Jack Ray, assistant director and assistant research professor with the Center for Archaeological Research at Missouri State just completed work at the Sugar Potato site last month. The first Crowdfunding project by CHPA, the Sugar Potato site (Digging Deeper into Missouri’s Past) was a great success. There was a total of $4,216 contributed to the project.
On the last day of the dig the water table was reached at 3.67 m (12 ft) below ground surface. We discovered and documented four stratified lithic workshops (associated with nearby quarry pits) in the lower 1.5 m (5 ft) of the excavation block.
Based on a Dickson spear point/knife and pottery sherds found in or near these workshops, it appears that the upper workshop is Late Woodland in age (ca. A.D. 800), the middle workshop is Middle Woodland in age (ca. A.D. 100), and the lower two workshops are Early Woodland in age (ca. 300 B.C.). Charcoal samples were submitted from two of the lower workshops for radiocarbon analysis, which should help interpret/fine tune the age of the workshops.