PREHISTORIC OCCUPATION

THE PREHISTORIC OCCUPATIONS

During the course of the excavations at the Cater site, several prehistoric artifacts dating to the Late Woodland period (ca. 600-1600 A.D.) were recovered. The artifacts associated with the prehistoric occupations included six projectile points (or "arrowheads"), flakes (i.e., pieces of stone broken off during the manufacture of stone tools), and numerous pottery sherds. Most of the prehistoric pottery consists of small fragments (less than an inch in size).

Photo 1 in the photo gallery illustrates the projectile points recovered from the Cater site. The top row left and center points are Middle or early Late Woodland points. The top row right is an early Late Woodland Jack's Reef corner-notched point made from Upper Mercer chert (outcrops in central Ohio). The bottom row shows Late Woodland triangular points (common after 1200 A.D.).

The photo below illustrates representative Late Woodland rimsherds from the Cater site. The top row shows early Late Woodland pottery (ca. 600-900 A.D.) from the site. The middle row shows pottery ca. 1000-1200 A.D. And the bottom row shows Late Prehistoric pottery (ca. 1200-1600 A.D.).

Other pottery recovered from the site is illustrated in the photo gallery below. Charred material from the cordwrapped stick impressions on the lip of the pot in Photo 3 has been C-14 dated to 1025 A.D. Photo 5 shows a Late Woodland vessel recovered from the midden with drag-and-jab cord-wrapped stick impressions that dates to ca. 1200-1400 A.D. Photo 6 shows a pot with fingernail impressions (left and top row). Similar pottery has been dated ca. 1300-1600 A.D. at other sites.

Hit Counter