Dirt from my backyard turned out to be a Native American midden

Found a weird pile of oyster shells and broken pottery about 3 feet down behind my shed near Charlottesville last spring. I almost just filled the hole back in, but I called the local university archaeology lab instead. Turns out the charcoal layers and fire-cracked rocks meant people camped there maybe 800 years ago. The grad student who came out showed me how to screen the dirt through a 1/4 inch mesh to catch tiny beads and flakes. Has anyone else stumbled onto something in their yard that looked like trash but turned out to be old?

2 comments

2 Comments

ivan21116d ago

Used to think old trash was just trash. That post totally changed my mind.

craig.parker16d ago

@ivan211 makes a good point about changing how you see old stuff. What nobody talks about is that these middens can mess up your soil pH for years. The crushed shell and bone from centuries of meals leaches calcium carbonate into the ground, which can stunt plants that like acidic soil, like azaleas or blueberries. My neighbor had a similar find near Richmond and his garden never did well until he tested the dirt and realized what was happening.