My Collection From The Excavation Site

[The Grim Reaper]

I posted these pictures on another post, but I thought I would give them their own thread so more people could check them out. As a lot of you know I have been surface hunting a site that has been under excavation by the landowner and an Archy for the past few years and finding the pieces that they are missing in their throw dirt after a good rain. I also used to hunt this site years ago when it was put in garden every year by a man that lived close to it. I have found quite a few very nice artifacts on this site over the past 15 or so years, both by surface hunting and by digging in the trash pits when it was owned by another person than the one who owns it now. This is a Ft Ancient site that has been dated from 950 to 1650 AD.


These first 7 pictures are what I have found in the past 3 years since they started the excavation.

This is the pieces I already had from hunting the garden and digging the trash pits.

 

[*Molly*]

Like I said before Steve, you are gonna need a bigger man~cave. lol.
Excellent finds, congrats.
Thanks for sharin' always like looking through them.

Molly.

 

[Th3rty7]

what a collection! you've done really well, great variety of ft ancient flint, bone, pottery and stone.

 

[JimBeHuntin']

Great finds and awesome displays ... some nice history there!

 

[seger98]

Nice finds dorkfish, very impressive frames!

 

[quito]

That is a very impressive assortment from that one site. I can't get over the amount of bone beads, and other bone. What kind of soils do you have out there that preserves so well?

Thanks for showing it here.

Joel

 

[central MO rock stars]

that is some really nice finds

 

[Pinellas Man]

Wow That is a very nice collection

 

[Tnmountains]

I stand in awe. The site had to be on a creek or river right? Congratulations on putting it all together and sharing.
TnMountains

 

[Muddy Feet]

Wow! Thats a very impressive display. Looks like you have your own museum.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Thanks guys and gals. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but that's just the tip of the iceberg of my Ft Ancient artifacts. I got hooked on hunting Ft Ancient sites around 1985 and have never looked back. The diversity of artifacts you find there is juts short of amazing. I have 4 sites that I can hunt and all of them are within a 15 or 20 minute drive of my house so after a good rain it's always a big decision on just which one I hit.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

That is a very impressive assortment from that one site. I can't get over the amount of bone beads, and other bone. What kind of soils do you have out there that preserves so well?

Thanks for showing it here.

Joel

The soil at most of the Ft Ancient sites I hunt is very sandy with a clay base. The site these pieces came from is no different. The top is a mixture of good loamy topsoil and sand and when you get down so far you hit a solid clay base that is almost impossible to dig through.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

I stand in awe. The site had to be on a creek or river right? Congratulations on putting it all together and sharing.
TnMountains

Actually, this site sits up on a high bluff above the flood plain and about 3/4 of a mile from the nearest river. There is a very small runoff that runs close to the site, but whether or not it was there 1000 years ago who knows. It is very flat on top of the site with a very steep dropoff on all sides down about 50 feet to the flood plain. We have hunted the fields in the bottoms quite a few times and you don't even hardly find any flint chips down there. I have never found a point or even a broken piece of a point down there.

This link will take you a site where you can read the book about the site which was published back in 1917 in the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly. It's a long read, but very informative with lots of really nice pictures.

http://books.google.com/books?id=gv...X&oi=book_result&resnum=2&ct=result#PPA303,M1

 

[silvercop]

nice finds thanks for the pics

 

[josh34]

Sweet collection!

 

[ohio]

Steve, nice stuff to say the least. Interesting to see the Adena points, archaic bifurcate base, and intrusive mound base. In the second pic from the top what is the black item to the right of the Jack's reef base and bone pin (right of center)? I like seeing collections like these as it really helps paint a picture of these folk's ancient lifeways. Thanks.
Chuck

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Steve, nice stuff to say the least. Interesting to see the Adena points, archaic bifurcate base, and intrusive mound base. In the second pic from the top what is the black item to the right of the Jack's reef base and bone pin (right of center)? I like seeing collections like these as it really helps paint a picture of these folk's ancient lifeways. Thanks.
Chuck

Thanks Ohio. The black piece you asked about is another base off of an Archaic Bifurcate Point which I believe is a St Albans type. If you check that link I put on a couple posts up you can see all of the Archaic, Hopewell, and Adena pieces that were found on the site so this bluff was either occupied for thousands of years or the Ft Ancient people that lived there found these items and brought them into the village.

 

[newnan man]

Great stuff, looks like the ol Arch is not too focused on the job. Maybe there is a cute undergraduate working near! You always have great pics, thanks!

 

[Tnmountains]

I read that book link you posted...Skull gorgets, effigys and Mormons? That is wild. What really cool history surrounds that place. Have you ever found any copper I would have to hunt that every chance I had. Thanks for the link it was great. I always study arcky reports
TnMountains

 

[The Grim Reaper]

You're welcome Tnmountains. I figured you'd like that link. I've never found anything copper on that site, but I do have some copper Beads from another Ft Ancient site that I hunt. A buddy of mine has a copper snake effigy that he found on the site we find the Beads.