A Native American Village (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this trailside historical marker:

A Native American Village
Alexandria Heritage Trail

People have lived and worked along Taylor Run for thousands of years. The first Alexandrians probably walked along the stream bank at least 10,000 years ago. These early peoples lived in small, mobile bands and subsisted through hunting and gathering local resources. Over thousands of years, people adapted to changing environmental conditions and created different forms of social organization and material culture. They eventually became more settled and lived in larger groups than the first nomadic inhabitants. By the time the first Europeans arrived in the 17th century, native Virginians lived in fortified villages with longhouses, called "yeahakin." Village activities included cultivating corn, tobacco, squash and beans while continuing to use riverine resources for food, tools and pottery.

Native Americans who frequented this area used two locally available sources of stone for toolmaking, quartz and quartzite. In Chinquapin Park, these materials are found along Taylor Run as water-worn cobbles or, in the case of quartz, angular blocks emerging from bedrock. Quartzite can be brown, red, green, or black in color. Quartz tends to be milky white or clear. The use of quartzite increased abut 4000 years ago with the manufacture of large, broad spears and knives. Quartz continued to be used for tools, usually small projectile points, which were attached to wood shafts for use as spears and, by 1500 years ago, arrows.

Erected by City of Alexandria, Virginia.


<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

More about this marker:
[Captions:]

Theodore De Bry's 1590 engraving of a Native American village shows longhouse and fields of corn, pumpkin, and tobacco. A ceremony takes place near a large fire. De Bry's engravings were based upon John White's watercolor created during a 1585 visit to Roanoke Island, N.C. It is thought that similar villages could have been present in Virginia.
Dover Publication, Inc.

Theodore De Bry's image of Indians preparing their fields for planting in the late 16th century included the following caption about the work:
"...[they] tilled the soil very diligently, using a kind of hoe made from fish bone fitted to wood handles... After the ground has been well broken up and leveled, the planting is done by the women, some making holes with sticks, into which the others drop the seeds of beans or maize."
Library of Congress

Stone was fashioned into axes, which were held in the hand while striking a blow.
Illustration by Alexandra Garcia.
City of Alexandria

Quartzite Triangular Point, 500-1000 years old, was used as point for spear or arrow;
Jones Point 44AX185

Quartzite Projectile Point functioned as either a spearpoint or knife about 4000 years ago;
Jones Point 44AX185

Stone tools and the debris from their manufacture are often discovered near waterways, where stone was available. Quartz and quartzite tools have been excavated by archaeologists near several streams in Alexandria.
Alexandria Archaeology

This plaster cast of Native Americans depicts the process of making stone tools from cobbles found along streams in woodlands.
Smithsonian Institution, NMNH