Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 27, 1993 TAG: 9306270045
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: HURT LENGTH: Medium
These remnants of a Saponi Indian settlement on the Staunton River near Hurt, where a power plant is being built, may take a year or more to analyze.
Chief archaeologist Mike Barber estimates at least some of the artifacts date back to about 1650 or 1670, around the time the Saponis first encountered Europeans.
Much of the information about the lives of the Saponi comes from hollows that were used for food storage and hearths, and in some cases, eventually filled in as garbage pits.
Although the Saponi apparently hunted and gathered food from the wild, they also were farmers who probably stayed in one spot for 15 to 20 years, then moved on as the soil was depleted and firewood became scarce.
The artifacts recovered show the tribe ate corn, mussels, deer, turtles, beans, squash and fish.
The dig also found some evidence of European contact, including glass beads and bits of copper ornaments.
"This is an exciting time - when the Indians are meeting the Europeans," said Barber, of Preservation Technologies, the company hired by Multitrade of Pittsylvania County to do an archaeological survey and supervise excavation of the site. Multitrade will build a cogeneration plant there.
The site "is certainly unique for the area. The quality of the site and preservation . . . I'm quite sure it would qualify as a national historical site."
Although only part of the settlement has been unearthed, Barber said, the materials found will give archaeologists much more information about the Saponi, a tribe from which little remains but abandoned settlements and buried artifacts.
Under layers of soil, archaeologists found tools, including quartz arrowheads, bone awls, fishhooks, scrapers for fleshing hides, and stone hoe blades.
Among the indications of contact with white settlers were tiny blue glass beads, bits of copper and bones from pigs, a European animal.
Perry Tourtellotte, a local archaeologist who worked as field director at the dig, said archaeologists found at the site a "snapshot" of a way of life that changed radically.
"We think they had a pretty good life until the Europeans came along," he said. "Then all hell broke loose. With these artifacts came disease. . . . Their whole way of life changed radically."
Scattered through the site were 17 burial sites - 16 for adults and one child's grave, Barber said. Scientists at Radford University are examining the skeletons for clues about their health and death.
Other artifacts from the recently finished dig are being examined by specialists in ceramics and botany, and the dig's discoveries may take a year or more to analyze.
Some of the pottery shards had painted designs, and archaeologists haven't found anything like them anywhere else in Virginia, Tourtellotte said.
The process means scrubbing the dirt off artifacts with a toothbrush and sorting through piles of debris looking for the bits of evidence worth saving: pieces of animal bone, broken bits of clay pipes, shards of pottery.
"Indiana Jones is just all the glamour," Tourtellotte said. "This is all the work."
Once studies of the artifacts and skeletal remains are finished, Barber said he will oversee compilation of a report on the finds.
State officials will decide the fate of the human remains - whether they are kept for further study or reburied - and the artifacts will be turned over to the Department of Natural Resources, Barber said.
Construction of the plant began in November 1992 and is expected to be completed in February 1994, said Multitrade spokesman August Wallmeyer. He said the dig will not delay completion of the project.
by CNB