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Hi
I just had a Civil War archeology team look at my property near Winchester Va. To my disapointment, they didn’t find much Civil War items. What we did find is a very nicely done Indian Storage Pit next to a burned down log cabin near an old Indian trail. The pit is 8 ft in diameter that’s stone up to the cone and then coned out with hand made brick then plaster lined. The top has a 4 foot diameter opening nicely beveled with brick. The pit was used as an “out-house” in the 1800’s. Before, I think it was used to hold Indian hunting supplies so they could travel light. It’s now 3/4 full of big rocks and “STUFF” that now looks like dirt. They found aeroheads and hide working tools nearby the pit. I found a half size stone carved skull last week next to the pit. I think white settlers moved in, pulled everything out of the pit tossing the hunting items aside. Then used the pit as a fancy out house.
The team is more or less interested in Civil War items although they said they will work on the pit. Not sure how to go about this.
Hi
This group knew very little about Indians. Their main interest was in the Civil War. The storage container does look like a first contact production. That is, it was most likely built after white settlers showed the tribe how to make bricks. The date might be from around 1625 to 1700. It’s a big container about the size of a typical dumpster.
I have to look at one of my resources. It sounds like the type of cooking pit described in my Green genealogy book that was built in Ohio after they moved there from WV. That WV group was mixed Shawnee.
Techteach
Here’s the quote from The Green Tree, “In the old days, we did not have kettles, so we dug a hole and lined it with bark. We built a large fire into which we placed stones. When the stones were hot, we put them in the water surrounding the hog to make it boil.”
Techteach
Cooking with stones is as indian as you can get, boiling pits are major sources of archaeolgical investigations, and often the materials are fascinating!
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