Wesleyan ran an archaeological field school in May of 2004 and students excavated at the multi-component site, Red Station. Based on our initial excavation, which included 6 square meters, we found two different occupations at this site: an older level which is thought to be Early Woodland (1000 BC) and a proto-historic occupation, which dates to around 1200 AD.

Red Station

    Red station is located on the Monongahela National Forest, near Stewart Recreation Area. The site was originally found in 1995 when the Forest Service did an archaeological survey of the area. The site was located by shovel testing and was found to contain, stone tools, and pottery. Based on the types of artifacts recovered, it was thought that Red Station was a Woodland period site, and could be as old as 1000BC.

    In the eastern United States, prehistory is broken down into four main time periods: the PaleoIndian, Archaic, Woodland, and the protohistoric. The Woodland period dates from 1000 BC to 100 AD, and marks the introduction of pottery in the archaeological record, along with the beginnings of horticulture, and the rise of socio-political complexity.

    During the Woodland period in West Virginia people were beginning to experiment with growing their own food and developing agriculture. Early crops in this area included sunflowers, chenopodium (goosefoot), and Amaranthus (pigweed). People were also beginning to make more permanent settlement, with base camps located near river or wetlands.

    As people became more settled, storage technology became more important. During the Late Archaic and Early Woodland, archaeologists have found an increase in the number and type of storage devices such as storage pits, steatite vessels, and eventually pottery. It wasn’t that early culture did not have the ability to manufacture such items, but that they did not have the need. Early and Middle Archaic populations were relative mobile and did carry large storage containers around with them. Rather, as we enter the Early Woodland, people were staying in one place for longer periods of time, relying more on a few specific food types, experimenting with growing their own food and storing that food for later in the year. As people began to rely more on agriculture, larger labor groups were needed to clear fields and to cultivate seed crops. This causes a change in how societies organized themselves and eventually led to the rise of a class based society.

Important finds at Red Station

    In West Virginia, during the late Archaic/Early Woodland, most people were supposed to be living at relatively low altitudes in base camps near water sources. It was thought that people did not live in the uplands at high altitudes, but rather they used the mountains for hunting and for collecting wild plants. Long term occupation of the highlands was not proposed to occur until the Late Woodland.

    However, initial excavations at Red Station have questioned that hypothesis of upland use. Red Station is located at an altitude of 2880 ft. During our excavation we uncovered a large deep midden with a high density of stone tools, which would suggest that people occupied this site for a long time. We also uncovered a storage pit roughly 2 ft wide by 4 feet long and 4 feet deep. Based on the artifact types present, we believe that this pit dates to the Early Woodland. Storage pits would also indicate that people were living here for considerable periods of time. We also found two post molds which suggest some type of structure was present. So, it appears as if people may have been living up in the highlands during this time period.

In addition, we collected soil samples from all the occupation levels at Red Station and the Forest Service will float these samples in the future in an attempt to identify any botanical remains present. Hopefully we will be able to reconstruct the environment and the diet of the people at Red Station.