Archaeology Field Experience Program

Project Results Oct. 23 - Oct. 29

The weather by now is fall-like in Ohio and excavations are slowed somewhat by wet, muddy conditions. When our silty and loamy soils get this wet the soil does not go through the screen as quickly. The conditions however did not stop our friends from Troy Intermediate and from our Natural History Museum. We excavated despite the rain and mud this week and recovered artifacts from all of our new northern units. More flint flakes and ceramic sherds were recovered from excavation contexts. One sherd from N550 E506 displayed a fine cordmarking on it's exterior surface. This cordmarking is an indication of the tools and techniques that the natives used to create the vessel. This piece will be studied closely back at the museum along with our other finds in order to determine everything we can about the inhabitants of the Morton site.

Before I go, I want to thank all of our classes who came out to the site to aid in our investigations at Morton. We could not have done this without you. Also we enjoyed meeting all of you and working with you side by side in the units and at the screens. We sincerely hope that you enjoyed your time at the Morton site, learned a great deal about the natives daily lives
and understand why and how we investigate the materials from the archaeological record in order to reconstruct the past. Keep asking questions, keep investigating science and we hope to see you all at the museum soon. Thank You.

Archaeology Field Experience Program

Project results Oct. 16 - Oct. 20

This week we worked with students from Elyria, Troy Intermediate, and three combines classes from Pennsylvania The weather this week turned rainy and very muddy but our spirits were not dampened. We recovered flint flakes, ceramic sherds and even a complete notched point from excavation. The notched point was recovered from N539 E514. It was our wettest day of the program, and we barely made it back to the site but those students from Pennsylvania braved it and recovered the notched point...way to go!!! This point is further evidence of the occupation of the site by native peoples. The site has been previously described as a hunting and fishing camp, and this find helps to bolster that understanding of the site. Thanks to all of you for braving the elements and continuing our successful field season.

Archaeology Field Experience Program

Project results Oct.9 - Oct.12

Week three started with great weather for our friends from Troy Intermediate and Mayfield Middle Schools. During excavation we recovered flint flakes, ceramic sherds and a net sinker from unit N510 E515. This particular type of artifact was used in fishing. Natives created grooves in opposing sides of a flat'ish' stone roughly fist to hand size such that it could be tied to a net in order to weigh the net down to the bottom to trap fish. Also this week units were opened further to the north of previous excavation units in order to potentially identify the northern extent of the site. Each of these new northern units however yielded artifacts and indicates that the site is larger that we previously knew.

unfortunately this was the last of our good weather. This however did not dampen out enthusiasm. Thanks again to all our student archaeologists for all the help.

Archaeology Field Experience Program
Our second week at the Morton Site and though the weather did not cooperate, we excavated and learned a great deal. Students from GESU Catholic and Open Door Christian excavated with us and they were outstanding. We recovered flint flakes, ceramic sherds and a possible grinding stone or pestle (N509 E505) from units N493 E500, N500 E500, N509 E505 and N514 E. Unit NOAA E was excavated to the subsoil interface and exhibits a light brown stain in its southwest corner. Further investigation will determine if we have a cultural feature which would give us a wealth of information about the site's inhabitants. Our view of the stain and the interface in other units is due to the diligent work of our excavators. Thanks to all the students who braved cold wind, rain and a lot of mud; another successful week because of all of you.

Archaeology Field Experience Program
Monday, October 2, 2006

Project Results Sept. 25-29

First day for the project here in the fall of '06 and we got off to a great start. The weather gave us a great start with warmth and sunshine early this week. Even though the rain came later in the week it did not dampen our spirits. Everyone was very enthusiastic as we arrived at the site, and all of our students were well prepared for a great week of excavation and learning. Students came well prepared with questions and curiosity; we really appreciate that. Thanks to all of the students for making this first week a success. We could not (and would not want to) do it without you.

We opened up three new units: N515 E529, N515 E525, N514 E519 and they immediately paid off. Students from St. Jude, Beach City, Louisville, Holy Family, Holy Rosary and St. Rocco excavated these units and recovered flint flakes, pieces of pottery, and projectile points. Two projectile points from the Late Archaic to Early Woodland time period were recovered. These pieces (one whole and one broken) indicate that natives were hunting near their habitation area. Also, they may have brought a kill back to the camp and the embedded points may have come back to the site with the animal. The flint flakes, found in abundance, indicate that natives were creating and/or resharpening points or tools such as drills in the area of our three units. These units by the way are the northernmost units excavated at the site to date, and they tell us that natives were active at our unit's locations. Also they tell us more about the boundaries of the site; we have not yet hit the Northern boundary. I will post pictures as soon as I can. Thanks again to the exceptional students and teachers for a successful first week.

Archaeology Field Experience Program
Monday, October 2, 2006

Project Results Sept. 25-29

First day for the project here in the fall of '06 and we got off to a great start. The weather gave us a great start with warmth and sunshine early this week. Even though the rain came later in the week it did not dampen our spirits. Everyone was very enthusiastic as we arrived at the site, and all of our students were well prepared for a great week of excavation and learning. Students came well prepared with questions and curiosity; we really appreciate that. Thanks to all of the students for making this first week a success. We could not (and would not want to) do it without you.

We opened up three new units: N515 E529, N515 E525, N514 E519 and they immediately paid off. Students from St. Jude, Beach City, Louisville, Holy Family, Holy Rosary and St. Rocco excavated these units and recovered flint flakes, pieces of pottery, and projectile points. Two projectile points from the Late Archaic to Early Woodland time period were recovered. These pieces (one whole and one broken) indicate that natives were hunting near their habitation area. Also, they may have brought a kill back to the camp and the embedded points may have come back to the site with the animal. The flint flakes, found in abundance, indicate that natives were creating and/or resharpening points or tools such as drills in the area of our three units. These units by the way are the northernmost units excavated at the site to date, and they tell us that natives were active at our unit's locations. Also they tell us more about the boundaries of the site; we have not yet hit the Northern boundary. I will post pictures as soon as I can. Thanks again to the exceptional students and teachers for a successful first week.

Project Results (Continued)

The diagnostic artifacts collected from the Morton site indicate that the site was occupied during at least two separate time periods. The projectile point dates to the Early Woodland period ca. 800-300 BC while the pottery that we are able to identify dates to the Late Prehistoric period ca. AD 800-1200. The many flint flakes recovered can not be used to date the site, but tell us that stone tool manufacturing and/or re-sharpening took place here. Likewise, the several net weights collected indicate that the site was probably used as a fishing camp where nets were made or mended. It is unusual that all of the net weights were found on the ground surface. This suggests that they may date to the later occupation. No features of prehistoric human origin were discovered. As seen on the site map, the flint flakes and pottery sherds do not really cluster into any specific "activity areas." Instead, they are fairly evenly distributed across the area of the site that was tested.

The Early Woodland people probably used the site on a seasonal basis as a camp for fishing or collecting and processing nuts. The occupation was probably very short term and possibly repeated seasonally for many years. The lack of other Early Woodland period artifacts (especially pottery)or features supports this assumption.

The Late Prehistoric occupation of the site may have been somewhat different. It is possible that fishing and nut gathering/processing on a seasonal basis were still the main activities conducted here, however the occupations may have been of a longer duration. The amount of pottery recovered from this site, and especially the smoking pipe fragments, is not usually found on short term camp sites. However, if people stayed here for longer periods of time throughout the year, there should have been some evidence of features such as fire hearths, storage pits, or post holes representing the places where their shelters stood. It is possible that our test units missed any features that might be present, but that seems unlikely given the number of units excavated and the amount of ground covered.

The Morton site is similar in many ways to another site excavated by the Field Experience program, the Mentor Lagoons 4 site. Both sites occupy a similar landform overlooking Mentor Marsh, Morton to the east and Mentor Lagoons 4 to the west. Both sites have Early Woodland and Late Woodland occupations, although Mentor Lagoons 4 also has Archaic and Whittlesey components. Several net weights were also found at the Mentor Lagoons 4 site. It is possible that the same people utilized both sites. Click here for more on the Mentor Lagoons 4 site.

Whatever the nature of the occupation, it is obvious that the site continues to the west. The Cleveland Museum of Natural History Archaeology Department hopes to continue its investigation of the Morton site, possibly in the spring of 2006. These investigations will try to determine the western boundary of the site and hopefully uncover some features that would shed more light on what the prehistoric native Americans were doing here.

When the digging in the field is completed, the work in the lab begins. All of the artifacts collected will be washed, cataloged and inventoried. The field notes, photographs, and maps will be reviewed and a report will be written. Arrangements will be made to return to the site in the spring.

I would like to thank my staff and volunteers who oversaw the daily work on the site. You make this program possible. I would also like to thank the hundreds of students and their teachers from northeastern Ohio (and western Pennsylvania) who participated in this project. You did real archaeology and you did it really well! THANK YOU!

Project Results

October 31 was the final day for students to participate in the Field Experience project for this year. Two days of "clean-up" were required to complete all of the units that had been opened and to prepare the site for the winter. The following is a short summary of the results of this season’s work.

A total of 22 test units were excavated to completion. The map shows the number of artifacts present in each unit. Flint flakes and pottery sherds were the most commonly found artifacts. Pottery sherds were found in all but 4 units. The high counts of pottery sherds are a little misleading because a piece of pottery can break into many very tiny pieces. It does show that pottery is scattered fairly evenly across the site.

All of the interesting or diagnostic artifacts, except two, have been shown in earlier posts to this site. While cleaning the artifacts in the lab, the tip of a drill was found from unit N505E539 and three fragments of a pottery smoking pipe were found in unit N510E525. Although the drill fragment does not tell us anything about the time period it was used at the site, the smoking pipe fragments definitely date to the Late Prehistoric period and possibly even into the Whittlesey Period. The pipe was probably an elbow variety and had a squared stem.



A total of four possible features were encountered. All appeared as dark or reddened soil stains at the top of the subsoil level. Each was cross-sectioned and revealed to be either a rodent burrow or a naturally occurring coloration in the soil. The photograph above shows the result of cross-sectioning Feature 05-02. You can see that at the interface of the topsoil and subsoil, there is an area where the darker soil continued into the subsoil forming a slight bowl-shape. This looked circular in plan at the top of the subsoil level. We cross-sectioned the stain at the unit wall because the stain continued into the next unit and a cross-section here would give us the most information about the possible feature. As we excavated into the subsoil, you can see that the bottom of the bowl-shape became darker and that a slightly lighter (but still darker than the subsoil) stain continued straight down into the subsoil. What is hard to see is that the stain then turned and ran to the west across the unit floor (that is why the portion of the unit floor is cut away farther from the wall.) Humans can not dig a hole that makes a turn like that without disturbing the soil above. Therefore, it was determined that the possible feature was created by a rodent such as a ground hog or a chipmunk. The darker material at the base of the bowl-shape also turned out to be decaying vegetation that was probably used by the rodent to line its den.

October 24 - 31



Even though the weather for the final week of the project was rainy, that did not stop Troy Intermediate School, Open Door Christian School, Beach City Elementary, and Lee Burneson students from participating. Tarps were spread overhead to keep everyone dry (see photo above). Many units were finished and the site only needed a little clean up to ready it for the winter.

October 17 - 21

Students in the Quest Program from the Hermitage, Sharon, and Farrell school districts in Western Pennsylvania, Troy Intermediate School, and State Road Elementary participated in the program this week. The weather started to turn colder, but spirits remained high. Many units were completed and lots of artifacts were collected. Again, most of the material continues to be flint flakes and pottery fragments. New units were set up on the N510 line which will be excavated beginning next week.



The photograph above shows a selection of artifacts excavated from the Morton site within the past few weeks. To the left on the top row is an artifact called a "nutting stone" or a pitted stone. It is made of a dense sandstone and has a small, circular indentation pecked into one face. The indentation may be for cracking nuts or, most likely, for holding small flint pebbles which were split with a larger rock to prepare them for making stone tools such as projectile points or knives. The rock is reddened from having been in a fire. It was found in unit N505E521.

The artifact to the right in the top row is called a net sinker. It was found on the ground surface at N502E513.5. It is made from a circular piece of shale that is quite flat. Two notches have been chipped into the edges at opposite points. Net sinkers were used to weigh nets so that they would sink to the bottom of a lake or river to facilitate fishing. Three other net sinkers were also found on the ground surface indicating that this site was used as a place to make or mend nets used for fishing.

The artifact to the left in the bottom row is the Adena point found in unit N505E530. It is made of a gray flint and is broken at the tip. Adena points date to the Early Woodland period with dates ranging between 800 to 300 B.C. They were most likely dart points or knives. This one appears to have been resharpened several times.

The remaining two artifacts in the bottom row are pot sherds. The sherd in the middle is a rim sherd from unit N505E521. The rim is plain and the sherd is decorated with cord markings which have been smoothed over. It is similar to other sherds found on the site and dates to the Late Woodland period at approximately AD. 800 - 1200. The other pot sherd is a body sherd very similar to the rims described earlier. In fact, they probably belong to the same vessel. The incised decoration on this sherd, possibly created with fingernails, looks a little like the track of the white-tailed deer. It is impossible to say for certain that is what the prehistoric artisan was trying to replicate, but it is fun to think about.

October 11 - 14



The weather this week was a little damp, but that did not stop students from Mayfield Middle School, Louisville (see photo above), the Franklin GATE program, and a group of home school students from the Eastside Co-op from participating in the Field Experience program. Several test units were completed (I will update the map soon) and many artifacts were discovered. Most of the artifacts continue to be flint flakes and pottery sherds, although a very nice projectile point was also recovered from unit N505E530. The type of point is called an Adena point and it dates to the Early Woodland period with dates ranging between 800 to 300 B.C. I will post a photo soon. Artifacts continue to be found in every test unit as we head to the west so we have not yet determined the western boundary of the site. The eastern boundary is determined by the slope of the land form and the site may continue to the north and south along the edge of the landform. Further testing will help us determine the site boundaries.

What happens after students excavate a test unit?

The students excavate a test unit by removing the topsoil until the sterile subsoil is reached. The subsoil zone usually contains clay and is the layer at which artifacts are no longer found. It is usually lighter in color than the topsoil. Artifacts do not sink into the soil. Instead, soil builds up over the artifacts and buries them. Decaying leaves and soil carried in by wind and water are main causes of soil buildup. Sometimes prehistoric people dug into the subsoil to create features such as fire hearths, storage pits, and trash pits. When students reach the subsoil zone, Cleveland Museum of Natural History archaeologists scrape the floor and walls of the unit clean to look for evidence of features. They then photograph and map the floor and at least one wall, even if there are no features present.



This photograph shows the west wall profile of unit N500E539. You can see the darker topsoil zone above the lighter subsoil zone. The irregular line between the two zones is caused by roots or digging by rodents such as ground hogs or chipmunks. You can also see that the topsoil zone is very thin (between 10 cm and 15 cm thick). This seems to be because this portion of the land form was never plowed. Most all of northeast Ohio was plowed at one time or another. Finding areas that have not been plowed is rare. Plow zones usually average in thickness between 20 cm and 25 cm. Plowing soil causes the artifacts contained within them to be mixed up from their original location. The Mentor Lagoons 4 site, also located near the Mentor Marsh, click here to read about this site.

October 3 - 6:

Students from St. Jude, SS. Cyril & Methodius, Holy Family, and St. Rocco spent another nice week of unusually warm weather excavating at the Morton site. The students worked very hard and accomplished a lot. Test units N500E531, N500E535, N500E545, N505E534, and N505E539 were completed (see the map for the updated artifact counts). Flint flakes and pottery remain the only types of artifacts found. The two units on the E505 line each had over 50 flint flakes. Although we have not found any large concentrations of charcoal nor areas of fire-reddened earth, several of the flint flakes appear to have been damaged by fire. They may have been dropped into a campfire or damaged if a forest fire burned the woods. Most of the flint flakes are small (less than 5 cm in length) and appear to be made of local, glacially deposited flints. It appears that a lot of stone tool resharpening and finishing went on here. The pottery all appears to be from the Late Woodland period (ca. AD 800 - 1200), although some might be from the Whittlesey tradition which immediately follows this cultural period.

A new line of test units was opened on the N505 line. Notice that the East coordinates of some of the test units do not end in a 0 or a 5. Normally, if we were excavating in an open field we would try to keep the test units 5 meters or 10 meters apart. Since the Morton site is in the woods, we have to place the units so that they are not blocked by trees. This makes us place them closer or farther than we would ideally like. Future test units will most likely be placed to the west of the existing units to see if we can determine the area of the site.

Pottery rim sherds found:



Two interesting rim sherds were found in test unit N500E539 (see photo above). The sherds are grit-tempered with transverse tool (maybe fingernail) impressions on the lip and widely spaced oblique(?) tool impressions on the neck. The surface of the neck appears to exhibit a brushed surface treatment. They most closely resemble rims from the Bass Lake site near Chardon in Geauga County and a few from the Kerniskey site in Eastlake, Lake County. They probably date between about AD 800 and 1200. The body sherd to the right in the photo, most likely from the same pot, has punctate impressions on it. This type of pottery dates to the end of the Late Woodland period, just before the start of identified Whittlesey Tradition pottery types.