Background Dust Cave, site number 1Lu496, lies just outside of Florence, Alabama within the northern bluff line of the Tennessee River System. The peoples that called Dust Cave home left behind an immense amount of material remains within highly stratified and preserved layers of sediment. Typically the main fuel of a fire is expected to be wood and wood charcoal.
Hickory nuts begin to fall from the trees in middle to late summer.
During the 1999 season of excavations the hickory nuts were falling in abundance. It is, however, some time before the nuts dry out and season themselves on the ground. A majority of the nuts observed during the 1999 season were fully green, while some were half brown. Very few were fully brown and dried out, and most of those were last year's nuts. Prehistorically, hickory nuts were broken open between two stones.