Sandusky Tradition Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

The high density of Late Woodland and Late Prehistoric Period habitation sites in northwest Ohio, south of the Western Basin of Lake Erie, suggests that this area experienced a period of significant human activity in late prehistory. It has generally been accepted that in this area the intensification of maize subsistence and a subsequent transition to a more sedentary, agrarian-based settlement pattern occurred during the transition between the Late Woodland and Late Prehistoric Periods (750AD-1450AD). This proposed settlement shift has been described by many as a transition from short-term, often seasonal occupations of lakeshore-oriented sand spits, prairies and major downstream drainages to more sedentary agricultural village settlements located upstream at secondary river confluences, well-drained ancient beach ridges, and/or defensible river bluff locations. While this proposed change in settlement patterns is frequently cited in academic literature, the primary data supporting this change is largely qualitative and anecdotal in nature. Geographical Information System (GIS) Technology provides a new approach to conduct a regional settlement pattern analysis of this area in order to substantiate, quantify, and characterize any proposed change in habitation patterns that may have occurred during this time period, subsequent to the intensification of maize subsistence. The settlement analyses presented in this thesis represent a first attempt to not only aggregate the necessary habitation site data to permit a comprehensive settlement analysis in this region, but also the first to utilize GIS technology combined with environmental data to do so. It is believed that a better understanding of changes in settlement patterns – spatially, chronologically and qualitatively – can help to provide new insight regarding the cultural change that was likely occurring during this transitional time period, as archaeologists are still in its early stages of developing a more comprehensive understanding of the late prehistory of this region.

- by Chad Waffen
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- Settlement Patterns, Agriculture, Great Lakes Archaeology, Eastern Woodlands

The Western Basin of Lake Erie, and in particular the south shore, from Lorain to Toledo - including Sandusky Bay and Lake Erie Islands - has been significantly utilized by native peoples since at least 9500 BC. This area surrounds what was formerly the great Black Swamp, a formidable natural barrier to early European settlement of the area, and likely prehistoric peoples as well. The entire southwestern littoral region of Lake Erie is drained by numerous small and large river systems, including the Maumee, Portage, Sandusky, Huron, Vermillion, and Black
Rivers. This area is characterized by the flat terrain of the post-glacial lake bed, and moderately long and deep river valleys. While the potential origins, identity, and migrations of the people that lived here prior to European contact has been the source of much research and discussion over the years, it is clear from new discoveries being made, that the lifeways of the inhabitants of this area, as well as their mortuary practices, varied over time, as did other aspects of their societies.

This paper presents the results of an experimental study into the usefulness of X-ray florescence (XRF) in identifying the composition of metal artifacts found at aboriginal sites in northwestern Ohio. In the late 1990s, we subjected 96 samples to XRF and documented our results. We then compared our data to that collected by more precise spectrographic methods to assess the effectiveness of the XRF method for this application. While not precise enough to source native coppers, we conclude that XRF is a cheap, nondestructive method for differentiating native copper from its European counterparts at sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Late Woodland sites.

This paper represents the documentation of an Independent Investigation that was undertaken to gain archaeological fieldwork experience in the Western Basin of Lake Erie at the Heckleman Site in Erie County, Ohio (33Er14) in the summer of 2009. The Heckleman site was first written up in 1963 in Ohio Archaeologist by A.G Smith,
who described “unusual” artifacts at the site, including a variety of projectile points and prismatic bladelets, dating the site to between 100BC and 400AD. The site was later tested by Kent State
Professor Orrin Shane in the 1968 and 1970, who then conducted excavations in 1973 and 1974. This site is believed to important as having a Middle Woodland (0-500 AD) habitation component, a period for which little is known in Northern Ohio, and particularly interesting
because of an apparent Hopewell-like manifestation known as the Esch phase - seen only in this part of northern Ohio among people of the “Sandusky Tradition” at this time. Such Esch/Hopewell-like diagnostics have been found only at a few other sites in the
area - such as the Esch mound type site (1-2 miles downriver from the Heckleman Site), and the Enderle Site (North of current Rt. 2 bridge over the Huron river) - with Heckleman being the only potential habitation site to undergo significant excavation - although it now appears that habitation did not occur in the Middle Woodland period of occupation. In Northern Ohio, outside of the Huron River Valley, very few sites with significant Middle Woodland components have been identified, with the exceptions being the Huntington Road site in far NE Ohio, and more notably in the Western Basin of Lake Erie, the Pumpkin Mortuary/Ritual site to the west of the Huron Valley, at the mouth of the Sandusky Bay. Given the prevalence of materials diagnostic of Southern Ohio/Ohio River Valley Hopewell assemblages found at these sites , and with the likely primary source of copper Hopewell items in northern Michigan, it would seem logical that trade routes to the Ohio River Valley at the time would have passed through the Huron and Sandusky Bay areas, circumventing what was, at the time, the Great Black Swamp, providing food for thought as to potential reasons for the isolated spread of Hopewellian cultural components in the North. The Heckleman site provides significant potential for understanding this time
period in Northern Ohio.