Pinson Cave

Pinson Cave is a small natural limestone cave, technically a "dissolution chamber", located near Blackoak Mountain, off Dewey Heights Road in Pinson.

The cave was used as a burial site or ossuary by an indigenous culture dating to around the 11th century. Remains of 46 people, some bearing visible wounds from projectiles, have been found in the cave. Most of the remains had been dropped down a vertical shaft into the chamber. A few bodies were carried in from a second grade-level entrance and placed on a natural shelf. One of the burials followed an apparent cremation, while the others are presumed to have been interred "in the flesh."

Dating of the projectile points and other small artifacts, including marine shell ornaments, indicated that the site was used at some time between 960 and 1120 CE. The date, along with the number and type of projectile points found, suggests that the burials could be related to violence which coincided with a shift from the Late Woodland settlement to an Emergent Mississippian culture in central Alabama, which has come to be known as the West Jefferson phase. The burials predate mature Mississippian period sites such as Moundville.

Human bones were discovered at the site by the owner of the property in early 1969. Investigators from the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office determined that the sheer number of bones exceeded any known missing persons cases and contacted archaeologists at the University of Alabama. It was quickly determined that the cave was, in fact, a native American site, and it was recorded as 1 Je 20

References

• Oakley, Carey B. (1971) "An Archaeological Investigation of Pinson Cave." Unpublished master's thesis. University of Alabama