Hopewell Pit Cluster

Over the past week, we have discovered a small cluster of Hopewell pits at the Heckelman site.  All contain some diagnostic artifact, such as fragments of sheet mica, Esch Cordmarked pottery, or bladelets.  One of the features most representative of this Middle Woodland occupation is Feature 12-34, which was completed today.   Under the watchful eye of intern Jamie G., students Karen L., Audrey G., and Annette N. recovered several bladelets, mica, and Middle Woodland pot sherds from this medium-sized basin.  A bit more surprising was the discovery of burned--but not calcined--deer bone, hickory and walnut nutshell, and even several carbonized seeds and fruit pits. These are the best traces of the Middle Woodland diet found so far.  As shown in the image below, this pit also contained a significant amount of fire-cracked rock and charcoal, but no sign of a fire within the feature.  So, the burned material may represent the cleanings from a cooking or hearth pit used nearby. 

Pit clusters like this most likely reflect the daily activities of a Hopewell family that stayed at the site for a few weeks up to a season.  Several clusters of post molds found nearby may represent the remains of their structures.   Nearby pits--as yet unexcavated--may hold even more valuable clues. We should know soon.

Pot in the Corner

For several days, Meghan M.'s crew have been carefully exposing a crushed pottery vessel located in one of the 2x2 meter test units in the south field area.   This vessel is thin, well made, and marked with finely-woven cordage.  It closely resembles the early Late Woodland, Green Creek phase vessels we uncovered last season within the large, seventh century structure. The upper part of the vessel appeared first and is extreme thin and delicate.  The body and base of this pot are more robust and somewhat smoothed over.  The pieces currently exposed suggest that this vessel may have been stored in this pit and eventually broke.  The pit feature containing this pot is partially exposed in the northeast corner of Unit 485N 531E and the bulk of the sherds extend into the west wall.  So more may lie beyond!

Older Than We Thought

Tremendous thunderstorms last evening dropped nearly 2.0 inches of rain on our poor site.  The result was another soggy mess when we arrived this morning.  Much too messy to continue excavation in our current units, so we--once again--moved south.

We laid out three new 2x2m units at previously determined, but randomly selected, locations to continue our statistical sampling of the subsurface features in the remaining area within the parallel ditches.  As before, we screened small, 50x50cm test units in the southeast corners of these units to sample the plow zone contents.  Not much was found except modest quantities of flint flakes.

One surprising find was the base of a large side-notched point that turned up while Karen L. was excavating a plow scar in Unit 475N 529E.  Normally, the discovery of a projectile point in a plow scar would not garner much attention; however, this point proved to be somewhat exceptional.  It turned out to be a fragment of an Early Archaic Large Side-notched point, similar to the Big Sandy variety found elsewhere in Ohio and into the southeastern U.S.   These notched points are very old, between about 8,000 and 10,000 years in age!  The image at right shows the typically square basal "ear"; the remaining ear is missing.  Both this ear and the slightly convex base are heavily ground.  My crude reconstruction below shows how this fragment fit with the complete point.  This little fragment turns out to be the oldest artifact yet found at the Heckelman site and shows that people began coming to this place just after the Ice Age!