Some Pieces From A Woodland Village

[The Grim Reaper]

These all came from a small Woodland Village site I have been hunting for quite a few years. The site itself is situated right on the high bank of the Ohio River in the corner of a very large field. It is only about 80 yards long by about 25 yards wide and is littered with Pottery, Flint, Bone, Shell, and Fire Cracked Rock. I had hunted this spot for many years with limited success until 1995 when a group of student archaeologists did a dig there for two summers in a row. The field set for a few years without being turned until 2003 and then the farmer starting plowing it again and the pieces really started to pop up then. Most of what you see in the tray was found in the past few years since the dig was finished. I guess they must have disturbed the site and brought these pieces up while they were digging and just missed them.

The first picture is of the entire tray of best pieces I have found there, including two Stone Discs, some Bone Tools, and many points and knifes.

The other pics are closeups of the better pieces, including the best Bi Pointed Knife I own. This baby is paper thin and a real beauty to behold. There are also three other Bi Pointed Knifes, two Lowe Points, four Hopewell Points, and three Jacks Reef Pentagonals.

 

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[tomclark]

Awesome collection from one site, "one" time period!!!! I have a similar one from West Coast FL woodland site. Very valuable research for point types, use, assorted tools, etc. I know that ain't all you got from there, LOL
Happy Hunting,
Tom

 

[creekhunter]

Yeah Steve! What do you think the material is on that bi-point, it has an awesome bullseye

 

[*Molly*]

Steve, always look forward to seeing your finds, excellent, especially the large knife.

Molly.

 

[Atlantis0077]

Afternoon,

You have some nice stuff there. No telling what else is laying just below the surface. Might trying to do some limited digs yourself. The only problem with waiting on the plow is that it tends to destroy as much as it uncovers.

Happy Hunting,

Atlantis

 

[MarkDz]

Wow, that's a beautiful grouping...
What do you think those stone discs would be for? Game pieces?

 

[Cannonman17]

You have some REALLY nice quality pieces there- the color variance is nice!

I'm sure they didn't dig these up and "miss" them- Did they excavate the entire field? No.. typically only a small fraction of an archaeological site gets excavated. Even large famous sites are like this... like Cahokia, I think something like less than 2% of the entire site has been excavated but I would imagine if it was bought and plowed up somebody somewhere would say, wow! look at all the stuff the archies couldn't find. Sorry- just wanted to set the record straight there. I've worked on a few sites in Wisconsin where our field school collectively only excavated perhaps 20 square meters at some sites in fields along creeks where I am sure artifacts are still being turned up by the plow.

 

[Doc Martin]

that is very impressive - makes me want to take my next vacation in Ohio! I definitely agree that you dig some, no telling what is further down and as yet unscathed by a plow. As for the arch digs - 2 of my favorite pieces were found in a great aunt's garden just 2 weeks after the University of Georgia team had gone through it - I always wondered how they could miss a spear (?) point that was 3.5 inches long and lying on top of the soil. So much for feeling special

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Awesome collection from one site, "one" time period!!!! I have a similar one from West Coast FL woodland site. Very valuable research for point types, use, assorted tools, etc. I know that ain't all you got from there, LOL
Happy Hunting,
Tom

Thanks Tom. I do have a few more pieces from the site, but mostly just broken points, crude tools, and pieces of Pottery.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Yeah Steve! What do you think the material is on that bi-point, it has an awesome bullseye

It is made from a very nice piece of high quality Carter Cave Flint. There are a few other points in the tray made from Carter as well.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Steve, always look forward to seeing your finds, excellent, especially the large knife.

Molly.

Thanks Molly. I always look forward to seeing your post as well.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Wow, that's a beautiful grouping...
What do you think those stone discs would be for? Game pieces?

Thanks Mark.

Yeah, that is the general concensus on these Stone Discs. I have quite a few from different sites in my area and some are stone and some are Pottery.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

You have some REALLY nice quality pieces there- the color variance is nice!

I'm sure they didn't dig these up and "miss" them- Did they excavate the entire field? No.. typically only a small fraction of an archaeological site gets excavated. Even large famous sites are like this... like Cahokia, I think something like less than 2% of the entire site has been excavated but I would imagine if it was bought and plowed up somebody somewhere would say, wow! look at all the stuff the archies couldn't find. Sorry- just wanted to set the record straight there. I've worked on a few sites in Wisconsin where our field school collectively only excavated perhaps 20 square meters at some sites in fields along creeks where I am sure artifacts are still being turned up by the plow.

Cannonman17, I understand what you're saying, but it's just strange that before the excavation we didn't find anything of this nature in this field. We found a few points and scrapers on occasion, but no Pottery, Bone Tools, or anything of that nature until after the dig. If you look at that tray there are only about 5 or 6 points in there that came before the dig and the rest were from after the dig and I have buddies who have found a few killers there as well since the dig so I guess we just assumed it was all exposed by the excavation.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Atlantis0077 and Doc Martin, I would love to be able to dig there, but it was hard enough getting permmision from the new landowner just to surface hunt so I know he would never go for any digging. He will only let us hunt right after it is plowed and once they run the disc through it and plant we are not allowed in because he says it "tromps down the dirt" and I'm not going to argue with him even though we all know he full of $#&$. They never even touched it this year because of all the rain we had in the spring and I was just by there yesterday and it's all grown up in weeds so I guess he's not going to plant at all this season. Hopefully next year he'll turn it under.

By the way, this is how I got permission to hunt there. The first time I stopped by his house to ask him he was setting in his garage with a couple of other guys drinking some beers. I introduced myself and asked him for permission and he said he have to think about it and to come back in a few days and he'd let me know. I noticed he was drinking Bud Light, so on my way back to his house I stopped and bought a 12 pack and went and knocked on his door and handed him the 12 pack and said no matter what his decision I wanted him to have the beer. We sat and drank a couple of beers together and talked for a while and he said I seemed like a good guy and that I could hunt his fields but to always let him know I'm going out there. I always stop by his house to let him know I'm heading out to the field and if he's not home, I don't go out. He respects me for that and I respect his wishes so we get along great.