NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIFACTS FOUND IN LISBON

Rare Indian artifacts found on Lisbon property
Encampment estimated at 4,000 years old
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By DEBORAH STRASZHEIM
Norwich Bulletin
Posted Jul 11, 2009 @ 10:53 PM
Last update Jul 11, 2009 @ 11:01 PM

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Lisbon, Conn. — Some young men were walking along a wooded bike path near the Quinebaug River when they found a black spearhead laying in the soil.

It looked like part of an American Indian weapon. So they asked Richard Rogers, who owns the land, if they could dig for more.

In two weekends, they found 80 spearheads in an area about the size of a small bedroom.

Rogers decided to see for himself. He and his son, now 22, walked through the woods, and brought a bucket of water to clean their discoveries. Near a stump by the river, Rogers picked up an oval stone a little larger than a silver dollar.

Something was carved in it, and he handed it to his son.

“He cleaned it up and said, ‘This is a face, Dad.’”

The stone was a rare pendant. They had stumbled upon an ancient American Indian encampment and part of a burial ground dated more than 3,000 years ago.

The state Office of Archaeology has excavated portions of the property and found hundreds of artifacts, from stone tools to evidence of a pit where cremated bodies were buried. Radiocarbon dating — a method used to estimate the age of remains in an archaeological site — places the time of two areas containing charcoal at 3,400 and 4,000 years ago.

Representatives of the Mohegan and Mashantucket Pequots tribes and the Native American Heritage Advisory Council have visited the site. The Archaeological Conservancy, a private, nonprofit organization that acquires and permanently preserves important archaeological sites across the United States, has looked at it. The conservancy publishes the quarterly magazine American Archaeology.