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A
Sampling of North Carolina's Archaeological Sites
The
Donnaha Site
Yadkin County, NC
Located on the banks
of the Yadkin River in Yadkin Co., the Donnaha site contains important
information concerning the early agricultural period of [North Carolina]
prehistory. Excavations at the site, under the direction of Dr.
J. Ned Woodall, Wake Forest University, have revealed intact cultural
strata and well-preserved organic remains (rarities in the North
Carolina piedmont) from a village occupied between ca. A.D. 1000
and A.D. 1500. The diet of the occupants primarily consisted of
wild plants and animals, such as deer, turkey, fish, shellfish and
nuts. Maize horticulture supplemented the diet, rather than being
a major subsistence feature.
Artifacts recovered
include shell gorgets and beads, bone awls, needles and f ishhooks,
ceramics, projectile points, stone tools and cores. The ceramic
assemblage includes Dan River, Uwharrie and Yadkin series pottery.
The material used for most of the stone tools is felsite from the
Carolina Slate Belt, approximately 70 Km to the southeast.
Research will continue
at the site in the future. The site was listed in the National Register
of Historic Places on December 6, 1978.
By: Dolores A.
Hall, NC Office of State Archaeology
Reprinted
by permission from the NEWSLETTER of the Friends of
North Carolina Archaeology, Inc., Fall 1985, Volume 2, Number 1. ©
North Carolina Archaeological Society 1985
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