# Presentation: 612160

## CULTURAL RESOURCES INDICATORS

- Prehistoric and Historic Artifacts

## Field Offices Need to Be Able to Identify Cultural Resources in the Field

- Field Office personnel must identify cultural resources to take them into account.
- Sites registered with the State can be identified from the internet maps (which represents only a small portion of cultural resources out there).
- To identify cultural resources in the field, you must know what the indicators look like.

*1935 Structure*

## The Nature of Indicators

- Indicators are usually things that are resistant to decay, such as flint, glass, pottery, metal, brick and stone.
- Some indicators are very easy to spot in some deposits, and very difficult to spot in other deposits.  Loess (windblown dust) covers more than a 1/3 of Iowa.  Anything larger than a fine grain of sand on a loess deposit has a high probability of being a human artifact.  Cultural sites are very easy to identify in such an environment.  However, cultural debris on glacial till (covering approximately 29% of Iowa) may be very difficult to spot in the jumble of glacial debris.

## Prehistoric Indicators

- One of the most common and easily spotted indicators of a prehistoric camp site is fire cracked rock (FCR)
- Hearths were lined with rock to provide thermal storage, and when hot, FCR was tossed into water filled containers to cook food.

- FIRE CRACKED ROCK

## How to Spot Fire Cracked Rock

- FCR are broken rocks.  The breakage is due to expansion and contraction resulting from heating and cooling, and by micro steam explosions from water trapped in a crystalline structure.
- FCR often shows cup shaped depressions on the fracture plane because FCR is broken from internal stress.
- The FCR may be reddened by ancient fires.
- Check carefully for other kinds of indicators.

*Depressions*

## Chipped Flint Indicators

- The products of flint knapping are the second most likely indicator that you will spot in the field.
- Working flint is a subtractive process which leaves abundant long lasting waste.
- Flint (chert), obsidian, and glass are all silicon dioxide.
- Broken flint can provide a very sharp edge and was widely used for tools.

## Flint Flakes are More Abundant than Finely Worked Tools

- Many flakes are struck off to produce one projectile point.
- Therefore, you are more likely to find flakes than well made artifacts in most campsites.
- The large blocks of flint from which flakes are struck are called cores.

- A few blows to a large
- piece of flint produced
- this much fragmentation

## Cortex on Cores and Flakes

- Cortex is a weathered rind found on cores and flakes during an early stage in lithic reduction.
- The cortex originally covered the nodule of flint if extracted from a limestone outcrop, or weathered on the surface of a flint cobble if taken from a gravel bar.

*Cortex*

## What to Look for in a Flake

- Often, when working for the government, we encounter flakes.
- Is a flake man-made, or the product of natural processes?
- Flint knapping produces many flakes with a striking platform and a bulb of percussion.  Natural processes are less likely to do so.

*Striking Platform*

*Bulb of*
*Percussion*

*Bulbar Scar*

- Striking Platform

- Bulb of Percussion

- Bulbar Scar

- Ripples

## Bifacial Flint Artifacts

- Bifacial flint artifacts are those that are flaked on both sides.
- These include projectile points that are sought after by amateur collectors.
- FCR and flakes are much more common.
- Note that the color of flint is quite variable.

## Quality of Flaking is Variable

- The quality of flaking was determined by the technique and raw material used.
- If a hammer stone was used to knap flint, the flakes were thicker and cruder than if an antler or wooden billet was used.
- Pressure flaking produced the most refined tools.  The flakes were literally pushed off, sometimes using an antler tine.

*Pressure Flaked Biface*

*Antler Tine Flaker*

## Scrapers

- Scrapers are pieces of flint with a plano-convex edge.
- One of their functions was to work hides.
- They are commonly found on archeological sites.

*Side Scraper*

*End Scraper*

*Thumb Nail Scraper*

## Heat Treated Flint

- A higher quality of flint for knapping could be produced by heating. Flint was heated by burying it in hot coals.
- Heat treated flint can sometimes be identified by a reddish color and glossy appearance.

## Ancient Pottery

- Pottery has been used locally for approximately 2,500 years.
- Pottery can vary widely in color.
- It is often difficult to spot in the field compared to FCR and flint flakes.

## How to Know if It Is Pottery

- Most pottery that you find in the field is broken into pieces (called pot shards).
- Check for temper (sand, ground shell, etc.) added to the clay to prevent shrinking and cracking during firing.
- Examine the exterior for impressed or incised decoration.

*Sand Temper*

*Pot Shard*

## Ground Stone Tools

- A variety of ground stone tools are found on archeological sites including grinding stones, axes, shaft abraders, and hoes.
- Most were made by using one rock to peck another rock into a rough shape.  The rough blank was abraded against another rock until it was smoothed.

*Basal Fragment of a*
*Ground Stone Axe*

- Ground Stone Axe Heads

## A Crayon Made from Ochre

- Ochre (hematite) was collected and used as a pigment.
- The ochre was ground and the resulting iron oxide powder was mixed with grease and used as paint.

*Smoothly*
*Ground*
*Hematite*
*Surface*

## Ochre Was Used as Paint

- Native Americans were once referred to as “red men.”  This derives from early explorers encountering Native Americans with red body paint.

*Piece of Ochre*
*from an Archeological*
*Site*

*Color Produced*
*by the Ochre*

## Historic Indicators

- Prehistory is the time before written records.  Prehistory ended only a few hundred years ago in Iowa.
- History in Iowa began with French Explorers and has continued to the present time.
- NRCS needs to take into account sites over 50 years of age.

## The Library is Usually the Best Tool for Identifying Historical Sites 

- The library is that building filled with books that we visit when our TV is broken for an extended period of time.
- The historical information found there is very valuable to you in discharging your cultural resources duties.

## Check Your Local Atlases

- You can usually find useful atlases in the genealogy section.
- Ask the librarian if you are having trouble locating them.

## Old Township and County Maps are Important

- Old atlases and directories will show where farmsteads and towns existed in the past.
- Some of the older atlases are not complete (they may not have shown lower economic status farmsteads).
- By examining atlases from a variety of time periods you can sometimes bracket the age of a historic site.
- Sometimes they have a history of your county, which provides a useful way to acquaint yourself with important events in your county’s past.

*1875 Atlas*

## Photocopy Old Maps

- Rather than visiting the library every time you have an undertaking, it is easier to photocopy relevant maps and keep them in a Field Office file.
- This is a good project to do when there is a bad weather day.

## For Historic Sites Not on a Map, Use Historic Indicators

- The hard way to identify and date historic sites is to find and examine field indicators.
- Historic as opposed to prehistoric sites, often have more and a greater variety of artifacts.
- Concentrations of brick, glass, ceramics, clinkers, nails, rock, concrete, and linoleum fragments in a farm field often indicate the past presence of a farmstead.
- A few isolated specimens may only indicate a manure spreader passed by.
- Some artifacts indicate dates of occupation.
- Examine only surface artifacts.  The State Office will determine whether excavation will be done.

## Standing Structures

- These are the most spectacular and obvious indicators.
- Log cabins are a house type reflecting an important period of Iowa history.
- Many are covered with siding, have more recent additions and are not easily recognized as log cabins.

*Pioneer log cabin*
*still partially covered*
*with plank siding.*

## Log cabin tips

- When an old house is covered with siding, check the thicknesses of the window and door casements.  They are much thicker on a log cabin than on a clapboard house.
- Old log cabins were caulked with lime mortar rather than concrete.

*Lime mortar*

## Glass as an Age Indicator

- From 1880-1914 most bottles in the U.S. were made in Germany.  They used manganese oxide as a clearing agent, which acquires a purple cast when exposed to sunlight.  Why did we stop importing it?  WWI.
- American bottle makers used selenium which produced a straw yellow cast.  Used from 1914-late 1920’s
- American bottle makers switched to arsenic in the late 1920’s which stays clear in the sunlight

*Purple Cast*

*Yellow Cast*

*Clear*

## Mason Jars

- Mason jars were first patented in 1858.
- Mason jars labeled “Ball Brothers” date to post 1880’s

## Ground Rims

- Early glass molds left jagged seams.
- One solution was to file off the seams.
- This is called a “ground rim” when the lip was filed down.
- This was done from 1858 to ca. 1915.
- The lip will have a roughened and frosted appearance.

*Ground Rim*

## Carnival and Depression Glass

- Carnival glass has a metallic sheen.
- The date range is 1890-1935.
- Depression glass is pastel colored.
- The date range is 1925-1940.

*Carnival Glass*

*Depression Glass*

## Historic Ceramics

- Historic ceramics may contain one or more datable attributes.
- Shell Edge 1820-1900
- Hand painted floral designs 1830-1860
- Transfer print 1830-1915
- Flow blue 1840-1860 and 1890-1910

*Handpainted floral design*
*and embossed*

*Shell Edge*

*Flow Blue*

*Transfer Print*

*Transfer Print*
*Handpainted*
*Embossed*

## Yellow Ware

- Yellow ware refers to utilitarian ware made with a yellow paste.
- Undecorated 1827-1940
- Brown glaze 1850-1940
- Sponged decoration 1827-1940

*Brown Glaze*

*Undecorated*

*Sponge*
*Decoration*

## Diagnostic Ceramic Attributes Part 1

- White ware (white porous earthen tableware) and “Ironstone” (white nonporous earthen table ware): undecorated items (became more popular than decorated ware CA. 1850).  1820-1900+
- Shell edge 1820-1900.
- Hand painted floral designs 1830-1860.
- Sponged decoration 1820-1940.
- Cut stamped decoration (usually geometric or floral patterns) 1860-1940.

- Transfer print-blue 1820-1915
- Transfer print-dark blue (“Staffordshire blue” or “old blue”) 1820-1835.
- Transfer print-brown or black (usually pre 1860’s) 1830-1950.
- Transfer print-other colors (usually pre 1860’s) 1830-1950.
- Transfer print-flow (color will appear to have “run”).  Periods of popularity are 1840-1860, and 1890-1910.

## Diagnostic Ceramic Attributes Part 2

- Late flow (in combination with gilding and embossing) 1890-1912.
- Embossed (molded design-raised above the surface 1850-1900.
- Decalcomania (a decal on top of the glaze) 1840-present.
- Colored glaze (bright colors-Fiesta ware)1936-1973.
- Ivory tinted glaze 1870-present.
- Metallic rim band (gold and silver)1885-present.
- Annular (colored bands around the vessel) 1820-1860.
- Mocha (colored bands with a fern-like pattern) 1820-1900.

- Tea leaf (hand painted leaf pattern in copper luster) 1850-1910.
- Gilded 1885-present.
- Porcelain (shiny white nonporous earthen tableware- oriental porcelain has a slight blue or blue gray cast while bone china, unless an intentional cream tint is added, is snow white.   Porcelain with iridescent luster 1920-present.  Porcelain with “Made in Japan” printed on base of vessel 1921-1940.

## Diagnostic Ceramic Attributes Part 3

- Yellow Ware (porous and nonporous yellow paste utilitarian wares)
- Undecorated yellow ware 1827-1940.
- Brown glaze yellow ware 1850-1940.
- Rockingham Type yellow ware (mottled brown glaze and embossed designs) 1812-1920.
- Sponged decorated yellow ware 1827-1940.

- Stoneware is nonporous gray, brown, or tan paste utilitarian ware.  Stoneware was obsolete after WWI because of improving technology for preserving food.
- Bristol/Albany stoneware has a thick white glaze on one side and dark brown glaze on the other side, ca. 1880-1920.
- Bristol/Bristol stoneware has a thick white glaze on both surfaces, post 1920.

## Glassware Part 1

- Turn mold bottles have no seams and will exhibit horizontal striations, 1880-1910.
- Ground rim on jar with screw threads (lip will be rough and frosty looking) 1858-ca. 1915.
- Lipping tool bottle has a lip/neck with seams only part of the way up the neck, and not onto the rim.  The neck may have horizontal striations.
- Cork closure finish on lipping tool bottle, early 1870’s to ca. 1920.

- Crown cap finish (soda pop) on lipping tool bottle, 1890’s-ca. 1920.
- Machine made or “regular made” bottle will have seams all the way up and around the rim.
- Machine made with cork closure finish, 1903-ca. 1915.
- Machine made with crown cap finish, post 1903.
- Machine made with pry off lid finish, post 1929.
- Machine made with continuous screw thread finish, post 1919.

## Glassware Part 2

- Manganese oxide glass (purple colored bottle glass), 1880-ca. 1914.
- Selenium glass (straw colored bottle glass), 1914-late 1920’s.
- Arsenic glass (permanently clear bottle glass), post late 1920’s.
- “Federal law prohibits sale or reuse of this bottle” in embossed or raised lettering on bottle, 1933-1964.

- Applied color label (painted label on soda pop bottles), post 1934.
- Mason jars first patented, 1858.
- Mason jars first distributed by Ball Brothers, 1880.
- Carnival glass tableware (glass with a metallic sheen), 1890-1935.
- Depression glass tableware (pastel colored glass), 1925-1940.

## Cautionary Notes

- People may have brought heirlooms that were broken and discarded at the new farmstead, leading you to think the site is older than it really is.
- Look at a variety of datable artifacts, and note where they cluster in time.
- Use atlases in the library and compare that date to the date of the artifacts.