Article date: November 20, 2000

By Ashley May

In August, FMC Corp., a former owner of Avtex and the major private party responsible for the cleanup effort, announced that archaeological evidence that prehistoric American Indians may have occupied the area was discovered scattered over about 12 acres.

According to Richard E. Goss of Decision quest, a management company hired by FMC., no decisions have yet been made concerning further study of the discovery area, which has been condoned off from the rest of the 37-acre study site.

Goss said that the Virginia Department of Historic Resources has given the FMC permission to use the remaining 25 acres, where no artifacts were found, as fill dirt, as it had planned for the whole site.

The site was discovered by a field team hired by FMC to do a preliminary study for archaeological evidence in the area, the only undisturbed option of the entire 500-acre property.

Archaeologist Cindy Auman of Parsons Engineering Science of Fairfax said that the team found flakes of stone, pieces of ceramic and fire-cracked rocks in two places on about 12 acres, evidence that American Indians once occupied the site.

She said that not many conclusions can be drawn about the artifacts or the people who left them because of the limited scope of the survey, but called the discovery a "good, respectable site."

Artifacts were found to be scattered widely, but indicated two clear sites, on about 12 of the 37 acres studied, Auman said. Divided by a wetland area, both sites are near the administrative building of the plant.

On the larger site to the north, Auman said that archaeologists have found chips of rock, called lithics, which are left when stone tools are made. Also on that site were stones that have been cracked by fire, a sign that campfire hearths may have been built there, she said.

On the northern site were bits of ceramic, which show a somewhat more recent occupation than the smaller site to the south, she said. Ceramics, a newer technology than stone-tool making, are not present on the southern site, she said but the stone chips and fire-cracked rocks were found there, she said.

Neither site yielded actual tools. But a broken stone point found on the southern site looks as if it might be a "bit face" broad spear point, Auman said. Because it was incomplete and broken, there is no way to determine exactly what it is or when it was tooled, she said.

Without a known tool pattern it is hard to determine who occupied the site, how long ago or for how long, she said.

"It’s interesting, from every standpoint, but we don’t really know very much about it, she said.

The phase one study, which is not an exhaustive search of the site but is used simply to determine the presence or absence of an archaeological site, was the result of an agreement between the EDA and FMC, Heavener said.

The EDA has requested that FMC fund the second phase of the study, which must be done to establish the significance of the find and its effect on redevelopment efforts.

Goss said that there have been no instructions yet concerning a further study by FMC but said the 12 acres won’t be disturbed until a decision is made.