Title

Archaeological artifacts

Creation Date

800 BCE – 1400 CE

Description

Artifacts found during the 2017-2018 Pope County Archaeological Survey.

One hundred thirty-one items were recovered from the site, including ceramics (n=27), lithics (n=14), faunal remains (n=82), and fire-cracked rock (n=8). 

>Ceramics included body sherds (n=18) and spalls (n=9).  Surface texture includes smooth (n=13) or partly smoothed (n=2), fabric or cordmarking (n=8), rolled cord impressions (n=2), and indeterminate (n=2).  One smooth surface sherd that was broken during excavation may have broken along an incised line, suggesting that it could be Late Prehistoric.  The sherds with the rolled cord impressions probably represent the Early to Middle Woodland La Salle Creek (aka Brainerd Horizontally Corded) ware, although there is a chance they could also represent the somewhat later Fox Lake type. One smooth surface sherd that was broken during excavation may have broken along an incised line, suggesting that it could be Late Prehistoric. We can use preliminary estimates of BC 800 to AD 250 for LaSalle Creek, and AD 1000 to AD 1300 or 1400 for the smooth-surface sherd with the possible incised line.

Lithics included tools (n=2), flakes (n=10), and shatter (n=2).  Raw materials include heat-treated Swan River Chert (n=5), Fat Rock Quartz (n=2), Knife River Flint (n=2), Tongue River Silica (n=2), Prairie du Chien Chert (n=1), a material from the Western River Gravels group (n=1), and burned chert (n=1).  A retouched piece of Fat Rock Quarts appears to have two leveled and thinned edges, and could be the corner of a broken biface.  However, flake scars are hard to read on this raw material.  A Knife River Flint flake, mostly cortical on the dorsal surface, has intermittent marginal retouch on both faces.

The faunal remains included reptilian (n=35), mammalian (n=20) and unidentified (n-27) bone fragments.  All the reptilian bones fragments are turtle shell, likely representing several individuals.  Most of the mammalian bone fragments seem to come from large mammals, although some kind of small mammal is also represented by the charred end of a long bone.  Several other pieces are also charred or calcined, as are some of the bone fragments not identified as to taxon.