Pap No^' 25"/' JO^™^ ^' KERR RESERVOIR BASIN — MILLER 151 



A number of these pits were filled so solidly with tightly packed 

 shells of Unio that there was practically no soil at all within the pit 

 (pi. 81) . A lack of evidence that any heat had been used in these pits 

 excludes them from being called barbecue pits, roasting pits, etc. In 

 the bottoms of a few of the smaller ones was found a deep whitish ash 

 layer, but the surromiding soil showed that there had not been suf- 

 ficient heat in the ash to bring about a color change in the sandy 

 soil walls. 



Other pits were filled with the usual midden remains: potsherds, 

 a few projectile points, a bone tool or two, periwinkle shells, ash, bits 

 of charcoal, and soil filled with a heavy deposit of humus. 



Features called "stone-lined wells" consisted of very large oblong 

 sections of stones thrust upright to form openings averaging 1.3 to 2.0 

 feet in diameter and extending downward to the water table, slightly 

 over 7.1 feet deep. Six or seven of these stones formed a group. The 

 writer's explanation of such features is that the inhabitants used these 

 well-like holes to draw off clear water rather than to dip it out of the 

 bordering river. These features are unique in the archeological pic- 

 ture of this region and the Southeast. 



Hearth areas, or fire-burned areas, occurred at various depths 

 throughout the site. These were rouglily circular in outline and 

 ranged in diameter from 1.7 feet to 6.7 feet. In some the reddish 

 soil was fairly thin; in others this coloration change measured around 

 0.5 of a foot in thickness and tapered off around the edges. Some 

 were flat across the face while others had slight central depressions 

 that contained a bed of whitish ash as well as bits of charcoal. Upon 

 some of these beds were fomid a number of river cobbles that were 

 either whole, fire-cracked, or fire-broken, but stones of this nature 

 were not confined to fire-burned areas : several small piles were located 

 scattered throughout the site. 



In all of the digging, sherds were the most numerous of the cultural 

 remains, not that they were relatively numerous during the life of 

 the site: the more perishable products were soon reduced to dust, 

 leaving beliind only the most durable of artifacts and other remains. 



METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY OF CERAMIC REMAINS 



After the basic laboratory work had been accomplished, the sherd 

 material was prepared for study purposes. Uppermost in this study 

 are two basic interests in sherd material: (1) as concrete ex- 

 pressions of ideas and behaviors of a people or peoples who made 

 these vessels, demonstrated both in the forms for specific usage and by 

 the individualistic differences of the creators of these objects, and 

 (2) as determinants of time and space relationships within a small 

 area as compared with regional differences. Taylor (1948, p. 115) 



