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Hand excavations nearly complete in the West Pit at Craven Crawdad

Craven Crawdad Site

Site ID: 15Md475

Early Woodland (1000 to 200 BC)
Camp; Workshop
Meade
Burns & McDonnell
Unless specified, we cannot provide site location information.

Summary

​​​​Craven Crawdad is a prehistoric camp and lithic workshop site with two stratified Early Woodland components, deeply buried in the floodplain of the Ohio River about 1 mile east of Brandenburg in Meade County. Intensively investigated during development of the Nucor Steel Mill, the site contains evidence for the mass production of Adena-type bifaces and preforms made of Wyandotte chert, as well as radiocarbon-dated cordmarked and cord-impressed pottery.

Hand excavations nearly complete in the West Pit at Craven Crawdad

Findings

​Phase III work recovered approximately 90,985 artifacts from three distinct cultural components exposed in 52m2 of hand excavations and 1,107 m2 of machine excavations. The West Pit Lower Horizon was found to be a briefly occupied camp dating to the earlier part of the Early Woodland period, cal 783 to 543 BC. The West Pit Upper Horizon was an intensively occupied camp dating to the end of the Early Woodland period, cal 346 to 208 BC. The Upper Horizon contained a rich midden deposit, associated domestic activity areas, and a flintknapping workshop for the production of Adena-type bifaces made exclusively of Wyandotte chert. The East Pit Horizon was found to be a contemporaneous, but less-intensively utilized, camp dating to the same Early Woodland time frame, cal 385 to 208 BC. The horizon contained another Wyandotte chert Adena-type biface production workshop, along with a hearth and domestic activity areas.

Adena Stemmed projectile points and hafted knives from Cradven Crawdad

What's Cool?

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Chevrons
Some pottery jars from the later Early Woodland component in the West Pit were decorated with diagonal cord impressions on otherwise smoothed necks. The impressions overlap to some extent, creating cross-hatching. The larger design pattern appears to have been a series of upward-pointing, nested chevrons.​ 

The nested chevron motif is echoed in the designs etched into both faces of a large, flat shale pebble that was found in association with these sherds. The etched pebble features two nested chevrons and three nested arches on one face, and two nested chevrons as part of a series of nested lines that wind around nearly the entire other face. The pointed ends of the chevrons/arches on both faces are all oriented toward the center of the pebble. The meaning of nested chevrons on either pottery or in the etchings is subject to speculation.


Rim and body sherds decorated with cord-impressed, nested chevrons

Related Materials

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Craven Crawdad was excavated as part of a three-site archaeological mitigation effort sponsored by Nucor at the location of their new steel mill outside Brandenburg in Meade County. The Triple Threat site (15Md476) and Glen Fount Plantation (15Md458) were also excavated there, and each of those sites has its own entry in this website.

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