July 18 finds

The Dirt, The Snails!
July 18, 1999

We'll get to the finds, I promise!
But you keep hearing about "the snails" folks find in middens and camps.
These little babies are an almost sure sign of a campfire and you hear all kinds
of tips based upon them: but what are they?
I'd sure acknowledge that they're "a sign" of a camp, but why?
Anyone know about this snail?? Email the Dirt Brothers and we'll
put the best response here for all.
Well, here's a picture of 'em:

I also get questions about the soil layering.
Here's 2 pics from recent excavations that have produced artifacts.

This layering shows the lime percolate that many mistake for ash,
interspersed with the snails and other organics. This layer is met,
at the bottom of the picture, by the reddish clay layer.
We've found that the clay layer contains early
archaic and older artifacts.

This is an enhanced picture of the rich black soil that is most common at the site.
Note the clumped rocks that usually contain charcoal fragments and snails.
Sometimes campfires are more pronounced and extremely obvious.
This layer contains Mid-Late Archaic artifacts.
An occasional woodland point is found near the surface.