The site I am currently hunting was a native American village until the very early 1830s. There have been no other inhabitants since then. There was trade with the British and Americans and Andrew Jackson even stayed there for a brief period during the Indian wars.
So, every signal, no matter how small or large, has to be dug. Even the trash at this site is historical with the only exception being some later farm implements and the always present shot shell base.
I have hunted this site several times in the last month or so and have had some success. This is mostly plowed farm land and there is no way to know where to dig. One just has to walk until the detector picks up a signal. Then you just start making a spiral and, if you are on a hut site, the finds will come.
I was fortunate to find two such sites and I did a lot of digging for a few keepers.
The natives would cut up copper kettles to make rolled copper points, tinklers and other adornments. There were a lot of scrap pieces left over.They also used silver to make jewelry. Picture #6 shows how small the silver pieces can be.
I have found several rolled points, a trade ax(maybe two if the other piece turns out to be one), tinklers, gun parts from a British flintlock musket, round balls, British buttons and other items. I have also been lucky enough to find some flint points and a hammer stone.