new acquisition DAN RIVER VILLAGE ACQUIRED

Dan River Village Acquired

The Conservancy obtains the Belmont site.

Located in Martinsville, Virginia, the Belmont site is the Conservancy’s eighth preserve in the state. While material recovered from the site spans from the Archaic to Late Woodland periods, the primary occupation of the site is a palisaded Late Woodland village of the Dan River Phase, that was inhabited from a.d. 1200 to 1450.

The site is mentioned in a land deed from the mid-1700s that refers to it as “Indian fields,” which is its first appearance in the historical record. In the 1930s, the area experienced a severe flood and several skeletons washed out of the site, attracting the attention of local residents as well as looters. Despite this, the site was not officially recorded until 1964, and it was named after Belmont, the nearby home of the Revolutionary War hero and founder of Martinsville, Col. Joseph Martin.

Belmont was first systematically excavated in 1964, and then in 1966, by members of the Archaeological Society of Virginia under the direction of Richard Gravely, an amateur archaeologist. In addition to Gravely’s notes, the entire 100,000-piece artifact collection recovered from the site was donated to the Research Laboratories of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where it is still housed.

The archaeological society excavated a portion of the village, but at least half of Belmont is believed to be intact. Over 200 archaeological features were identified, including human burials, dog burials, refuse pits, and hearths. A variety of shell, bone, stone, and ceramic artifacts were recovered. The researchers found that the site was surrounded by a rare double palisade approximately 300 feet in diameter. Radiocarbon dates show occupation from a.d. 1200 to 1450.

Belmont is located in the upper Dan River drainage, and in this area, between a.d. 1000 and 1450, archaeologists have identified a specific set of cultural patterns that are referred to as the Dan River Phase. These patterns included large villages with big storage pits and a style of pottery that featured designs made from impressing netting on clay that was tempered with sand or crushed quartz.

The Conservancy had tried to acquire the Belmont site for years without success. When the property recently changed hands, Mary Rives Brown, a Martinsville real estate agent who was aware of the transaction, contacted the Conservancy. Thanks to her efforts, the Conservancy obtained the site through a donation from the new landowners, Walter Nelson Woodson and Mary Holt Woodson Murphy. —Andy Stout

This picture of the site was taken in 1966 after the excavated areas were backfilled.