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Crow Creek

Site ID: 15Ct186

Camp
Clinton
Kentucky Archaeological Survey
Unless specified, we cannot provide site location information.

Summary

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​The Crow Creek site (15Ct186) is a small campsite located in the floodplain of Crow Creek, a tributary of the Cumberland River. Researchers with Corn Island Archaeology carried out limited investigations there in 2024, before work on the Crow Creek Stream Restoration Project began. 

Archaeologists discovered buried ancient American Indian cultural deposits dating from the Middle to Late Archaic (4000-1000 BC) periods. Floodwaters from the Cumberland River and its tributaries had covered the site with nearly four feet of soil. Ancient Native hunter-gatherers set up camp in this spot so they could easily exploit animal and chert ​​resources in both the Cumberland River floodplain and the uplands. ​​

Late Archaic period (2500-1000 BC) Ledbetter spearpoints.

Findings

​​High-quality Cumberland and Fort Payne cherts outcrop on nearby ridgetops. Nodules of these cherts also occur in the Crow Creek stream bed. During foraging trips, site residents would have returned to camp with nodules of these cherts, perhaps on a daily basis. Flintknappers then would have shaped these nodules into blanks. Because blanks are easier to carry than chert nodules, residents likely further shaped the blanks into spearpoints at another campsite. Investigators recovered a large amount of debris produced by blank preparation.

​Only a small amount of other kinds of chipped stone tools were recovered from the site. But based on the types of tools found, archaeologists determined that during the Native peoples' visits to the site, families would have hunted wild game, such as deer and elk, and collected freshwater mussels. To process the deer and elk skins, residents would have used endscrapers. They would have used awls to punch holes in the skins.

Middle to Late Archaic period (3500-2000 BC) Benton spearpoints.

What's Cool?

​A Large Number and Variety of Spearpoints

​Investigators carried out only limited investigations at Crow Creek. But they identified six different types of spearpoints among the 30 specimens they recovered. 

Archaeologists classify spearpoints based on a number of different characteristics. The shape of each point's hafting element (the part at the base of the tool that enables flintknappers to attach the point to the shaft) is especially significant. The ​shape reflects stylistic differences, period of manufacture, and tool function, as well as personal and group preferences.


Middle to ​Late Archaic period (3700-2000 BC) Matanzas spearpoints.

Middle to Late Archaic period (4000-1000 BC) McWhinney spearpoints.

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