06/15/2026
Week 3 of our Cultural Resource Management (CRM) Professional Training Program has our students hard at work in the field!
One group has been continuing excavations at the Slave Quarters site, while another group has been conducting Shovel Test Pits (STPs) across the park. STPs are a systematic method archaeologists use to investigate large areas. Survey points are laid out on a grid, and a small test excavation is dug at regular intervals—in this case, within 30-meter by 30-meter survey squares—to determine whether artifacts or archaeological deposits may be present.
Sometimes these small test pits can lead to exciting discoveries!
During one of this week's STPs, students recovered a fascinating artifact: a Lanceolate Tapered Haft projectile point dating to the Late Middle Woodland Period (approximately 500 BC–800 AD). Although the tip of the point has been broken off, closer examination suggests it may have been repurposed as a scraping tool rather than discarded. This kind of reuse demonstrates the resourcefulness of Indigenous peoples, who often modified damaged tools to extend their usefulness.
Discoveries like this remind us that Old Cahawba's history stretches far beyond the town's founding in 1819. Long before Alabama's first state capital stood here, Native peoples lived, traveled, hunted, and worked across this landscape, leaving behind traces of their lives that archaeologists continue to uncover today.
If you would like to see what else we have found, then come on out to our Public Archaeology Days on June 26th and July 31st where our artifacts will be on display. You will also meet archaeologists and there will be hands-on activities for all ages!
