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The Hidden Creek Site
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The Hidden Creek Site Excavations, 1995
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The Hidden Creek Site (72-163) was encountered in the summer of 1992 during reconnaissance survey of lands to be developed by the Mashantucket Pequots. This site is located on a sandy terrace above a small stream draining an ancillary wetland into the main body of Cedar Swamp. Hidden Creek is exceptionally small in size. Nearly the entire assemblage was recovered from a five by five meter area. The site was, however, very rich in artifacts, containing approximately 80 Paleoindian tools, including a multiply fluted biface preform and a lanceolate point base. Typologically, the site can be best described as Holcombe-like placing it in the Late Paleoindian period. Three radiocarbon dates place this site in the period between 10,200 and 9,100 years ago. Dates of 9150 B.P. were returned on a small wood charcoal fragment recovered from the meter containing the greatest concentration of burned debitage and on a carbonized cattail root fragment found in proximity to an area of biface manufacture.A third datewas on a hazelnut shell fragment and returned a value of 10260 uncalibrated years B.P. Hidden Creek appears to represent a short-term camp of perhaps a week's duration. It is probable that both plant foods and game were foraged in the vicinity and processed at the site. A number of hunting tools appear to have been retooled and freshly manufactured, and spent expedient tools were discarded at the site before it was abandoned. Lithic materials are dominated by green-grey cherts of probable Hudson Valley origin. Quartz and quartzite (probably derived very locally) were used for rough chopping and scraping tasks as well.
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Fluted preform of Hudson Valley chert.
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One of the clues to the age of this site was the fluted preform (unfinished spear point) shown here. The two long flakes removed from the base of this artifact indicate the use of a technology rooted in the Paleoindian tradition. Other artifacts recovered from the site indicate that finsihed spear points were, however, unfluted lanceolate forms typically associated with the Late Paleoindian period (ca. 10,000 - 8,000 years ago). Other artifacts include end scrapers, side scrapers, utilized flakes and large quantities of production as well as tool-rejuvenation debitage (chipping debris). The lithic (stone artifact) assemblage is dominated by apple-green and grey-green cherts (approximately 80%), with a likely origin in the Hudson River Valley of New York. Other stone materials used included local quartz, primarily for crude chopping tools, and a variety of reddish chert, perhaps also from sources in the upper Hudson Valley.
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