Indian Artifact Help??

[EC.Mason]

Ive been digging artifacts in a large rockhouse. In the middle of the rock house is what looks like a dirt mound. In this mound(as I call it; I really dont know if it was purposely built) I have found hundreds of pieces of flint; shell; bone; ash; arrowheads; and pottery. I also found three old corn cobs. Now I thought that maybe rats or something had brought them in, but they were down with the other artifacts and they were smaller then modern corn. They were found in very sandy dirt. Could these be the remains of corn (maize) ate by Indians hundreds of years ago? I have no idea if they would last that long without rotting but there is no farms close by for an animal to drag it from, and it is a very hard walk to get to the rockhouse from where potential farm land could have been in the near future even for an animal. What do you guys think? Any help would be greatly appriciated

 

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[Martingeetars]

Carving looks like the remnients of a rebel flag ,or confederate however you like it, you did say it was occupied by either or! Just my imagination!

 

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[EC.Mason]

There was suposenly a Confederate camp in this area, that was later taken over by the Union. There was also small skirmishes in the cliffs were this rock house was located; and according to rumor the rock house was used by one side or the other though Im not sure which. Never thought about the Confederate flag. That is interesting.

 

[ohioaxeman]

Carving looks like the remnients of a rebel flag ,or confederate however you like it, you did say it was occupied by either or! Just my imagination!

That is VERY interesting now! You should look more into that EC Mason.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

From the looks of what you have posted I would venture to say your shelter is middle Woodland in age. The Points all have a Hopewell look to them and I don't see anything that looks Ft Ancient. Does the Pottery Shards you are finding have white specks of Mussell Shell in them for the tempering agent? If not, then it is Hopewell type Pottery and more than likely Grit Tempered.

Your pieces look like typical Midden/Trash Pit items tossed away after a meal or after items are broken like the damaged points and broken Pottery. Some of these Middens can be very deep. If there were any Ft Ancient pieces to be found you would hit them first since they would been on top of the Hopewell layer. Make sure you check all of the Bone and Deer Antler pieces you find for evidence of sharpening or drilling to see if they were used as Tools or Ornaments.

Good luck digging. It's a lot of work but sometimes it pays off very nicely.

Here's some typical pieces from a Ft Ancient village and midden site. These are all from the same site.

 

[1320]

The long slender "rock" looks like a pestle!

 

[EC.Mason]

Thanks SRV for the info. Man you really found some nice pieces in that rockhouse! I would love to find something like that.

1320 what exactly is a pestle? Tried to find some info on the internet but got different things. Thanks again.

 

[hombre_de_plata_flaco]

Keep diggin' man, and don't worry about those vines. They are just Kudzu and Virginia Creeper - not Poison Ivy.

 

[Tnmountains]

looks like poison ivy to me, and lots of it!

It is Virginia creeper not poison ivy. The best finds are in the trash pits. It is also where they buried their dead,,but not always. It was just easy and quick to scoop out a hole in the refuse piles. Kentucky pottery seems to be always a grey to brown color. Closer in to Tennessee it starts turning red from the clay.
Keep digging. I wonder what they were tempering with. Either shell or limestone is my guess. Nice finds. Lots of history in those midens.

 

[1320]

http://www.westernartifacts.com/tools.htm

 

[olroy70]

Looked like Virginia Creeper to me!

Nice stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[EC.Mason]

I still have a lot of digging left, so hopefully I will be able to find more points to fill up those cases! I plan on trying to dig tomorrow. Seems like I havnt had any time in the last week or so.

I was looking through the bone I had found, and I found two bones that both had small holes in them. Maybe for a necklace or other jewerly? Or it may be natural dont really know. I will take and post some pictures later and maybe you guys can help me out.

 

[tmodel]

in your frist photo the long light colored piece on top left of bone pile looks worked to me. if you look close at Srv`s!! secand photo the three pieces on the bottom they are the type i thank your piece is. that circle out of that three inch piece of flint could have been caused a to hard hit while napping the piece or even a farm tool hiting it, forget about circle and name by the rest of it, scrapper looks good to me. the square stone with indentions in both faces could be a small nutting stone. if the holes in your two bone pieces are good and round they most likely are artifacts, when you post your bones with holes will you please incloud that bone piece i was talking about, and maybe use micro setting on camera, that would help every body see the marks on the pieces, the need to see around the holes good.