Archeological dig turns up 6000 year old artifacts
By Staff
Melissa Dozier-Cason, RED BAY – The Ice Age had ended and the environment had changed.
The natives moved seasonally instead of following large game for food. People begin hunting smaller game, and eating nuts and other vegetation.
The time period was Archaic, and scientists have found artifacts from this time period in Franklin County.
The archeological team wrapped up a month's worth of excavation efforts in Red Bay, and unveiled some of their findings Wednesday morning.
The team, headed up by archeologist Hunter Johnson, began digging on Johnny Mack Morrow's property in Red Bay just before Thanksgiving.
The team flagged off test sites to find the best place to dig. They then shoveled these sites in order to see what was beneath the surface.
In the end, the team found two sites with probable success, Johnson said.
"We found about 30 sand bags full of artifacts at this site," Johnson said.
The team uncovered layers of soil with color variations.
Dark layers were sandwiched between light layers. Each layer represented a different time period and the dark layers showed human occupation, Johnson said.
In the first dark zone, the team found pottery and stone tools.
These items are believed to date back 2,500 years ago. Going further down into the earth, the second dark zone dated back to about 5,000 years ago, and nutshells were found where nuts were processed for food during this time period.
The light zones between these time periods are where flooding had occurred in the area.
"The items that came from this site are from the mid to late Archaic period," Johnson said.
"A time when pottery was being introduced to the Southeast."
Archeologists used carbon dating methods and also compared items from other archeological sites in order to date artifacts found during excavation, Johnson said.
The artifacts taken from the site will be cleaned and studied to in order to answer current archeological questions, and to help form new questions for future excavations.
"It will take about six months to get everything recorded, and studied," Johnson said.
The site is located near three creeks, Bear Creek, Mudd Creek, and Brush Creek, which was very important to the people thousands of years ago.
The team found that the site had everything they needed to sustain human populations thousands of years ago.
"This is the Wal-Mart of six thousand years ago because it had everything they needed," Johnson said.
The archeological team has plans to return to the site with a different set of questions to answer.
They will be able to pinpoint exactly where the dig site is located using GPS system.
Upon their return, the team may expand out in order to find more information about the people of those time periods, but they could dig deeper to find older artifacts, Johnson said.
"We thought we were at the bottom until yesterday when we found another tool, which told us we were not standing on sterile composite like we had thought," Johnson said.
Once the artifacts are studied and carefully cataloged, Morrow has plans of building a museum on his property so that children and their parents can come see how people lived on the land thousands of years ago.
During a press conference, Morrow thanked Bill Moss with the Franklin County Schools, Lisa Stockton with the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce, the City of Red Bay and the BCDA for their support of the project.
Franklin County students were allowed to participate in the dig during school hours in an effort to learn more about the way people lived thousands of years ago.
Morrow said that he would never forget the feeling he felt while holding pottery in his hand, knowing that it had not been touched by another human hand in six thousand years.
"I can't think of a better site that I have been on," Johnson said of his experience in Red Bay. FCT Publisher
