Middle Ohio Valley Prehistoric Archaeology Research Papers (original) (raw)

During the Fall 2014 field season at Fox Farm in Mason County, Kentucky, archaeologists recovered a group of 11 deer mandibles from Feature 119. All were found in association with a section of a large Madisonville Cordmarked jar. Based on tooth wear, the mandibles represent a minimum of eight deer ranging in age from four months to 12 years old. This poster presents data on season of animal death, gnaw and cut mark patterns, and bone condition to determine if the deer were killed at the same time or if they represent animals that were killed over several seasons across one or more years. The jaws and the rim sherd from Feature 119 are interpreted as an offering that post-dates the abandonment of a large Madisonville Horizon house.

- by A. Gwynn Henderson and +1
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- Fort Ancient (Archaeology), Faunal Analysis, Middle Ohio Valley Prehistoric Archaeology

In December of 2002, the author had an opportunity to document the Robert Davisson Sr. artifact collection (herein referred to as the R.D. Collection) prior to its auction by Garth Auctions, Inc., Delaware, Ohio, in 2003. This assemblage was the personal artifact collection of the late Mr. Robert Davisson Sr. of Hanging Rock, Lawrence County, Ohio. The assemblage represents artifacts procured exclusively from the Davisson property and resulted from 60 to 75 years of unsystematic collecting by Mr. Davisson. The main purpose of this document is to provide a descriptive summary and photo-documentation of the collection and to make it available to researchers and other interested parties.

The surrounding images are from the WPA work at Angel Mounds including from the top the 1941 Mound F excavation exposing the primary mound surface, opening a large area across a palisade ridge, exposing several bastions along the east... more

- by Timothy Baumann
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- History, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Environmental Archaeology

Recent research on Early Woodland domestic sites in the Middle Ohio River Valley has included sites on the valley floors of the Hocking and Muskingum rivers in southeastern Ohio and sites in surrounding upland settings along secondary drainages. The 2008 investigations at Site 33HO706 in the Hocking River floodplain near Rockbridge, Ohio provide important new information on a little-documented Early Woodland period settlement component, the seasonally-occupied floodplain camp, with radiocarbon-dated features that cluster between 390 -240 B.C. and 170 -90 B.C (cal., 2 sigma) and date no earlier than cal. 410 B.C. This article summarizes the results of the excavations at Site 33HO706, adding to the growing database on Early Woodland settlement in southeastern Ohio. Though located in a major river bottom, where larger and perhaps permanently occupied sites are known to occur, Site 33HO706 is somewhat unique in that it lacks plants of the Eastern Agricultural Complex but contains pottery and possible evidence of multiple structures.

- by Jarrod Burks and +1
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- Middle Ohio Valley Prehistoric Archaeology, Adena, Ohio Archaeology

An isolated human burial was discovered on a private property in Madison County, Ohio in the spring of 2009. The remains were recovered by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations and sent to The Ohio State University for analysis. We report the results of a generic descriptive analysis of the assemblage and remains. The individual was a robust young adult male, and the assemblage seemed typical of a terminal Archaic or Early Woodland period (1500–500 B.C.) deposit; however, a 14C AMS analysis run on collagen from a rib of the burial yielded an estimated age of 1520–1370 BP (A.D. 430–580). The dating result indicates that there is much potential variability in the archaeology of central Ohio that is not well accounted for by
current classification systems.

Early projectile points from Midcontinental North America vary significantly in size and shape. Understanding the functional and stylistic aspects of this variability on a large spatial scale is a precursor to using this class of artifacts to evaluate and refine models of the social interaction of early hunter-gatherers in this region. Metric data from a sample (n = 1771) of Early Paleoindian (ca. 11,050-10,800 RCYBP), Late Paleoindian (ca. 10,300-10,000 RCYBP), and Early Archaic (ca. 10,000-8000 RCYBP) projectile points are analyzed to partition elements of functional and stylistic variability. Changes in the coefficient of variation of specific attributes are compared to expectations about how functional and stylistic variability should be manifest in these tools. Variability in hafting width and thickness appear to be constrained by functional considerations. The mixture of variables most closely related to hafting width shifts during the transition from lanceolate to notched points.

From 2009 through 2013, Ohio Valley Archaeology, Inc. conducted three different archaeological projects at the Holder-Wright farm. Work began in 2009 with geophysical surveys of the farm’s 1700 year old Hopewell earthworks. These surveys found clear evidence of the intact remains of the earthworks, and other associated features, just beneath the plow layer. Surface surveys in 2011 of the southern farm fields located over 800 artifacts representing perhaps three or more occupations of the farm stretching back at least as far as 4000 B.C., well before the construction and use of the earthworks. Excavations also were conducted around the house during the project to restore it to its near-original configuration. These excavations involved a 1x8 meter trench off the northwest corner of the house and down into the adjacent earthwork ditch, as well as serval small excavations conducted underneath the later house additions. These small excavations found numerous artifacts dating back to the early occupation of the house in the early-to-mid 1800s. The 1x8 meter trench produced some of the most interesting results of the project, with sealed layers of nineteenth century refuse in the ditch and the first ever radiocarbon date from the Holder-Wright Group earthworks: calibrated AD 230 to 382.

This report presents the results of a large-area magnetic gradient survey at Hopewell Mound Group, a unit of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Ross County, Ohio. The survey was conducted by Ohio Valley Archaeology, Inc., under contract with the Midwest Archeological Center, National Park Service, during 18 days of work spread across the period from October 18, 2012 through March 27, 2013. Along with an additional 3.1 acres of data collected in September and October of 2011, the results presented here cover 73.4 acres of the eastern half of the site on the lower terrace (the landform containing the bulk of the earthworks).
Hundreds of magnetic anomalies of potential archaeological interest were detected during the magnetic surveys, including known features from nineteenth century maps that have since disappeared from the ground surface (e.g., the square) and many other new features of interest. Chief among these new features are a post circle and central pit cluster within the medium-sized circle, a cluster of pits located outside the small circle detected in 2001, a complex of features associated with Mound 4, at least four possible burned structures just north of the square, and one or perhaps two possible prepared/burned surfaces or floors located near the main enclosure wall to the south of Mound 1.
Many other anomalies detected during the survey are associated with possible cultural or landform features that are not fully understood. Two long linear features could be natural linear depressions or soil borrow features intermittently filled with refuse. Numerous large-area positive anomalies appear to be arranged in an oval pattern to the north of the square. The source of these large anomalies is uncertain.
In addition to providing numerous maps of the results and an appendix containing information about anomalies of interest, several recommendations for additional kinds of geophysical survey and ground-truthing work also are presented.

A jade disc in near perfect condition was found at Cynthiana, Kentucky, 57 miles south of Cincinatti on the Ohio River. The disc has four raised characters, expertly crafted in the style of calligraphy. A circular hole in the center allowed the disc to be mounted on a tapered rod such as a spindle whirl. Rotating the disc creates four distinct phrases from four different people, while a mirror image creates a fifth phrase. North bemoans an evil land of violent storms and stomach sickness. East pities his own unhappiness, and says all ten feel the same. South dreams of his beautiful wife, New Dawn. West prepares an herbal tea to counter their stomach pains. The reverse describes the wrecked ship built in Estonia, and concludes that without a ship, their outlook appears bleak. Its Rhaetic script matches that of the Shawnee. From Shawnee written history, the ship was part of a fleet that carried their ancestors from the Po Valley to Ohio around 400 BC.

The following powerpoint lecture was presented four times over the past several years. The first time was at the New State Archaeological Society meeting on 5-3-2015. The second time was at the Third Chillicothe Conference on Hopewell Archaeology in Ohio on 5-13-2016. The third time was at the conference held at the Jug Bay Center, which highlighted the recent archaeolgoical investigations at Pig Point in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. Most recently, I presented this lecture on 11-6-2019 at the Archaeological Society of Delaware meeting in Bear, Delaware. The data presented in this lecture represents the collective knowledge of many individuals, as well as tracking down collections, researching archival documents, and conducting additional research. Many of the folks involved with these sites have long since passed. It was a privilege to have known these individuals and to have had the opportunity to share their knowledge. For those researchers interested in eastern North America prehistory, the Delmarva Adena-Hopewell Continuum should no longer be an archaeological "enigma". Many academicians in the past have prematurely interpreted this archaeological expression based on little or no first hand facts. Hopefully, the facts presented in this visual presentation will correct their errors and highlight the significance of what was happening in the Middle Atlantic region sometime between 2500 and 1500 years ago. Ever since I found my first Ohio Valley Adena biface in the mid-1970's, researching the Delmarva Adena-Hopwell phenomena has been a personal quest of mine. I hope you enjoy this visual presentation. Eventually, I will get it all down in print!

Like many states in the Midwest, Ohio contains thousands of mounds, many of which stand alone on the landscape—or do they? Recent remote sensing discoveries suggest otherwise. This summer we undertook a pilot project, part of an internship, to determine the efficacy of geophysical survey for detecting supporting features at two solitary mound locations: Miamisburg mound, Ohio’s tallest, and Clark mound, a more modest feature. Magnetometry surveys at both located numerous anomalies but few appear to be archaeological and related to the mounds. The most important takeaway from this project is that the process of conducting geophysics around mounds is not as easy as we thought! Given that mounds in Ohio are often accompanied by other features (e.g., post circles, geometric enclosures, pit-type features), our efforts to date suggest that (1) larger areas need to be surveyed around the mounds, and (2) data from other instrument types are needed.

Fort Blair is a Revolutionary War fort located within the boundaries of Tu-Endie-Wei Park, Point Pleasant, (Mason County) West Virginia. Limited test excavations were conducted at Fort Blair 2014. These excavations indicated that the entire site was covered by approximately two feet of fill material. Although numerous historic artifacts were recovered none could be directly related to the Fort Blair occupation. The excavations did, however, discover significant Woodland and Late Prehistoric components below the fill material that could be investigated in the future.

The peculiar outline of Glenford Fort in Perry County, Ohio, built by the Adena culture, may be viewed as an inscription in Rhaetic, the original script of the Shawnee.
Ancestors of the Shawnee arrived in Ohio in 400 BC aboard ships commissioned by them from Carthage, along with other groups fleeing from an invasion of the Po Valley in northern Italy by Gauls.
Until conquered by Rome in 146 BC, Carthaginian ships continued to cross the Atlantic to obtain gold from Columbia to buy mercenaries and to obtain oak timbers from the eastern US to build ships. It may be that some Shawnee moved to the coast of North Carolina to cut trees needed by Carthage.
The funeral mound at Glenford Fort is dedicated to a chief from Tunisia, who died around 270 BC. It reads ‘Our great speaker, a peaceful man from the country Tunisia’.

- by Stuart L Harris
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- Tunisian History, Carthage (Archaeology), Etruscan language, Hopewell Archaeology

This thesis uses stable isotope analyses to examine the relationships between diet, migration, paleopathologies, and agriculture for Newtown Phase Late Woodland and Fort Ancient Turpin Phase populations from the type-site, Turpin (33Ha19), located in the lower Little Miami River Valley, Hamilton County, Ohio. Investigating the subsistence strategy and health of the people who inhabited the Turpin site is important because this is one of the earliest locations of maize agriculture in eastern North America. Therefore, the Turpin population is crucial for our understanding of the dietary and health implications of maize agriculture in the Ohio Valley. Human behavioral ecology states that as humans increase their economic reliance on maize agriculture, they decrease their mobility, increase social stratification, and increase their susceptibility to disease. Stable isotope values in human bone collagen and tooth enamel are used to determine dietary composition and mobility. Statistical analyses comparing carbon and nitrogen values among ages, sexes, and paleopathologies demonstrate that maize was a significant part of the diet (carbon values greater than -14.0‰) and that women were deficient in protein (low nitrogen values). Maize was likely consumed on a regular basis by the Fort Ancient population and made up more than 25% of the diet. With few exceptions, there is little variation in the strontium isotope levels of enamel carbonate, which is indicative of a semi-sedentary community. There is evidence that a few individuals may have migrated into the area. These immigrations may have been the result of captivity or intertribal marriage.

Research conducted at Fox Farm from 2009 to 2011 focused on understanding the temporal and spatial relationship of the site's three circular fourteenth-century midden stains. In 2012, we turned our attention to documenting a large public structure (8 m wide by at least 16-18 m long) oriented at a 45 degree angle to earlier residential structures in Midden Stain B. With the recognition that this structure was oriented in the same direction as several other post-A.D. 1400 residential structures, in the Fall of 2014, we decided to attempt to more fully document one of these houses. In this paper, we present some preliminary results from our Fall 2014 field season.

- by A. Gwynn Henderson and +1
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- Fort Ancient (Archaeology), Middle Ohio Valley Prehistoric Archaeology, Architecture and Public Spaces

While Anderson ceramic assemblages from Fort Ancient sites in southwestern Ohio have been thoroughly examined and discussed in the literature, ceramics from contemporary sites along the southern and western periphery of the Anderson tradition in Indiana and Kentucky have received less attention. In this paper we describe and compare the Site 12D123 assemblage with four other Anderson ceramic assemblages from Dearborn County, Indiana and one from across the Ohio River in Boone County, Kentucky. While no chronometric dates are available for Site 12D123, radiocarbon dates are available from the Boone County site and most of the Dearborn County sites allowing an evaluation of the relative chronological position of Site 12D123 through detailed ceramic attribute analysis. When considered with chronometric dates and settlement patterns, ceramic attribute analyses extend ceramic studies beyond their traditional chronology building roles and permit analysts to evaluate temporally microscalar activities like village relocation practices and identity formation.

- by Tony Krus
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- Archaeology, Geology, Geoarchaeology, Landscape Archaeology

Visite http://bit.ly/ConfRes para ver los resúmenes aceptados ¡La SAA viene a América Latina! Presenta la primera Conferencia Intercontinental de la SAA, una conferencia única diseñada para unir a la SAA y los Latinoamericanos. La Conferencia abrirá con una sesión especial por la tarde del viernes, seguida de un día completo de sesiones plenarias el sábado y terminando con medio día de sesiones plenarias el domingo. La capacidad máxima para la Conferencia es 235 asistentes.

- by Tony Krus
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Environmental Archaeology, History of Science

COADS is a large-scale, systematic effort to engage private collections in one small geographic area to enrich the official record of the pre-contact period archaeology in the region. This initial 2-year effort is funded by the National Science Foundation and has already documented over 14,000 artifacts and 300 sites. All materials are documented digitally (2D images) with a random 5% sample 3D scanned. We summarize methods, progress, public response, and a preliminary comparison to previously documented records. With over 10,000 artifacts and 80 sites in Ross County, we can conduct a coarse comparison to the previous OAI records and our newly recorded sites and materials.

- by Kevin C. Nolan and +1
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Landscape Archaeology, Archaeological GIS

Late Archaic archaeobotanical remains from the County Home site (33AT40), southeastern Ohio, are described. Measurements of chenopod (Chenopodium berlandieri) seed-coat thicknesses and marshelder (Iva annua) achene and kernel lengths from the site are indicative of domesticated types (ssp. jonesianum and var. macrocarpa, respectively) dating to ca. 3000 B.P. to 3600 B.P. Together, these specimens represent some of the earliest evidence of plant domestication outside the oak-hickory and oak-savannah forests of eastern North America. The recovery of these plants with other cultigens in hearths and earth ovens at the County Home site indicates that the timing for the arrival of the Initial Crop Complex in the Appalachian mixed forest of the middle Ohio Valley occurred earlier than previously documented. The results of this research contribute to the growing database of early plant domestication and a broader understanding of the origins of food production.

Krus AM, Cook R, Hamilton D. 2015. Bayesian Chronological Modeling of SunWatch, a Fort Ancient Village in Dayton, Ohio. Radiocarbon 57(5):965-977. Radiocarbon results from houses, pits, and burials at the SunWatch site, Dayton, Ohio, are... more

- by Tony Krus and +1
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- Ethnohistory, Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Archaeological Science
- by Paul Pacheco and +2
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- Hopewell, Middle Ohio Valley Prehistoric Archaeology, Middle Woodland/Hopewell, Ohio Archaeology

Mound F was the second-largest platform mound at Angel Mounds (12Vg1), a Mississippian town in southwestern Indiana. It consisted of a simple truncated pyramid shape, but excavations in 1939-1942 and 1964-1965 revealed at least two platforms that once contained buildings buried within it. Each of these mounds and buildings were successively larger than the preceding. The first platform mound (informally known as the inner mound) was <1 m high and include at least two buildings. Thatch from one building yielded a 14 C age of 900 B.P. Other 14 C ages indicated that the inner mound was buried ca. 750 B.P. when a second ca. 2 m high platform (informally known as the primary mound) was built. Features and structural elements from a large, multichambered building on this surface yield 14 C ages between 680 and 530 B.P. A final ca. 3-4 m mound (informally known as the secondary mound) was built over the Primary Mound soon after 530 B.P. No building was found on the secondary mound's upper platform.

- by Tony Krus
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- Archaeology, Prehistoric Archaeology, Geoarchaeology, Landscape Archaeology

The following study compares the frequency distributions of projectile points from COADS (Olson et al. 2021), Seeman et al. (2020) and 1282 points data mined from various online digitized sources. All three of these datasets represent projectile points from private collections. However, the distinctions between the datasets are how the data were captured. The dataset compiled for this study was mined from online digitized archives (Ohio Memory, Ohio State University’s Knowledge Bank), auction websites (eBay, Rowlands Relics, Estatesales.net
and .com), and a limited number of private collections photographed by the author. The compilation of data was a multi-year process, with the general aim of adding data to datasets such as COADS or complimenting other projectile point datasets. What began as data mining slowly turned into a study of collector and market preferences, and the biases of private collecting in Ohio projectile point type distributions.

- by Eric C Olson
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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Lithics, Lithic Technology (Archaeology), Projectile Points

This report presents the results of magnetic gradient surveys covering 74.6 acres at the Great Circle and octagon of the High Bank Works earthwork site, a unit of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Ross County, Ohio. The Great Circle survey was conducted under contract with the Midwest Archeological Center and the octagon survey is the result of a collaboration between Ohio Valley Archaeology, Inc., the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, The Ohio State University, and Hopewell Culture National Historical Park. To date, all of the ground around the Great Circle (46.3 acres) has been surveyed and 28.3 acres of the fields containing the octagon have been covered.
The magnetic surveys have detected many anomalies of archaeological interest, including the main earthwork embankments, one probable and another possible small enclosure, feature clusters at the centers of the Great Circle and the octagon, and hundreds of possible pit and posthole features spread all across the survey area. Some of the possible pits, including several that appear to be especially large, fall along important lines of astronomical observation identified by Hively and Horn (1984).
The report concludes with a further discussion of the results and suggestions for additional work, including geophysical survey and ground-truthing techniques.

Ohio is home to hundreds of Woodland period (ca. 300 BC-AD 400) earthwork sites. Most contain mounds and ditch-and-embankment enclosures in geometric shapes. Site size and complexity varies widely, from small, lone circles (often surrounding a mound) in the Early Woodland to the mega-large Middle Woodland Newark Earthworks. How and why earthwork construction moved from small to massive are enduring questions yet to be solved. Recent magnetic survey in southern Ohio at two sites of moderate size, Junction Group (33Ro28) and Steel Earthworks (33Ro62), provides mounting evidence for an intermediate level of size and complexity. Both sites contain a range of geometric shapes, including some that are unique. Enclosures are clustered in their spacing and orientation, suggesting growth through time. And at least three kinds of architecture were in use: traditional ditch-and-embankment enclosures of varying size, small enclosures demarcated by narrow trenches (perhaps without embankments), and circles of posts lacking ditches or embankments. Earthwork sites of intermediate size provide a link in time, complexity, and perhaps space between the small sites of the Early Woodland and the immense complexes of the Middle Woodland. They also signal a change in the organization of people and activities on the landscape.

The Driving Range Site (33Ha586) represents a multicomponent occupation located in southwestern Ohio on a low terrace overlooking the Little Miami River floodplain. This article focuses on the Late Fort Ancient occupation (post-AD 1400) and has three purposes: 1) to provide a detailed descriptive account of the artifact assemblage and site structure; 2) to present evidence that the site represents the remains of a late fall through early winter occupation; and 3) to discuss the significance of the site in relation to Fort Ancient settlement dynamics in the Middle Ohio Valley. 105

- by Matthew Purtill
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- Archaeology, American Culture, Localization, Ethnology
- by Jarrod Burks and +1
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- Hopewell Archaeology, Middle Ohio Valley Prehistoric Archaeology, Middle Woodland/Hopewell, Ohio Archaeology

Current models of Ohio Hopewell settlement (e.g., Dancey and Pacheco 1997) situate earthwork complexes near the center of the community and suggest that Hopewell groups lived a fairly sedentary life in small settlements dispersed across the landscape. Such a model implies that Hopewell earthworks were essentially vacant much of the year until the arrival of visiting groups. With such an influx of perhaps hundreds of individuals, an obvious question is where did everyone eat, sleep, and prepare for these important activities while visiting the ceremonial center and can these occupations be distinguished through archeological means?

- by Jarrod Burks and +1
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- GPS Applications, Hopewell Archaeology, Middle Ohio Valley Prehistoric Archaeology, Middle Woodland/Hopewell

The Miles site (12-Cl-158) was defined as a large lithic scatter on a terrace of the Ohio River in Clark County, Indiana. Excavations conducted in advance of sand and gravel mining operation resulted in the documentation of a variety of cultural features and the collection of numerous hafted bifaces and cores dating to the Late Archaic period (ca. 5000-3000 ybp). The truncated remains of earth ovens, small storage/refuse pits, and mortuary features indicate a variety of activities took place at the site. Together with the lithic and feature data, the overall structure of the site suggests that repeated, intermittent occupations by small groups produced the bulk of the deposits and materials. The scale and scope of the McWhinney component suggests an intermediate level of site use that does not fit comfortably into a dichotomous "base camp/extractive site" model of Late Archaic settlement in the middle Ohio Valley.

- by George H. Colvin
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- Prehistoric Archaeology, Geology, Identification, Sharks