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Enoch Fork

Site ID: 15Pe50

Paleoindian (? to 8000 BC); Early Archaic (8000 to 6000 BC); Early Woodland (1000 to 200 BC); Late Woodland (500 to 1000 AD); Mississippian/Fort Ancient (1000 to 1750 AD)
Rockshelter
Perry
Kentucky Archaeological Survey
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Summary

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Enoch Fork Rockshelter is situated within a cliffline in Perry County. US Forest Service archaeologists recorded this large shelter in 1986 and returned two years later to carry out additional work. It measures 45 x 30 feet and has a ceiling height of 10 feet. The shelter floor, which is relatively flat, extends 6 to 9 feet beyond the dripline before sloping steeply downward.  Several large boulders are scattered across a portion of the interior.  

Investigations revealed that the site's stratigraphy is generally intact. Diagnostic artifacts and a series of radiocarbon dates make clear that ancient Native groups repeatedly used this shelter as a seasonal camp for more than 12,000 years. Shelter​ use began in the Paleoindian period (? to 8000 BC).  The most intensive human use of the site, however, took place during the Early Archaic (8000-6000 BC) and Late Woodland/Fort Ancient (AD 500-1750) periods.​​​​​

Fort Ancient (1000 to 1750 AD) Madison Triangular arrowheads.

Findings

​Investigators found ​cultural materials at Enoch Fork Rockshelter to a depth of 30 inches below the surface. They recovered more than 100 diagnostic spearpoints/arrowheads. Most of the spearpoints from the lowest levels were Early Archaic Kirk Stemmed or Kirk Corner Notched examples. Analysts classified points from the upper levels primarily as Late Woodland Lowe Flared Base spearpoints or Fort Ancient Madison Triangular arrowheads.

Investigations revealed that the Native residents' chert preferences changed over time. The earliest occupants (Paleoindian, Early Archaic, and Middle Archaic groups) made their tools from both poor-quality and high-quality cherts. The former were located near the site and were easy to access. But to access the latter, residents had to travel more than 10 miles from the site. Later residents (Archaic, Woodland, and Fort Ancient groups), in contrast, relied more on local, low-quality cherts.

Cultural deposits at Enoch Fork revealed that Indigenous peoples lead increasingly less mobile lives through time. Groups settled down and became more dependent on the domesticated native plants they grew in their gardens.

In addition to spearpoints and arrowheads, investigators recovered fragments of Woodland period and Fort Ancient period ceramics. They also found a few nutting stones (sandstone rocks with circular depressions) that Native residents would have used to break hickory and walnut shells apart to remove the tasty nutmeats.​​

Early Archaic (8000 to 6000 BC) Kirk Stemmed spearpoint.

What's Cool?

​A Paleoindian(?) Spearpoint Made From a Flake: A Chipped Stone Controversy

A spearpoint from Enoch Fork Rockshelter is at the center of a controversy. Is it a Paleoindian period tool or one that was made much later? 

The jury is still out. But if it is Paleoindian, then it is one of the oldest tools in Kentucky and possibly the oldest tool recovered from a Kentucky rockshelter.

​​​Investigators encountered it toward the bottom of the cultural deposits. They found it below Early Archaic (8000-6000 BC) period Kirk Stemmed spearpoints and above deposits from which they had secured a radiocarbon date of 10,956 BC. This suggests it could be a Paleoindian spearpoint.

The problem, however, is that the ancient Native flintknapper made this point from a flake (a piece of stone removed from a larger stone during toolmaking). These flakes are often long and thin. 

This point has a deeply notched base. The knapper ground down the base to prevent it from cutting the material used to attach it to the spear shaft. The sides of the base are straight, and the base has two prominent ears. The tool's sides curve inward, then expand outward to form the blade. A Native flintknapper clearly had resharpened the blade.

Paleoindian flintknappers commonly made spearpoints from blanks they had worked on both sides, not from flakes worked on only one side.  For this reason, many archaeologists do not think the Enoch Fork tool is a Paleoindian spearpoint. And so, they do not recognize the site's significance. However, researchers in other states have classified similar spearpoints made from flakes as Paleoindian spearpoints. 

The evidence from Enoch Fork seems clear. Characteristics of the tool itself and the location from which it was recovered show that the Enoch Fork Rockshelter tool is one of the oldest ever made in Kentucky. ​

The controversial Paleoindian spearpoint made from a flake.

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