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A Late Archaic Titterington-Phase Site in St. Louis County, Missouri: The Schoettler Road Site (23SL178/1105) Richard Martens Table 1. The Temporal Periods Represented at the Schoettler Site and the Percentages of the Lithic Artifacts in these Periods. he Schoettler Road site occurs in the uplands near the Temporal Category No. of Artifacts % of Total Artifacts TMissouri River valley. It was discovered by the author in January 1969. This site was actively collected until it was Dalton 16 5.8 destroyed in the middle 1970s during construction of the Early Archaic 5 1.8 Sycamore Estates subdivision. A total of 334 lithic artifacts Middle Archaic 20 7.3 from this prolific site represents occupations dating from Late Archaic 223 81.1 Late Paleoindian through Historic times, with the majority attributed to the Late Archaic Titterington phase. Titterington 213 77.5 This is the second article in a series written to document Other phases 10 3.6 artifacts from destroyed or “lost sites” (Martens 2006). Early Woodland 1 0.4 This extremely valuable information would otherwise be lost to Missouri’s archaeological database. It is hoped that Middle Woodland 6 2.2 these articles will provide educational material for inter- Late Woodland 2 0.7 ested adults and students, as well as encourage avocational Mississippian 2 0.7 archaeologists to document their finds. Grand Total 275 100 The site was located in the City of Chesterfield on the south-facing side of a hill that gently slopes down to Creve Coeur Creek. The artifacts were found scattered in an lected and excavated in the St. Louis area ca. 1920–1950. approximately 150-x-400-m band. The largest portion of Titterington was both a member and trustee of the Mis- the site was located northeast of Schoettler Road, but it souri Archaeological Society. He was the recipient of an continued on the other side, hence two site numbers. An Achievement Award from the Society in 1953 (Blake 1969). extensive debitage-and-tool scatter characterized the site, In 1950, he authored the seminal work on this phase, but no trash pits or prehistoric faunal materials were evi- Some Non-Pottery Sites in the St. Louis Area, which de- dent. The land had been farmed for more than 100 years scribed the artifacts associated with Titterington-phase and artifacts were collected by the farmers, students from burials. Since then, archaeologists have studied this phase the nearby seminary (now the site of Logan College), and extensively and further defined the temporal and geo- other parties. Considering this activity, it is surprising that graphic boundaries and artifacts associated with habitation the author was able to collect so many artifacts. and mortuary sites. The surface collection consists of 334 lithic artifacts. Three other Late Archaic phases in Missouri appear to Of these, 275 were assigned to temporal categories rang- be contemporaneous and share some artifact types with ing from the Dalton to Mississippian periods (O’Brien the Titterington phase (on the eastern Ozarks boundary). and Wood 1998). There were also some artifacts from the These phases are Sedalia and Nebo Hill on the northwest middle 1800s through the early 1900s. The percentages of Ozarks boundary and Smetley between the western Ozarks artifacts assigned to each prehistoric temporal period are and the eastern edge of the plains. The close relationship presented in Table 1. Late Archaic artifacts (81.1%), pri- between the Sedalia and Titterington phases was recog- marily from the Titterington phase (77.5%), are dominant. nized by both Chapman (1975) and Cook (1976). The Middle Archaic artifacts (7.3%) are the next largest con- definition of the related Smetley phase was posited by Ray tributor followed by Dalton (5.8%) and Middle Woodland and Lopinot (2005). Reid (1984:76) suggested that the Nebo (2.2%). Since most of the artifacts are associated with the Hill phase was contemporaneous with the Titterington Titterington phase, it was decided to provide a detailed phase, but 14C measurements indicate that it dates to the description of this phase and the artifacts assigned to it. It end or even slightly later than the time spans for the other is hoped that this will provide additional insight into this phases. Reid’s attribution resulted in part because of the in time period in Missouri and eastern Illinois. situ recovery of Sedalia and Etley points from three Nebo Hill sites. The time spans for these phases are becoming well Titterington and Related Phases defined and the latest results are summarized in Table 2. These time spans were identified by selecting the earliest The Titterington phase was named for Dr. Paul and latest 1-sigma (i.e., standard deviation) radiocarbon Titterington, an avocational archaeologist who col- ages from the available data. This information is presented 12 1 mas quarterly A Late Archaic Titterington-Phase Site in St. Louis County, Missouri: The Schoettler Road Site (23SL178/1105) Table 2. Late Archaic Phases in Missouri and Illinois. Phase Time Site(s) No. of Dates Reference Titterington 2255–1920 B.C. Koster 1 Cook 1976:65 Go-Kart North 7 Fortier 1984:Table 44 Hayden 4 Harl 1995:46 Smetley 2225–1835 B.C. Big Eddy 5 Ray and Lopinot 2005:Table 6.1; Lopinot, personal communication 2007 Sedalia 2430–1675 B.C. Bohon 1 Eschbacher 1996:8 Phillips Spring 6 Kay 1983:Table 4.1 Phillips Spring 4 Robinson and Kay 1982:632 Nebo Hill 1640–1570 B.C. Nebo Hill 1 Reid 1984:12 in Table 2 along with considered sites, number of radio- Salem, High Ridge, and unidentified cherts are represented carbon ages from each, and applicable references. All the by 14.9%, 1%, and 8%, respectively. Rhyolite, an exotic ma- sites are in Missouri with the exception of the Koster and terial from the Ozarks, is represented by one Etley point Go-Kart North sites, which are in western Illinois. Two (.5%). The collection from the Martens site, which is about of the Smetley phase dates from the Big Eddy site were 5.6 km to the north of the Schoettler site, contained 12 Tit- deleted due to either suspected cultural mixing or alluvial terington-phase artifacts (Martens et al. 2004:34). Since the redeposition (Lopinot, personal communication 2007). material usage was similar (Burlington chert [91.7%] and These potentially spurious dates would have increased the Salem chert [8.3%] for the Martens site), it is possible that time span for this phase by approximately 500 years, or to the two sites shared the same chert sources. 2500–1635 b.c. It has been noted that Stone Square Stemmed (Stone) It should be noted that O’Brien and Wood (1998) have points are often found with Etley points and may not be a much wider, but generally overlapping time spans for points separate point type, but rather an Etley variant. In fact, the characterizing these phases. Etley and Smith points are two point types were found together in several pit features attributed to the 1700–600 b.c. period, while both Sedalia at the Hayden site. William Eschbacher (an avocational and Nebo Hill points are placed in the 2000–600 b.c. archaeologist) studied artifacts from the Bohon site and period. concluded that the Etley classification “grades from near Stone square-stemmed to near Smith basal-notched” Flaked Titterington-Phase Artifacts in the (Eschbacher 1996:9). An extensive discussion of the Etley, Collection Stone, and Smith Basal Notched (Smith) points is found in Ray and Lopinot (2005:176–180). There are 201 artifacts in this category (Table 3), of Joe Harl solved this point identification problem at the which 75.6% were manufactured from Burlington chert. Hayden site by simply assigning all straight-stemmed points Table 3. Artifact Type and Material for the Titterington-Phase Collection. Flaked Artifact Type Number Burlington Salem Other % Burlington Etley/Stone points 116 90 9 17 77.6 Smith points 2 2 100 Wadlow points 17 13 4 76 Point preforms 38 26 10 2 68.4 Titterington drills 1 1 100 Hammerstones 1 1 100 Adzes/heavy-duty scrapers 26 19 7 73.1 Total 201 152 30 19 75.6 (of total) October-December 2008 1 13 a The second point, a classic Etley, had an esti- mated unbroken length of approximately 108 mm. Only two Smith points were identified in the collection (Figure 2c-d). There may be more, but extensively resharpened Smith points easily pass as resharpened Etley and Stone points. Only 11 Etley points have been reworked into other tools, i.e., drills (N=6) b c d e f g and scrapers (N=5). Examples of these tools are shown in Figure 2f-l. One additional drill is of the Titterington type (Figure 2e). It is probable that not all of these drills were hafted (attached to a handle), but held in the hand. For exam- ple, in Figure 2g, the bit centerline of the drill 12 cm is skewed relative to the angle of the base by 10 degrees. If this drill were hafted, the bit would likely have snapped with the first rotation. Figure 2i-l shows four Etley points with h i j k l m scraper elements. The left upper half of the Figure 1. Etley points arranged by increasing width between notches. Though sim- first blade has a bright silica-type polish where ilar, point (h) is assigned to the Stone type because its stem does not expand. Point it was repeatedly scraped across a work item. (l) is made of rhyolite from the Ozarks. Plow damage is evident on the right side. The next point has an end scraper on the distal to the Stone category and expanding-stemmed points to the end.

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