Pottery in the woods

[BobGuy]

A family member bought some property a few years ago so I decided to do some exploring in the woods this morning. While I was out I noticed a small mound of dirt and after looking closer I realized that it was covered in pottery shards. I can't believe I haven't seen this before.

The mound is only a couple of feet high and sits at the bottom of a steep hill where trash has been dumped for I would say at least the last 50 years. What do you think it could be? A heap of Native American trash? A pile of dirt someone dumped that just so happened to have pottery? I don't know a lot about the way the natives actually lived so I don't have any idea what this would actually be.

After finding this, I began to look around for other evidence. I noticed that there is a berm that forms a semicircle off of a section of this hill side. There is a break in the berm in the middle of it where you can walk through. Based on the trees that are growing out of this I would say it is at least 50 years old as well. I tried to take a panorama but it is hard to see.

So there is a steep hill that trash has been dumped over for the last 50 years. A small mound of dirt littered with pottery shards and a hundred yard, or so, long berm forming a semicircle up against this hill. The small mound is outside of the berm. Any thoughts? Are the two related? Would the natives have made a berm like structure or is it most likely modern?

 

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[TheGoldProspector]

and i would not call anyone if you do come across bones....just cover em back up and shut ur mouth ....u will open up pandoras box there .....99% common sense tells you ....its an indian...duh especially if youve picked up an artifact....farmers plow em out ocassionally in farming...some r shallow

Native American

 

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[beadman2]

yea native american ....whatever one wants to say....(indigenous people)...that too

 

[Slingshot]

Possible mound, some were made in serpent form and will wind around, they also were known to build earthen walls with stick palisades on top around village sites. Some even had moats on the outsides of the walls. Many of the Native Americans tribes in the Eastern Woodlands buried the bones of their dead, after the flesh was gone, in large fired clay pots, and these containers of human remains were often buried in the mounds. One way to tell a Native American skull from other races is that they had shoveled front teeth, which means the backs of their front teeth are kind of hollowed, like a shovel. Easy to spot once you've seen them, and you can probably find a pic on the net.

 

[beadman2]

uh slingshot i just felt my tooth its kind of hollow on back side like a shovel....does that mean im of native american decent....it cant cause im german...i dont think that can discern anything ....i would say that all the other evidence you find points to what kind of culture your dealing with...and what culture of the eastern woodlands bury their dead in large potery vessels (just curious)...ive never heard of that....mound builders or owasco or hopwellan...?....the only unusual burials i know of is some of the huron burials or ossuaries

 

[NCPeaches]

I was just reading something about burial urns and the Pee Dee culture in North Carolina around 950 CE. People first started making distinctive pottery, decorating vessels with a unique group of geometric stamped designs. Some were large urns used for burial — people of the Pee Dee culture cremated some adults and infants and put their ashes in the large clay urns.

But I'm not saying what BobGuy found were those kind of urns. They could be anywhere, even washing out into my creek where I'm finding tons of them and a few bones but I think they are animal bones and the nly skull I've found was a dog type skull.

 

[BobGuy]

This is all very helpful! I even checked the back of my teeth just to make sure that I am not a Native American.

 

[beadman2]

well i wasnt saying that no culture hasnt done that method of burial....i meant more here in ny ....i really havent heard of it here with any north east woodland cultures...usually they r buried in the ground in different flexed positions....facing east ...i asume for the rising sun....some have been known to have been burned...and some with mutiple burials....and some in mounds usually asssociated with the mound building culture

 

[beadman2]

lol bobguy....i checked mine im clearly not native american although i do exhibit the same strange shoveled teeth

 

[NCPeaches]

well i wasnt saying that no culture hasnt done that method of burial....i meant more here in ny ....i really havent heard of it here with any north east woodland cultures...usually they r buried in the ground in different flexed positions....facing east ...i asume for the rising sun....some have been known to have been burned...and some with mutiple burials....and some in mounds usually asssociated with the mound building culture

I've seen some like what you are talking about beadman2 in south Georgia, the Kolomoki Mounds.

 

[-=METAL=-]

Interesting stuff. And beadman, care to share your ghost story? I'd love to hear it.

 

[rock]

If I thought there was a chance of any human bones being buried I would go the other way and avoid the area all together. I don't believe in disturbing them. I like points but not that way. I will take mine on the top soil. Field grade is fine with me.

 

[beadman2]

well it was late fall last year and i was at one of my fav seneca iroquois sites...the leaves were very crunchy we all know that sound in the woods right?...this is a pallisaded site that sits very promminatly above the creek...i was over the bank scratchin in one of my fav dumps...well as i was intently searching the black dirt i heard crunch crunch faintly behind me and thought to myself those sounded like footsteps ...but i was so focused in my frenzy i disregarded....then i heard it again crunch crunch but louder ...looked behind me nobody and nothing...i was like oh stop it ghosty...went back to scratchin tried to put it out of my head ...after about 15min or so out of now where i heard crash crash crash and this buck come flyin through the woods and almost hit me ....i was wow wtf and my heart was racing ...i gained my composure and went back to scratchin ...god knows im obsessed and addicted to all this...then out of nowhere i heard crunch crunch crunch right freakin behind me that sounded so clearly like my own footsteps i make in the woods....i was like ok i think this has been a good day ...guess i better get home ....and i headed down off the ridge and back to my truck

 

[beadman2]

i dont care what anyone says i know ghosts exsist ...this is not the first of unexplainable things happening to me either when artifactin or elsewhere...i am a man of reason and science i have tried to debunk as much as i can and a lot i cant....its one thing when its somebody else its another thing when its you...it changes your life forever and the way you think and view things....ive had a lot of wierd animal encounters on sites as well and it just makes you think about a lot of things in life ya know and the way ancient people believed in the spiritual world and how it was so much a part of their lives along with animals

 

[NCPeaches]

i dont care what anyone says i know ghosts exsist ...this is not the first of unexplainable things happening to me either when artifactin or elsewhere...i am a man of reason and science i have tried to debunk as much as i can and a lot i cant....its one thing when its somebody else its another thing when its you...it changes your life forever and the way you think and view things....ive had a lot of wierd animal encounters on sites as well and it just makes you think about a lot of things in life ya know and the way ancient people believed in the spiritual world and how it was so much a part of their lives along with animals

True all that! I've had a few strange animal encounters myself but not any from the other side ... not yet anyway from the natives lol

 

[TheGoldProspector]

i dont care what anyone says i know ghosts exsist ...this is not the first of unexplainable things happening to me either when artifactin or elsewhere...i am a man of reason and science i have tried to debunk as much as i can and a lot i cant....its one thing when its somebody else its another thing when its you...it changes your life forever and the way you think and view things....ive had a lot of wierd animal encounters on sites as well and it just makes you think about a lot of things in life ya know and the way ancient people believed in the spiritual world and how it was so much a part of their lives along with animals

Physical movement of items or carbon based material? Or just heard sound or described sight?
Overall curious what makes zyou believe

 

[unclemac]

it was the wendigo!

 

[NCPeaches]

it was the wendigo!

OMG!!! now unclemac you are gonna make me paranoid!!! It's bad enough knowing the bears are still out and about eeeeeeeekkkkk and we have an unsolved murder about a mile down the road too!! geez!

 

[unclemac]

OMG!!! now unclemac you are gonna make me paranoid!!! It's bad enough knowing the bears are still out and about eeeeeeeekkkkk and we have an unsolved murder about a mile down the road too!! geez!

a couple years ago the neighbor lady disappeared from her house, (we live on heavily wooded acreage) ..had search and rescue out in force tramping through my back forty for a couple of nights with headlamps and flashlights...they found her remains a week or so later off in a different direction...but the plastic tapes they tied on every twig on my property are still there....I give the grandson a nickle for each one he cuts down and brings to me....it still creeps me out.

 

[the_mad_cladder]

the chunks of native pottery I have found are 1/4th of an inch thick or more..... how about these?

 

[NCPeaches]

the chunks of native pottery I have found are 1/4th of an inch thick or more..... how about these?

mad cladder- from what I've researched the thick ones could have been cooking pots. Have you posted them? if not, we would love to see them.