The use of firearms by the Occaneechi is indicated by the common occurrence of ammunition, gun parts, and gunflints. Trade inventories and ethnohistorical accounts suggest that trade guns were an important and valuable trade item. Guns were used for defense, as status symbols, and to increase hunting efficiency. They were probably the European trade item most prized by the Indians.
Ammunition
Five hundred and five pieces of ammunition, 43 pieces of lead sprue and other lead scrap, 217 gunflints, one nearly complete gun, and 27 other gun parts compose the arms artifact group. Lead ammunition was divided into three size categories: (1) balls (15 mm in diameter or .59 caliber); (2) buck shot (7-9 mm in diameter or .30 caliber); and (3) swan shot (4-6 mm diameter or .20 caliber). Two modern brass shotgun shell cartridges were recovered from plowzone context and were identified as 12-gauge Winchester shells. One small .22 caliber, rimfire, brass cartridge, also modern, was also found in plowzone. All but one of the 419 pieces of lead ammunition retrieved from burial or feature contexts at the Fredricks site were of the buck shot variety, averaging 7.5 mm in diameter. Most of these exhibited stem remnants typical of shot manufactured in a gang mold. Also, most of the recovered shot were unfired or undeformed, with prominent equatorial mold seams. Lead shot of this size would be packed into the gun barrel and fired as multiple projectiles. It was confirmed by an expert on colonial weaponry (John Bivins, personal communication) that this size of shot would be suitable for hunting turkey, other fowl, deer, and rabbit.
Forty-two pieces of lead sprue or cut-lead scrap were recovered from burial or feature contexts. The sprue pieces provide some evidence for on-site ammunition casting. The cut-lead pieces may represent sprue, or trimming from hand-carved lead pipe stems, such as the one recovered from Burial 6.
Gunflints
Two hundred and seventeen gunflints (170 from the plowzone and 47 from burial/feature contexts) were also part of this artifact group. Of these, 38 were aboriginally manufactured gunflints made of local stone. Morphologically, aboriginal gunflints are square to rectangular in shape, thin in cross section, and bifacially worked on all four edges (Hamilton 1960:73). Of the 142 European gunflints that could be identified by blank type, 20 were made on flint blades and 122 were made on flint spalls. Most, if not all, of the gunflints found at the Fredricks site are probably associated with the Occaneechi village.
Dog-Lock Musket
A nearly whole dog-lock, long-fowler musket was found in Burial 6. Dog-locks were a transitional design between the snaphaunce and flint-lock. A "dog" or safety catch was engaged to hold the heel of the haunce in a half-cock position (Peterson 1956:23). Long-fowler refers to an early style of hunting weapon with a very long, round barrel. Observations of the Burial 6 musket made in the field and subsequently in the laboratory revealed that the butt-end of the gun stock had been broken off prior to its placement in the burial. The lock plate was severely bent and the butt-end of the trigger guard broken off. Also, both ends of the gun abutted the walls of the burial pit, leaving no room for a butt stock. Some wood from the barrel stock was preserved. The hardware (firing mechanism and barrel) were identified as British and dated to 1625-1640 (John Bivins, personal communication). Other sources (Peterson 1956:31; Neumann 1967:10) confirm this temporal placement for such an early dog-lock style of gun. Peterson (1956:31) states that this was the most popular trade gun during the 1625 to 1675 period. Dog-locks were occasionally used by the English army until after 1700. These later dog-locks had vertically attaching sear springs, and often the tumbler had notches for half- and full-cock positions. The cock (or hammer) was long and slender in style. Two hammers of nearly identical shape to the Fredricks site specimen were recovered from excavations at Upper Saratown, located on the Dan River in North Carolina and believed to date c. 1680. Early dog-lock long-fowlers were introduced to North American Indians with the first white settlers in Ralph Lane's Company in 1586 and with the Plymouth and Jamestown settlements in the early 1600s (Peterson 1956:42-44). Peterson also suggests that during the last half of the seventeenth century, long-fowlers were frequently assembled in America using barrels and locks made in Holland or England and stocks of American curly maple. Although botanical analysis identified the wood preserved on the gun barrel from the Fredricks site as maple, a determination of origin (Europe or America) was not possible.
Measurements on the gun from the Fredricks site are as follows: the barrel is 55-3/4 inches (141.6 cm) long; base diameter is calibrated at .55; the lock plate measures 6 inches (15.2 cm) long; and the hammer (or cock) is 2-3/4 inches (7.0 cm) high. The hammer is frozen in an engaged position, the frizzen extended, and the pan exposed. A flint clamped in the jaws of the hammer appears to be of the spall type. A small brass "butterfly" rear sight is located on the top rear of the barrel. The mainspring, lateral sear spring, and "dog" are all intact. The trigger pull and a portion of the trigger guard are also present. No manufacturer's marks are visible on the weapon.
Gun Parts
Twenty-seven other gun parts were found at the Fredricks site. All of these artifacts appear to be iron except for a butterfly sight which is made of brass. Most are assumed to be from dog-lock muskets like the one found in Burial 6. Gun parts recovered from features or burials include a barrel fragment, a lock plate, two springs, a trigger guard, a trigger pull. One of the springs, a mainspring fragment, was found in a "bundle" associated with Burial 3. The context of this item suggests that it was curated by its owner; however, no aboriginal modification of this gun part was observed. Numerous other gun parts were found in the plowzone, including a ram pipe fragment, four lock plates, a lock part, a side plate, two springs, a trigger guard, two trigger pulls, six frizzens, two dog-lock cocks, and a butterfly sight.
This functional artifact group comprised almost one third of all the Euroamerican artifacts (excluding glass beads) found at the Fredricks site.
