1 PREHISTORY OF CANAAN VALLEY: AN ECOLOGICAL VIEW ...

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Archaeological Site The distribution of archeological sites throughout the Canaan Valley region suggests an interesting pattern (Fig. 3). Multiple sites have been found in major valleys along the Cheat, Tygart Valley, and South Branch Potomac rivers. In contrast, the upland areas have yielded fewer prehistoric sites. To illustrate the diversity of prehistoric land uses in the Mid-Atlantic highlands, I summarize the findings at four archeological areas: 1. The Cheat River area is a series of 31 sites along 55 km of the Cheat River, 20 km west of Canaan Valley (Jensen 1970). Although this area has yielded no evidence of Paleo-Indians, two fluted points have been found in neighboring Preston County. The earliest evidence of humans in this area is within Horseshoe Bend at 8,200 YBP. The area was next occupied at 7,500 YBP, possibly by nomadic hunting families. The area's projectile points suggest immigration from, or trade with, the South. Woodland signs include stone burial mounds and limestone tempered pottery. These people lived in small villages with an economy based on hunting and corn-beans-squash agriculture. The important Seneca Trail crossed the Cheat River at Horseshoe Bend (Fig. 2). During 1,000-400 YBP, people of the Monongahela culture lived here in fortified villages, hunted with small triangular points that were probably propelled by bow and arrow, and practiced sophisticated horticulture. By 300 YBP, the Cheat River area was empty of people. 2. The Burnsville Reservoir area, composed of 23 sites along 16 km of the Little Kanawha River, is 110 km southwest of Canaan Valley (Broyles et al. 1975, Fitzgibbons et al. 1979). Even though it was occupied from 10,500 YBP to the early 17th century, and is located in wide valley areas with tributaries and terraces, it appears that no site was more than a seasonal camp or bivouac. Some sites served for lithic reduction (crafting a tool from a raw stone). The artifact assemblage reflects affinities with the Carolina piedmont and upstate New York. 3. Three Tygart Valley sites, located on the western slope of Cheat Mountain 45 km southwest of Canaan Valley, reveal prehistoric lithic technologies. At the Files Run Quarry site, the Greenbrier Formation features exposed nodules of chert, a stone that local people began using in the Early Archaic (Lesser 1988). Although Greenbrier chert is only fair to mediocre in its knapping qualities, it may have been the best stone available locally. The site's debitage assemblage indicates intense or long-term activity. Nodules were collected or extracted, then moved to a reduction station below and adjacent to the quarry, as well as to another reduction station 4 km southwest of the quarry. Multicomponent sites within 9.5 km have also yielded Greenbrier chert points. The Limekiln Run site, located on a sandstone bench less than 100 m below an outcrop of Greenbrier limestone, served as a reduction and manufacturing station (Brashler and Lesser 1985). Artifacts suggest the chert was extracted and moved below to be reduced from raw material to tools. The Hill site is a typical example of an Archaic settlement in the floodplains. Most of its debitage consists of Greenbrier chert (Lesser 1986). 4. A new Canaan Valley site is situated on the east side of West Virginia Route 32 in the Valley, on a small knoll near a spring at an elevation of 985 m (Traver et al. 6
2002). In June 2002, over 200 shovel test pits yielded 15 prehistoric artifacts, including three types of chert flakes and a fragment of a bifacial tool (Robert F. Hoffman, pers. comm.). Based on local lithology, the chert is probably not local. Although the artifacts could not be affiliated with a specific culture, the lack of ceramics is consistent with an Archaic culture (Hoffman, pers. comm.). The pattern of lithic scatter suggests the site hosted at least two brief stopovers for hunting and curation of stone tools. Neither fire-cracked rock, ground or stone pecked stone tools, pottery sherds, nor evidence of a village or base camp were found. Although four projectile points had previously been found near this site, this seems to be the first published report of prehistoric artifacts in Canaan Valley. Why have so few artifacts been found in the Valley? Obvious possibilities include inadequate archeological sampling and scant prehistoric use. I will discuss this more in following sections. The Canaan Valley site is an example of a small lithic scatter, the most common site type in the uplands (Turner 1996, Wall 1996). Other lithic scatter sites have yielded primary reduction, secondary, and retouch flakes, and seem to have supported tasks like stone procurement, biface reduction, and tool resharpening (Tourtellotte 1996, Custer 1996). Upland lithic scatters may have been left by specialized parties who knew the area's resources and used the uplands for procurement tasks (Haynes 1996). Both the general patterns of space use during the major prehistoric periods and the specific findings at local sites suggest that prehistoric people occupied Canaan Valley for short periods. Why did prehistoric people visit Canaan Valley? Prehistoric people may have used Canaan Valley for several possible reasons; including plentiful water, escape from parasites, gathering of psychoactive plants or specialized materials for baskets, and refuge from aggressive bands, but possibly the most significant were acquiring stone and food. Stone Prehistoric knappers made tools by removing flakes from a stone by hitting it with a harder stone, or with a bone (Gardner 1986). In some cases, the flake was the desired tool; in other cases the piece remaining, or core, would be fashioned into a tool. In the East, raw forms of valued stone appear to have anchored centrally based wandering societies (Fagan 2000), a relationship that may explain a strong statistical correlation between Paleo-Indian sites and lithic sources (Bush 1996). If certain kinds of stone were needed for specific applications, the location of material would have restricted the distribution of people, or to have caused them to go great distances to acquire it (Haynes 1996). In contrast to the various kinds of useful stones in the Ridge and Valley province, only Greenbrier chert was available west of the Allegheny Front (Brashler 1984, Haynes 1996) (Fig. 1). High quality chert deposits almost always show evidence of prehistoric use. The 3 chert sites on Cheat Mountain described above are examples of quarries, defined as camps occupied for the extraction of rock from outcrops (Turner 1984). 7
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1 PREHISTORY OF CANAAN VALLEY: AN ECOLOGICAL VIEW ...

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