Laura Barfoot Archaeological Site Prediction: Woodland Indians in Houston County

AbstractThis project aims to establish a model for predicting likely locations of archaeological sites. By examining Houston County soils, land levels, and hydrography, I chose the areas for which Woodland Indian environments and material culture preservation co-existed. Upon completion of the project, an area of 115,451,000 sq. m and a perimeter of 110,664 m, south of Perry,GA, matched the conditions (Fig. 1).

IntroductionThis GIS project deals with the prehistorical archaeology of the Woodland Indians of Houston County, GA. With convential methods, predicting new sites is a difficult, time consuming process involving hours of research and preliminary surveys. Many newly discovered sites are the result of Phase I Cultural Resource projects, which are usually conducted before construction of a new building. Pedestrian surveys are time-consuming, and test trenches and pits are expensive and may cause unnecessary site damage and disturbance. By providing the people’s favored habitation environment and isolating environmental and subsurface conditions favorable for preserving archaeological features and artifacts, one might be able to predict areas that will most likely yield archaeological treasures (Goldberg, 2006 and White 2002).

The purpose of this project is to narrow down new locations of archaeological sites for Woodland Indians (1000 BC – AD 1000), and hopefully to establish a new method for locating sites for future utilization.

Fig. 2. Methodology

References:Goldberg, Paul and Richard Macphali. Pracitcal and

Theoretical Geoarchaeology. Malden, MA: Blackwell Science, Ltd., 2006.

Holliday, Vance. Soils in Archaeological Research. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

White, Max. The Archaeology and History of the Native Tribes. Gainesville, Fl:University Press of Florida, 2002.

Hammack, Stephen. Email correspondence. Archaeological Director at RAFB.

United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service. http://soils.usda.gov/technical/classification/taxonomy.

Data sources:Georgia GIS Clearinghouse.

https://gis1.state.ga.us. US Bureau of Census. Houston County hydrography, Houston County contour, Houston County boundary. 1:100,000, UTM 1983 projections, 1998.

USGS Georgia Department of Natural Resources. USGS Center for Spatial Analysis Technologies – GIS Data for Georgia. (22 March 2006). http://csat.er.usgs.gov/statewide Georgia Slopes and Georgia Soils NAD 1983, 1:100,000

ESRI Tigerline 2000 Census Data – US Bureau of Census. http:arcdata.esri.com/data/tiger2000/tiger_county.cfm?sfips=13. Designated Places 2000, (28 March 2006)

Woodland Indians (1000 BC – AD 1000)

Part of the Hopewell Culture, centered in the Ohio ValleyThe Woodland Indians “followed the seasonal cycle, hunting and gathering as natural foods became available in different environmental zones…” (White 41-52)

Early Woodland (1000 BC – AD 1)

-- Round-house structures, storage pits, ate acorns, walnuts, and hickory nuts-- Medium-Sized triangular projectile points-- “sites are typically on the floodplain of rivers and sometimes cover an acre or more Thick middens have been found at some sites of this period, and the larger cooking pits are up to 3 feet deep” (44), and found in deciduous forest (White 41-52)

Middle Woodland (AD 1-500)-- More permanent village life-- Began minimal horticulture (White 41-52)

Late Woodland (AD 500-1000)-- still living in mounds-- began farming maize (AD 660), sunflower, squash--Stratified culture (White 41-52)

Background: Soils and Slopes

Series OrdersVaucluse UltisolsLakeland EntisolsOrangeburg UltisolsChewacla InceptisolsRiverview InceptisolsChastain InceptisolsFaceville UltisolsLucy UltisolsBoswell AlfisolsGreenville UltisolsBibb EntisolsTifton UltisolsDothan UltisolsGrady UltisolsOsier EntisolsPelham UltisolsRains Ultisols

Boswell-Greenville-BibbChewacla-Riverview-ChastainOsier-Pelham-RainsVauclusa-Lakeland-OrangeburgOrangeburg-Faceville-Lucy

Soils (Goldberg 47)Entisols – less erosion, acidic, can handle stability, good location for people to live, but bad for future preservationInceptisols – form in humid regions, which destroys organic materials and is bad for overall preservationUltisols – weathered soils, found in older landscapes and good for preservationAlfisols – somewhat good for preservation, especially ecofacts (pollen and charcoal, bone, etc.), keeps the horizon levels which preserves stratigraphy

Orangeville-Faceville-LucyTifton-Dothan-Grady Boswell-Greenville-Bibb

-Cultural Resource Management – Overlay maps of potential construction sites-Compare the findings with known archaeological sites-Plan Field Excavations in the area-Apply this methodology to other times and places to locate new archaeological sites

Potential ErrorsEven though my data is several years old, soil, slope, and hydrography information has changed little. As a result, the quality of findings will not be impacted.Since some of the data required reprojection, minor shifts in projection are likely.My research provides a generalized picture of occupation sites for Woodland Indians; however, with more research the data is easily refined.I was not able to include any control groups of archaeological sites due to their classified status.

Houston BoundaryShapefile

Houston Boundary

GA Soils

HoustonBoundary, Soil, Slope

GA SlopeVector

GA SlopeRaster

HoustonHydrography

HoustonBoundary, Soil, Slope

Hydrography

Slope less thanOr = to 8%

Soils—Orangeville-Faceville-LucyTifton-Dothan-Grady

Boswell-Greenville-Bibb

Soils-Boswell-Greenville-BibbChewacla-Riverview-Chastain

Slope less thanAnd = to 3%

Slope less than and 3% contained w/in

Selected soils

Slope less than and= to 8% contained w/in

Selected soils

Best Preservation and BestHabitation

Common soil

Common Slope

Best location for Archsites

Import

Clipped

Convert to shapefile

Clipped by

Boundary

Clipped by boundary

Add layer

Create new data Frame

Select by attribute

Select by location

Create New Data Frame

Select by attribute

Select by

location

Create new data frame

Select by attribute

Select by location

Create new layer

Upper slopes topsoils, A horizons

Displaced artifacts, common location of negative features (pits, ditches, postholes)

Midslpes bedrock, exposed in gullies, eroded/ overthickened sediment, well-drained soils, buried, eroded features

Lower slopes Stabilized topsoils and stony horizons, overthickened A horizon,increased stratigraphic resolution, potential locations of buried occupations

Valley Floor Poor drainage, seasonably high water tables, peats, human activities, good stratigraphy, possible preservation of organic remains

Future Directions with the Data

Greenville

Bibb

Boswell

Well Drained

Poorly Drained

Medium Well Drained

No Flood

Long Flood(Dec-May)

No Flood

Ultisol

Entisols

Alfisols

Conclusions

Table 1. Soil series and their orders in Houston County, GA

Table 2. Soil orders and their relationship to forests, the favored dwelling locations for Woodland Indians (USDA)

Ultisols Support hardwood and coniferous forests, freely drained

Entisols House steep and eroded slopes and floodplains, tolerates permanent and sporadic wetness, support forest and wildlife

Inceptisols Contain forest vegetation, very poor drainage, water near surface

Alfisols Support Deciduous forest settings

Table 3. Soil orders and their relationship to the preservation of artifacts

Table 4. Correlation between land rise and archaeological preservation (Goldberg 78-79)

Fig. 3. Robins Air Force Archaeological Dig

Fig. 1. Houston County map displaying area most likely to yield archaeological remains for Woodland Indians

I discovered that an area of 115,451,000 sq. m and a perimeter of 110,664 m oriented East-West just south of Perry, GA provides the most suitable co-existence of soils and slopes. In this area, Boswell-Greenville-Bibb soils show evidence of floodplains and forests – the favored habitats of Woodland Indians (Table 5, Fig. 1). In addition, Boswell-Greenville-Bibb are the third most archaeological friendly (Table 6). The area, which contains 53 bodies of water, could support a community of hunter-gatherers with slight horticulture. Central Houston also supports medium elevations, between 70 and 110 meters with an average of 100 meters high. As noted elsewhere, midslopes preserve archaeological remains and stratigraphy. Bibb series’ soils, with long flood durations, expose the existence of floodplains (Fig. 4). Crops such as soybeans, peanuts, oats, and maize also reflect the Woodland Indians’ diet.

Fig. 4 Boswell-Bibb-Greenvile’s drainage, flood duration, and order

Table 5. Descending order of soil series depicting favored Woodland Habitations

Table 6. Top 3 descending archaeological friendly soil series

Contour

Water System

Selected Area

Slope