Borrow Pits
At the Pocahontas site, dirt was dug in prehistoric times from
some areas, referred to by archaeologists as borrow pits, for two
uses. One was to fill in along the edges of a narrow ridge to
make a larger flat area where houses could be built to form a
village. The other use of borrow pits, at the same time or
perhaps several hundred years later, was to obtain dirt for
building Mound A.
The red highlighted area on the image to the right represents a
layer of artificial fill that is much thicker than the natural soil
horizons. This area is where part of the prehistoric village was
located.
Dirt was moved by being loaded into baskets, which were
carried one-by-one to the appropriate spot and dumped. About
2000-3000 cubic yards of dirt were used as fill on which to
establish the village. About 9000 cubic yards was piled up to
make the mound.
The locations of two borrow pits are known and are highlighted
in green in the image to the right. One is the low area farther
down the trail to your left. Archaeologists are not sure how large
it was, as it has been partly destroyed by the highway. The other
borrow pit is on the north end of the site. The steep slopes on
the pit sides nearest the site indicate that the pits are
artificial.
As they exist now, these pits could have provided enough dirt to
fill the village area but not to construct the mound.
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