Post by blackcrowheart on Oct 3, 2007 13:42:20 GMT -5
Archaeologists hope to learn more about American Indians in Ark.
Last Update: Jun 3, 2007 1:26 PM
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) - An archaeological group is digging into the
past to find out whether American Indians traveled to the Ouachita
Mountains to get novaculite, or traded with their contemporaries living
in the area for tools made from the rock.
A team will begin excavation on a tool-making workshop site Monday at a
site on the Ouachita River in Jones Mill to learn more about the people
who lived and worked there 6,000 years ago.
"What I want to find out is whether the people that were there were
local or visitors," said Mary Beth Trubitt, director of 2007 excavations
with the Arkansas Archaeological Society. "Did people ... from what is
now Mississippi and Louisiana ... come up here directly to get their
rocks for their tools, or did people living here make them and trade
them?"
Trubitt spoke Wednesday at the Hot Springs National Park Rotary Club's
weekly meeting.
She said the archaeologists will use the excavation to learn more about
how American Indians made chipped stone tools, and whether they were
traded or not, during the Archaic Period, particularly between 4000 and
1000 B.C.
Archaeologists have found tools made from Ouachita Mountain novaculite
at excavation sites in the area and as far away as Mississippi and
Louisiana, she said.
"This means that these people there, and here, are connected in ways
that we usually don't think of," she said.
American Indian tool making took place at different sites, she said
giving examples of mine sites, quarry sites, village sites and workshop
sites.
"From quarries we can learn how the rock was mined, when it was used
(and) what part of the tool-making sequence took place at the quarries
and what part took place elsewhere," she said.
Trubitt said she hypothesized that part of the tool-making process took
place at the quarry, because novaculite is typically found on top of
ridges and it would have been difficult to bring large stones down to
the valleys.
She said archaeologists can look and learn about novaculite tool making
at the quarries, but they also need to look at other kinds sites to
understand the full range of activities involved, like how it was
transported.
"Tool making is reductive ... (and) because of this, the manufacturing
waste is present," she said, adding that archeologists look for
novaculite waste to pinpoint sites, especially village and workshop
sites.
She said the Jones Mill site looks like a workshop site, as well as a
place where people lived. There are other places around Hot Springs
similar to the Jones Mill site, she said.
Trubitt said some of the answers they hope to unearth are: "Who is
responsible for these places? Who was sitting there making tools? Is it
folks that were local to the area, who are making tools and trading them
down the Ouachita River, or is it folks from further away ... who are
coming up here and going directly to the quarries, getting raw material
and working the materials into tools?"
An archaeologist working in the Hot Springs area about 100 years ago saw
the Jones Mill site as a workshop site and suggested that American
Indians from down the Ouachita River were coming to the quarries in Hot
Springs and making tools at the Jones Mill site, she said.
Alternatively, Trubitt said she is looking at whether the people at the
site were local, making more tools than they needed themselves and
trading the excess down-river.
The excavation will last through June 24 and will also serve to train
Archaeological Society volunteers.
---
Last Update: Jun 3, 2007 1:26 PM
HOT SPRINGS, Ark. (AP) - An archaeological group is digging into the
past to find out whether American Indians traveled to the Ouachita
Mountains to get novaculite, or traded with their contemporaries living
in the area for tools made from the rock.
A team will begin excavation on a tool-making workshop site Monday at a
site on the Ouachita River in Jones Mill to learn more about the people
who lived and worked there 6,000 years ago.
"What I want to find out is whether the people that were there were
local or visitors," said Mary Beth Trubitt, director of 2007 excavations
with the Arkansas Archaeological Society. "Did people ... from what is
now Mississippi and Louisiana ... come up here directly to get their
rocks for their tools, or did people living here make them and trade
them?"
Trubitt spoke Wednesday at the Hot Springs National Park Rotary Club's
weekly meeting.
She said the archaeologists will use the excavation to learn more about
how American Indians made chipped stone tools, and whether they were
traded or not, during the Archaic Period, particularly between 4000 and
1000 B.C.
Archaeologists have found tools made from Ouachita Mountain novaculite
at excavation sites in the area and as far away as Mississippi and
Louisiana, she said.
"This means that these people there, and here, are connected in ways
that we usually don't think of," she said.
American Indian tool making took place at different sites, she said
giving examples of mine sites, quarry sites, village sites and workshop
sites.
"From quarries we can learn how the rock was mined, when it was used
(and) what part of the tool-making sequence took place at the quarries
and what part took place elsewhere," she said.
Trubitt said she hypothesized that part of the tool-making process took
place at the quarry, because novaculite is typically found on top of
ridges and it would have been difficult to bring large stones down to
the valleys.
She said archaeologists can look and learn about novaculite tool making
at the quarries, but they also need to look at other kinds sites to
understand the full range of activities involved, like how it was
transported.
"Tool making is reductive ... (and) because of this, the manufacturing
waste is present," she said, adding that archeologists look for
novaculite waste to pinpoint sites, especially village and workshop
sites.
She said the Jones Mill site looks like a workshop site, as well as a
place where people lived. There are other places around Hot Springs
similar to the Jones Mill site, she said.
Trubitt said some of the answers they hope to unearth are: "Who is
responsible for these places? Who was sitting there making tools? Is it
folks that were local to the area, who are making tools and trading them
down the Ouachita River, or is it folks from further away ... who are
coming up here and going directly to the quarries, getting raw material
and working the materials into tools?"
An archaeologist working in the Hot Springs area about 100 years ago saw
the Jones Mill site as a workshop site and suggested that American
Indians from down the Ouachita River were coming to the quarries in Hot
Springs and making tools at the Jones Mill site, she said.
Alternatively, Trubitt said she is looking at whether the people at the
site were local, making more tools than they needed themselves and
trading the excess down-river.
The excavation will last through June 24 and will also serve to train
Archaeological Society volunteers.
---