In prehistoric times at the Pocahontas site, dirt was dug from borrow pits for two uses: to fill along the edges of a narrow ridge and create a larger flat area where houses could be built for a village, and, at the same time or perhaps several hundred years later, to obtain dirt for building Mound A. A layer of artificial fill much thicker than the natural soil horizons marks part of the prehistoric village area. Dirt was loaded into baskets, carried one by one, and dumped in the appropriate spot. About 2000-3000 cubic yards of dirt were used as fill to establish the village, and about 9000 cubic yards were piled up to make the mound. The locations of two borrow pits are known. One is a low area farther down the trail to the left, though archaeologists are unsure how large it was because the highway partly destroyed it. The other is on the north end of the site. The steep slopes on the pit sides nearest the site indicate that the pits are artificial. As they exist now, these pits could have provided enough dirt to fill the village area but not to construct the mound.
