Riv. Bas, Sur. eee € 
Pap. NO. 30] STUTSMAN FOCUS—WHEELER 923 
Contents: Four rim or near-rim and 100 body sherds, a projectile point and 
point fragments, modified and unmodified flakes, and shell fragments, be- 
tween 0.2 foot and 1.6 feet. 
Other features: None. 
Preservation: Good, with only a few boulders seemingly displaced by 
grazing animals. 
The foregoing data may be summarized as follows. Five small 
circular or oval pits, each surrounded by a ring of earth and boulders, 
occurred in a cluster of three or singly, at widely spaced intervals, 
on the crest of a ridge along the west side of the James River. ‘The 
pits, measuring 5.3 to 8.2 feet in maximum diameter and from 1.7 to 
2.7 feet in maximum depth, contained varying amounts of occupa- 
tional detritus. In one case (Feature 3 in XU2), the pit also held 
the remains of at least two secondary burials. It may be presumed 
that the pits were once covered with a light wooden frame on which 
were placed brush and grass. 
The location, the shapes and diameters of the pits, and their pre- 
sumed covering, suggest that they are identifiable as eagle-trap pits 
(see Will, 1924, p. 298; Wilson, 1928, pp. 212-213; and Bowers, 1950, 
pp. 206-208). While the pits, as excavated, were uniformly too 
shallow to permit a man to sit or even crouch within them, they may 
have been considerably deeper if the boulders encircling the pits had 
been piled one on the other. The presence of two or more secondary 
burials in one pit indicates a secondary, possibly ritualistic, function 
which the pits sometimes served. 
ARTIFACT INVENTORY 
The short artifact inventory of the Joos site includes small samples 
of pottery sherds and chipped stone objects. 
POTTERY 
Rim and near-rim sherds.—Three rim-and-lip sherds are identifiable, respec- 
tively, as Buchanan Undecorated, Pingree Cord Impressed (with the cord 
having a Z-twist), and Melville Wrapped-Stick Impressed types. Ten near-rim 
{or shoulder?) sherds of unidentifiable type bear closely spaced trailed or 
incised lines on the exterior surface, and one near-rim (or shoulder?) sherd 
bears a single cord impressed line, with the cord having a Z-twist. 
Body sherds.—The 95 body sherds include 3 simple stamped, 2 cord-marked, 
82 smoothed, and 8 longitudinally split sherds. 
STONE OBJECTS 
All the specimens in this category are of chipped stone and consist 
of: 
Projectile points —One small, complete triangular point with convex sides 
and irregularly straight base, in gray quartzite, fully retouched on one face 
and marginally retouched on the reverse face; one small, fragmentary side- 
notched point with straight converging sides, in dark brown chalcedony, fully 
