Because bluff shelters do a remarkable job of preserving plant remains, they are an amazing repository of information about Native American foodways in the past. The authors of Gathering, Gardening, and Agriculture use food, a basic human need, as an entry point to teach students about pre-Columbian Arkansas and the people who lived here. This 5th grade social studies curriculum aligns with the Arkansas Department of Education’s social studies framework and includes materials that fit with common Core State Standards for English language learning. Materials and background for this week-long series of lesson plans are available on the Gathering, Gardening, and Agriculture website. If you are a 5th grade teacher, or know one who might be interested, check this out!
Rock art often appears in Ozark bluff shelters, but it also occurs in other locations in the state. Want to learn more about rock art in Arkansas? Check out the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s rock art web site. This site includes a searchable database of rock art in the state as well as in depth interpretations of the most fascinating examples. For those looking to learn more, the site includes full length articles that put rock art in context in. It’s is a great resource for teachers and includes lesson plans designed to be used with the photos and information on the site.
For the first time ever, the Southeastern Archaeology Conference will be in Tulsa, Oklahoma on November 8-11 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Downtown Tulsa. Its so close, this might be your opportunity to attend the premier regional archeology meeting for the southeastern United States. Modern Tulsa is within the boundaries of the Creek, Osage, and Cherokee Nations but is surrounded by many of the Nations of the Southeastern Tribes and we are hoping for a greater attendance from those communities.
The Arkansas Archeological Survey will be well represented at this year’s conference. Two symposia have been organized–one honoring the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Survey and one about bluff shelter research in the Arkansas Ozarks. Not to mention Survey staff giving talks in many other symposia.
We are excited about our bluff shelter symposium entitled “Bluff Shelters: Past Present and Future Research.” Ozark bluff shelters are an incredible archeological resource providing both deep, stratified deposits and often the preservation of perishable materials. As we are rapidly heading toward 100 years of archeology in Ozark bluff shelters, it is time to take stock of this class of site and attempt to summarize the history of investigations, discuss current work and to contemplate the directions that future archeological inquiry may take.
The symposium will include large overviews of the archeology (Brandon & Rees) and paleoethnobotany (Fritz and Horton) in bluff shelters as well as looks at future directions in research (Mueller & Kistler) and case studies of current bluff shelter research (Rees, Petigrew & Pebworth, Kay & Hilliard, Andrews, and Rees, Pebworth & Brandon). Dr. George Sabo, Survey Director and author of Arkansas Rock Art will be our discussant.
Check out the Summer 2017 issue of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly published by the Arkansas Historical Association. Lydia Rees and Jamie Brandon have an article in this issue entitled “Beyond the Bluff Dweller: Excavating the History of an Ozark Myth” which seeks to educate our historian colleagues about the historiography of the problematic “bluff dweller” concept founded by the 1920-1930s work of M.R. Harrington and Samuel Dellinger.
Check out the new page about Saltpeter Cave in Newton County. As a part of an Arkansas Natural and Cultural Resources Council grant, we have been busy working on the collections from Saltpeter Cave. The Arkansas Archeological Survey (ARAS) conducted excavations at Saltpeter Cave in 1969 and 1970—the very early years of the organization. Ken Cole, the first Research Station Archeologist stationed at Arkansas Tech (then Arkansas Polytechnic College) conducted two seasons of excavation into this shelter that had been previously visited by the University of Arkansas Museum in 1934. Cole excavated nine test units, the deepest of which contained almost 14 feet (4.11 meters) of archeological deposits representing at least 9,000 years of Arkansas history. This deep, stratified deposit is all the more important to researchers as it is one of the few Arkansas bluff shelters investigated using modern excavation techniques. Thus, unlike the materials from the Dellinger excavations of the 1930s, researchers have detailed stratigraphic records, along with approximately 450 diagnostic hafted bifaces, and 42 radiocarbon samples. Unfortunately, Cole left the Arkansas Archeological Survey shortly following these excavations, leaving this collection curated, but largely untouched for 47 years.
Jared Pebworth working with the stone tool artifacts from Saltpeter Cave (Newton County).
We have worked to preserve and interpret the material and records from the 1969 and 1970 Saltpeter Cave excavations. This site holds great potential for adding to our understanding of prehistory in the Ozarks. This project has made the Saltpeter Cave materials and records more useful for further work and has preserved the data for future researchers in Arkansas archeology.
The first outlined goal was to rehabilitate, reorganize, and inventory the records and artifacts from the 1969 and 1970 excavations at Saltpeter Cave. The records associated with the excavations have been preserved for future research through a combination of scanning and transcription. Goal two of the project was to photograph and analyze a select portion of the collection in order to interpret the site and its importance to the general public of Arkansas and beyond. The deepest excavation unit, Unit E, was selected as the best candidate for analysis and interpretation for this project. The diagnostic stone tools from this test unit have been identified and typed. This information has been entered into a database to aide further analysis, and these tools have been photographed by excavation level. This work has allowed us to identify carbon samples associated with the diagnostic tools. Samples with the best association and most research value have been selected to submit for radiocarbon dating using funds from the Arkansas Archeological Society‘s Archeological Research Fund (ARF) and other sources.
Lydia Rees and Jared Pebworth documenting the stone tools recovered from Saltpeter Cave.
In addition to the stone tool analysis, all ceramic artifacts from the site have been analyzed. A list of attributes including temper, decoration, and vessel form were recorded for each piece of pottery in the collection. Photographs of a selection of sherds were taken and will be available in addition to the database containing the ceramic data. This ceramic analysis became the pilot project for a region-wide examination of prehistoric ceramics that will be the subject of Lydia’s Rees graduate research.
The final goal was to create a on-line exhibit about the Saltpeter Cave site and its unique archeological materials. You can now see the first step in this exhibit–a brief page housed under the “Examples” section of the current bluff shelter website. This page includes the history of excavations at the site and information about what the artifacts can tell us about Ozark prehistory, but much more information will be added as we explore this important collection. The next step of this exploration will be understanding the chronology of Saltpeter Cave by analyzing a suite of 6 or more radiocarbon dates that we are currently selecting. Stay posted for more information!
The Arkansas Archeological Survey conducted excavations at Saltpeter Cave in Newton County in 1969 and 1970—the very early years of the organization. Ken Cole, the first Research Station Archeologist stationed at Arkansas Tech (then Arkansas Polytechnic College) conducted two seasons of excavation into this shelter that had been previously visited by Dellinger’s crews in 1934. Cole excavated nine test units, the deepest of which contained almost 14 feet (4.11 meters) of archeological deposits representing at least 9,000 years of Arkansas history.
This deep, stratified deposit is all the more important to researchers as it is one of the few deep Arkansas bluff shelters investigated using modern excavation techniques. Thus, unlike the materials from the Dellinger excavations of the 1930s, we have detailed stratigraphic records, along with approximately 450 diagnostic hafted bifaces, and 42 un-dated radiocarbon samples. Unfortunately, Cole left the Arkansas Archeological Survey shortly following these excavations, leaving this collection curated, but largely untouched for 47 years.
Jared Pebworth and Lydia Rees photograph diagnostic bifaces from Saltpeter cave.
Jared Pebworth and Lydia Rees have begun to photograph the diagnostic lithic tools just focusing on the deepest unit—Test Unit E. If you just flick through the photographs by level of these hafted bifaces you can literally see some of the type transitions we are going to be able to explore with this collection.
Over the course of the next year, we hope use the Salt Peter collection to address some questions about Ozark chronology—particularly of the Early and Middle Archaic periods. This is much needed as many of these points types are, to this day, dated by a single, or relatively few, radiometric dates. The deep, stratified deposits at Salt peter Cave offer us an opportunity to analyze a cross-section of Ozark prehistory.
We received a start on our efforts to date this remarkable collection in the form of a grant from the Archeological Research Fund of the Arkansas Archeological Society. This will allow us to pay for one radiocarbon date associated with a projectile point from test unit E from the Saltpeter site. We will keep you posted on what we find out. We will also keep looking for additional funding to run more dates from this site.
Check out the Summer 2017 issue of the Arkansas Historical Quarterly published by the 
