The Hand Site

East of here near the Nottoway River stood a Late Woodland Indian settlement occupied intermittently circa A.D. 700 to 1650 and long claimed by the Cheroenhaka (Nottoway). Excavated in the 1960s, occupation phases included features such as a fortified town and burials. In an area flanked by Iroquoian Cheroenhaka (Nottoway) and Meherrin to the north- and southwest, and by Algonquian Weyanoke, Nansemond, and Chowanoke tribes to the northeast and south, the site shows influences from both linguistic groups which may indicate both trade and use by different groups at different times. Archaeologists also found 17th century European iron scissors and hand wrought nails.