By LOU HATTER

By LOU HATTER

Rappahannock Neva Sta/T Writer

A team from Virginia Commonwealth University’s Archeological Research Center is conducting a survey of the right-of-way along Rt. 211 between Washington and Sperryville. The Virginia Department of Transportation is planning to widen the five-mile stretch from two to four lanes.

The team is looking for “historically significant” archeological sites, according to project manager Doug McLearen, a faculty research assistant at VCU. As of Tuesday, after covering the area from Sperryville nearly to Rediviva bridge at Rt. 622, he said none had been found.

The survey being done by the VCU team, working under contract with the Virginia Department of Transportation, is nothing unusual, Mr. McLearen said. It’s a requirement of federal law for every highway project involving federal funds.

The archeological survey is seeking evidence of places used by pre-historical inhabitants of the areas, Indians who lived here during historical times, as well as any artifacts left by the region’s early settlers.

Mr. McLearen said that the earliest artifacts which might be found in this area could possibly date from 10,000 tol2,000 years ago, but would more likely be less ancient than that. He stressed that no artifacts approaching that age had been uncovered.

Only one possible site, a prehistoric camp, was discovered by the group so far, Mr. McLearen said. The site, however, is in an area already disturbed by an existing ditch and will not be further damaged by the planned construction, he said.

Time-honored, time-consuming technique

The team follows a simple but tedious technique for sampling possible sites. First, steep slopes and obviously disturbed areas are skipped over, since the slopes are not likely places where camps would have been located.

Using the experience of countless archeologists before them who have hunted their ancestors throughout the world, the team concentrates on the areas near streambeds, low-relief areas and hilly places near springs. Experience has taught that small bands of primitives, especially nomadic peoples, tend to camp or live in those low areas, where water is abundant.

Dressed in multiple layers of windproof clothing against the biting winter chill, the team works its way along the fields adjoining the two-lane highway. Members sport mud-covered boots, damp circles on both knees from kneeling bn the moist ground, and rosy red cheeks from the bitter cold.

The team members, under the direction of team leader Tim Barker, spread out and dig small holes at regular intervals. The hole is about a foot across and anywhere from 10 to 24 inches deep. Then, the clumps'of dirt are broken up with a trowel and scanned for any material resembling a man-made object as the dirt is scraped back into the hole. Even wearing gloves, the diggers carefully sift the soil, seeking the smallest chips of pottery, arrowheads or other artifacts.

One member finds something which he feels resembles an arrowhead. Mr. Barker examines the find, chipping flecks from the dirt-covered rock with his fingernail. His knuckles are scraped from digging in the sandy, stony soil. He pronounces the find probably just a rock.