Additional Artifacts from the Savannah Farm Site	by V. Gary Henry
Central States Archaeological Societies 2025 January Journal	Asheville, North Carolina

Carter (2023) thought it important to document old and poorly known archaeological sites and the artifacts discovered on them. He included documentation of artifacts from the Savannah River (Hiwassee Old Town, Great Hiwassee, Conasoga, 40PK3) site in Polk County, Tennessee. F. M. (Ray) Snyder excavated this site from 1950 through 1958 and Tommy Beutell acquired a large part of this collection. I also acquired artifacts from this site directly from Ray that I will document herein. However, the artifacts I acquired from Ray were recorded using the site number 40PO1 instead of the state site number of 40PK3. Apparently, Ray used the same system to number sites but used PO instead of PK for the county abbreviation and used the number “1” instead of “3” indicating the first recorded site in his collection from Polk County. Some of these artifacts were documented in books by Lar Hothem which I will cite, but the provenance listed was at the county level and not at the site level.

Figure 1 is a frame of 821 historic and some late prehistoric artifacts (Hothem 2007a:299) including 3 copper rings, 6 copper points, 2 copper buckles, 1 copper strap, 2 eardrops, 2 centrally drilled copper pendants, 1 shell earplug (Hothem 2006:135), 1 antler flaker (Hothem 2006:276), 1 strand 124 inches long of 590 glass trade beads and 1 strand 62 inches long of 213 glass trade beads.

Figure 2 is a frame of 7 strands of 4,002 beads (Hothem 2007a:299) including the following; 1 strand 28 inches long of 100 marginella snail shell beads, 1 strand 24 inches long of 298 glass trade beads and 1 shell bead, 1 strand 90 inches long of 1272 glass trade beads, 1 strand 87 inches long of 1333 glass trade beads, 1 strand 28 inches long of 343 glass trade beads, 1 strand 24 inches long of 342 glass trade beads and 1 strand 24 inches long of 313 glass trade beads.

Figure 3 is a frame of 1 strand of 109 Woodland or Mississippian marginella snail shell beads (Hothem 2006:103) and 5 strands of 1544 glass seed...

 

This excerpt from "Additional Artifacts from the Savannah Farm Site" published in the 2025 Central States Archaeological Societies 2025 January Journal Read this and mores in the Central States Archaeological 2025 January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2026

Figure 1 A grouping of Historic and Late Prehistoric artifacts found at the Great Hiwassee site during the 1950s.