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Wed January 09, 2002 - Southeast Edition
Archaeologists working for the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) along Route 3 near Lignum in Culpeper County have unearthed one of Virginia’s earliest prehistoric sites. The site was occupied during what is known as the “Paleoindian” time period, when the ancestors of present Native Americans moved throughout North America in small groups hunting game and gathering food.
The early visitors came to the site at Brook Run during the end of the last Ice Age, between 11,100 and 11,500 years ago. The site contained large jasper nodules, a flint-like material, which they could later work into fine cutting and scraping tools and weapons as needed.
Rich Lode of Artifacts
Archaeological work began at the Brook Run site in the summer of 1996, soon after Jackie Keeney, preservation program manager in the Fredericksburg District, contracted with the Louis Berger Group to begin an archaeological survey for the entire Route 3 corridor, which is to be widened to four lanes in 2006.
Working in two teams on a parallel course roughly 60 ft. (18 m) apart, the archaeologists excavated a shovel test pit every 75 ft. (23 m).
“A shovel test pit is part of a systematic archeological survey where you excavate a pit about 1 ft. in diameter, examining the soil for any artifacts. If they do find artifacts, they dig additional shovel pits around that first pit to determine the size of the archaeological site,” explained Keeney.
“The alarm went off when they came through here … instead of finding one or two artifacts, they were getting 300 artifacts out of one shovel test pit,” said Eric Voigt, senior archaeologist of Louis Berger. They found “mainly waste flakes of jasper left from making tools.” Keeney and Voigt determined that this site would require further excavation and the Virginia Department of Historic Resources agreed.
The jasper artifacts, including stone digging tools, were obtained from a vein of jasper that was quarried approximately 11,500 years ago. The Indians mined the jasper to depths of at least 12 ft. (3.6 m) below the ground surface, which indicates just how valuable the stone material was to them. Two fire pits, uncovered 6 ft. (1.8 m) below the surface, contained charcoal from trees radiocarbon dated from 11,500 years to 15,300 years ago.
In late January, Keeney and Voigt reported at an on-site press conference that they had recovered from the excavation about 1,800 lbs. (816 kg) of jasper flakes, which will undergo extensive analysis. However, at that time, the archaeologists were left with unanswered questions: Why did the Native Americans choose this site? Why did they settle here instead of close to a river, the preferred setting for peoples of that time? Was it abundant game? Available jasper?
Voigt suggested that perhaps they carried large quantities of jasper from another location nearby. However, on the day of the press conference, the archaeological team encountered the jasper seam. Using a VDOT backhoe and operator, Geoarchaeologist Dan Hayes of Hayes & Monaghan of Charlottesville, and Voigt began digging a much deeper hole, and at a depth of 4 to 5 ft. (1.2 to 1.5 m), they struck what to them was gold — a dirt-filled v-shaped jasper vein between bedrock.
“They mined the jasper from this site. At that time, what probably happened was that portions of the jasper were sticking out of the ground, and that attracted them to the location and they continued to mine the material,” speculated Voigt.
All told, the scientists have recovered more than 7,000 artifacts of jasper, including many flakes and fragments, digging and scraping tools, hammerstones, and anvils.
Keeney and Voigt emphasized that the Culpeper District team members have supported the excavations from the beginning, especially crewmembers of the Culpeper East AHQ. The dig has been part of everyday life as they have dug trenches, built fences, cleared trees, moved dirt and hauled water for the effort.
Culpeper District staff, with District Administrator Don Askew leading the pack, have ordered supplies, installed phone lines and done everything possible to make the archaeological excavation a success, Keeney and Voigt said. The importance of the site led Askew to shift the alignment of the proposed roadway improvements to help preserve a portion of the Brook Run site, which is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
A complete report of the archaeologists’ research is expected next year.
(This article written by Jim Jennings, appears courtesy of the VDOT Bulletin. He is the community/public relations coordinator for VDOT’s Culpeper District.)