The Indian Springs Farm Archaeological Site 44HE1065 is a multi-component Virginia Indian site within the inner Coastal Plain, on the south bank of the Chickahominy River in Henrico County. Indian Springs Farm is significant as a site that includes occupations by Native American people from the Early Woodland through the Late Woodland/early Contact periods. The site contains well preserved archaeological deposits and cultural material that can provide insight into Indigenous life, including changes in settlement patterns and food procurement strategies at one location over time. The site, being the likely location of a Late Woodland period satellite village within a dispersed village model, with archaeologically identified cultural features, is likely to contain significant information about Indigenous lifeways, including societal changes associated with the rise of chiefdoms and interactions between smaller satellite villages (like Indian Springs Farm) and larger more central villages (like Orapax) within the Chickahominy River drainage. The site could contribute to the field of archaeology by revealing patterns in site location and formation, and Woodland period life leading up to the decades prior to European contact. The breadth of material culture recovered through archaeological excavation at Indian Springs Farm is significant because it provides information that cannot be found in the written record – evidence of the daily activities of individuals whose only “documents” exist in the form of physical objects deposited in the soil.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
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