ANCIENT SITES ON THE BANKS OF THE 

 RAPPAHANNOCK IN VIRGINIA 



By DAVID I. BUSHNELL, JR. 



Collaborator in Anthropology, U. S. National Museum 



During the spring of 1937 a great freshet swept down the valley 

 of the Rappahannock from the foot of the Blue Ridge, where heavy 

 rains had fallen for several days. The low grounds were inundated, 

 and when the waters had receded it was discovered that many areas 

 had been greatly altered, gullies had been formed, banks of sand had 

 been deposited and, in some instances, the surface soil for a depth 

 of a foot or more had been washed away, causing the heavier masses 

 to settle and remain exposed. Traces of ancient camps and villages 

 were thus revealed. 



The valley of the Rappahannock below Fredericksburg is more 

 open, the low grounds more extensive, and the river is wider than 

 above the falls ; nevertheless, the force of the great flood was felt 

 far down the stream. 



On May 9, when the ground was becoming dry, several places be- 

 low the falls were again visited to see the effect of the flood and to 

 endeavor to recover some of the material thought to have been de- 

 posited by the swirling waters. Fortunately, a site of much interest 

 was encountered. It is on the right bank of the Rappahannock in 

 Caroline County, Va., a mile or more below the mouth of Lamb Creek 

 on the opposite side of the river and is shown in the aerial photograph 

 reproduced in figure in, to the right of the black arrow which points 

 with the current. This is now a rich and fertile section of the valley, 

 but visualize the same region as it was in 1608, when first visited by 

 English colonists from Jamestown — a dense forest with small groups 

 of mat- and bark-covered lodges dotting the river banks, trails travers- 

 ing the wilderness, game and wildfowl to supply the wants and re- 

 quirements of the native hunters armed with bows and arrows, and, 

 streams teeming with fish. However, the earlier settlement, traces of 

 which were uncovered by the freshet, is thought to have been aban- 

 doned before the year 1608. 



When the site was visited on May 9, the surface for a distance of 

 a hundred yards or more from the river bank, and extending to the 

 beginning of the wooded area, was sand and gravel, all vegetation had 

 been swept away, and in places it was deeply gullied. Fragments of 



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