Dirt Brothers Visitor's Pages June/July 2002

Dirt Brothers Visitor's Pages
June/July 2002

(Remember you can write to the Dirt Bros who've
sent in pics by clicking on their names when they're underlined).
Keep 'em comin', Bob Wishoff, Dirt Brothers Webmaster

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From Dirt Bro Michael in Louisiana:
These points were from a site on Lake Catahoula that we code named the
"Briar Patch". You had to remove the briars to get to the point layers
underneath. It was a large Coles Creek site. The locals had a boat launch
area just below the site. Between the launch and the white sand bench we
excavated, there was a stretch of shore where you would find Woodland points, but there was too much gravel from the roads through this area. On the other side of the approaching road from the sand bench, was a large burial
mound(off-limits). When they put the dirt road in back in the 30's, the
dozer hit the base edge of the mound and old timers said all kinds of clay
pots were exposed or rolled out.

Anyway, my brother, Larry, had me all built up about this site. "You
couldn't sift a shovel full of sand without having something in your sifter!"
When we pulled up and parked, I just looked at it and thought he was pulling
my leg again. We did alot of that over our 30 years of digging. So I had
built a new sifter and picked out an area and started in digging. Three
shovel fulls and then raked my glove over the sand as it filtered through.
Broken pottery, bones, and flint flakes. It was amazing. Normally, bone does
not last in the acid red soil up there. But the cultures all seemed to like
these areas that had a white sand topping. The white sand had preserved the
bones. We found awls, needles, talons with holes drilled in them for
decoration, turtle shells, antler tips, etc. One particular needle was over 6
inches and was made from the dorsal fin of a large catfish. Another item was
a large lumpy looking bone plate which Dr. Gregory identified as a back plate off a "very large" alligator.

Over the years, we came to the conclusion that the first area we
excavated was their trash dump. It filled a trough area between the sand
bench and the campsite. And what made matters worse in one area was the
location of where an old hunters cabin had been over 50 years ago(no longer
there), but their trash was in the upper level in one area.

Thanks Michael!
More of his artifacts on next page.
Bob