Post by blackcrowheart on Jan 11, 2008 14:10:40 GMT -5
Ancient Indian artifacts dug up in Mississippi Sunday, December 16, 2007
www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/dec/16/ancient-indian-artifact\
s-dug-up-in-miss/
<http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/dec/16/ancient-indian-artifac\
ts-dug-up-in-miss/>
HATTIESBURG -- Long before tanks rumbled along dusty roads and field
artillerists zeroed in on distant targets in the vast piney woods of
Mississippi's Camp Shelby, the bow and arrow was the weapon of choice
for the area's ancient inhabitants.
Native American tribes, probably ancestors of today's Mississippi Band
of Choctaws, hunted the forests and fished the creeks within the 136,000
acres that now encompass the nation's largest reserve component training
site, about 12 miles south of Hattiesburg.
Carved out of the De Soto National Forest in portions of Perry and
Forrest counties and activated as a training camp in 1917, the site was
named in honor of Issac Shelby -- Indian fighter, Revolutionary War hero
and the first governor of Kentucky. About 100,000 military personnel
train annually at the site today.
Archaeological excavations at sites north of Shelby's modern-day
cantonment area, however, have unearthed arrow heads, shards, stone
tools, baked clay cooking pit, other artifacts and organic evidence of
ancient Native American activity there.
"We think some of the roasting pits with burned clay are pre-ceramic,
before the invention of pottery, dating the sites to somewhere between
2000 to 1500 years B.C.," said Rita Fields, Mississippi Military
Department cultural resource manager.
Responsible for the identification and protection of historic structures
and archaeological sites on Mississippi National Guard property around
the state, Fields discovered four Camp Shelby sites during
timber-clearing operations following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Loggers
were shooed away from the historic sites, located along a creek that
snakes through the area.
Fields, a Collins native and 2001 graduate of the master's degree
program in anthropology at the University of Southern Mississippi,
called upon her former mentor in the university's anthropology and
sociology department, Ed Jackson, for help in investigating the Camp
Shelby sites. Jackson quickly responded.
Under a student internship program and partnership with Camp Shelby,
Jackson organized USM anthropology students to handle field excavations
and laboratory analysis. Jackson and Fields co-direct the ongoing work.
Jackson said "prehistoric features" were found at two sites in 2006,
including arrow heads. It wasn't until early 2007, however, that Jackson
and Fields used remote sensing, or "ground radar."
Bryan Haley of the Center for Archaeological Research at the University
of Mississippi did the remote sensing in September, producing maps that
could better target spots for digging, wrapping up this weekend.
"If remote sensing methods prove to be applicable to the prehistoric
site settings such as those found at Camp Shelby," Jackson said, "the
technology has the potential to provide an important new tool for
evaluating site significance, augmenting presently employed standard
archaeological survey and testing methods."
Once materials are recovered, Jackson said they will be cleaned, labeled
and analyzed at USM's Prehistoric Archaeology Laboratory, then curated
according to Mississippi Military Department procedures.
Fields said a report on the collected data also would be given to the
Mississippi Department of Archives and History and to relevant Native
American tribes.
The sites will be protected from disturbance and training activity,
Fields said, and she hopes to put the sites on the National Register of
Historic Places.
www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/dec/16/ancient-indian-artifact\
s-dug-up-in-miss/
<http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2007/dec/16/ancient-indian-artifac\
ts-dug-up-in-miss/>
HATTIESBURG -- Long before tanks rumbled along dusty roads and field
artillerists zeroed in on distant targets in the vast piney woods of
Mississippi's Camp Shelby, the bow and arrow was the weapon of choice
for the area's ancient inhabitants.
Native American tribes, probably ancestors of today's Mississippi Band
of Choctaws, hunted the forests and fished the creeks within the 136,000
acres that now encompass the nation's largest reserve component training
site, about 12 miles south of Hattiesburg.
Carved out of the De Soto National Forest in portions of Perry and
Forrest counties and activated as a training camp in 1917, the site was
named in honor of Issac Shelby -- Indian fighter, Revolutionary War hero
and the first governor of Kentucky. About 100,000 military personnel
train annually at the site today.
Archaeological excavations at sites north of Shelby's modern-day
cantonment area, however, have unearthed arrow heads, shards, stone
tools, baked clay cooking pit, other artifacts and organic evidence of
ancient Native American activity there.
"We think some of the roasting pits with burned clay are pre-ceramic,
before the invention of pottery, dating the sites to somewhere between
2000 to 1500 years B.C.," said Rita Fields, Mississippi Military
Department cultural resource manager.
Responsible for the identification and protection of historic structures
and archaeological sites on Mississippi National Guard property around
the state, Fields discovered four Camp Shelby sites during
timber-clearing operations following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Loggers
were shooed away from the historic sites, located along a creek that
snakes through the area.
Fields, a Collins native and 2001 graduate of the master's degree
program in anthropology at the University of Southern Mississippi,
called upon her former mentor in the university's anthropology and
sociology department, Ed Jackson, for help in investigating the Camp
Shelby sites. Jackson quickly responded.
Under a student internship program and partnership with Camp Shelby,
Jackson organized USM anthropology students to handle field excavations
and laboratory analysis. Jackson and Fields co-direct the ongoing work.
Jackson said "prehistoric features" were found at two sites in 2006,
including arrow heads. It wasn't until early 2007, however, that Jackson
and Fields used remote sensing, or "ground radar."
Bryan Haley of the Center for Archaeological Research at the University
of Mississippi did the remote sensing in September, producing maps that
could better target spots for digging, wrapping up this weekend.
"If remote sensing methods prove to be applicable to the prehistoric
site settings such as those found at Camp Shelby," Jackson said, "the
technology has the potential to provide an important new tool for
evaluating site significance, augmenting presently employed standard
archaeological survey and testing methods."
Once materials are recovered, Jackson said they will be cleaned, labeled
and analyzed at USM's Prehistoric Archaeology Laboratory, then curated
according to Mississippi Military Department procedures.
Fields said a report on the collected data also would be given to the
Mississippi Department of Archives and History and to relevant Native
American tribes.
The sites will be protected from disturbance and training activity,
Fields said, and she hopes to put the sites on the National Register of
Historic Places.