Analysis and Report of Collections for the Newcomb Site (12CL2) in Clark County, Indiana

Summary

This report constitutes Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc.’s analysis of a portion of cultural materials from the Newcomb Site (12Cl2) near the city of Clarksville in Clark County, Indiana. The materials were recovered by Amec Earth & Environmental, Inc., in 2004 and identified in a collapsed portion of Emery Lane and the riverbank of the Ohio River. The analysis, report writing, and laboratory processing of the material remains were conducted at the request of Jay Jani of ECS-GEC JV on behalf of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The site is located on the northern shore of the Ohio River across from McAlpine Locks and Dam, Louisville, Kentucky. The 2004 Newcomb Site (12Cl2) excavations led to the recovery of ceramic, lithic, botanical, faunal, and historic materials and some human remains. The faunal material and human remains were not included in this analysis. The excavations also identified the presence of house basins, trash pits, and post holes associated with a Late Prehistoric/Mississippian component, a small basin and artifacts (including ceramics) associated with an Early Woodland buried cultural horizon, and additional temporally diagnostic lithic artifacts from the Late Archaic sub-period and historic artifacts associated with the town of Old Clarkesville. The bulk of the site consists of an early to middle Mississippian occupation. Shell-tempered mostly plain ceramics, Small Triangular Cluster projectile points, and six radiocarbon dates corroborate this assessment. The occupation likely consisted of a hamlet or small village occupied primarily in the thirteenth century. The small basin, ceramics, and associated artifacts recovered from similar depths in units are likely associated with a mid- to late Early Woodland buried cultural horizon based on ceramic attributes and the radiocarbon date for the feature. The occupation minimally occurred between the fifth and eighth century B.C. Historic materials suggested that the area was also the location of a former domestic farmstead/residence, or possibly more than one residence from the Pioneer period and into the nineteenth century. This area was once occupied by residences and other buildings along the Ohio River associated with Old Clarkesville. It was established in the late eighteenth century and was largely abandoned by the early nineteenth century and with only a few residents by the mid-nineteenth century. No features were associated with this component of the site. The work conducted by Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc., consisted of detailed analysis and description of prehistoric ceramics larger than 2 cm in size; an aggregate trend analysis of a sample of flake debris and identification of all lithic tools; analysis of the light and heavy fractions from all proveniences to identify nuts/nutshell, seeds, and fleshy fruits; and a detailed analysis and description of historic artifacts. Finally, the artifacts were processed for curation.

Keywords

Temporal Coverage

Radiocarbon Date: 800 to 400 (BC)

Spatial Coverage

Notes

General Note: This submission was funded by the Food Connection Student Opportunity Grant from the University of Kentucky and was entered with the assistance of Ivaylo Ivanov, undergraduate student at the University of Kentucky.

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