Quad Site (archaeological site) facts for kids

The Quad Site is a group of ancient sites in Limestone County, Alabama near Decatur, Alabama. These sites are very important because they show us about the Paleo-Indians, who were some of the earliest people to live in North America.

The Quad Site was first reported by Frank Soday in 1954. Later, other people like James Cambron, David Hulse, and Joe Wright also found and recorded many things there. Today, it's hard to see the Quad Site because of erosion from the lake, but it's still considered one of the most important and well-known Paleoindian sites in the Southern United States.

A Special Place Along the River

The Quad, Stone Pipe, and Pine Tree sites together form what is called the Quad Locality. This is a collection of sites spread out along the Tennessee River for about 14 miles. These sites were located on old riverbanks and were uncovered by waves in the early 1950s.

Many dedicated amateur archaeologists collected artifacts from these sites until the 1970s. After that, new laws like the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 made it illegal to dig or collect artifacts on federal land without special permission.

Tools and Treasures from the Past

The artifacts found at these sites tell us a lot about the people who lived there long ago. They included different types of "fluted points," which are special spear or arrowheads with grooves carved into them. These points came from different ancient groups, including the Clovis culture, and later groups like Quad, Beaver Lake, Dalton, and Big Sandy.

People also found many tools that were part of a "toolkit." These included:

• Knives for cutting
• Scrapers for preparing animal hides or wood
• Gravers for engraving or carving
• Choppers for heavy-duty tasks

While some tools from later periods like the Archaic and Woodland were mentioned, most finds were from the Paleoindian era. David Hulse and Joe Wright counted an amazing 40,466 artifacts from just six collections gathered over 40 years at the Quad Locality!

Why the Quad Site is Important

The Quad Locality is very important because of how many artifacts were found there, its large size, and its old age. Finding more than 10 fluted points at one site is very rare. So, to have a group of such sites in a small area is truly special.

Over 180 fluted points have been found at the Quad complex. This makes it one of the top ten places in North America for finding these ancient points. Because it's so significant, the area, which is about 50 acres across from the city of Decatur, has been written about in many research papers. These studies included:

• Digs (mostly by Cambron and Hulse)
• Studies of the artifacts and where they were found by professional archaeologists
• Comparisons of artifacts from Quad with those from other local sites

Digging Up History: Excavations

The excavations at the Quad Site happened at a time when such work was allowed and common. Today, federal laws prevent archaeological work on government land without a special permit.

Cambron and Hulse did five digs at the Quad Site when water levels were low enough. They reported on their findings from the westernmost dig, called the Circle of Rocks, in early 1960. This spot was chosen because Frank Soday had found many fluted points there. Later, 21 more fluted points were found by the group in this same area.

During the Circle of Rocks dig, they carefully dug 21 square sections, each 5 feet by 5 feet. They dug down in small 3-inch layers to understand the different soil layers and how deep the artifacts were. They found four main layers of soil. The third layer was the first important one with many artifacts, found about 6 inches deep.

They found many "Big Sandy" points, which made the researchers think that the Quad Site might have been a special gathering place for the Big Sandy culture in Alabama. Hulse and Wright counted 3,102 Big Sandy points from the whole complex. This suggests that these points might be older in the Tennessee Valley than previously thought.

Another dig, called the Power Line excavation, also found Big Sandy points just above a sterile (no artifacts) yellow clay layer. Other digs in the area had similar findings.

What We Learned from the Studies

Frank Soday's collection from the Quad Site was studied by Edwin Wilmsen. He measured tools from different ancient sites and found that the tools from Quad were long, heavy, and had steep edges. Wilmsen thought these features meant that small groups of people visited the site many times, perhaps during different seasons. He also suggested that the tools showed the Paleoindians at this site were focused on foraging for plants and small animals, rather than just hunting large animals like mammoths.

John Walthall suggested that before the Wheeler Dam was built, the Quad Locality might have been a series of oxbow lakes and swamps. These types of areas were popular hunting grounds for early people in Alabama because they attracted many animals. He also thought that a popular prehistoric river crossing might have made the location even more useful. This crossing was even one of the reasons the city of Decatur was founded there in 1821.

Cambron and Hulse also studied unfinished fluted points and flakes to understand how these tools were made. They found that points with a ridge down the middle were easier to "flute" (make the grooves). This suggested that the longer flutes on Cumberland points might have been an improved way of making them compared to Clovis points. Most of the tools were made from a type of rock called Ft. Payne chert, but some were made from Bangor flint and Dover flint.

In their final report, Cambron and Hulse talked about discoveries from 1961, a year when the water levels in the Wheeler Dam basin were very low. Hulse found two Clovis points near the Stone Pipe site, and Cambron found a Cumberland point at the Pine Tree Site.

The Legacy of the Quad Site

The Quad Site is one of only three Paleoindian sites in Alabama, along with Coffee Slough and Heaven's Half Acre, that have produced over 100 fluted points. This places them among the top ten sites in North America for finding these important artifacts.

The excitement around the discovery of the Quad Site led to big changes in how archaeology was done in Alabama in the 1960s and 1970s. Members of the Alabama Archaeological Society formed a group called the Archaeological Research Association of Alabama (ARAA) in 1960. Their goal was to find and dig up an untouched site with fluted points.

The ARAA raised money from the public and, with free help from the Alabama Archaeological Society, allowed professional archaeologists to do many digs and surveys at a very low cost. This partnership between amateur and professional archaeologists became famous across the country and is still considered a great example of teamwork today.

This partnership led to many important discoveries over the next two decades. One of the most important was the dig at the Stanfield-Worley Bluff Shelter, led by David L. DeJarnette. This dig provided the first radiocarbon date for the Late Paleoindian (Dalton) period in Alabama, helping scientists understand when these ancient people lived. The Alabama Archaeological Society is still an active partner in archaeology in Alabama today.