Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 21, 1995 TAG: 9507210016
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SHEBA WHEELER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ARNOLD VALLEY LENGTH: Medium
By the way Kimberly Lowe's eyes shone with excitement, one would think the object she held in her dirt-stained hands was an expensive ruby or diamond.
The 19-year-old assistant archaelogist smiled. She wiped her sweat-covered brow with the back of her hand, unconsciously swatted a mosquito and began to gingerly wipe away particles of centuries-old dirt from the chipped object.
"Here, take a look at it in the light," Lowe said, holding up an arrow-shaped piece of jasper worn down almost to a nub by years of use and decay. "It's a spear point dated between 8 [thousand] and 9,000 years old."
The American Indian spear point Lowe held in her hands is an intricate and delicate piece of history that will help her re-create one instance from an otherwise silent past.
Almost 10,000 years ago, an American Indian sat by the fire and labored for hours, tediously hacking and chipping away at a piece of rock until it was shaped into a useful tool. It was placed on the end of a spear and mostly likely was used for hunting deer and larger game. And finally, after some months of use, the spear point was discarded.
Thousands of years of rain and dirt buried the spear point deep in the soft ground of what has become Arnold Valley, in the George Washington and Jefferson National Forests in Rockbridge County. And after a few days of careful digging, the ancient artifact was unearthed.
"It's nice to have a continuity about our past," Lowe said. "We know absolutely nothing about the Indians who lived here. The only way we can learn about them is through analyzing the materials they left behind."
Lowe, a fifth-generation Roanoker, is one of 50 people who participated in the four-week archaeological dig sponsored mainly by the Science Museum of Western Virginia and the U.S. Forest Service. The summer archaeological project cost $3,500, and this is the eighth year volunteers have participated in the dig.
Thursday was the last day of the excavation at the 5,000-year-old Native American quarry site in Arnold Valley.
Little is known about the prehistoric tribe named the Tutelo, who lived west of the Blue Ridge Mountains in what is now Virginia. The only historical account of them is in the logs of two European explorers who encountered them as they traveled from Petersburg across the Blue Ridge in search of the ocean in the fall of 1671.
When Europeans settled in the western part of Virginia in the 1740s or 1750s, the Native Americans had vanished.
Over the years, archaeologists noticed a proliferation of hunting sites in the Arnold Valley. Three years ago they discovered an important source of jasper, which Indians used to made blades and spear points. That persuaded them to begin excavating the area.
Archaeologists arbitrarily decide to excavate an area 2.5 feet square where they think artifacts may be found. Volunteers then scrape away level upon level of dirt, slowly revealing shards of flint and quartzite, which will be analyzed, categorized and catalogued and stored in a laboratory or exhibited.
Volunteers such as George Khoury and his 14-year-old daughter, Meg, came from New Jersey to participate in the dig. Khoury teaches history and enjoys any opportunity to be what he calls a "dirt hog."
"You fantasize that you're in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt," Khoury said. "You hope that the one trowel of dirt that you are sifting might yield something significant. You learn how to be meticulous about dirt and putting things back the way nature had it," Khoury said.
Nature flourished around the volunteers as they worked and dreamed of the ancient people who can be known only by the instruments they created and left behind.
Gene Barfield of the National Forest Service, the head archaeologist of the dig, said he hopes to instill in volunteers the value of prehistoric culture and heritage. By analyzing the artifacts, Barfield hopes to unlock and preserve the secrets of the past.
"The only way we have to understand these people and their past ways of life is through the materials we excavate and analyze," Barfield said. "Every object we find is a nonrenewable resource - and once it is destroyed, it is forever lost."
by CNB