by Steve Putera, Jr., Seven Hills, Ohio
Figure 1: Overview of the Smith site (3 MS 6) in February of 1982
It was Friday, February 21, 1982. My friend, Dean Bilak, and myself had just completed the 600-mile trip from Cleveland, Ohio to the Bootheel area of Missouri and northeast Arkansas, to conduct salvage digs for Mississippian pottery. Many of the local sites were well-known with most thought to have been previously “dug-out,” with all of the sites constantly being threatened and damaged by farming methods and land leveling. This day found us on the Smith site (3 MS 6), a Middle to Late Mississippian period village site located near Joiner, Arkansas, a small town near the southern border of Mississippi County. Other nearby sites are Shawnee Village (3 MS 7), a sister site to the north and Pecan Point, a famous site on the banks of the Mississippi River, about one mile to the East. The Smith site is bordered by Barney Chute to the south. This location is within two miles of the Tennessee border. It may be said that Mississippi County, Arkansas, is one of the richest areas of prehistoric Mississippian sites of the 1350 – 1550 A.D. era.
This was our second day on the site. Our local contact and friend, Arnold Moore of Kennett, Missouri, had secured permission from the landowner for our group to work the site. Our group had managed to find a few ceramic vessels in the two days, and it was getting late in the afternoon on Friday. There were some local diggers working the site that day and one of the group from the nearby town of Bassett had probed a “rock.”
As it was getting late in the day and it was fairly deep, he was not going to dig a hole to investigate the “rock.” He asked our group “does anyone want to dig a rock?” At this point let me state that this site was all sand as being flood plain from ancient channels of the Mississippi River and there were no “native” rocks in the ground. My friend Dean, who had not found much that day said “sure, I’ll dig it.” As Dean finally reached the rock that one of the probes was still resting on, he ran his fingers around the perimeter of the rock, and hollered out to me, as I was close by, “Steve, I think I’ve got a spud!” As I hurriedly ran over to Dean, who was still prone, he lifted it out and placed into my hands a masterpiece of Mississippian stone work.
This rare spatulate form ceremonial axe,
Figure 2. Dean Bilak (L) and the author, Steve Putera (R), excavating the area where the spatulate was found, February 21, 1982.
Figure 3. The spatulate in situ just prior to being removed from the earth.
Figure 4. Above, Janice Wiedner (L), Dan Bilak (center, with spatulate in hand) and Arnold Moore (R).
Figure 6. The spatulate shortly after being removed, waiting to be cleaned.
commonly known as a “spud” was found about 40 inches deep, in clean sand, in association with an extended male burial from one of the pelvic area underneath the right forearm. No other artifacts were found in the burial, and we thought perhaps they may have previously been found. This “spud” is made of highly polished, caramel colored quartz with red areas around the perimeter. It measures 6 ½ inches long by 5 ½ inches wide. It is undrilled and is very thick and heavy. The artifact still retains all the metal marks from the probes hitting it as the quartz is scratched from its harder than the steel probe tips.
Those present on the site to witness the find that day include Greg Perkins, Joe Henderson, Arnold Moore, Len Wiedner, Janice Wiedner and Steve Putera, Jr.
Figure 8. Both sides of the spatulate. It is undrilled and made from a golden-hued quartz. It measures 6 ½ inches in length.
This day was the highlight of my fifty years of collecting ancient artifacts. Although this event happened 36 years ago, it is still vividly remembered as if it happened a year ago. I truly consider it “the find of a lifetime.”
Note: Another spatulate is known to have been recovered from the Smith site. It is also an undrilled example, made from a golden quartz. It is illustrated formerly in the Jack Pirtle collection and later in the Roy Hathcock collection. It appeared in Prehistoric American Vol. 15, No. 2, 2006 on page 54.
References:
Bilak, Dean
1982, From Bilak Collection, Privately printed.
Hathcock, Roy
1992–2006, personal communication
Henderson, Joe
1982, personal communication
Putera, Steve
1982, Bilak Pirtle Putera Vol. 2, No. 2
2006 Prehistoric American Vol. 15, No. 2