Interpreting a site in Christian County, KY

[cantcatchafish]

After posting this

We have been doing some more digging and we have found alot more debitage with more different colors, along with one broken point.

We built us some sifting screens to help us go through the dirt and boy did we start finding finer pieces and what appears to be charcoal, like charcoal that is left over after a fire is the best way to describe what I found.

Based on your experience and knowledge, how can I infer the flint flakes and charcoal.

I haven't found any bone fragments yet, or anything to suggest that they were using fire to cook.

I'm just trying to understand what type of site this may be and go from there.

 

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[rock]

Need some pics of your finds.

 

[GatorBoy]

There is plenty of photos.
Just use the link he provided.
There was an entire thread on this already.

That overhang looks like it was probably used as a shelter in times of low water.. it also looks like when that Creek swells in times of flood it would be inundated with water and catch debris from upstream.. you could find all sorts of things in there.
Creeks also change course over time .. I think you got plenty of information in your original thread.
Aside from what might have been washed in I would consider that site a rock shelter.
If you want to find some nice points and want to take a break from digging just walk that creek real good..I'm positive there are points in it.
As far as how to go about finding the best stuff in that shelter I would go straight to the back wall and keep digging along it until I don't find anymore ..it may be quite deep with artifacts against the back wall on that one.

 

[hbrown22]

Hi neighbor (kinda)! I'm in Robertson County, TN, near the KY state line. I've also found many different types of chert in this area. If those are artifacts, then I have many that look the same. Keep us posted on what you find! My husband & I plan to make a day of it tomorrow.

Heather

 

[cantcatchafish]

There is plenty of photos.
Just use the link he provided.
There was an entire thread on this already.

That overhang looks like it was probably used as a shelter in times of low water.. it also looks like when that Creek swells in times of flood it would be inundated with water and catch debris from upstream.. you could find all sorts of things in there.
Creeks also change course over time .. I think you got plenty of information in your original thread.
Aside from what might have been washed in I would consider that site a rock shelter.
If you want to find some nice points and want to take a break from digging just walk that creek real good..I'm positive there are points in it.
As far as how to go about finding the best stuff in that shelter I would go straight to the back wall and keep digging along it until I don't find anymore ..it may be quite deep with artifacts against the back wall on that one.

You are correct, when it rains the water is rushing through pretty good and when there's a drought that portion of the creek is dried up.
The area is in a little holler, the rock wall starts the new elevation but on our side of the rock wall it's a holler and relativity flat.

I'm starting to believe this was used has a hunting grounds. It wouldn't have been a good shelter in the spring due to flooding, but then again the creek channel might have been deeper back then which allowed for it used to be used as a shelter.

With as much debitage as I found, and I haven't posted pics of the new debitage found after my first posting here, how often would they come back to a site if the hunting ground was their "honey hole"?

What would be signs of a hunting camp?

Hi neighbor (kinda)! I'm in Robertson County, TN, near the KY state line. I've also found many different types of chert in this area. If those are artifacts, then I have many that look the same. Keep us posted on what you find! My husband & I plan to make a day of it tomorrow.

Heather

Howdy, I personally believe what I found so far besides a few items are flint flakes/debitage. I would love to see your pictures of your finds, so we can compare and see if any of the different colors of chert overlap with each other.


I found out today that the three fields that we do have are going to be plowed pretty soon, right now the grass is about 5 foot high.

 

[GatorBoy]

Signs of a hunting camp would be exactly what you have found.. charcoal from fire, debris from manufacturing tools and probably some completed ones.
A camp like that would probably be used seasonally for generations.
If it is as I suspect... a winter hunting camp I would bet it provides shelter from a north wind.
The fact that it is a "wet" shelter ..at least part of the time is probably why you won't find much bone material that has not rotted away.
You may find some burnt bone that has been hardened by fire.

 

[cantcatchafish]

Could it be that the smaller pieces are the only ones left behind because of the rains and over time it as washed the larger pieces downstream?

I have noticed at the back of the rock shelter the soil is more fine with less sand and more dirt compared to a foot off the rock wall. I think I might have to get down on my stomach and start to dig the back of the shelter.

If this is a hunting camp, what type of tools are found?

Thanks....

 

[hbrown22]

A few days ago I posted a thread "New and my collection" (don't know how to post the link here yet). There are a few pix of our finds on it. Have yet to take a pic of all the chert tool finds. This is some of the chert flakes/stones I've found. Most are small, but were neat looking so I kept them. I believe the tiger striped one I have is Dover Chert. I find a lot of the dark banded and some with bulls eyes. I'd really like to know what kind the red/orange/yellow ones are.



If you have open field above that shelter, I'd look there as well. We have found most of our points on the higher ground. I need to brush up on my research, but looks like this area was hunting grounds. We are near the Red River and Sulfur Fork.

Heather

 

[GatorBoy]

Could it be that the smaller pieces are the only ones left behind because of the rains and over time it as washed the larger pieces downstream?

I have noticed at the back of the rock shelter the soil is more fine with less sand and more dirt compared to a foot off the rock wall. I think I might have to get down on my stomach and start to dig the back of the shelter.

If this is a hunting camp, what type of tools are found?

Thanks....

Its alot more likely that the larger items have gathered together along the back wall at a deeper level.
They have more mass and if subject to water currents will gather in low spots.. probably below the sand or behind an obstruction.

 

[rock]

A few days ago I posted a thread "New and my collection" (don't know how to post the link here yet). There are a few pix of our finds on it. Have yet to take a pic of all the chert tool finds. This is some of the chert flakes/stones I've found. Most are small, but were neat looking so I kept them. I believe the tiger striped one I have is Dover Chert. I find a lot of the dark banded and some with bulls eyes. I'd really like to know what kind the red/orange/yellow ones are.

View attachment 834187

If you have open field above that shelter, I'd look there as well. We have found most of our points on the higher ground. I need to brush up on my research, but looks like this area was hunting grounds. We are near the Red River and Sulfur Fork.

Heather

Thats some pretty stone there Heather. When you find those larger flakes look on the edges of them for an example the 2 on the right in the middle. Gray/white stripe and the brown one. Look at the fine secondary flaking on the edges. Those are scrapers made from flakes. Very nice, if you dont see the tiny flakes removed from the edges then it is what is called Debitage or flakes removed from making a tool. Is there any big pieces in that color of rock like baseball size cobbles? Those are very pretty, rock

 

[GatorBoy]

What he said.. :-)

 

[monsterrack]

I go along with gatorboy, your larger artifacts will be deeper. Since this is an old creek bed look for places that would make the water slow down, large rocks, rock outcrops. When artifacts are being washed down stream they tend to gather in areas where the water has slowed down. Great place to hunt

 

[painterx7]

I bet you will find them at all depths sometimes just under the fine gravel bars will b a lot of pieces I hunt old creek beds all the time or wet weather conveyances

 

[hbrown22]

I found this when researching my area, thought you may be interested. Title of the paper is "A Paleoindian Manufacturing and Habitation Site in Christian County, KY.

http://heritage.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres...6D-77D00E614D05/266596/Sanders_Adams_Site.pdf

 

[1320]

You're making a rookie mistake in your evaluation of the shelter. There's no way that you can honestly say "it would/wouldn't be this or that because of what you see today.
I mentioned this in your earlier post...you must block out of your mind what you're seeing today. Don't rule in or out any possibilities based on the current water flow that you see today. The creek may or may not have been inside your shelter thousands of years ago. Based on what you've found and where you've found it, one can argue that the creek has had minimal influence on the shelter up to this point. It's really hard to "date" debitage on it's own but based on what you've shown us so far, the artifacts have a Fort Ancient look to them, possibly Woodland.

As far as interpretation of the shelter, you can honestly assume anything you like. The artifacts don't change much from open air sites to rock shelter sites. I will second what Gatorboy has posted regarding usage in terms of time, the shelter may have been used on and off for thousands of years. The concensus in Kentucky archaeology is that rock shelters were not used as permanent "homes". Some of the possibilites: Hunting camp, nut gathering camp, mussel gathering camp, transient camp, bad weather camp, etc. Archaeology also tells us that shelter orientation (North/South, East/West) did not exsist. Three of the best Archaic shelters that I've been in face North...and we're pretty certain that 8,000 years ago it was dang cold in Kentucky.

If you commit to 100 hours of digging in this shelter, chances are you will find one at least one of each category that are commonly found in most shelters across the state:

Arrowhead
Scraper
Drill
Pottery Sherd
Bone
Charcoal
Mussell Shell

And don't let anyone convince you that you're a grave digger or a looter. Stick with it and the rewards are yours. Share and learn, good luck and keep posting! And remember, you're in Clovis country!

 

[GatorBoy]

Mabey summer shelters face north.. stay cooler?
LOL. I'm not a shelter Guy so just going on read info and my own judgment ..good info 1320.
Seems the prevailing wind would have something to do with the decision of which shelter to use if for nothing else to keep the smoke from your fire from filling your shelter.. now I've never read that.. that's just me thinking.

 

[cantcatchafish]

I found this when researching my area, thought you may be interested. Title of the paper is "A Paleoindian Manufacturing and Habitation Site in Christian County, KY.

http://heritage.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres...6D-77D00E614D05/266596/Sanders_Adams_Site.pdf

I have read that and referenced it a few times.

Have you see this yet? It's the "Archeology of Kentucky: An Update Volume 1"

I think it's a good read and it also references the Sanders site.

 

[cantcatchafish]

Here is an update with what is going on since the start of this particular thread.

We have started to dig at the rock shelter and have only made one hole so far, Site A.

The above picture shows how the wall keeps going as the creek cuts away, and it also shows a little bit of our hole.

This picture shows how far we have dug and then we hit some cobble stones. We have since dug past the rocks.

I unfortunately forgot to take a picture of the site before we left, to document our process.

 

[cantcatchafish]

So far we have found two bird points:
View attachment 835962
Pictured Above: Side A
View attachment 835963
Side B
View attachment 835964
Side A
View attachment 835965
Side B
View attachment 835966
View attachment 835967

 

[cantcatchafish]

Broken Point


Broken Point


Broken Point