Rescue archaeological excavation at the Drecksage Site
(23SC7)
was conducted in 1953 by Leonard Blake and Preston Holder (Washington University in St. Louis)
ahead of the construction of Interstate 70 in St. Peters, Missouri. The
site was discovered and excavated over a 24 hour period. The archaeologists worked into
the night by car headlights until the batteries were drained (oral history from
Leonard Blake).
A radiocarbon date from the site is AD 1370 +/- 200 was obtained from
a charcoal sample. The site consisted of a low mound that covered
a rectangular, wall trench Mississippian style house. Artifacts in the
room fill included a large jar (Cahokia cordmarked), a water bottle with a sun-like
design painted with red pigment, a clay elbow pipe, stone celt, and chipped
stone eccentric. Preston Holder speculated that the structure was ceremonial,
but Leonard Blake, during the 1990s, thought it was a domestic structure.
All of these images were scanned and enhanced from Leonard Blake's original slides.

Missouri Highway Department
earthmover that uncovered and eventually destroyed
the Drecksage Site in a 24 hour period.

Restored open form bowl with incised chevron
designs that are filled with lines. From the photograph, it is possible to tentatively
identify the bowl as Wells Incised (similiar to O'Byam engraved) belonging to the
Middle Mississippian Period decorated pottery tradition (ca. AD 1200 - 1400).

Incised shell tempered rimsherd
and cordmarked pottery sherds from the
Drecksage Site. The cordmarked sherds could be a ware such as Cahokia Cordmarked
or "leftovers" from an earlier Late Woodland Period (ca. AD 800) occupation.

Extremely unusual chipped stone eccentric
found during the rescue excavation of the Drecksage Site. Probably belonging to
the Middle Mississippian occupation phase.

Some of the pottery and stone tools from
the Drecksage Site clearly belong to the Middle Woodland Period and probably date
to ca. 100 BC - AD 300.