What they found / LJWorld.com

From tiny glass beads to parts of guns, archaeologist uncovered thousands of artifacts during their two week dig. These pieces will be taken back to KU and analyzed in attempts to better understand the life of the Pawnee Indians.

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These small beads were found during the water screening process. They are believed to have been made in Italy, which would point to European trade. Richard Gould, site administrator for the Pawnee Indian Museum, said the village was home to the Pawnee during a unique period in Native American history. While the tribe was coming into contact with Europeans, the people were still living the way they wanted to live, Gould said.

Photo by Richard Gwin

A common find on archaeology digs, pottery shards give clues to what kinds of activities were occurring in sections of the earth lodge. As part of the cataloging process, volunteers record the different decorative markings on the pottery.

Photo by Richard Gwin

This part of a gun was one of the more exciting finds during the dig. Alex Norton, the KU student who uncovered it, believes the piece is the hammer. The gun is indicative of the dynamic times during which the village was occupied as the native populations in the Central Plains increasingly interacted with Europeans and their goods.

Photo by Richard Gwin

Kansas Anthropological Association volunteer Roger Ward came across a plot that turned out to be a cornucopia of artifact finds. He unearthed animals bones that could have been used as hoes, mussel shells, burned timber, cracked fire rock, fragments of bone tools and what might be a wooden post hole.

Photo by Richard Gwin

A closer look at the spot where Roger Ward, from El Dorado, was digging. "There was so much stuff coming out of it, I was running out of room to dig," he said.

Photo by Richard Gwin

These pieces of burnt charcoal might not look like much. But when taken together with other artifacts, they will help tell a story of what happened at the site. Not every piece of burnt earth is cataloged. Some are grouped together in bags and weighed.

Photo by Richard Gwin

Archaeologists are hoping that timber recovered from the site - similar to these logs found in the previous excavation - will shed light on when the Pawnee Indians lived in the village. The 1800s is too recent for the use of radiocarbon dating. However, researchers hope that the site can be dated by using the timber's tree rings.

Photo by Richard Gwin