By Adam Ockers
Serving with the Monongahela National Forest
Adam at archeological survey site
Few fields of study have the romantic appeal of archeology. Visions of unearthing treasures from lost tombs like Howard Carter in the Valley of the Kings, or of rediscovering long abandoned cities like Hiram Bingham at Machu Picchu and Heinrich Schliemann at Troy, have a lasting draw. As a child I was not immune, although my interest was sparked more by Indiana Jones than by any of the real archeologists above. Nevertheless, I too began to dream of solving ancient mysteries and finding the sorts of artifacts that end up in world famous museums. With time these dreams were sidelined, but they never truly left. So, when I was offered a chance to help out in an archeological survey, in my role as an AmeriCorps member serving with the heritage program of the Monongahela National Forest, you could call it something of a dream come true.
So, on a cloudy day in late April, we packed some shovels and a soil screen and drove to the site. While pretty, with flowering trees and framed by green mountains, it did not quite inspire the same feelings as the ruins of Pompeii or Mycenae. It was an open field next to the Cheat River. Our interest in the area was that it was to be the site of a new trailhead for a canoe launch, and it was planned near enough to a known archeological site to warrant a survey. So, we marked a spot and dug a test pit. A test pit is a hole dug to the level of undisturbed soil. While digging, we searched the soil by sifting it through a soil screen to search for evidence of previous human activity.
Adam sifting at archeological survey
In total we dug four test pits, and we didn’t quite find treasure. In fact, we didn’t find much of anything. A few small, scattered pieces of charcoal and some modern litter were the majority of what we uncovered. The one exception was a single flake of chert. This chert flake was created when someone at some point in time sharpened or modified an edged stone tool. One flake does not an archeological site make, so we reburied it and returned from the trip. Our work now assured us that the proposed trail would not disturb any priceless archeological site.
So, the fruition of my dream didn’t quite look like what I had imagined, with me standing next to an unearthed statue of some antique leader, or on the street of a long-abandoned city. The only artifact we uncovered was that single chert flake. Thinking about the flake lead me to consider its origins. Before the widespread use of metal tools in the new world, stones like chert were the primary materials used for making edged tools. It seems plausible, at least to me, that an ancient Native American hunter was repairing or modifying a tool while waiting for prey by the Cheat River. The flake is an example of what a regular day was like in this region centuries ago. This piece of debris showcases one of the great many small actions that it took to survive in that world. These many small labors made up the community that this toolmaker belonged to, and it took at least as many to build King Tut’s Tomb, or Machu Picchu. Within the flake is the spark of perseverance and striving that brought humanity into the present. I can now appreciate the small discoveries that make the bigger discoveries possible.
