Putting Together the Puzzle

Now that the conference season is behind me, I can turn my attention back to the Heckelman site.   Our dedicated volunteers here at the museum spent most of the fall washing and cataloging our many finds from the 2012 season.  And now I can turn to more closely examining the collections and putting together the annual technical report.   In the next few weeks, I plan to write additional posts describing some of the interesting discoveries we have made. 

One of our most significant achievements is the identification of a complete Late Prehistoric period structural patten that appears to represent a dwelling used by the village inhabitants of the site.   Over the last week or two of the field season, our crew mapped hundreds of possible post molds in the eastern end of our excavation area.   Among this dense accumulation of small soil stains, we found a clear eastward extension of the stockade line and just inside (south of) this line we recognized the complete post outline of a rectangular structure that measured about 9.0 m long and 4.5 m wide.   As can be seen in the drawing shown here, this house--called "Structure 3"--was oriented north-south and was situated just inside the the stockade line (the squiggly line of posts at the top of the map).   Several large post molds of from an earlier (Early Woodland?) occupation of the site were found on the western floor of the structure.

 The only feature which appear to belong to Structure 3 is the small round pit located in the very center of the floor.  This small basin was Feature 12-60 and it contained a few fragments of deer bone, charcoal, nutshell, and a small anvilstone.   Some of the nutshell was sent out for radiocarbon dating and returned a calibrated date range of A.D. 1410-1450.  This date range matches almost exactly that of a piece of charred stockade post found a bit farther to the west in 2011.   So, for now, I believe that Structure 3 (and at least the first phase of village construction) took place during the early fifteenth century A.D.   We recovered a good sample of carbonized botanical remains from Feature 12-60, which included eight fragments of maize kernels and five cupule fragments.   The maize remains help confirm the Late Prehistoric period affiliation of Feature 12-60 and Structure 3.  

One other feature of note are the lines of small posts found within the structure.  These may represent partitions or walls designed to separate the floor space into different activity areas or, perhaps, sleeping compartments.   The size of Structure 3 suggests that it was occupied by more than one family, so a division of interior space was probably desirable.   Finally, the absence of a formal fireplace or hearth feature inside the house indicates that it was not occupied during the cold months of the year.   This, and the generally light construction (small posts) of its outer walls, point to its use during the warm months of the year, most likely late spring through summer.   

Village Storage Pit

Over the last several field days, a good assortment of our crew have helped excavate an unusual pit feature.   This rectangular-shaped pit measures over two meters in length and has a flat bottom.  Initially, we uncovered only one end, which made us think it was a typical circular basin.  In fact, we did not learn otherwise until we exposed the northern ''half" and found the remaining two-thirds.  Below is an image of Michelle N. standing in the excavated pit. It looks kind of dinky in this photo, but you must remember that at least a foot (30 cm for you field vets.) of soil once existed above the pit shown here.  

When created, I think this feature was used for storage.  Its flat bottom points to this function, but unlike more traditional Late Prehistoric storage pits found elsewhere, the wide and shallow form seems a bit unusual. Perhaps it served as a cool "cellar" for temporary within a house structure.

Whatever its function, this pit ended its use-life as a trash receptacle.  The fill was loaded with food remains (bone and seeds), fire-pit scrapings (ash, charcoal, and fire-cracked rock), old tools (celts, grinding stones, arrowpoints, and anvilstones), and the remains of at least one pottery vessel.    Most striking was the abundance of fish bone and masses of fish scales.  Of particular note was the discovery of the proximal fragment of an elk ulna (elbow), as seen below.  Even dog bones were apparently on the menu as revealed by our discovery of canine longbones and teeth.

Here are some shots of other artifacts discovered in the pit.

One of the best finds was a large section of pottery vessel.  It is shown below, in situ.

In the close-up below, you can see that the rim is decorated with a complex, stamped motif.  This is an example of Mixter Tool-impressed, which is a diagnostic ceramic type for the Late Prehistoric village component at Heckelman.  Although the pottery and celts are fun to find, I think the really informative stuff are the plant and animal remains recovered.  We only have small samples of such subsistence remains up until now, so the discovery of this unusual pit is a real bonus.

Another Cache Blade Debris Pit

Over the last two years, we have uncovered several small pits containing the debris from the manufacture of flint "cache blades."  Each of these features contained dozens to hundreds of flint flakes of Upper Mercer chert from Coshocton Co., Ohio.  Among this debris were broken fragments of thin, triangular bifaces of the kind used in Early and Middle Woodland ceremonial contexts.  Today we uncovered another of these pits.  Feature 12-59 is a bit larger than those found in the past but contained a large number of large and thin flakes of a rather fine variety of Upper Mercer chert.  A biface tip was found first and then a base of another biface turned up.  All these biface fragments look to be pieces that were discarded by the flint-knapper during the manufacturing process.  None appear to have been used, although the base fragment found today was nearly complete. There must have been some harsh words at the flint-knapping work station when this one broke!