Yadkin River Valley

[arappaho]

The way the weather has been this winter has given me plenty
of time to go thru and clean up some of my collection file drawers.
Thought I'd post some pics of stuff collected from the Yadkin River.

The Yadkin River basin was settled extensively during the Woodland
Period, the latest period, circa 1000 BC- AD1700. The advent of the
Woodland Period is marked by the introduction of pottery and the
bow and arrow. Before this time it was all spear/dart points and
soapstone bowls.
Archaeologists can tell more about who was where when by the
surface treatment, temper in the clay, and rim and body design than
any other artifacts.

Here's a sample of some rim and body sherds.



Close-up of some Cord-Marked sherds. In these, and some of the
pics to follow, you should be able to make out the twists of the
cordage in some of the grooves.



Next pic; Top and Bottom sherds are Net-Impressed, Middle is
Cord-Marked.



Next pic; Smoothed-over Cord on left. Cord-Marked, Middle. Top is
a woven Fabric-Impressed, Right is Net-Impressed.



Next are two Simple-Stamped sherds on left and two Complicated-
Stamped on right. These were made with a carved wooden paddle.



And here's a good example of Cord-Marked on the left. I'm not
sure what the sherd at top is but I'm guessing two rows of
punctates. And the right is a heavily incised sherd.



Arrowheads are associated with pottery. Top two rows are
arrowheads, bottom row date to the Archaic Period, before the
bow and arrow, so are spear or dart points.



The earlier arrowheads have a more pronounced "V" notch in the
base. As time goes on this "V" disappears in favor of a flat or
straight base. The earliest, well made, type of arrowhead in NC is
called a Yadkin. Top two rows are all from the Yadkin River area and
I'm trying to show a bit of the progression from "V" notched bases
to the straight base. This progression could represent hundreds of
years. The bottom two points are Yadkins found at a site on the
Neuse River in Johnston County, NC, a couple hundred miles east
of the Yadkin River.



Last pic is of some perforator tools. These were used for tasks
such as poking holes in hides for sewing. The middle one could be
an all-purpose perforator/scraper Swiss Army type thing. The one
on the right looks like it started out to be an arrowhead but the
rock wouldn't work right and he/she settled for putting a sharp
little point on it for use as a peforator.




Thanks for looking,
Joe

[mickey]

Thanks, I enjoyed the lesson.

[rickb29212]

Really nice Joe, thanks for posting photos and the info. Rick B

[arappaho]

Thanks guys, Glad you enjoyed it.

[lee]

Thanks for the good information about our local Indian artifacts. I have many pot chards; but do not know how the patterns were made on them. Do you have any pictures of the lands were you found these pieces? For those who live out west, it might be helpful to show them examples of the fields and creeks where these come from.

[arappaho]

Hey Lee. Happy New Year, by the way,

Sorry, no pictures of these sites. I did most of my Yadkin River
exploring back between 1985-1995. But anyone who has crossed the
river on Hwy 421 has seen the fields where most of these artifacts
came from. 421 cut right thru the middle of an old site. Most everyone
that knows of the site says there was a burial mound there, but
there probably wasn't. One has never been documented there and
burial mounds are very, very, rare in NC. Even Town Creek is a
ceremonial mound and not a burial mound.
Anyway, west side of the river from the 421 bridge south to the next
bridge is basically one site after another. I don't have any idea who owns the land these days. I know Wake Forest University, out of
Winston-Salem, has been doing some excavations there over the
last decade. Used to be a Hunt Club Beer and Ammo Store up on
the road there where you could stop in and ask.

Joe

[dan]

Joe,
That is an amazing collection. Where did you pick up all the knowledge? Internet, books, calling up archaeologists?

Dan

[arappaho]

Dan,
There's only one book you NEED to have about the archaeology of
the Piedmont of North and South Carolina;

"The Formative Cultures of the Carolina Piedmont"
by Joffre Lanning Coe, 1964

and it's what I go by.
There are lots of other good books, too, that will help, but
Formative Cultures is the Bible.

It was finally reprinted about 5 years ago and a copy can be
purchased on-line from CFAR, the Coe Foundation for Archaeological
Research.

Joe

[colorshapetexture]

And Joe failed to tell you that he was an active volunteer at the NC State Museum. And has assisted in the archaeological digs with the university. So it all didn't come from a book. Joe has been in the field for a long time.
Hey just drive up 321 you will see him wondering around in a field somewhere. ;D LOL

[dan]

Joe is real humble about his knowledge base. I pointed out to him that he needs to be teaching geology and archeology at a University some where. (I would suggest Virginia Tech but I live in Wake Forest so I will go with NC State.) He seemed surprised by the comment.

I know that he has helped this fairly ignorant rockhound learn a lot. Later, Dan

PS: Joe, thanks for the source for archeology!

[arappaho]

Thanks guys, , but I've always considered knowledge a very
relative thing.
Sometimes you got it, and sometimes you don't! ;D

Joe