Feature 11

Description

by Gary L. Petherick

Feature 11 was located near Structure 3 at 249.5R77.4. This small, oval, deep, refuse-filled pit was 3.0 ft long, 2.4 ft wide, and 1.5 ft in depth below the top of subsoil. A large rock extended into the pit from the surrounding subsoil and the pit wall had been undercut around this rock, perhaps in an attempt to remove it. The pit had a depth-to-diameter ratio of 0.80 and probably functioned as a small storage facility. The small volume (10.8 ft³) suggests that it was not used for bulk storage, but rather that it may have functioned as a cache for non-food items.

Feature 11 contained a single zone of brown, sandy clay loam with charcoal and fired clay. This fill contained only a small amount of plant remains (0.01 g of hickory nutshell per 10-liter flotation sample). Animal remains were present but in very poor condition; only 13 of 94 fragments were identified, all of which were deer remains. Other cultural materials consisted of potsherds, stone flakes, rocks, kaolin-clay pipe fragments, and glass trade beads. The sloped bottom of the pit give it a somewhat "unfinished" appearance and it may have been considered unsuitable as a storage pit once the rock was encountered and efforts to remove it failed.