The Sharon Mills Findspot,
Sharon Township,
Washtenaw County, Michigan
A Report
Submitted to the
Washtenaw County Parks
and Recreation Commission
By
Gary G. Robinson, RPA
June 2, 2010
Table of Contents
Introduction 1
Project Area Description 1
Environmental Overview 1
Prehistoric Overview 4
Paleoindian Period (10,000 BCE to 8000 BCE) 4
Archaic Period (8000 BCE to 550 BCE) 5
Early Archaic (8000 BCE to 6000 BCE) 5
Middle Archaic (6000 BCE to 3000 BCE) 5
Late Archaic (3000 BCE to 550 CE) 6
Woodland Period (600 BCE to 1600 CE) 7
Early Woodland (600 BCE to 200 BCE) 7
Middle Woodland (200 BCE to 500 BCE) 9
Late Woodland (500 CE to 1600 CE) 10
Artifact Description 12
Conclusion 14
Citations 15
Introduction
In July 2009 staff members of the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission recovered a bifacially worked chert artifact during routine landscaping activities. The biface was recovered from the riprap on the face of the north bank of the millrace at Sharon Mills County Park (Figure 1).
Project Area Description
The site of the findspot is located in the E ½ of the SE ¼ of the SE ¼ of Section 29 of Sharon Township (T. 3S R. 3E), Washtenaw County, Michigan within the confines of the Sharon Mills County Park. The park lies northwest of the village of Manchester and is situated on the north bank of the River Raisin which passes northwest to southeast through the township (Figures 2, 3) (USGS Topographic Map, Michigan, Manchester Quadrangle).
Environmental Overview
The soils of Washtenaw County were deposited by glaciers or by melt water from the glaciers. Some of these materials have been reworked or redeposited by subsequent actions of water and wind. These glaciers covered the county from about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. The dominant parent soil materials in Washtenaw County were deposited as glacial till, outwash deposits, lacustine deposits, alluvium, and organic material.
The vegetation in Washtenaw County was mainly deciduous forest. Differences in natural soil drainage and minor changes in parent soils affected the composition of the forest species. In general, the well-drained soils were mainly covered with sugar maple and hickory, with some occurrence of scrub oak. The wet soils were covered mainly by soft maple, elm and ash (Engel 1977:101, 102).
Sharon Mill occurs within the Jackson Interlobate sub district in the Albert et al. (1986:18; Figure 4) classification of the regional landscape ecosystems in Michigan. This region is typified by coarse-textured end moraine, outwash, and ice-contact topography; oak savanna and oak-hickory forest, hardwood swamps, prairie fens, bogs.
This sub-subsection contains broad expanses of outwash sands that surround sandy and gravelly end moraines and ground moraines. End and ground moraines remain as island like hills surrounded by flat outwash. Large linear segments of end moraine, broken only by narrow outwash channels, are typically located along the margins of the sub-subsection (Albert et. al. 1986:106-108).
The Jackson Interlobate sub-subsection also includes areas of ice contact topography. This topographic type is characterized by the presence of kettle lakes, kames, eskers, and segments of outwash channel are the predominant features of the ice contact areas. At the west edge of the sub-subsection, the topography is gentler; it contains broad, coarse textured ridges are surrounded by deposits of outwash sand (Ibid).
Presettlement vegetation reflected the differences in landform and topography. On the sandy moraines, open savannas of black oak, white oak, and hickory commonly occurred. Bur oak savannas were found on small, isolated area of gently sloping ground moraine and end moraine at the western edge of the sub-subsection. Other species of the oak savannas were present, such as, white oak, black oak, and chinquapin oak (Ibid).
Wetlands present on the end moraines were shrub or tree swamps located on the lower slopes or in small depressions. The lower slope wetlands were usually hardwood swamps. Kettle lakes and swampy depressions occurring on the moraines were usually occupied by shrub swamp, hardwood swamp, or tamarack swamp (Ibid).
Several types of large wetlands were supported the outwash channels. Calcareous seepages occurred at the margins between the uplands and the outwash. These frequently supported fens where tamarack grew near their upland margins. Grass and sedge meadows grew adjacent to streams which occurred on large areas of the outwash channels (Ibid).
The margins of major streams on the outwash grew Swamp forests. Lake edges and kettles or depressions in the outwash commonly grew Tamarack (Ibid).
The drier ice contact topographic areas were dominated by black oak. Moister areas were commonly populated with white oak and hickory. Red oak occupied moist foot slopes (Ibid).
In of ice-contact areas, wetlands occurred in narrow belts which surrounded kettle lakes. These were populated by shrub, hardwood, or conifer swamps. Kettles were occasionally totally occupied by either swamp or bog vegetation (Ibid).
The Sharon Mill area is drained by the Raisin River which eventually flows into western Lake Erie (Ibid).
Prehistoric mammals known to have been present are the mammoth, mastodon, musk ox, barren-ground caribou, giant beaver, peccary, giant moose, mountain lion, bison, and numerous smaller mammals; however, prehistoric mammalian distributions are difficult to determine because of the lack of data (Fitting 1975:29). Pre-settlement vegetation has been radically altered by modern agricultural practices. Most of the project area was intensively cultivated from ca. 1840 to the present day. Forested areas are still present but not numerous. Today much of the area has been impacted by residential, commercial, and road construction activities (Albert et. al. 1986:106-108).
Prehistoric Overview
Paleoindian Period (10,000 BCE to 8000 BCE)
The earliest know inhabitants of North American are known as the Paleoindians. The Paleoindian occupation of Washtenaw County may have begun as early as 10,000 BCE as the glaciers of the Wisconsin glaciation began to retreat from the area and the levels of glacial lakes began to drop (Coakley and Lewis 1985). New shoreline environments developed in the deglaciated areas and were rapidly populated by various species of plants. The changing environment produced larger and more diverse populations of plants and animals along the river valleys, inland lakes, and lake margin areas (Fitting 1975:37).
Paleoindian populations are typically depicted as practicing a focal subsistence strategy based around the hunting of megafauna but undoubtedly, other resources were also exploited. Recent research into Paleoindian land-use and hunting practices reveal them to be generalists in hunting large fauna, such as caribou and elk, but, also, as opportunistic harvesters of other resources, such as berries, roots, wild grains (Kelly and Todd 1988:223).
Two adaptations have been identified for the Paleoindian Period. Early Paleoindians hunted a recently deglaciated environment, probably best described as spruce parkland, and/or a myriad of very small environmental zones (micro-habitats) (Brown and Cleland 1969). Archaeological remains from the time period prior to 8500 BCE consist of large, fluted lanceolate projectile points, often with concave bases, as well as large chopping implements, gravers, and unifacial scrapers.
After 8500 BCE Paleoindian hunters moved into territory recently vacated by the northward-retreating glacial fronts and regional subsistence strategy adaptations began to appear. Hi-Lo type projectile points (Figure 1), as well as lanceolate point styles, appear and other tools begin to reflect an adaptation to local resource availability.
Few Paleoindian sites have been identified in the vicinity of the project area, a Hi-Lo point has been reported from Pittsfield Township (Peebles et al. 1979:3). A possible Hi-Lo point was also reported as being recovered from the Stone School site (20WA18) located in Ann Arbor (Wobst 1965:62).
Archaic Period (8000 BCE to 550 BCE)
Early Archaic (8000 BCE to 6000 BCE)
Around 8000 BCE there is a change in the artifact assemblages which marks the beginning of the Archaic Period. The change is not abrupt. Paleoindian points persist in some regions until around 7500 BCE. Side-notched points occurring in Ontario that, except for the notches, are virtually identical to Hi-Lo points indicate a direct transition from Paleoindian to Early Archaic may have occurred there (Ellis et al. 1990:71). Most of the diagnostic projectile points from this period are markedly different from those of the Paleoindian period. These point types are Kirk, MacCorkle, LeCroy, St. Albans, Kanawha Stemmed, St. Charles, Thebes, and Decatur. Other artifacts associated with the Early Archaic are ground stone tools, choppers, knives, and scrapers.
The diverse nature of the projectile point assemblage associated with the Early Archaic may indicate increased regional segmentation of the population. It could also indicate differences in subsistence activities. There appears to be the establishment of a more generalized subsistence strategy that has a greater balance between hunting, fishing, and the gathering of plant food. Sites of this period are usually small and appear to have been occupied for only a short period of time. Some larger sites, like the Nettling site in southern Ontario, are known (Ellis et al. 1990:70).
Changes in subsistence strategies during the Archaic are usually attributed to climatic changes known as the hypsithermal warming (see Branstner 1990). During these changes the climate of the project area became warmer and drier than it is today. The exact nature, periodicity, and duration of the periods of hypsithermal are, as yet, not specifically determined. If these changes, and the attendant changes to the biotic regime, were periodic then Arnold’s (1977) model of Early Archaic subsistence strategy would be correct. Arnold suggests that small bands of Early Archaic foragers exploited large regions and made use of a large variety of resources.
An Early Archaic component has been identified at the Braun site (20WA81), Pittsfield Township, south of the project area. Also, two LeCroy points have been recovered from the Stone School site (20WA18) (Wobst 1965:62).
Middle Archaic (6000 BCE to 3000 BCE)
Human occupation during the Middle Archaic in southeastern Michigan and throughout the state appears to decrease. This is indicated by the absence of the diagnostic Kirk Stemmed and Stanly Stemmed projectile points on the identified sites in the region.
The Weber I site (20SA581) in Saginaw County provides much of our knowledge about the Middle Archaic. Excavated in 1981 by archaeologists from Michigan State University, the site dates to as early as 4280 BCE (Lovis 1989). Weber I produced large, side-notched points with ground haft elements which are comparable to other side-notched point types found in the Northeast and Mid-continent. These latter points date from between 2500 BCE and 5000 BCE (Lovis and Robertson 1989).
No other Middle Archaic period sites have been identified in southeastern Michigan, although site 20WA174 in Ann Arbor may have contained a Middle Archaic component (Shott 1987:24-25). Broad-bladed side- and corner-notched points found in southwestern Ontario are assumed to date from the same time period as those from Weber I (Ellis et al. 1990:92).
The information from the Weber I site indicates that the diffuse subsistence pattern of the Early Archaic continues into the Middle Archaic period. The subsistence and artifactual remain recovered suggest a small, late summer/fall campsite indicative of a highly mobile population (Robertson 1987). Subsistence remains from the site include wapiti, deer, goose, raccoon, turtle, fish, walnut, acorn, blackberry, grape, elderberry, and mustard seed (Egan 1988:92; Smith and Egan 1990).
Late Archaic (3000 BCE to 550 CE)
In contrast to earlier Archaic periods, the Late Archaic period adaptations have received considerable attention. Most existing research has occurred in the Saginaw Valley, well north of the project area, but inferences about typology, subsistence, and settlement can be used to establish the cultural context for southeastern Michigan.
The chronology for the Late Archaic has been synthesized by Lovis and Robertson (1989). Research in New York (Ritchie and Funk 1973:50) and Ontario (Ellis et al. 1990:86), Brewerton points exist to at least 2500 BCE. These points are replaced by a broad-bladed point type called Satchell, which dates to circa 2500 BCE to 1550 BCE. A terminal Late Archaic small point phase follows the Satchell phase and last approximately 1,000 years. There are several point types associated with this latter phase including, small notched forms, small expanding stemmed forms, and narrow point forms (Lovis and Robertson 1989:236-237). In contrast, a recent chronology for Southern Ontario places narrow point forms before the broad point styles (Ellis et al. 1990:93), which is more consistent with chronologies from the Mid-Atlantic and New England.
By the Late Archaic period, modern forest communities were well established (Holman 1990; Lovis 1989), and the level of Lake Erie had stabilized at its present elevation (Brose and Essenpreis 1973:71; Coakley and Lewis 1985; Forsyth 1973). The Archaic populations living in this dynamic environment continued developing an increasingly diffuse subsistence pattern (Cleland 1976) and exhibit a larger and more varied tool kit.
Groundstone tools are common in Late Archaic artifact assemblages. The grooved axes found in Middle Archaic assemblages are still present, but chisel-shaped celts of similar rock types are also found. Slate is the common material of lithic artifacts. A variety of abstract forms, often called bannerstones or birdstones, are often found in conjunction with Late Archaic.
The making of copper tools first appears at this time. Ceremonial burial complexes also develop during the Late Archaic (Fitting 1975:81-90; Mason 1981:181-235). Often identified as individual cultures bearing the names Glacial Kame, Red Ochre, and Old Copper, formal burials from these “cultures” are associated with exotic grave goods including Turkey-tail points, red ochre, copper and shell ornaments, and/or elaborates groundstone forms.
The Late Archaic period is also characterized by an increase in the number of sites, and in turn, an apparent increase in population size. Sites are found in both lake plains and interior uplands (Brose and Essenpreis 1973; Peebles et al. 1979). Brose and Essenpreis (1973:71-72) conducted an archaeological survey of Monroe County, the results of which indicate that Late Archaic populations preferred large camp locations in the elm-ash-swamp forest or oak savanna zones.
Late Archaic sites in the vicinity of the project are few in number and include the Newport Hills 2 site (20WA243). An extensive collection (n=34) of Brewerton series points has been reported for the Stone School site (20WA18) (Wobst 1965:62-63) and , nearby at 20WA174, a terminal late Archaic occupation represented by an “Ace-of-Spades” point, in indicated (Shott 1987:28).