June 1: From Walking to Crawling

Once we completed the systematic survey of the field, we had a good idea of the areas where people once lived and worked. Within those zones of artifacts, we started what is known as a crawling survey—a highly detailed review of the kinds of artifacts and changes in amounts and kinds of artifacts. Students criss-crossed small areas, and in some cases literally crawled! A fairly common part of early historic southeastern Native American towns appears to have been a plaza. The plaza was a large open space where many people could gather to meet and perform important activities such as dances. How would a plaza be visible archaeologically? A lower density of artifacts might occur in the plaza because they were usually kept clean of debris. The plaza was usually surrounded by different kinds of structures, including houses, so we would expect to see more artifacts at the edge of the plaza where structures were. By searching intensively for every visible artifact, students began to define areas of higher and lower concentrations that give us an initial idea of the town plan. This is very careful work, and students made some great finds of artifacts that were not observed during the systematic survey.

Diana Fuller searches
carefully for artifacts.

In the lab, students started looking at different ways to alter the surface of a vessel. The ceramics of this region often have smoothed surfaces and are smudged. Smudging is the use of a smoky fire to darken the surface of a pot. Early English accounts of traders and visitors to this region recount how the ceramics were a dark color. Other kinds of decoration include incising and paddle stamping. Different kinds of incising were done to the pottery—sometimes sharp, deep slashes, other times wider grooves that were partially smoothed over. A large area of the southeast US has a long tradition of using paddles to shape, decorate, and seal the exterior of vessels. Many times, these paddles were carved with designs, which then left an impression on the vessel surface. The beautiful, complex designs are, in a word, “impressive”!

May 31: Blazin’ Trails

On the second day, we were greeted with blazing heat again. Nevertheless, we began a systematic survey of the field in which the site is located. Previous work in the area had recovered Spanish artifacts from excavations, but the exact size and nature of the site had not been recorded in detail. One of the best ways to get the “big picture” of the site is to do a pedestrian survey. Students spaced themselves about 12’ (4m) apart and walked along an east-west orientation from one end of the field to the other. We covered every inch of the field in several transects (traverses from one end of the field to the other). Some areas had excellent visibility because a crop of winter wheat had been harvested recently. Other areas had a thicker growth of fescue grass and weeds. In these areas, students brushed plants to the side to look for bare ground.

Valerie Hall points out a reed punctate sherd

The goal for each surveyor was to note the presence and kind of artifacts visible on the surface. One of the most common indicators of human activities in the area was fire-cracked rock. These rocks were reddish and were irregularly fractured, possibly from heating in a hearth or for cooking. Students also observed ceramics, lithics, bone, and shell. Students marked the presence of artifacts with surveyor’s flags or flagging tape.

We observed a typical levee-backswamp formation for the Nolichucky River channel and that the highest concentration of artifacts occurred on a relatively flat plain between the natural river levee and the backswamp. Also, smaller scatters of artifacts occurred well removed from the main area of occupation, though at a much lower density. By the end of the day, we still had one hilltop and the edge of the field to survey.

In the lab, students began to work with pottery, learning about wares—the mix of clay and temper to make ceramics. Clays vary quite a bit from one source to another because of local differences in geology and weathering. Most clays also need temper—additional materials such as sand, grit, or shell to help the clay withstand the heat of firing without cracking or shattering. The amounts and kinds of temper can be different in different regions. The ware gives archaeologists one way to look at change over time or from region to region.

Lorelei Schak makes
friends with a butterfly

May 30: Getting Acquainted

The theme of the first day of the field school was "getting acquainted." The first meeting of field school students took place in the gazebo at Nolichucky Bluffs, where we went over the history project investigations, reviewed important procedures, and introduced ourselves. Many of the students are Anthropology majors or graduate students in ISU’s Master’s Program in Archaeology, but undergraduate majors also include History and Renewable Energy and Native American Studies minors. A few had attended field schools before, but East Tennessee was new to all of them.

We all pitched in to organize the lab area and were glad that we had a cool retreat from the record-breaking heat. The temperature was about 10 degrees above typical temperatures for this time of year. One of the most important pieces of archaeological field equipment is not a trowel or a shovel, but the field notebook. Students labeled their notebooks, numbered the pages, and organized the table of contents. Field notes are the place to record initial impressions, details of the conditions of fieldwork, and the basic day-to-day work, such as survey and excavation activities. It is also the place where each person keeps track of any photographs he or she takes, the provenience of artifacts excavated, and the discoveries of survey.

The last place we started to get to know was the site for this year’s investigations, 40GN9 in Greene County, Tennessee. Students got a chance to take a casual stroll through the field, and they found the site right away!

Later that evening, we gathered together for a Memorial Day cookout. Neil Cech and Steve Scheflow grilled some excellent burgers. The porch of their cabin has a magnificent view of the Nolichucky River and was the perfect setting to enjoy a chat and share a delicious meal.

2011 Field School Information

This year, the field school dates are May 30 to July 1. Please join us! You can email inquiries to ksampec@ilstu.edu

Mini Video: The End is Just the Beginning

The Thrill of Backfill

One of the least glamorous jobs in archaeology is also one of the most important. It is rare for excavations to remain open because the freshly exposed surfaces are vulnerable. The layers of soil removed by excavation were a protective blanket that lessened the damage of wind and water erosion as well as the destructive actions of living organisms (plants and animals, including humans). A good way to protect excavated sites is to backfill, or re-fill the areas of investigation with soil. In our excavations, we backfilled with either a bright red clay or a sandy soil with lots of cobbles (river-smoothed stones). Even the small features, such as the postmolds shown below, were filled with bits of plastic or tyvek and bright red clay.

These unusual soils and materials are easy to distinguish from the typical deposits of the site area, so the backfill is a marker for the limits of our investigations. With these markers to guide us, we can be assured that in future seasons we will indeed be breaking new ground.

Presentation at Cherokee

This year the members of our field school had the unique opportunity and privilege of presenting our research and findings to the community at Cherokee, North Carolina. Each student chose a subject of their interest related to our work at the site, and researched that topic over the course of several weeks. The subjects ranged from determining household usage of vessels from variations in form and design, interpreting soil discoloration to conclude the existence of long gone structures, to the cooperation of historical account with archaeological evidence to inform one another about the past. The material was then pulled together visually on posters like the one to the right on vessel form by Liz.

The event drew a good crowd for a Thursday afternoon and proved to be an excellent means for bringing the

research of the Yellow

House Site to

the local community. To the left, Jessica uses artifacts from our site to discuss lithic crafting methods with a visitor. In the other, Jenna goes over features found in this and previous years’ units.