Everything was quiet at the dig site within a stone’s throw of the Pea River near Hobdy’s Bridge. Only the sounds of sliding of shovels and dirt being tossed broke the stillness of the hot July morning.

The students at the dig site were participating the Troy University Archaeological Research Center’s summer field school and were intently focused on their specific roles until … “Jason, I’ve got something big.”

All movement stopped, and all eyes turned to where Hunter Holland was carefully moving dirt with the sharp shovel blade.

Jason Mann, director of the TUARC, identified Holland’s “something big” as a hammer stone that dates back 2,000 years or more.

The hammer stone was a big find at the dig site Thursday but there were others, including a piece of pottery that was found imbedded vertically in the sandy soil of the dig site.

Troy University archaeology students have been digging at sites along the river for three years. Their original intent was to search for Indian artifacts from the campsites of the last Indian battle in Alabama in 1837.

But, surprisingly, at the third dig site the students unearthed something really big – a structure that dates back 3,500 to 4,000 years.

“It was a total surprise,” Mann said. “We have unearthed many interesting items that tell us a lot about the Indians in this area and how they lived. But to find a structure that dates back nearly 4,000 years – that’s big.”

Of course, the wood structure has been gone for thousands of years. But, through the meticulous excavation of the site, the students have been able to define the walls and floor of the structure, which Mann said was some kind of permanent structure for community use.

“Maybe like a hunting club,” he said.

“Or a vacation condo,” the students added laughing.

Mann said the big, square structure was some type of domestic building.

“What we have found are cooking vessels, tools for daily use and for processing wild animals,” he said. “The structure was used by Indians who would stay around for a while. Maybe, by those who came back to the area on an annual basis to hunt deer and turkeys or by those who followed live plants.”

Mann speculated that those who made use of the structure were members of the Poverty Point Culture of Louisiana that formed a large trading network throughout the area and into North Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas.

The identity of those who inhabited the area around the dig site and the specific use of the structure are left to speculation. However, Mann said the discovery of the structure will be documented and the artifacts found there will be photographed, documented and analyzed in the lab and will lend greater knowledge of the Indians and their way of life.

At the dig sites, Mann said the students have unearthed a large number of artifacts and sifted through mounds of sand to find answers to the Pea River people of the past.

“As you would expect, we have found many arrowheads and pieces of pottery,” Mann said. “It is would be very rare to find a whole piece of pottery. About 90 percent of the stuff we find was trash, things that nobody wanted.”

Findings at the site include fire pits with tiny pieces of charcoal that can be radiocarbon dated to pinpoint the date of the campsite. The campfire pits also revealed the eating habits of those at the site.

Deer and turkey, fish and even a beaver were the most popular menu items of the Indians who inhabited the area hundreds and thousands of years ago.

“We found beaver teeth along with pieces of charcoal and that lets us know they ate beavers,” Mann said.

Impressions left by decaying tree roots, animal burrows and the coloring of the earth all play a role in the telling of the story of Indians who were keepers of the land that is now Pike County.

The sun was hot; the air was humid and the bees were buzzing at the dig site but the eight archeology students weren’t bothered by the discomforts of the day.

Hannah Mills explained why.

She is fourth-year senior in the program and has participated on a dig with the Troy University on the other side of the world.

She participated in a six-weeks dig in Israel that was much different from the dig along Pea River.

“The dig was at the site of a Persian City that dated 500 BC,” Mills said. “It was where a house and burned. The walls were stone and we had to dig with pick axes. We found vessels, glass objects and beads, even a body.”

But no matter where she is “digging up history,” Mills said archeology is fascinating.

“It’s so cool to touch something that nobody has touched in thousands of years and to see something that no one else has seen,” she said.

On a day when the temperature hit the high 90s and the sun was beating down, the Troy University Archaeological Research Center’s summer field school was the “coolest” place to be.