Two Dogs Site

[1] Located in the Carolina Slate Belt, the stone materials present at Two Dogs provided precontact Indigenous peoples with openly accessible lithic resources, predominantly for toolmaking, as they passed through the site between other, more residential areas.

[1] The lithic materials found at the Two Dogs Site were subjected to petrographic analysis, and isotopes were geochemically tested to confirm the origins of the stone artifacts.

[1] The Two Dogs Site was first identified when Environmental Services, Inc. conducted shovel tests over an area of almost 70,000 square meters, which was found to contain large amounts of lithic materials.

[1] Civilizations in the Middle Archaic (6000–3000 BCE) and Woodland Periods (1000 BCE–1000 CE) are known to have been increasingly sedentary, so the majority of groups in the region lived in permanent, year-round dwellings and stayed within a consistent area for most of their subsistence.

[1] Thus, for the nearby civilizations, the Two Dogs Site was an area that provided sedentary populations with a secure and convenient supply of lithic resources, for the grounds did not require people to dig large pits to obtain stones; instead, Two Dogs offered lithic materials on the surface level of the ground, allowing for efficient production of strong stone tools.