. It contains a low density of artifacts with pottery being the most significant class of artifact found so far. One interesting rim sherd found this past week is from a grit-tempered, fabric impressed vessel. The rim measures about 6.0 cm wide and was found at 26 cm below datum. In the closeup shown below, the impression of an open weave, net-like fabric can be seen on the exterior surface. This impression could have been made by a net bag used for collecting plant material; its openings appear too small for it to have been used as a fishing net.

Fabric marked pottery such as this is less common in Early Woodland assemblages from northern Ohio than it is in the Ohio Valley and to the south. Still, there is no reason to think that this vessel was particularly unusual or maybe imported from parts south. It does point out the interesting range of variability in Early Woodland ceramic wares that were manufactured and used by the native peoples of northern Ohio.

A Western Stockade?

2010-06-20T15:58:00.005-04:00

During our first week of the 2010 season, we made several interesting, and potentially very important, discoveries. The most revealing was the exposure of two parallel lines of what appear to be stockade posts situated just to the west of the oval enclosure. One of our objectives for this season was to look for any post structures that might have been associated with the oval ditch. Numerous Early Woodland enclosures in the Ohio Valley and elsewhere commonly consisted of a ditch and earthen wall embankment. Sometimes, an embankment was surmounted by a wooden post fence or screen which left behind one or more arcs of post molds. Strangely, the post mold lines we encountered on Monday appeared to run straight and at a northeast-southwest orientation. The two post lines are spaced at three meters apart, too close to represent house walls, and do not appear to be associated with the oval enclosure. The eastern line was most clear, and a section of it is shown in the image below. Selected post molds are indicated by the arrows.

As it turns out, this eastern line corresponds with a short section of very similar posts which were recorded last season in our most northwestern unit of the oval enclosure excavation. Exposure of more post molds on Tuesday filled the gap between these two segments to reveal a six meter-long line of posts. Near the center of this line, we discovered an oval pit (Feature 10-02) which contained one Madison triangular point and a Mixter Festooned type rim sherd (shown below).

Both these artifacts are indicative of the Late Prehistoric period and most likely date to around A.D. 1350. Excavation of this pit revealed no additional post molds from the eastern line, which indicates that this pit intruded into the already present post line and, thus, post-dates it. The precise time gap between the building of the line of posts and the digging of Feature 10-02 is unknown; however, it is certain that the posts themselves would have already been removed when the pit was constructed. When this occurred, we can't yet say. In any case, this discovery provides evidence of a wooden post enclosure that appears to be independent in time from the oval enclosure. Could this be a defensive enclosure for a later village occupation? More on this in a later post.

2010 Season Underway

2010-06-16T21:05:00.007-04:00

On Monday, we began the 2010 field season in earnest by stripping a six meter wide by forty-five meter long transect across the location of the oval enclosure. We hired a local bulldozer operator to carefully strip the upper 15 to 20 cm of plow zone sediments across this transect in order to more efficiently look for features related to the enclosure.

Our plan is to shovel-shave the remaining plow zone deposits to expose the underlying subsoil, then search for features. Immediately after stripping, we covered the transect with sheet plastic to prevent the soil from drying out over the next few weeks.

Once the plow zone was completely removed, two three-meter by three-meter excavation units were laid out side by side at the west end of the transect. The floors of each excavation square were carefully troweled flat to reveal any organic feature stains.

Our first discovery was a clear line of post molds which ran in an oblique line across the eastern half of unit 508N 503E. This line could represent the wall of a structure or perhaps a stockade line. We were even more surprised to find a second line of post molds, running parallel to the first, in unit 511N 503 east. The image below shows the eastern line. More about these post lines later. Not a bad start for Week 1!

New Dates on Heckleman Features

2010-06-13T22:06:00.010-04:00

Over the winter, we submitted five organic samples from the 2009 excavations at Heckleman for radiocarbon dating. Each sample was selected from features that were thought to date to different occupations of the site, and this proved to be the case, for the most part. We were particularly interested in the age of the oval enclosure trench. Based on the rather thick, flat-bottomed vessel fragment and one knob handle that were found during excavation, we concluded that the trench was filled sometime during the Early Woodland period. A fragment of deer bone from this trench (Feature 09-10) returned a calibrated median date of 195 B.C., which is right on the mark. We also dated some deer bone from the nearby Feature 09-20, which contained similar forms of pottery and also a bladelet, and the result was nearly the same at 185 B.C.

I also was very interested in getting a date on Feature 09-19 which intruded into the fill of the enclosure trench. We dated a fragment of deer astragalus or ankle bone from this pit to 110 B.C., not terribly later than the other features but perhaps a generation or two later. So, based on this information, we have a good general sequence of events which began with the digging of the enclosure trench by about 200 B.C.—but who knows how much earlier—followed by a rather quick filling of the trench with debris (pottery sherds, a few used-up stone tools, a bit of animal bone, charcoal, and fire-cracked rock). The fill of the pit showed two to three distinct fill layers or strata which indicates that the filling took place in several episodes. Once the trench was filled, the folks that followed used the space for the construction of storage pits and other features. Perhaps this sequence reflects the use and then abandonment of the enclosure by Early Woodland people, but as yet, we still don’t know what the enclosure was used for or even when it was constructed.

The fourth radiocarbon date was run on a sample of charcoal from Feature 09-31, a small basin-shaped pit found inside the enclosure during the last week of the 2009 season. This is the pit that contained the fragmented siltstone gorget (see earlier post). The thick charcoal layer from which the dated sample was taken can be seen in the profile image shown below.

To my mild surprise, the median calibrated date on this sample was A.D. 525, significantly later than the Early Woodland occupation. This date marks the transition from Middle to Late Woodland societies in the region and shows that the former enclosure space was reused by much later inhabitants. The pit itself showed evidence of burning and, perhaps, use as a cooking pit. Numerous large and small post molds were recorded in the vicinity of this pit, which may indicate the presence of a structure; however, we cannot say at this time.

Finally, we dated the pit structure (Feature 09-04) using a carbonized hickory nut hull from a small concentration found near the floor of the house. The result was about what we expected, dating the structure to a mean calibrated date of A.D. 1535. The thin, well-made, grit-tempered pottery found in the fill of this structure, along with the Madison triangular points, could easily date to this era, the latter half of the Late Prehistoric period in northern Ohio. This final date most likely provides evidence of the last occupation of the Heckleman site, since no other sites in the Huron Valley date any later in time.

One Final Discovery

2009-07-15T13:17:00.007-04:00

Last Friday, we completed our field season at the Heckleman site and closed our excavations. Our landowner was kind enough to backfill most of our units with his tractor and blade as shown below.

During this last week, we did make one interesting discovery. We excavated a portion of a pit feature in one of the 3 x 3 meter units opened a few days earlier. I was hoping that this pit feature was like several of the others we had encountered nearby which were rather shallow. We did not want to get bogged down in a deep feature that would require us to complete the work in the following week.

Luckily this pit (Feature 09-31) was also rather shallow, but unlike its neighbors, it contained a lot of cultural material that included much FCR, a large slate core, burned bone, and abundant charcoal. Most surprising though was the discovery of a siltstone gorget (ornament?) that was broken into three pieces. As shown below, the gorget fragments were easily reassembled.

It is made from a reddish siltstone with two small holes that were drilled from both faces. The maker of this artifact may have cracked it during the drilling of these holes, or the gorget could have been deliberately broken prior to being deposited in the pit feature. In any case, these enigmatic artifacts are typical of the Early to Late Woodland periods in northern Ohio; however the asymmetrical form of this piece is unusual. Perhaps it was meant to resemble or symbolize the triangular preforms or 'cache blades' found in Woodland burial features or ceremonial deposits.

The following image compares the Heckleman gorget with a cache blade from the Middle Woodland Pumpkin site on Sandusky Bay. Hopewell societies occasionally produced effigies of bear canines and other artifacts out of stone or bone, so perhaps my explanation is possible.

See the Plain Dealer article and video report on our project!

Moving Inside the Enclosure

2009-07-11T11:15:00.007-04:00

Early in Week Five we were fortunate to have the assistance of the Museum's Future Scientists under the direction of Dr. Jeff Day and supervisors Lin and Frank. Not one to miss such an opportunity, I set them to work excavating two three by three meter units to the east of the enclosure trench. These young men and women did an excellent job removing 30 cm of plow zone soils using rounded shovel, flat shovels, hoes, and finally trowels. On the way down they discovered lots of stone tool debris, fire-cracked rock, and a few artifacts such as a Late Prehistoric period triangular (Madison type) arrow point and a corner-notched (Middle Woodland) dart tip. Here they are in their freshly-dug units.

As a result of their efforts, we were able to examine an 18-square meter area of the enclosure interior. This was our first foray 'inside', and we did not know what we would find. When we did the final troweling and sweeping of the unit floors the next day, we identified several dark feature stains and numerous post molds. In the western unit (shown below) we defined a large oval stain that appears to have been the source of yet another magnetic anomaly.

Upon excavation of this feature (09-26), we found a shallow pit containing a large quantity of charcoal and FCR, just the stuff to produce a strong magnetic signal. Unfortunately, no diagnostic pottery or stone tools were found, but this feature still provides important 'ground-truth' data on the magnetic signatures of prehistoric features at the site.

Intrusive Features and the Enclosure

2009-07-11T10:50:00.005-04:00

During weeks four and five, another two meter-long section of the enclosure trench (Fea. 09-10) was completely excavated. This section is located just northwest of the first trench section that produced the distinctive Leimbach series ceramics. This neighboring bit of trench turned out to be very similar in terms of its contents and stratigraphy, with one important exception. As shown in the section view below, the trench contained alternating layers or light and dark soil which represent episodes of filling.

The large hole in this profile was made by an intrusive pit feature that contained thin, finely cordmarked pottery of the Esch Cordmarked variety. We believe these ceramics are associated with the Middle Woodland occupation of the site due to their resemblance to pottery from the Esch Mounds, formerly located about four miles downriver. We found similar sherds during weeks one and two associated with bladelets, our best Middle Woodland diagnostic.

At the bottom of the trench, we found a cluster of thick, cordmarked sherds of the Leimbach series. As seen in the following image, they represent a large section of a vessel. One base sherd was rounded, unlike the flat-bottomed base sherd found next door.

Thus, the 'superpositioning' of these ceramic wares (i.e., Leimbach in the earlier trench and Esch in the later pit feature) nicely illustrates the succession of Woodland period occupations at the site. It also tells us that the enclosure trench was deliberately filled during the Early Woodland time period and not by later Middle Woodland arrivals, as is apparently the case with the large parallel ditches to the west. What this says about the function of the enclosure is still not clear.

Early Woodland Pottery from the Enclosure

2009-07-05T19:59:00.005-04:00

By the close of week four, we had excavated a total of six meters of the enclosure trench. In each section, ceramics similar to Early Woodland Leimbach Cordmarked forms were found. These relatively thick, grit-tempered sherds with somewhat coarse cordmarking were found at all levels of the feature. The sherd shown below illustrates the flat-bottomed, "flower pot" shape typical of many Leimbach vessels.

Near the bottom of the trench we found a large body sherd (shown below) with a distinctive knob handle, also typical of Leimbach wares.

At the nearby Seaman's Fort site, similar sherds have been found in pit features dated between 500 and 100 B.C. Like the Heckleman site, Seaman's Fort was enclosed by two large ditch features but lacked the interior oval enclosure that we are now investigating.

Rare Artifacts From the Pit House

2009-06-29T17:38:00.007-04:00

As work continued last week on the excavation of the pit structure (Fea. 09-04), some very interesting artifacts turned up. Near the floor level an area of carbonized plant material resembling bark was exposed. We were even more surprised when some of the fragments were removed to reveal two interesting objects laying side by side. One artifact is a well-made awl or perforating tool made from the scapula (shoulder blade) of a deer. As the image below shows, this tool is drilled at one end, possibly for the attachment of a cord. The other specimen is a piece of shell that has been fashioned to look like a bear claw. This artifact was decorated with three tiny punctates on both sides and perforated, most likely for attachment to clothing or to be worn as a pendant.

The discovery of these objects on the floor of the pit structure may indicate that they were lost by the inhabitants; however this seems unlikely. Instead, I think that they may have been deliberately left behind when the house was abandoned, perhaps as a spirit offering. Whatever the explanation, it is very exciting to discover artifacts that may very well have belonged to the people who lived in this pit house at least 600 years ago.

Digging the Enclosure Trench

2009-06-28T11:13:00.007-04:00

In week three, we succeeded in exposing a small section of the trench that makes up the oval enclosure. This enclosure was identified in the magnetic survey and is tucked up into the northeastern corner of the site. The trench (Fea. 09-10) is about one meter wide, a little less than one meter deep, and is bordered by lines of post molds. The fill is clearly stratified with light and dark soil horizons as shown below.

In earlier posts, I explained our (mostly my) assumption that this enclosure represents the stockade line of a Late Prehistoric period village site. This was based on the oval shape which resembles a number of village sites in this region. So early this past week, we began to carefully cross-section Fea. 09-10 and recover its contents, all the while assuming that we would find late pottery types such as Parker Festooned, the type of pottery found in Feature 09-04, the pit house described in my last post. Of course, things don't always work out that nicely in archaeology.

As Mary Lou's fine crew carefully removed layer after layer of the ditch fill, they uncovered numerous rather thick, grit-tempered, cordmarked pot sherds which did not resemble the much thinner and well-made pottery of the Late Prehistoric period. The pottery they were finding more closely resembles Leimbach Cordmarked ceramics of the Early Woodland period. One large body sherd (shown below) has the distinctive flat bottom and curvilinear application of cordmarks that is typical of the Leimbach series. So far, we have found no Late Prehistoric

period ceramics or triangular points. We have exposed two other sections of this trench and will excavate their contents to see if this feature is truly older than we think. If so, then this enclosure is something much different than anything we have encountered before. But I won't get ahead of myself; we will wait to see what turns up this week. So stay tuned.

From Trash Pit to Pit House

2009-06-21T20:50:00.007-04:00

In my last post, I described the discovery of Feature 09-04, a large concentration of charcoal and ash that produced a distinct magnetic signature. Upon excavation, this feature produced rather large quantities of artifacts and food remains such as animal bones. But late this past week, we realized that this feature is not just an over-sized garbage dump, but something else entirely. As we quarter-sectioned this big stain, we identified a concentration of ash deposits and burned soil near the center, a classic hearth feature. Then, at the outside edge of the feature stain, we discovered a ring of regularly-spaced post molds which most likely represent a superstructure of some kind.

Now, why would the prehistoric inhabitants of this site construct a roof over their trash pit? Of course they would not, but they would build a roof over a dwelling. Based on these clues, we concluded that Feature 09-04 is a pit house, a small structure used by just a few people.

Similar pit houses have been found at Late Woodland sites in Illinois and Pennsylvania. Our own excavations at the White Fort site in 2002, exposed six such structures. All have the distinctive "key-hole" plan form which consists of a round to oval basin with an elongated entryway. The image of Feature 09-04 below shows this characteristic form.

The quarter section profiles reveal a rather complex stratigraphy in the fill of this pit. As shown in the image below, most of the fill consists of lenses of trash deposits and sandy soil which were dumped into the pit after the dwelling was abandoned. Beneath this fill are several thin strata of carbon-rich soil which represent the successive floor levels of the dwelling. A distinct floor layer is indicated by the red arrow in the image below.

The central hearth feature also exhibits distinct layering of ash and burned sand which indicates that successive fires were constructed during each occupation. The distinctive entryway points to the southeast and may have been constructed to prevent large quantities of warm air from escaping the interior. This would have been an important consideration if the dwelling was inhabited during the winter months, a likely conclusion. The few decorated rim sherds recovered from the pit house indicate that it was inhabited during the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries A.D.

Finding the First Features

2009-06-13T18:47:00.009-04:00

As I mentioned in my last post, our shovel-test survey discovered several prehistoric features. Interestingly, two of these features were not identified by the geophysical surveys conducted by Jarrod Burks. That does not mean that Jarrod did a poor survey, it just indicates that not all the features at the site contain material that is sufficiently magnetic to be detected by his instruments.

One of our previously unknown pits is Feature 09-02 which was excavated by Glen Boatman's crew. The cross-section of this feature (shown below) revealed it to be a rather deep pit with several layers of fill. It contained a nice sample of grit-tempered pottery with rather fine cordmarking. Such pottery is called Esch Cordmarked and appears to be the typical ceramic made by the Middle Woodland inhabitants of the site. In some respects, this pottery resembles McGraw Cordmarked which is the most common type of ceramic found on Ohio Hopewell sites in southern Ohio.

In my last post, I mentioned the shovel-test with a projectile point in the wall. Beneath the point, Jim Bower's crew found another apparent Middle Woodland feature (Fea. 09-03). They have just begun the profile of this feature but already have found one complete Flint Ridge bladelet and several sherds of Esch Cordmarked pottery. Once Jim's crew troweled the floor, we noticed a distinct line of post molds running across the feature and into the southeast corner of the unit. This line extended across the dark fill of the feature and showed up clearly in cross-section as shown in the image below. The observation that these post molds penetrate Fea. 09-03 demonstrates that the posts were set sometime after Feature 09-03 was filled. We will try to trace this post line to see if it is part of a structural outline (house?) or perhaps part of a stockade barrier.

In order to test the accuracy of the magnetic survey, we placed a 3m by 3m unit over Anomaly 100 identified by Jarrod Burks. Once the plow zone was removed, a very large pit feature was revealed, as shown below.

We have just begun the cross-sectioning of this pit, called Fea. 09-04, but have already exposed distinct lenses of ash and charcoal as well as bits of fish and mammal bone, flint debitage, and fire-cracked rock. One small pottery rim sherd bears an incised decoration typical of Late Prehistoric period pottery made by the Sandusky Tradition inhabitants of the region. Thus, it seems that this feature relates to the late period village occupation of the site, even though this feature lies outside (to the south) of the oval-shaped enclosure detected in the magnetic survey. We are quite excited about the subsistence evidence and other information that will come from this apparent trash pit.

So, all-in-all, this was a very productive week thanks to the hard work of our field staff and first-week field school crew.

Field School Begins at Heckleman site

2009-06-13T17:55:00.008-04:00

This past Friday, we completed our first week of field school excavations at the Heckleman site. On Monday we began a shovel-test survey of the eastern end of the site within the large enclosure. This type of survey involves the excavation of 50 cm by 50 cm squares along east-west transects. The goal is to sample the contents of the plow zone in order to identify the spatial distribution of artifacts such as pottery, flint debitage, animal bone, fire-cracked rock, and more recent historic material. By end of the day on Tuesday our crew had excavated 16 shovel-tests and recovered good samples of artifacts. The counts of artifacts derived from this survey will be used to construct maps of artifact densities across the site. We are looking for patterns in these distributions which may help identify what activities were carried out by the prehistoric inhabitants and where these took place. In the image below, you can see small groups of students working on shovel-tests along the 490N line.

Below is a close-up view of a shovel-test in progress.

Our testing paid some immediate benefits when we uncovered several possible pit features and post molds. The small shovel-test units at these locations were expanded into larger units to exposed the suspected features and permit their excavation. I will discuss some of these discoveries in subsequent posts. In one excavation we uncovered the base of a Middle Woodland (Lowe cluster) projectile point at the base of the plow zone and just above a feature. The point can be seen in the lower right corner of the profile wall shown below.

Summer Field School at the Heckleman Site

2009-02-13T11:32:00.015-05:00

In the summer of 2009, we will carry out test excavations at the Heckleman site, a prehistoric Native American settlement located on the Huron River near Milan, Ohio. The Heckleman site (33Er14) was first investigated in 1968 by Dr. Orrin Shane of Kent State University. These and subsequent excavations discovered a large prehistoric ditch feature that enclosed a large settlement thought to date to the Early Woodland period (ca. 500 to 100 BC). Shane's crews also found numerous Middle Woodland period (ca. 100 BC to AD 400) stone tools and pottery sherds resembling Ohio Hopewell culture artifacts from southern Ohio.

In 2008, we commissioned a series of geophysical surveys by Dr. Jarrod Burks of Ohio Valley Archaeology, Inc. Jarrod conducted an extensive magnetic survey of the site area using a gradiometer. This device is able to pick up magnetic 'anomalies' in the subsoil, some of which can be prehistoric features. We were delighted when his resulting maps revealed not one but two parallel ditch features extended north to south across the promontory.

Dr. Jarrod Burks conducts the magnetic survey, Brian Scanlan assists in the background.

The magnet survey also identified an oval enclosure to the east of the ditch features which may represent a Late Prehistoric period (ca. A.D. 1200-1600) village site. Additional surveys, which measured subsurface electrical resistivity and magnetic susceptibility (too technical to explain here), were carried out over more limited areas of the site. The resistance readings revealed additional possible prehistoric features and some areas of recent disturbance which may be the traces of Shane's earlier excavations. The magnetic susceptibility survey identified a large area of midden soils which covers most of the area to the east of the parallel ditch features. This tells us that most of the prehistoric activities took place within this large enclosed area.

In the fall of 2008, 'ground-truthing' of the innermost ditch anomaly was conducted by archaeologists from the Firelands Archaeological Research Center in Amherst, Ohio. Excavations revealed a substantial prehistoric ditch that measured nearly two meters wide and a meter deep.

Vertical section of the ditch feature showing light and dark fill layers.

Crew members Michael Niece (left) and Glen Boatman remove samples of the ditch fill for flotation processing.

The team recovered Hopewellian bladelets and projectile points made of Flint Ridge chert as well as Middle Woodland (Esch phase) pottery, butchered animal bones, and charred plant remains. It now appears that the Heckleman site was the location of three large prehistoric occupations which spanned a period of as much as 2000 years.

Expanded-stem Middle Woodland point made of Flint Ridge chert from ditch fill (image by Brian Mickey).

In the summer of 2009, CMNH archaeologists will return to the Heckleman site to systematically test selected areas to identify the various prehistoric occupations and to continue to ground-truth many of the subsurface anomalies and oval enclosure located by the geophysical surveys. For additional information about this summer's project see the Museum's website.

New Botanical Data from Burrell Orchard

2009-02-13T09:48:00.007-05:00

Back in November, I sent eight samples of carbonized plant remains from the summer 2008 excavation out for analysis. These samples were derived from the light fraction residue of flotation processing. Two samples came from the lower (dark) midden stratum (see image below), one from a smudge pit, and five from pit features. The botanical remains were analyzed by Dr. Leslie Bush, an ethnopaleobotanist in Manchaca, Texas.

The results are not very spectacular but informative. As expected, a large proportion of the plant remains (14 g) were fragments of wood charcoal, primarily from white oak, red oak, ash, and hickory. Interestingly, carbonized nutshell was even more common (19 g) than charcoal. The vast majority was hickory, followed by black walnut, and one fragment of acorn. The result was a nutshell to wood (charcoal) ratio of 1.36 which indicates a strong preference for nut resources by the site inhabitants. Early survey records from the French Creek area of Lorain County report that the ridgtops supported forests dominated by oaks and hickories. Thus, it looks like the Late Archaic residents were maximizing their use of these local plant resources.

One surprise was the identification of four carbonized bulb fragments from the wild hyacinth, also known as Atlantic camus (Camassia scilloides). This native plant produces an edible bulb that was harvested by Native Americans in historic times and roasted in earth ovens. All four bulb fragments from Burrell Orchard were found in Feature 08-26, a medium-sized cooking pit in unit 500N 514E. Since this plant most commonly grows on the same kinds of moist, wooded slopes bordering streams like French Creek, the site inhabitants probably did not have to go far to collect these bulbs.

The relatively large quantity of hickory nutshell at the Burrell Orchard site most likely points to a fall occupation when these nuts would have been most abundant. In additon, the best time to collect camus bulbs would have been the late fall to winter months when these parts of the plant would have reached their maximum size. When we add this information to the prevalence of deer bones and antler (another fall-harvested food source), it becomes very likely that the Late Archaic residents of Burrell Orchard were present during at least some of the colder months of the year, perhaps from October to December.

New Radiocarbon Dates for Burrell Orchard

2008-11-04T10:58:00.011-05:00

This fall, I submitted one sample of bone and one of charred nutshell for radiocarbon dating. The bone sample came from unit 490N 509E and the nutshell was collected from beneath the siltstone slab feature (Fea. 08-02) in unit 500N 496E. The nutshell was found at the level of the chalkboard in the following image.

Each sample comes from secure contexts in the buried midden layers which contained the distinctive lanceolate-style points. The bone sample dated to 3,580 years ago (+/-40) which calibrates to a (two sigma) age between 2030 and 1780 BC. The nutshell was 3,950 years old (+/-40) with a calibrated (two sigma) date range of 2570 to 2340 BC. Each date places the prehistoric occupation of the site within the Late Archaic period, which in turn confirms that the lanceolate points do not belong to the late Paleoindian era (7000 to 10,000 BC) as concluded by previous researchers. I plan to submit a few more samples for dating, but I feel that these dates are accurate.

That fact that the calibrated date intervals are separated by about 300 years may indicated that the site was revisited over several centuries by prehistoric Native Americans. This seems to be a likely conclusion.

Getting to the Bottom

2008-07-13T21:09:00.008-04:00

Our excavations for this season are now completed, but there is a lot more to report. Several important insights came when we finally reached the bottom of the midden deposits. This allowed us to examine the entire stratigraphic profile of each unit. What we observed was a rather complex sequence of midden layers above pit features and post molds. The image below depicts the east wall profile of unit 500N 504E. It shows the light brown colored upper midden which contained fire-cracked rock, groundstone tools such as celts (stone axes) and grinding stones, and chert flakes in abundance. Beneath this is the dark grey to black lower midden which is loaded with charcoal as well as burned and unburned deer bone fragments and lesser amounts of chert flakes. Interestingly, fragments of lancelolate points were found in both strata.

This wall profile also shows two basin-shaped pit features. Each of which contained FCR and bright red layers of burned soil which indicate that these were not a smudge pits but rather some kind of cooking pits. Finally, a post mold is revealed beneath the lower midden layer. Other large post molds like this one have been found in other units, and those that show clearly in the wall profiles appear to penetrate the lower midden and thus post-date its accumulation.

It is yet too early to say much about what these stratigraphic layers represent. It does appear, however, that the lower, dark midden was the result of much cooking, burning, butchering, and the smoking of hides (see previous post). All of these activities must be responsible for the dense scatter of charcoal, ash, animal bone, and burned-earth soil lenses which make of this midden. In contrast, the upper midden may represent habitation debris that was dumped here as the result of activities somewhere else on the site. The pits which extend into the subsoil appear to have been dug at the time that the lower midden was accumulating, since they contain the same dark fill. The post molds resulted from the construction of structures at some later date, perhaps even after the Late Archaic occupation.

Smudge Pits and Hide-smoking?

2008-07-04T12:19:00.004-04:00

At about 60 cm below datum, our excavations reached the base of the midden layer. But this was not the end of our discoveries. In all three of our 2.0 x 2.0 meter excavations units, we have found a number of small basins containing lots of charcoal and some burned deer bone. These pits stand out clearly against the yellowish-brown, clayey subsoil as shown in the image below.

In cross-section, these pits exhibit dense layers of charcoal mixed with soil which seem to concentrate on the bottoms of the features. The image below shows a section of burned deer antler protruding from the profile of one such pit. Notice the dark band of charcoal at the bottom.

I suspect that these features are the remains of smudge pits, small fire pits used by Native Americans to smoke (preserve) deer hides. The use of smudge pits is well-documented for historical Indian societies across North America. During the time of maize agriculture, smudge pits contained charred maize cobs. In our smudge pits, only charred wood or hickory nut shells have been found, which suggests that these features date to the time before maize farming. In fact it is very likely that these pits date to the Late Archaic occupation of our site.

Stone Slabs, Pits, and More Points

2008-06-21T16:01:00.005-04:00

One of the strangest features we have found so far at the Burrell Orchard site is the cluster of siltstone slabs that were found in the northwest corner of unit 500N 496E (shown above). The use of these rather soft and fragile stones by prehistoric people to construct a feature is rare in northern Ohio. When this interesting configuration of stones was found, we guessed that it might represent a cover for a pit feature or a cooking surface of some kind. It somewhat resembles Feature 08-01, the cluster of small burned slabs found in unit 500N 514E and discussed in an earlier post. But the the stones in this larger feature do not appear to have been subjected to fire. When the stones were removed late this week, nothing was found beneath, only the same dark midden that extends across the rest of the unit. So, perhaps this feature functioned as a hard surface or platform for preparing food or some kind of work surface on the floor of a house. We just don't know at this time.

One cluster of FCR and dark, wet soil in unit 500N 504E turned out to be a pit feature. It extended to 60 cm below datum and reached what appears to be the culturally sterile subsoil beneath the midden. The image below shows the profile of the pit in cross-section. The yellowish-brown subsoil is shown beneath the dark fill and FCR of the pit. The dark, 'fingers' which extend beneath the fill and into the subsoil are stains from decayed roots.

Found in the fill of this pit were numerous flint flakes and fragments of deer bone and possibly the jaw of a fox. Also found was a complete flint drill and the base of a stemmed lanceolate projectile point (shown below). Both very good diagnostic artifact finds which place this pit in the same time period as the rest of the midden which surrounds it.

Testing to the South

2008-06-21T15:31:00.004-04:00

At the beginning of week 2, we set out two 1.0 meter by 2.0 meter test units along our 510 E line. These units are being used to test for the limits of the midden to the south of the orchard. So far we have not yet found where the midden ends!

Both of these new units contained the same layered deposits of fire-cracked rock, flint flakes, and dark organic soil which are found in the units along our 500 N baseline. Several fragments of lancelolate points and one drill have been found in the 1.0 x 2.0 meter units. On Friday, a small lanceolate point was found in situ among a cluster of FCR. It is shown below, marked by the red arrow.

This discovery occurred 10.0 meters south of the edge of the orchard on a slope that gradually rises to the south. Thus, we now know that the site extends quite a distance beyond what was previously thought and contains thick cultural deposits which extend across the promontory from treeline to treeline, about 30 meters east to west. We plan to extend more test units farther to the southward as time allows.

Exploring the Midden Layer

2008-06-15T14:57:00.012-04:00

By the end of our first week at Burrell Orchard, we identified at least one midden stratum below a 20-25 cm thick plow zone. This midden consists of scattered charcoal, burned bone, and small pieces of FCR (fire-cracked rock). Chert (flint) debitage is present, but in moderate quantities below the plow zone, and historic artifacts are nearly absent. We are just beginning to identify possible features which may intrude into (through) the midden zone, perhaps from a later occupation. These possible pit features (such as the ones shown below) appear as dark zones within the midden stratum (brown soil) on the floors of the excavation units.

A surprising find was this broken sandstone grinding stone or mortar. It has the characteristic dished-out surface, as well as deep incisions on both faces which were made by sharpening wooden or bone tools. This fragment is about 15 cm across.

Only one unit has produced pottery, which consists of relatively thin, grit-tempered, cordmarked and plain body sherds. I suspect that this pottery is derived from one of the aforementioned pit features, but we will see. Otherwise, the midden is aceramic (without pottery) which suggests that it dates prior to 1000 B.C., which is the approximate date when pottery begins to be used by Native Americans in northern Ohio. This same excavation unit also produced two celts (ground stone axes).

We are very pleased that several fragments of lanceolate points have been found in situ (in place) in two excavation units. These fragments exhibit the parallel thinning flakes and marginal retouch (sharpening of the edges) that is typical of the purported late Paleoindian points found previously at this site. All these fragments--including the point tip shown below--are made of "Nellie" chert from Coshocton County. This same stone was used to make most of the lanceolate

points found at other sites in northern Ohio. We still have not found anything in association with these point fragments--such as charcoal or animal bone--which can be radiocarbon dated. Nevertheless, we have found nothing to suggest that these points did not originate within this midden stratum. Hopefully, more answers will come next week!

First Discoveries at Burrell Orchard

2008-06-11T18:00:00.004-04:00

Our first week of the 2008 field program is underway. We began with a two and a half hour orientation program for this week's students then set to work.

We began at the south end of the orchard, looking for evidence of a boundary feature. By boundary feature, I mean something like a ditch or stockade fence that would have enclosed the Burrell Orchard site on the south side, much like its neighbor to the east, the Burrell Fort site (see previous post). The north, west, and east sides of our site are naturally demarcated by steep shale cliffs, but the south side appears to be open. We also want to see if the site extends very far beyond the orchard and into the open meadow to the south.

We set out three 2.0 x 2.0 meter excavation units along our east-west, 500N baseline. Our plan is to take these units down in 10 cm levels and screen all soil to recover whatever artifacts remain. This way we will be able to carefully observe changes in the soils and identify cultural strata.

We quickly began to find a mixture of prehistoric (flint flakes and fire-cracked rock) and historic debris (window glass, nails, a button, and even a 1969 quarter!) in the upper 10 cm level. By the end of day 2, we exposed what appears to be a buried midden stratum containing loads of fire-cracked rock mixed with charcoal, burned soil, and flint flakes. This layer appears to have been deposited by the prehistoric inhabitants of the site and perhaps represents the debris from their cooking pits.

On to Burrell Orchard in 2008

2008-04-29T09:57:00.011-04:00

In the summer of 2008, the Department of Archaeology will carry out test excavations at the Burrell Orchard site. The site is located in the French Creek Reservation of the Lorain County Metroparks in Sheffield, Ohio. It is situated on a high and narrow shale ridge overlooking French Creek and is covered by an overgrown fruit orchard. At the extreme south end of the property is the Burrell house, a ca. 1820 homestead that is now owned and managed by the Lorain County Metroparks .

Burrell Orchard (33Ln15) was entered into the Ohio Archaeological Inventory in 1975 following limited test excavations by CMNH staff in 1971. This investigation recovered a distinctive type of long and narrow (lanceolate) spear point which resembles Late Paleoindian (ca. 8500-6500 B.C.) artifacts known from the Great Plains and the Upper Great Lakes. Since such early occupations are poorly documented in Ohio, the similarity between the Burrell Orchard points and these early types led to the listing of the site on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The 1971 excavations also recovered Early Woodland (ca. 1000 B.C.-100 B.C.) points, stone axes, grinding implements, grit-tempered pottery, and butchered animal bone (food) remains. One pit feature was discovered and found to contain thin grit-tempered pottery and small, triangular arrow points which belong to the Late Woodland period (ca. A.D. 800-1200).

Stemmed point (left), stemmed lanceolate point (center) and a drill (right) from the 1971 excavations at Burrell Orchard

More intensive excavations were carried out around the Burrell Homestead and in the orchard by archaeologists from the University of Akron under the direction of Dr. John Marwitt in the summer of 1987. Examination of the archived field notes indicate that numerous test units and a few trenches were placed within and around the foundations of former out-buildings (the barn and grainery) in the vicinity of the Burrell House. Some small test units were placed along the western bluff edge to the northwest of the house.

In the Orchard, at least 15 1.0 x 1.0 m to 2.0 x 2.0 m units were excavated along a north-south-oriented transects. These units revealed what appear to be stratified midden deposits below a shallow plow zone. At least five test units exposed small to medium-sized, basin-shaped pits and hearth features and a few post molds. The deepest pit features extended to nearly 80 cm beneath the surface. Diagnostic artifacts were not described in detail, but the report concludes that at least four occupations are represented in the orchard. These are a late Paleoindian(?) component represented by thin, lanceolate and stemmed lanceolate points; a transitional Late Archaic-Early Woodland component; a later Early Woodland “Adena Culture” occupation; and finally a Late Woodland (Late Prehistoric period?) component. Unfortunately we are unable to verify this chronological sequence since the collections resulting from this excavation have net yet been located.

In 2008, we hope to test the Late Paleoindian affiliation of Burrell Orchard and to learn more about the Woodland period settlements. The first objective will be met by the identification of undisturbed pit features or midden (trash) layers with associated lanceolate projectile points. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal or bone samples found with the lanceolate points should provide a more precise age for this earliest occupation. The excavation of small test units across the site will help to identify the sizes and extents of each prehistoric campsite or settlement. Finally, the excavation of a sample of pits and other features will provide information on the prehistoric activities and life ways of the ancient inhabitants of Burrell Orchard.

Wyandotte Nation Preserves Part of the Site

2008-04-24T14:10:00.005-04:00

In case you have not heard, Lots 3, 4, and 5 at the Danbury site were recently sold to the Wyandotte Nation of Oklahoma. A news report on the acquisition and the upcoming dedication ceremony was published last Sunday in the Toledo Blade. The reporter for The Blade, as well as several other people, have asked what I think of this. I am all for it.

When we began our excavations in 2004, I assumed that such an acquisition would not be possible due to relatively high cost of the lots and the original requirement that houses must occupy all lots that are purchased in the development. Thanks to Greg Spatz, the developer of The Cove on the Bay, that restriction was changed and, as a result, what remains of the heart of the Danbury site will be preserved forever.

We have been fortunate to have had access to this important archaeological site for four summers and have gained a great deal of information about the life ways of the prehistoric inhabitants. Now begins the task of in-depth analysis of the large collection of artifacts, field records, and images that were recovered since 2004. Once this body of information is 'digested,' I think we will all be amazed at the richness of the societies that came to this place overlooking Sandusky Bay for nearly 5,000 years before the arrival of Europeans. Thanks to Greg Spatz and the Wyandotte Nation, a small part of this settlement will endure forever.

Dating the Ossuary

2007-12-12T21:14:00.000-05:00

This fall our loyal volunteers have been busy washing and cataloging the dozens of artifacts and thousands of bone fragments from last summer's work at Danbury. Until now, there hasn't been much to tell, but just yesterday, I received the results of radiocarbon dating two bone samples from the large ossuary (a.k.a. BF 07-04).

Our loyal blog-readers--and field crew--may remember that all along I suspected that this was an Early Woodland feature since all the pottery retrieved from the fill was of the Leimbach series (see 7/7/07 post). In addition, several of our field crew noticed that many of the teeth found in the feature were heavily worn and had very little evidence of dental decay. Heavily worn but healthy teeth are most typical of pre-agricultural, hunting and gathering, populations of the region. Both these observation proved correct since the two samples we had dated returned calibrated 14 C dates of between 1000 BC and 800 BC! This date range corresponds to those of the birdstone burial from 2006 and an earthoven feature found in 2004. Here is a chart showing all our dates for the site. Note the clear date 'plateau' for the Early Woodland period occupation.

Now we need to understand why the Early Woodland inhabitants of the site carried out two very different burial treatments: burial of just a few individuals with a birdstone and other rare objects vs. a communal burial of more than 30 people with no deliberate burial goods. We will have to chew on this one for a while!

Wrapping Up for the Season

2007-07-25T15:53:00.001-04:00

This past Friday, we closed out the 2007 field season at Danbury. Everyone was very busy removing the last features and backfilling deep excavation units. Jim Bowers and crew removed the last of the bundle burials from "The Ossuary," alias Burial Feature 07-04. This feature turned out to be truly astounding. Our field counts of crania alone exceeded 20 individuals, and the post-cranial bones were densely packed into the center of the pit. We found no birdstones or exotic artifacts in the ossuary, which disappointed a few crew members, but we also found nothing to contradict our working hypothesis that the feature is of Early Woodland age.

This conclusion is based on two observations. One is that only thick, cordmarked, grit-tempered pot sherds, resembling the Leimbach series, were found scattered among the bones, nothing of later vintage was found. Secondly, our cursory examination of some of the teeth appeared heavily worn and with little to no evidence of tooth decay. Such healthy but worn-out teeth are much more typical of hunting and gathering populations such as the Late Archaic and Early Woodland inhabitants of this region, than of Late Woodland or Late Prehistoric period maize agriculturalists. I guess we will have to radiocarbon date one or two samples of bone to find out the real age of this intriguing feature.

I plan to continue my entries to this blog for the next few months with updates on our work in the lab as well as posts on some of the other interesting projects we have underway.

Finally, let me finish with a final "farewell" and big "thank you" to all our very hard-working and very interested field school volunteers and students. You all did a fantastic job and worked steadily in the heat and in the slop (last week). You are directly responsible for the great success we have had this season. Also, we remain grateful to Greg Spatz and Cove on the Bay for allowing us to do this work and continuing to do "the right thing" when it comes to saving a part of this extremely important archaeological resource.

Man's Best Friend?

2007-07-17T20:10:00.000-04:00

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, we rarely find artifacts or other inclusions within the burial features found at the Danbury site. The two notable exceptions are the whelk shell burial found in 2005 (see the 2004 excavation report) and the birdstone burial discovered just last year (described in the 2006 report, coming soon!). This week, however, we discovered something unusual placed within the extended burial of an adult female (BF 07-07). Located above the left leg of this burial was a concentration of animal bones which included the skull and jaw of a dog. Below is a closeup image of the dog remains showing the cranium (on right, upper jaw missing), the left side of the lower jaw (with teeth), about four cervical (neck) vertebrae (lower center), a rib, and one scapula (shoulder blade, on left). The white object in the center is the shell of a land snail of relatively recent origin.

No other parts of the dog skeleton were found in the burial so this feature appears not to represent the deliberate burial of, for example, a pet dog but more likely an offering of a dog head or upper body section. Interestingly, a very similar association of a female burial with the head of a dog was documented during the 2003 salvage excavations at the site.

Historical accounts of Great Lakes Native American tribes often mention the importance of dogs, not only as pets or hunting companions but also as sacred offerings or objects of sacrifice used to honor important individuals. The fact that these dog remains were accompanied by a mixture of bones from other creatures (additional offerings?) seems to support this interpretation over the more romantic notion that some Danbury site residents wished to have "man's best friend" accompany them into the afterlife.

A New Burial Pattern Appears

2007-07-14T13:26:00.000-04:00

Much of our work of late involves the recording of burial features. We are working at the southern boundary of Lot 4 in an effort to join together our block excavation areas from 2004 and 2005 (see our excavation plan in the June 24 post). As it turns out, this area contains a relatively dense cluster of adult and subadult (child) burials but almost no domestic features (i.e., cooking pits, storage pits, and midden or trash deposits). Several of the smaller (subadult?) burial pits we have recorded contain loose soil and only fragments of human bone. A cross-section of one of these is shown below.

These pits most likely represent graves from which the remains were exhumed by prehistoric Native Americans. We do not yet understand why such burials were disinterred; however, we have found other adult burials that contained the bundled remains of children. Perhaps some of these young ones were exhumed from their individual graves for reburial with relatives. Interestingly, many of these subadult burials lie just to the southeast of a distinct alignment of adult graves which runs northeast to southwest. This pattern is unlikely to be random but rather is evidence of a preplanned cemetery.

A few burials in this cluster contain undisturbed remains of children like Burial Feature 07-08 which was found just this week. It contained the skeleton of a young child and included several marginella shell beads and the single shell disk bead pictured below.

The Early Woodland Ossuary

2007-07-07T21:21:00.002-04:00

A few posts ago, I described a burned earth feature which we called Feature 07-01. I noted that it most likely was associated with a cluster of human bones. Much time has been spent over the last week excavating Feature 07-01 in plan and carefully exposing what lies beneath. We were amazed to learn that this rather modestly sized feature contains the disarticulated remains of at least 13 people! An image of Feature 07-01 before excavation is shown above (the blue oval shows the maximum extent of the feature).

We refer to this large bone cluster as an "ossuary" or mass burial pit. It contains individual concentrations (or "bundles") of remains which include skulls, longbones, pelves, vertebrae, and hand and foot bones. They most likely represent the collected remains of individuals who died elsewhere, and whose bones were cleaned of flesh and packaged for transport to a common place of interment. Such a secondary form of burial contrasts drastically with the primary extended and flexed burial treatments described previously. We don't completely understand why some groups buried their dead together in this fashion, while others favored the use of individual graves. Here is a copy of our field drawing of what we now call Burial Feature 07-04.

Interestingly, the original burned earth feature now seems to have been a late addition to this feature. It is outlined in the upper right hand portion of the drawing and appears to be devoid of bone. This suggests that this hearth or cooking pit was dug into the pre-existing ossuary, most likely by accident. A collection of scattered bone on the upper (north) edge of the ossuary appears to been displaced from the hole dug by the later hearth-builders and redeposited into the ossuary. Several Leimbach series pot sherds have been found in the fill of the ossuary pit which indicate that it dates to the Early Woodland period (ca. 1000 to 500 B.C.).

Excavation of this very complex feature will continue for some time, and more surprises most likely await us.

Tracking Mortuary Behavior

2007-07-02T21:11:00.001-04:00

One of the most intriguing kinds of information that has come from our work at the Danbury site is the evidence for changes in mortuary treatment (i.e., how people buried their dead) over time. This is due in part to the fact that the temporal perspective at Danbury is very long, nearly 5,000 years, and because most groups established small cemeteries during their years of residence.

Shown below are images from our field maps showing two of the burials we recorded this season.

These two (Burial Features 07-01 and 07-03) show the remains of two adults buried in very similar fashion. They are referred to as "extended, primary interments" which means that each person was buried soon after they died and on their backs with arms to the sides. This burial form is very similar to the way many people are buried today. Notice that BF 07-01 (top image) is missing all of the right leg and the lower half of the left leg. These bones appear to have been removed during backhoe excavation during road construction. At present, we do not know the time period of these burials since no temporally sensitive artifacts were recovered with them. Still, this extended form of burial and the northwest to southeast orientation of the skeletons is typical of all the Late Woodland period (ca. 1,000 years old) burials found so far.

In contrast, is Burial Feature 07-02 shown below. This individual, also an adult, was interred in

what is called a "flexed" position with knees drawn up to the chest and arms flexed on or in front of the body. This posture somewhat resembles a fetal position, and, accordingly, some researchers speculate that positioning the body in this way mimics the birth posture and symbolizes the passage from life to the afterlife. A more practical explanation is that the flexing of a body allowed it to be placed in an already-existing storage pit. The bones of this individual are very fragmentary and poorly preserved which may indicate great age. We have found two other flexed burials in similarly poor states of preservation. One of these is the oldest yet found and dates to 4,800 years ago, during the Late Archaic period. So, perhaps we are looking at two different forms of mortuary treatment, extended vs. flexed, which are separated by thousands of years and, perhaps, different belief systems.

Little Sherd, Big Interest

2007-06-27T21:37:00.000-04:00

One aspect of the Danbury site that surprises many people is that it is relatively "artifact-poor." This means that, although we have found many interesting and very informative features at the site such as earth ovens, several different types of burials, shell artifacts from the Gulf coast, and a rare birdstone, the quantities of everyday articles (i.e., pot sherds, flint projectile points, and bone tools) are rather scarce. This fact can be frustrating to some of the folks who join us in the field, but it is probably the result of working in an area of the site that was devoted primarily to the burial of the dead rather than habitation areas where such artifacts would have been used and then discarded in large quantities.

We recently found a very interesting pottery sherd that caused quite a bit of excitement around the dig. Not because it is all that spectacular, but because it is relatively large and bears an intricate decoration. This decoration consists of impressions made with a twisted piece of plant fiber cordage which forms rough but recognizable geometric patterns. Here are images of the front (exterior) and back (interior) of this sherd.

The fine cord-impressions can be seen on both faces of the sherd. This pottery is of a type called Vase Corded and is typical of the Late Woodland period, Western Basin Tradition of the region. The Late Woodland society that made this type of pottery lived between about A.D. 700 and 1000. The cord-impressed technique was used far beyond the western Lake Erie basin. It is found on pottery from Wisconsin through Ontario to New York. Such a wide geographic distribution of a decorative technique indicates that native peoples across the Great Lakes traded not only pottery, but information and ideas that became ingrained in all societies.

Completing Our Coverage

2007-06-24T18:05:00.000-04:00

At the end of our second week, we have made much progress. We successfully completed most of our systematic testing of Lot 4. By systematic, I mean regular spatial sampling of the remaining deposits in this important part of the development. As the map of the 2004-2006 excavation above shows, our work in Lots 4, and 6 was carried out in two progressive stages. The first stage was the laying out of 2 x 2-meter excavation units at regular intervals to sample the surviving burial features, cooking and storage pits, post molds, and, unavoidably, recent disturbances from past farming and trailer park living. This systematic sampling approach is most obvious in Lot 6 (at the top of the map), but was undertaken in Lot 4 as well. This map does not show our new units from this season; if it did, you would see that most of the "holes" (i.e., gaps in the rows of test units) are now filled in. Our work began in Lot 3 in 2004 (bottom of the map) where we started with systematic testing but quickly shifted to blocks of contiguous units. This change was necessary to allow an early assessment of what remained at the site. We halted our work in Lot 3 at the end of the 2004 season when we learned that this property was destined to be preserved.

The second phase of excavation involved the addition of test units to form large block areas. These blocks exposed more of the features and post mold lines that we found through systematic testing. Below is a view of one block excavation area from the 2005 season.

This more extensive approach is in keeping with the "salvage" nature of our work at Danbury. We want to record as much of the site that remains as possible. Despite our best efforts, however, we will not be able to rescue everything that remains. This does not mean that we are done with our work. In the final four weeks we plan to sample and document the dense concentration of features which lies in the western one quarter or so of Lot 4. If enough time remains, we may engage a backhoe to strip the remaining plow zone from the strip along the eastern edge of the property. In the end though, the days of digging an entire site with masses of hardy workers is no more; now "sampling" is the prime directive.

A Burned Earth Feature

2007-06-19T17:02:00.000-04:00

Our first pit feature of the 2007 season was discovered at the end of last week. The cross-section profile shown above nicely illustrates the dark, organic soil layer that filled the top of this shallow basin. Mixed with the dark-colored soils in the northern (right hand) half of the profile are reddish-brown soils that are the result of burning. Close contact with high temperatures, usually from burning wood or sometimes hot rocks, oxidizes the natural iron compounds in the soil, turning them a bright orange-red color (see closeup below)

As our crew continued to remove the fill of this small pit feature, they discovered a cluster of human bones which may represent another burial feature. Some of the bones were charred, indicating that this feature may be a place where remains were cremated. We should know the answer to this later in the week.

A Good First Week

2007-06-16T16:28:00.000-04:00

At the end of our first week at the Danbury site, we have made several interesting discoveries. The exposure of the last section of the stockade line was mentioned in the last post. Three new burial features were identified along the western edge of Lot 4 underneath a very compact layer of recent fill, most likely from debris thrown up during excavation of the drainage swale along the roadside. We resorted to the mattock to get through some of this very hard soil, and yet intact features were found below. One of the burials included six marginella beads, small marine gastropods that were perforated on one side for stringing and used as ornaments or embroidered onto clothing. We cannot yet tell the age of these features since no diagnostic artifacts, such as complete projectile points or decorated pottery, were recovered.

Speaking of pottery, Jim Bowers's crew found a large, but very unusual, post molds in the southeastern corner of Lot 4. It contained about eight large, thick, grit-tempered pot sherds at the bottom of the hole that once contained a wooden house post. It may be that these sherds were put into the post hole to provide a tighter fit for the post. In the images above, you can see the cross-section of the post mold with two large pot sherds sticking out (left) and the remaining pot sherds lining the bottom of the hollowed-out post mold (right).

These sherds appear to all be from one vessel which we should be able to partially reassemble. The pottery is of a type called Leimbach Cordmarked (above) and dates to the Early Woodland period, about 2,500 to 3,000 years ago. Although quite old, this type of pottery is the most common form found at the Danbury site. This tells us that Early Woodland people returned to this site again and again over many centuries.

At least one of the most interesting burial features found last season was affiliated with these early people. This feature contained the remains of three people along with a carved slate artifact called a "birdstone," part of a limestone smoking pipe, and fragments of one carved and ground wolf jaw which may have been part of a ritual mask or an ornament. The establishment of cemeteries at sites like Danbury indicate that Native Americans were making these places their own. As with all human remains found at the Danbury site, the bones found this season will be studied by physical anthropologists to identify their age, sex, stature, relative health, and physical relationships to other Native American populations which inhabited Ohio. At the conclusion of the analysis, the remains and associated burial goods will be reburied at another location on the site.

Getting Underway

2007-06-11T20:38:00.001-04:00

We made a good start today to the 2007 excavation at the Danbury site. As has become our custom on the first day, much of the morning was spent clearing weeds and undergrowth from the grid stakes and repairing our perimeter fence. Following this, we divided our crew into four groups and set to work in two areas of Lot 4.

Let me say a word or two about our research goals for this season. Our main job is to complete our sampling of Lot 4 which is situated close to the center of what remains of the Danbury site since development began in 2003. There are areas on the extreme western and southern sides of Lot 4 which have not been adequately tested, and it is in these areas that we began. As before, our procedure is the excavation of 2.0 x 2.0 meter square units and the careful exposure of the subsoil to reveal whatever prehistoric features remain.

In the southern area of Lot 4, we are particularly interested in exposing more of a distinct line of post molds which were first identified in 2005 and traced for more than 14 meters last season. By this afternoon, Jim Bowers's crew had exposed a very nice extension of this line which crossed his unit from the northwest to southeast corners. Some of these post molds are marked by arrows in the image below.

This is very encouraging, since I suspect that this line represents part of a stockade fence that enclosed the Late Prehistoric period settlement located at the southern margin of the Danbury site. We will continue to follow this line to see where it goes.

Blogging Archaeology

2007-06-05T15:11:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the new CMNH Archaeology Blog! On these pages you will be able to read about various projects undertaken by our staff thoughout the year. We will begin with a series of reports on our 2007 field school at the Danbury site. If you don't know about the Danbury site, examine some of our research reports from past field seasons and read an overview of the project. Then look for my weekly updates beginning next week.