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Coshocton Tribune "I've never in my life found anything that old!" exclaimed Jeff Dilyard, a Wayne County volunteer who found a base of a Crowfield fluted point at a rockshelter archaeological dig in Coshocton County. 
The dig, which has been going on throughout the summer, is under the direction of Dr. Nigel Brush, an associate professor of geology at Ashland University and a trained archaeologist."There have only been two other sites documented in Ohio that I am aware of where Crowfield points have been found," Brush said. "These are the oldest projectile points found in North America, and the one we found in Coshocton County is approximately 10,500 years old (from around 8,500 B.C.). This fluted point was made by a Paleo-Indian living during the Ice Age when they hunted large animals such as mammoth and mastodon (12,000 to 10,000 years ago)." At this same site, the archaeologists also have found Archaic points dating from 3000 to 2000 B.C. and Cole Pottery dating from to 1100 A.D. to 1300 A.D. "So we have determined that this particular shelter was used by Paleo, Archaic and into the late Woodland time periods," Brush said. A typical dig involves systematically digging just a few inches down at a time. Each layer represents a different time period. The dirt and rocks are then screened to see what might be in that layer. Typically, you find flint, bone, charcoal and ceramics. Each item is placed in bags labeled with the layer and section from which it came, and they are then taken back to the lab for sorting and cataloging. This is the 30th and last rockshelter in the Killbuck Valley for Brush to excavate. "The first rockshelter I excavated was on my grandfather's former farm near Spring Mountain in Coshocton County," he said. "I started in 1982 doing a systematic survey by walking the hillsides along the Killbuck Creek and its tributaries identifying the sandstone rockshelters. It took me six years to cover the 200 square miles from Millersburg to the Walhonding River. I then published a dissertation in 1990 on rockshelters. There are about 300 rockshelters that have been documented in southern Holmes County and northern Coshocton County." Brush said the function of the rockshelters varies depending on their size and location. Those that face south seemed to be more favorable to the Native Americans. Some uses of rockshelters were as a base camp or living quarters, a hunting camp, for cover during rain and as a storage site such as for stowing tools. Brush is now beginning work on a book documenting his discoveries titled, "Rockshelters of the Killbuck Valley -- A 12,000 year Record of Human Utilization." Brush is a member of the Ashland/Wooster/Columbus Archaeological and Geological Consortium. Along with Brush, this consortium is also under the direction Dr. Nick Kardulias, associate professor of sociology and archaeology, and chair of the archaeology program at the College of Wooster; Dr. Greg Wiles, associate professor of geology at the College of Wooster and director of the Wooster Tree Ring Lab and Dr. Jarrod Burks, an archaeologist with Ohio Valley Archaeology Inc. in Columbus. "The four of us are working together on a variety of archaeological and geological projects with a group of 24 consortium members from eight counties (Ashland, Coshocton, Franklin, Holmes, Knox, Richland, Summit, and Wayne)," Brush explained. "These consortium members include a number of school teachers (12), as well as several engineers and artists. We also have an additional 24 consortium volunteers who occasionally work with us." The consortium is working on five projects: (1) The Killbuck Valley Rockshelters Project, (2) The Nellie Flint Quarries Project, (3) The Muskingum Headwaters Earthworks Project, (4) The Erie/Ohio Tree Ring Transect Project and (5) The Walhonding Valley Prehistoric Villages Project. These projects ultimately will involve fieldwork in 14 different counties. "We have also been investigating worldwide climate changes over the past 10,000 years," Brush said. "Ever since the Ice Age ended, there have been measurable changes in temperature, with fluctuating periods of cooler weather. We have been in a warm period since about 1850. The last 'little ice age' was from around 1300 to around 1850. It appears that each of these cold and warmer periods each last approximately 500 years." "Obviously, a lot of my work is dependent on volunteer help," Brush said. "Professors often have more ideas than we can pursue on our own. Our volunteers are involved in all of these projects." The work on the dig where the Crowfield point was found has just concluded. Some of the volunteers who worked on that rockshelter dig included Jeff Pratt, Bob Williams, Scott Donaldson, Ken Rogers, David Reed, Tracy Greenberg and Jeff Dilyard. "This is my second dig," said Pratt, a retired English teacher of Millersburg. "About 10 years ago, I did some work on one of Nigel's other digs. Now I have more time, and I am able to help out more. It is rather humbling to look out on these vistas and see what ancient people would have seen. I find that this is a way to reach back into the past." Bob Williams has been volunteering at digs such as these for decades. He is originally of Mansfield, where he worked as an engineer for a number of years. He moved to Warsaw after he retired. His interest in archaeology began in his early years. "It started out when I was a kid and found an arrowhead in a furrow of a field," he said. "I began volunteering with Dr. Olaf Prufer in the Chillicothe area in '59. A friend of mine was interested in this sort of thing and he took me out on a dig with Dr. Prufer, and here I am still digging. I've been on digs all over the state and at this site all summer. It was pretty much a normal dig here up until a few weeks ago when we found the fluted point." Scott Donaldson is of Richland County and has been working with Brush for about three years but said he has been interested in archaeology for about 25 years. "I studied anthropology, but worked as an electrical engineer," he said. "Now that I'm retired I am able to spend more time with this. I've worked on three or four other rockshelter digs and have found my share of interesting things. It's a labor of love -- an understanding of the past. You gain a lot of experience and knowledge doing this kind of volunteer work." Donaldson says he hopes to help Brush with his book. "People really need to appreciate the role of archaeology and the importance of accuracy and not destroying the site," he added. "There is such a negative impact on this science with all the defacing, looting and trading of artifacts that takes place. Archaeology can develop an appreciation for the past and why we are the way we are. It's all about the history of past cultures." Rogers, of Greenwich, is in his seventh summer of volunteering on digs. He has worked on four rockshelters. "I've always had an interest in archaeology," he said. "I started picking up arrowheads when I was a teenager and joined an archaeology society in 1992. It's really something to pick up an item that someone hasn't picked up for thousands of years. I've found pottery, a few points, cup stones and lots of flint flakes." Reed has been volunteering on digs for 25 years. He is from Wooster and taught special education at West Holmes before retiring. He also was the curator at the Killbuck Museum for seven years. "I've dug rockshelters and open air sites working with several different archaeologists," he stated. "This summer I've been at three different rock shelter sites. It's always been in the back of my mind to get into archaeology. Back in 1987, Nigel had an in-service for teachers and that's when I got hooked. I've been on digs where some major artifacts have been found, and I've been lucky to get to work with a number of significant archaeologists over the years. The people working with this rock shelter have been working together on a lot of digs."
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