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The late prehistory of northwestern Ohio
Bowen, Jonathan Emerson, Ph.D.
The Ohio State University, 1992
UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106
THE LATE PREHISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN OHIO
DISSERTATION
Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Doctor of Philosphy in the Graduate
School of The Ohio State University
By
Jonathan Emerson Bowen, B.A., M.A,
*****
The Ohio State University
1992
Dissertation Committee: Approved By
T. Cavender
W.S. Dancey
P.W. Sciulli Advisor R.W. Yerkes Department of Anthropology To Martha Potter Otto, Curator of Archaeology, Ohio Historical Society.
11 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although numerous people helped me in many ways throughout the completion of this study, several must be mentioned individually. My data base was greatly increased because David Stothers of the University of Toledo loaned me several faunal assemblages so that I could analyze them, G. Michael Pratt of Heidelberg College, as well as George DeMuth and Randy Yingling of the Archaeological Society of Ohio also made faunal samples available to me for study. Finally, I thank the members of my committee, Ted Cavender, William Dancey, and Paul Sciulli, and my advisor Richard Yerkes, for their help and guidance over the years.
Ill VITA
Personal Information
Name: Jonathan Emerson Bowen Birthdate: May 9, 1957
Education
1979 Bachelor of Arts, The Ohio State University 1980 Master of Arts, The Ohio State University Department of Anthropology
Publications
Bowen, Jonathan. 1974 A Reworked Sinuous-Sided Point. Ohio Archaeologist 21(1):20.
1976 The Appalachian Archaic of the Upper Green Creek Drainage. Ohio Archaeologist 26(4):8-10.
1979 Two Triangular Point Varieties from the Maumee- Sandusky Bay Region. Ohio Archaeologist 29(4):34-35.
1980 The Sandusky Tradition. Toledo Area Aboriginal Research B ulletin 9:39-58.
1981 The Gibbs Settlement Area. Ohio Archaeologist 31(2):35.
1983 A Storage Pit Burial from Pearson Village I. Ohio Archaeologist 33(2):43.
IV 1986a A Trapezoidal Pendant from Seneca County, Ohio. Ohio Archaeologist 36(3):11.
1986b Prehistoric Ceramics from the Scioto County Home Site (33 Sc 17). Ohio Archaeologist 36(4):35-36.
1986c Late Archaic Occupations at the Scioto County Home Site (33 Sc 17). Ohio Archaeologist 37(1);15-17.
1990a The Paleo-Indian and Early Archaic of the Mohican River D rainage. Ohio Archaeologist 40(l):30-33.
1990b Early Archaic of the Upper Portage River Drainage. Ohio Archaeologist 40(2):24-27.
1990c Early Archaic of the Lower Sandusky River Drainage. Ohio Archaeologist 40(3):32-36.
1990d Thebes Cluster Early Archaic Knives in the Buckeye Lake Region. Ohio Archaeologist 40(4);15-16.
1991a The Early Archaic Savannah Lakes Phase of North- Central Ohio. Ohio Archaeologist 41(l):24-28.
1991b A Possible Fourth Millennium BC Component at 33 Wo 372. Ohio Archaeologist 41(2):28-29.
1991c Western Basin Late Woodland Faunal Remains in Ohio. Ohio Archaeologist 41(2):32-34.
1991d Esch Phase Hopewellian Middle Woodland Remains in Eastern Erie County, Ohio. Ohio Archaeologist 41(4);23.
Fields of Studv
Major Field: Anthropology: Ted Cavender - piscine remains in archaeology; William Dancey - settlement patterns; Paul Sciulli - human osteology; and Richard Yerkes - subsistence studies.
Culture Area Specialization: Eastern North American prehistory TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION ...... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... iii
VITA ...... iv
LIST OF TABLES ...... viii
LIST OF FIGURES ...... xii
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE PROBLEM ...... 1
Introduction ...... 1 Models of Climatic Change ...... 10 Settlement-Subsistence M odels ...... 14 Objectives of This Study ...... 17
II. ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING ...... 30
Physiography ...... 30 W aterways ...... 32 C lim a te ...... 34 P r a ir ie s ...... 35 M ammals ...... 36 B ir d s ...... 41 Fish ...... 44 N uts ...... 44 Human Exploitation of Resources ...... 45
VI III. PREVIOUS RESEARCH ...... 53
Culture H istory ...... 53 Settlement/Subsistence ...... 58
IV. SETTLEMENT PATTERNS...... 62
Introduction ...... 62 Early Woodland (750 B.C.-A.D. 1 ) ...... 62 Middle W oodland (A.D. 1 -5 0 0 ) ...... 63 Early Late Woodland (A.D. 500-900) ...... 64 Younge phase (A.D. 900-1200) ...... 65 Crow Bottom phase (A.D. 900-1200) ...... 65 Springwells/Wolf phases (A.D. 1200-1500) ...... 65 Fort Meigs phase (A.D. 1500-1600) ...... 68 Indian Hills phase A.D. 1600-1650) ...... 70 Conclusions ...... 71
V. TOOLS AND FACILITIES ...... 73
Introduction ...... 73 Projectile Points ...... 73 Other Tools ...... 78 F a c ilitie s ...... 79
VI. SUBSISTENCE ...... 81
Introduction ...... 81 Faunal Analysis ...... 82 Stable Carbon Isotopes ...... 84 Deer ...... 86 Other Terrestrial V ertebrates ...... 92 Fish ...... 103 C o r n ...... 104 C onclusion ...... 110
VII. CONCLUSIONS ...... 113
LIST OF REFERENCES ...... 123
APPENDIX
A Tables Containing Basic Study D ata ...... 131
vn LIST OF TABLES
TABLES PAGE
1. Major archaeological sites used in this study ...... 4
2. Archaeological sites within northwestern Ohio excavated by Bowen from 1976-1991 ...... 8
3. Faunal samples excavated by others from north western Ohio which have been quantified by Bowen ... 9
4. Models of climatic change ...... 11
5. Radiocarbon dates from Maumee River area Wolf phase components (Stothers and Abel 1989) ...... 25
6. Radiocarbon dates from Sandusky Bay and Portage River area Wolf phase components ...... 26
7. Radiocarbon dates from northwestern Ohio Wolf phase components east of the mouth of Sandusky B a y ...... 28
8. Radiocarbon dates from northwestern Ohio Fort Meigs/Indian Hills phase components ...... 29
9. Previously constructed cultural-historical models ..... 54
10. Cultural-historical model used in this study ...... 59
11. Sandusky ceramic tradition village site sizes ...... 69
12. Non-village site Wolf phase arrow points from the Sandusky River a re a ...... 76
vui LIST OF TABLES
TABLES PAGE
13. Non-village site Fort Meigs phase arrow points from the Sandusky River a re a ...... 77
14. Percentages of deer (NISP) within the mammalian/ avian species-identified assemblage ...... 87
15. Percentages of deer/elk (NISP) within the mammalian/ avian species-identified assemblage ...... 93
16. Percentages of raccoon (NISP) within the mammalian/ avian species-identified assemblage ...... 95
17. Percentages of beaver (NISP) within the mammalian/ avian species-identified assemblage ...... 96
18. Percentages of muskrat (NISP) within the mammalian/ avian species-identified assemblage ...... 98
19. Percentages of Turkey (NISP) within the mammalian/ avian species-identified assemblage ...... 100
20. Percentages of waterfowl (NISP) within the mammalian/ avian species-identified assemblage ...... 101
21. Pre-A.D. 400 stable carbon isotope ratios (no corn) .... 106
22. Post-A.D. 500 stable carbon isotope values from human bone collagen recovered from northwestern O hio ...... 107
23. Faunal Remains from the Early Woodland Providence phase (700 B.C.-A.D. 1) component at 33 Lu 150 ...... 131
IX LIST OF TABLES
TABLES PAGE
24. Faunal Sample (number of identified specimens) from 33 Er 85 (ca. 500 B.C.) ...... 132
25. Faunal remains from the Younge component at 33 Wo 10 (A.D. 800-1200) [Hamalainen 1977] ...... 134
26. Doctors site (33 Lu 11) - on lower Ottawa River near Maumee Bay - ca. A.D. 1100 ...... 135
27. Doctors site (33 Lu 11) - on lower Ottawa River near Maumee Bay - ca. A.D. 1100 ...... 136
28. Missionary Island 1 (33 Lu 391) - in Maumee River, ca. A.D. 1000-1100 ...... 137
29. Missionary Island (33 Lu 391) - in Maumee River - ca. A.D. 1000-1100 ...... 138
30. Dodge site (33 Wo 9) - Maumee near Missionary Island (A.D. 800-1200) ...... 139
31. Faunal remains from Springwells phase (A.D. 1200- 1300) component at 33 Lu 2 1 4 ...... 141
32. Faunal remains from the Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8) site ...... 142
33. Non-fish remains from the ca. A.D. 1550 Fort Meigs phase component at Pearson Village (33 Sa 8) ...... 143
34. Faunal remains from the Indian Hills phase (ca. A.D. 1600-1650) component at Indian Hills (33 Wo 4 ) ...... 144
X LIST OF TABLES
TABLES PAGE
35. Faunal remains from the Fort Meigs phase (ca. A.D. 1500-1600) component at Fort Meigs (33 Wo 8 ) ...... 145
36. Non-fish vertebrates from the Crow Bottom (ca. A.D. 1100) component at the Sandusky site (33 Se 5) ...... 146
37. Faunal remains from the Fort Meigs phase (ca. A.D. 1450-1550) component at the Harbour site (33 Er 280) . 147
38. Faunal remains from eight Wolf phase features (118, 133, 134, 143, 157, 190, 250, 263) at the Harbour site (33 Er 280)...... 148
39. Non-fish vertebrate remains from the Wolf phase (ca. A.D. 1300) component at Crown Battery (33 Sa 40) .... 149
40. Non-fish vertebrate remains from the Wolf phase (ca. A.D. 1400) component at Monroe-ville (33 Hu 37) ...... 150
41. LaSalle site (33 Wo 42), Maumee bluff upstream from lower rapids; faunal remains from three features (1, 43, 44): Wolf phase (ca. 1350-1400) ...... 151
42. Vertebrates from the Indian Hills site (33 Wo 4) ca. A.D. 1600-1650 ...... 152
XI LIST OF FIGURES
FIGURES PAGE
1. Location of the study area ...... 2
2. Location of major archaeological sites used in this study ...... 3
3. Seasonal availability of major food resources ...... 46
4. Environmental zones used in a hypothetical seasonal round ...... 49
XU CHAPTER I
THE PROBLEM
Introduction
The northwestern portion of the State of Ohio has been occupied by humans for at least the last 14,000 years. However, it is only after about 700 B.C., the beginning of the Early Woodland period, that data from excavated settlements are available. By A.D. 1650 northwestern
Ohio and the surrounding areas had been depopulated through disease and/or warfare, both related to the presence of Europeans in distant parts of eastern North America. This study focuses on a 14,000 km^ tract within northwestern Ohio (Figures 1-2, Table 1) in which numer ous excavations have been conducted by myself (Table 2) and others
(Table 3).
Cultural continuity and change during the period of 700 B.C.-
A.D. 1650 is the subject of this study, with emphasis on settlement and subsistence. For the first two millennia of this time span, two major regional cultural traditions existed in different portions of the study area. In the Maumee-Portage-Sandusky River area to the west lived peoples of the Western Basin tradition, which was first defined by David Figure 1. Location of the study area. /
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Figure 2. Location of major archaeological sites used in this study. Table 1. Major archaeological sites used in this study.
Number Location Sites Phase(s)
1 Upland north of Maumee River Patyi-Dowling (33 Fu 5)® Springwells (A.D. 1250) Crosby’s Ridge (33 Lu 214)® Springwells (A.D. 1250) 2 Upland south of Maumee River Wingston (33 Wo 121)® Wingston (A.D. 200) 3 Grand Rapids, Maumee River Providence (33 Lu 150)^ Providence (500 B.C.) 4 Roche de Boeuf Rapids, Maumee River Missionary Island (33 Lu 391-4)^ Riviere Au Vase (AD. 800) Younge (A.D. 1100 Dodge (33 Wo 9)* Younge (A.D. 1100) LaSalle (33 Wo 42)' Wolf(A.D. 1350)’ 5 Lower Rapids, Maumee River Williams (33 Wo 7)' Late Archaic (1000 B.C.) Wolf (A.D. 1350)* Fort Meigs (33 Wo 8)' Fort Meigs (A.D. 1550)’ MacNichol (33 Wo 10)' Younge (AD. 1000) 6 Lower Maumee River Indian Hills (33 Wo 4)' Indian Hills (AD. 1625)’ Wright (33 Wo 128)' Wolf (AD. 1350) 7 Ottawa River Doctors (33 Lu 11)' Younge(A.D. 1100) Table 1. Major archaeological sites used in this study (continued).
Number Location Sites Phase(s) 8 Mouth of Maumee Bay Waterworks (33 Lu 6)^ Younge(A.D. 1100) 9 North Bass Island North Bass Island Mound* Younge(A.D. 1100) 10 Lower Portage River Libben (33 Ot 6)' Younge(A.D.1100) Wolf (A.D. 1300)* Petersen (33 Ot 9)^ Wolf (A.D. 1300)* Indian Hills (A.D. 1600) 11 Marblehead Peninsula Marblehead (33 Ot 30)* Providence (100 B.C.) 12 Head of Sandusky Bay Squaw Island (33 Sa 7)^ Younge (A.D.1000) Muddy Creek (33 Sa 35)* Wolf (A.D. 1300)* Indian Hills (A.D. 1600)* Green Creek (33 Sa 41)* Providence (300 B.C.) 13 Upland west of Sandusky River Pelahatchie (33 Sa 188)® Springwells (A.D. 1250) 14 Lower Rapids, Sandusky River Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8)* Wolf* Fort Meigs (A.D. 1500-1600)* Indian Hills (A.D. 1600-1650)* Table 1. Major archaeological sites used in this study (continued).
Number Location Sites Phase(s) 15 Middle Sandusky River Sandusky (33 Se 5)^ Crow Bottom (A.D. 1100)* 16 Lower Green Creek Pearson (33 Sa 9)® Wolf (A.D. 1400)* Fort Meigs (A.D. 1550)* Indian Hills cremation (A.D. 1600) Cemetery Ridge (33 Sa 13)® Wolf (A.D. 1300)* Miller’s Ridge (33 Sa 65)® Fort Meigs (A.D. 1500)* Baker (33 Sa 141)® Wolf A.D. (1350) 17 Mouth of Sandusky Bay Hemminger (33 Er 98)® Younge(A.D. 1100) Harbour (33 Er 280)® Younge(A.D. 1000) Wolf (A.D. 1350) Fort Meigs (A.D. 1500) Sandusky Mall (33 Er 401)® Younge A.D. 1100) 18 Lower Huron River Esch (33 Er 1)^ Esch (A.D. 200) Taylor (33 Er 3)^ Late Woodland cemetery (A.D. 1100)
05 Table 1. Major archaeological sites used in this study (continued).
Number Location Sites Phase(s) 18 Lower Huron River Kurtz (33 Er 7)‘ Wolf (A.D. 1400)* Mixter (33 Er 15)" Wolf (A.D. 1400)* 19 Forks of the Huron River Dillon (33 Er 30)" Wolf (A.D. 1300)* Heckelman (33 Er 14)" Wolf (A.D. 1450)* Seaman’s Fort(33 Er 85)" Leimbach (500 B.C.)* Weilnau (33 Er 409)" Green Creek (A.D. 800)* 20 West Branch of Huron River Bores Farm" Late Archaic (1200 B.C.) Monroeville (33 Hu 37)" Wolf (A.D. 1350)* 21 Vermilion River Leimbach (33 Ln 7)" Leimbach (500 B.C.)* KEY: 1 = riverine (on large stream), 2 = lacustrine (on Lake Erie or embayment), 3 = upland (away from large stream or Lake Erie; * = nucleated settlement. 8
Table 2. Archaeological sites within northwestern Ohio excavated by Bowen from 1976-1991.
Site Major Component(s) Date(s) Sandusky Mall (33 Er 401) Younge A.D. 800-1200 Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8) Wolf A.D. 1300-1500 Fort Meigs A.D. 1500-1600 Indian Hills A.D. 1600-1650 Pearson (33 Sa 9) Wolf A.D. 1300-1500 Fort Meigs A.D. 1500-1600 Blue Banks (33 Sa 10) Wolf A.D. 1300-1500 Miller’s Ridge (33 Sa 65) Fort Meigs A.D. 1500-1600 Birchard Library (33 Sa 172) Younge A.D. 800-1200 Pelahatchie (33 Sa 188) Springwells A.D. 1200-1300 Sandusky (33 Se 5) Crow Bottom A.D. 900-1200 Table 3. Faunal samples excavated by others from northwestern Ohio which have been quantified by Bowen.
Site Component(s) Date(s) Excavator Dillon (33 Er 1) Wolf A.D. 1300-1500 DeMuth Seaman’s Fort (33 Er 85) Leimbach 750 B.C.-A.D. 1 Stothers Harbour (33 Er 280) Younge A.D. 800-1200 Pratt Wolf A.D. 1300-1500 Fort Meigs A.D. 1500-1600 Monroeville (33 Hu 37) Wolf A.D. 1300-1500 Yingling Doctors (33 Lu 11) Younge A.D. 800-1200 Stothers Crosby’s Ridge (33 Lu 214) Springwells A.D. 1200-1300 Stothers Missionary Island (33 Lu 391) Younge A.D. 800-1200 Stothers Petersen (33 Ot 9) Wolf A.D. 1300-1500 Stothers Indian Hills A.D. 1600-1650 Blue Banks (33 33 Sa 10) Wolf A.D. 1300-1500 Stothers Crown (33 Sa 40) Wolf A.D. 1300-1500 Stothers Indian Hills (33 Wo 4) Indian Hills A.D. 1600-1650 Stothers Port Meigs (33 Wo 8) Fort Meigs A.D. 1500-1600 Stothers Dodge (33 Wo 9) Younge A.D. 800-1200 Stothers LaSalle (33 Wo 42) Wolf A.D. 1300-1500 Stothers 10 Stothers (1978), and subsequently expanded upon by G. Michael Pratt
(1981). Peoples of the Firelands tradition, which I define for the first time in this study, lived in the Huron-Vermilion River area to the east.
Between A.D, 1300 and A.D. 1650 only a single regional cultural tradition is recognizable within the northwestern Ohio study area. It is the Sandusky tradition (Bowen 1980); Stothers and Pratt 1980), which was defined a decade ago. The origins of the Sandusky tradition have been the subject of a lively debate since that time.
The western portion of the northwestern Ohio study area, the homeland of the Western Basin tradition, contained the most productive fisheries. Thus, it had a higher hunter-gatherer carrying capacity than did the homeland of the Firelands tradition people to the east (Stothers,
Pratt and Shane 1979). It is not surprising that the peoples of these two adjacent areas possessed differing settlement-subsistence systems throughout much of later prehistory.
Models of Climatic Change
Thirty years ago James Griffin (1961) formulated a hypothesis of periodic climatic change encouraging periodic cultural change in North
America, and perhaps in other portions of the northern hemisphere. He concluded that, for reasons unknown, warm/dry and cool/wet episodes alternated every 500-600 years (Table 4), Griffin observed that many cultures seemed to have become more complex and agricultural during 11
Table 4. Models of climatic change.
Griffin (1961) Northern Bryson/Wendiand (1969) Graves(1977) Date Hemisphere Central North America Indiana/Michigan/Ohio A.D. 1800 cool/wet
warm/dry A.D. 1600 cool/wet
A.D. 1400 warm cool/wet A.D. 1200 cool/wet A.D. 1000 warm warm/dry A.D. 800
A.D. 600 warm/dry
cool/wet A.D. 400
A.D. 200 warm/dry A.D. 1 cool/wet warm/dry 200 B.C.
400 B.C.
600 B.C. cool/wet
800 B.C.
1000 B.C. 12 the warmer periods, and simpler and more reliant on wild foodstuffs when the climate turned cooler again. In particular, Griffin noted the advent of significant com cultivation in about A.D. 700-800, at the outset of a warm/dry period, and a renewed emphasis on hunting after the return to cooler conditions sometime around A.D. 1200. He suggest ed that the continued Iroquoian emphasis on corn cultivation was a function of the Great Lakes moderating the drop in temperatures in that region. Recent stable carbon isotope analyses by Stothers and
Bechtel (1987) support this date for the advent of significant corn horticulture in northwestern Ohio.
Almost a decade later Bryson and Wendland (1969) presented another sequence of climatic change for central North America (Table
4). Although their reconstruction differs markedly from that of Griffin for the period prior to A.D. 800, the sequences correspond rather well for the later part of the time span. Bryson and Wendland concluded that warm conditions persisted until about A.D. 1200-1300, when a cool-wet episode commenced. Following a return to warmer tempera tures during about A.D. 1400-1600, cool/wet conditions prevailed through the middle of the nineteenth century. This post-A.D. 1300 cooler climate was named the "Little Ice Age".
Although recent chronological refinements suggest that the Little
Ice Age began about A.D. 1450 (Bamforth 1990) recently acquired data 13 also indicate that there is little justification in concluding that climatic conditions were uniformly cool and/or wet for the next few centuries.
Instead, at least in central North America, while the winters may have been consistently colder, the summer temperatures and the precipita tion may have been more variable than had previously been the case.
Thus, horticultural success would have been less predictable during the
Little Ice Age, instead of having been simply more difficult (Bamforth
1990). Three decades spent in corn fields has taught me that a warm, driy planting season, periodic soaking rains, and warm nights are requi site for a good corn yield.
A little over a decade ago Lawrence Graves (1977) defined a sequence of climatic change for the Indiana-Michigan-Ohio area (Table
4), which he based on palynological evidence (Cain and Slater 1948;
Ogden 1970; Williams 1974). His south-central Great Lakes climatic sequence is nearly the opposite of that suggested for central North
America by Bryson and Wendland. Graves concluded that after about
A.D. 600-800 a cool/wet episode commenced which lasted until some time around A.D. 1400, when warmer and drier conditions returned.
If the Griffin — Bryson and Wendland Model reflects the actual climatic sequence in the northwestern Ohio region, then corn cultivation became important at the outset of a warm/dry period, but the Graves
Model suggests that it was adopted at the beginning of a cool/wet 14 episode. Since corn needs both warmth and moisture for optimal production, both types of climate would have had their advantages as well as their drawbacks. A warm/wet period, which neither model suggests, would have been the best.
Although the models are in marked disagreement regarding both prior and later conditions, they agree that the emergence of nucleated settlements of the Sandusky tradition (ca. 1200—1300) and the demise of the dual-tradition situation in northwestern Ohio came about during a cool/wet period. All but Griffin agree that a warm/dry episode followed in about A.D. 1400, lasting through at least A.D. 1600, virtually the end of the study period. This warm/dry episode marks the adoption of many
Upper Mississippian material cultural traits, but not any marked settlement-subsistence shifts. It must be remembered that Bamforth
(1990) has suggested that the post-A.D. 1400 "Little Ice Age" may have been a period of consistently colder winters, but also of many hot/dry summers. The situation is certainly extremely complex.
Settlement-Subsistence Models
Mason (1981) defined three historical settlement-subsistence models for the Great Lakes region. They are the Proto-Ojibwa, the
Potawatomi, and the Iroquoian systems. All would have been viable options for late prehistoric peoples in northwestern Ohio. 15 Peoples following a Proto-Ojibwa (Mason 1981:27, 30-32) lifestyle were organized into patrilocal bands, in which the family was the most important unit of social interaction. Leadership roles were both situa tional and ephemeral in nature, with no formal justification. Such hunter-gatherer bands were seasonally mobile within their respective territories.
Most of the prehistoric peoples of northwestern Ohio probably followed Proto-Ojibwa-like lifeways until about 700 B.C. There is no evidence for nucleated settlements before this time. In the greater
Maumee River area of the lake plain, however, such a pattern may have persisted for another millennium and a half, until about A.D. 750. As noted by Stothers, Pratt, and Shane (1979), this lifestyle was followed for a longer period in the portion of the study area richest in deer and fish by peoples of the Western Basin cultural tradition.
Mason (1981:32-36) defined the Potawatomi model for semi- sedentary hunter/horticulturalists, noting that such a lifestyle was prevalent in northern Ohio at the prehistoric/historic interface. Such peoples lived in single patrilineage communities, which were sometimes palisaded. During the winter, however, they often dispersed into family hunting encampments. The single lineage communities were tied to other such communities located nearby both through marriage and clan affiliations. 16 In spite of Masons’s (1981:32) assertion that the seventeenth century A.D. inhabitants of northern Ohio followed a Potawatomi-type lifeway, it is suggested that, in the northwestern Ohio study area, it was prevalent prior to A.D. 1400. The Western Basin tradition peoples of the greater Maumee River area apparently adopted such a settle ment/subsistence pattern sometime around A.D. 750. Such a pattern, however, may have been followed since about 700 B.C. in the Huron/
Vermilion River area to the east.
Between A.D. 750 and A.D. 1400 the people of the Western Basin tradition cultivated corn and were living in apparently seasonal base camps, following a Potawatomi-type lifestyle. By contrast, large base camps had been established in the Firelands tradition area to the east by 700 B.C., about fourteen centuries earlier. After A.D. 1400, people of the Sandusky tradition were living in semi-permanent horticultural villages, following an Iroquoian type lifestyle, which I describe below.
Mason (1981:36-46) also described an Iroquoian type of settle ment/subsistence pattern. Peoples with such a lifeway lived in nucleat ed, semi-permanent, multi-lineage communities which moved about once a generation, as firewood became scarce and soil fertility declined.
Although hunting was still an important activity, corn horticulture was intensively practiced. Villages, therefore, were usually established within extensive tracts of sandy loam soils. 17 Matrilineages were the major residential units of Iroquoian villages, each inhabiting their own longhouse. Because lineages resided within each settlement, lineage representatives served on the village council, along with the chiefs of the several clans which had members in each village. At another level, two or more multi-lineage communities established formal tribal groups, with tribal councils. The tribes bound themselves into confederacies, with another council at that level.
Mason (1981:46) specifically noted that the three preceding types of societal adaptation are "interpretive and selective" in nature. Thus, it would be foolish to suggest that all, or even a majority, of the late prehistoric societies in the northwestern Ohio study area fit neatly into one of these types. Also, it must be remembered that the Proto-Ojibwas,
Potawatomi, and Iroquoian patterns were each the product of millennia of cultural development, and that their prehistoric predecessors may not have had any exact analogs in the early historic period.
Objectives of This Studv
In 13 of the last 16 years I have conducted excavations at post-
A.D. 800 archaeological sites within the northwestern Ohio study area.
During those years I have been able to investigate 8 different sites containing 11 separate archaeological components (Table 2). Every post-A.D. 800 phase is represented. 18 Other researchers have been generous with their unanalyzed data. I have been able to quantify previously unexamined faunal assemblages from a total of 14 archaeological sites excavated by others up to 15 years ago (Table 3). The only faunal analyses available for northwestern Ohio were those by Peter Hamalainen from the Fort Meigs
(33 Wo 8), MacNichol (33 Wo 10), Waterworks (33 Lu 6), and Squaw
Island (33 Sa 7) sites, and only the latter two had been published
(Hamalainen 1974, 1976). I subsequently made my own quantification of a large faunal sample from Fort Meigs. Thus, I have been able to increase the number of quantified faunal assemblages from northwest ern Ohio about five-fold for this study.
Through my own excavations, co-operation with private collectors, and obtaining samples from museum collections, I have obtained a total of 27 additional stable carbon isotope values from human bone collagen samples found within northwestern Ohio. These more than double the sample available to Stothers and Bechtel (1987) for their study. Also, they had no values available from the Fort Meigs Phase, and I was able to obtain two of them, admittedly too few, but much better than the previous complete lack of data for that period.
In summary, I have spent 13 of the last 16 years conducting excavations at post-A.D. 800 sites relating to each of the archaeological phases present within northwestern Ohio. Much data regarding tools. 19 facilities (Bowen 1983), settlement patterns (Bowen 1980, 1981, 1991a), and subsistence patterns (Bowen 1991b) has been made available as a result of that work. My analyses of 20 separate faunal samples from the study area increase that data base about five-fold. Additionally, the
27 bone collagen stable carbon isotope values slightly more than doubles that data base for the study area. Figure 2 shows the locations of the major archaeological components that I refer to in this study.
Using settlement and subsistence data from the work described above, I will address the following questions in this study:
1. How did the adjacent Western Basin and Firelands cultural traditions develop through time?
2. How did their environmentally different homelands contrib ute to those differences?
3. How did the onset of the Little Ice Age in the mid-fifteenth century A.D. relate to the formation and subsequent devel opment of the Sandusky cultural tradition?
In this study, I conclude that, by the commencement of the study period in 700 B.C., the Firelands tradition peoples in the eastern portion of the study area had developed a settlement-subsistence system of the Potawatomi type. They were living in nucleated settlements which contained substantial facilities for at least several months out of the year. The people of the Firelands traditions began cultivating corn to a very significant extent by A.D. 1000. Indeed, it may have com prised the majority of some individuals’ diets by this date. After the 20 onset of the Little Ice Age in about A.D. 1450, no settlements were maintained in the traditional homeland of the Firelands tradition.
To the west, the people of the Western Basin tradition appear to have maintained a Proto-Ojibwa type of settlement-subsistence pattern until at least the eleventh century A.D. Although they adopted the cultivation of corn simultaneously with the peoples of the Firelands tradition, they appear never to have consumed as large an amount per capita. Sandusky tradition settlements are found only within the former homeland of the Western Basin tradition after A.D. 1450. The people of the Sandusky tradition followed an Iroquoian-type settlement- subsistence pattern, with nucleated, semi-permanent villages which moved every 15-30 years.
During the Early Woodland period (700 B.C.-A.D. 1), two differing settlement-subsistence patterns were being followed within the north western Ohio study area. In the Western Basin tradition area, people of the Providence phase, typified by the Providence site (33 Lu 150), were living in small, warm-weather encampments on the bottomlands and sandy banks of rivers. To the east, however, people of the Leimbach phase, as exemplified by the Leimbach (33 Ln 7), Heckelman (33 Er 14), and Seaman’s Fort (33 Er 85) sites were living in nucleated blufftop settlements for at least several months out of each year. Thus, by Early
Woodland times, the people of the Firelands tradition were already 21 following a lifestyle that resembled the Potawatomi type, but without the farming.
Cultural continuity was maintained in both sub-areas of north western Ohio during the ensuing Middle Woodland period (A.D. 1-500).
In the Western Basin tradition area, as shown by the Bays Road (33 Wo
89) and Wingston (33 Wo 121) sites, people of the Wingston phase were not living in nucleated settlements. In the Firelands tradition area, however, as evidenced by the Esch (33 Er 2) and Heckelman (33 Er 14) sites, the Middle Woodland people of the Esch phase were, like their
Early Woodland antecedents, still living in large, nucleated blufftop settlements.
During the period of A.D, 500-1200, as shown by sites such as
Speers Brothers (33 Er 401), Missionary Island (33 Lu 391), Libben (33
Ot 6), Squaw Island (33 Sa 7), and Dodge (33 Wo 9), large, nucleated settlements had not been established by the Western basin Late Wood land people. While they were cultivating corn, it was not consumed in as large quantities as it was by Fort Ancient-like groups to the south or by the contemporary people of the Firelands tradition to the east.
On the other hand, as shown by the Weilnau site (33 Er 409),
Late Woodland people of the Weilnau phase of the Firelands tradition were living in nucleated blufftop settlements, much like their Early and
Middle Woodland ancestors. Stable carbon isotope analyses show that 22 these people, as well as those to the south of the Western Basin tradi tion, were consuming large amounts of corn.
I find the period of A.D. 1200-1300 to be both critical and confus ing. This is the time at which both Griffin (1961) and Bryson and
Wendland (1969) expect significant cultural readjustments as a result of a shift from warm/dry to cool/wet conditions. The Wolf phase of the
Firelands tradition, like its antecedents, is typified by nucleated bluff- top settlements. The terminal Springwells phase of the Western Basin tradition is characterized by small upland settlements. In the lower riverine areas of the Western Basin tradition area settlements with
Wolf phase ceramics are found. Stothers (1978) suggested that this may be the archaeological signature of the Wolf phase people physically expanding into the homeland of the Western Basin Springwells phase.
Only a single archaeological tradition can be identified within northwestern Ohio by A.D. 1450. The Fort Meigs phase of the Sandusky tradition occupied the same area as did the earlier Western Basin tradition. As might by expected following Bamforth’s (1990) model of the Little Ice Age, stable corn isotope analyses suggest that less corn was being consumed than previously. Also, a large increase in arrow points and scrapers suggests a greater reliance on hunting.
By A.D. 1450 the people of northwestern Ohio had developed a settlement pattern of the Iroquoian type. They were living in large. 23 nucleated settlements that were probably relocated every 15-30 years or so. The abandonment of the former homeland of the Firelands tradition may have been related to the greater uncertainty of horticultural pursuits. As noted earlier, the former homeland of the Western Basin tradition contained an extremely productive fishery.
The final Indian Hills phase (A.D. 1600-1650) shows a partial relocation of settlements away from the arable sandy loam soils, in the midst of which the earlier settlements had been located. Yet, both stable corn isotope analyses as well as the archaeobotanical record suggest that corn was an important dietary component. Many of the
Indian Hills phase settlements are located in relatively marshy areas.
As noted by Brown (1990:163), Gallagher et al. (1985) have recently uncovered evidence suggesting that, by the end of the sixteenth century
A.D., peoples living in the western Great Lakes region had developed a simple drainage technology which allowed them to successfully cultivate poorly-drained soils at the edges of marshes. This may solve the appar ent contradiction of settlement placement and increased corn consump tion during the Indian Hills phase. However, no direct evidence of such ridged fields has been noted in northwestern Ohio.
I conclude that the Little Ice Age, which began about A.D. 1450, had a significant effect on the prehistoric peoples of northwestern Ohio, as predicted by the models of Griffin (1961), Bryson and Wendland 24 (1969), and Bamforth (1990). While deer hunting became more impor tant, farming may have become temporarily less significant in the economy. The areas away from the most productive fisheries were abandoned. By the beginning of the seventeenth century, however, a simple drainage technology may have allowed a renewed emphasis on corn cultivation. The radiocarbon dates upon which I temporally place the post-A.D. 1250 archaeological phases are shown in Tables 5-8. An understanding of the environmental setting of northwestern Ohio is crucial for the study of its past human populations. Therefore, I exam ine the biological, meteorological, and physical environment of the study area in Chapter II. 25
Table 5. Radiocarbon dates from Maumee River area Wolf phase components (Stothers and Abel 1989).
Component Date (A.D.) MASCÂ Range Williams (33 Wo 7) 1220+60 (CWRU-104) 1160-1300 1310±65 (CWRU-102) 1245-1395 1310+65 (CWRU-103 1245-1395 1350+80 (Beta-6172) 1250-1340 1360+75 (CWRU-37) 1265-1335 1520+50 (DIC-2590) 1370-1490 Dodge (33 Wo 9) 1220+40 (DIC-2001) 1180-1280 1240±50 (DIC-2000) 1180-1320 1350+50 (DIC-1999) 1280-1410 1420±55 (DIG-2002) 1320-1470 MacNichol (33 Wo 10) 1500+60 (DIC-1670) 1360-1570 LaSalle (33 Wo 42) 1380±100 (Beta-6171) 1270-1490 Wright (33 Wo 128 1330+55 (DIC-2291) 1270-1410 1470±75 (GX-10743) 1320-1500 Table 6. Radiocarbon dates from Sandusky Bay and Portage River area Wolf phase components.
Component Date (A.D.) MASCA Range Reference
Crown Sub-phase Libben (33 Ot 6) 1280+85 (GX-1317) 1170-1400 Prufer and Shane (1976) 1310+105 (GX-1740) 1200-1350 Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8) 1410±50 (Beta-22862) 1320-1440 Stothers and Abel (1989) 1480+50 (Beta-22863) 1360-1480 1440+70 (Beta-33360) 1310-1470 Pearson (33 Sa 9) 1490+50 (Beta-8383) 1360-1480 1560+90Beta-8382) 1350-1550 1600+50 (Beta-7971) 1410-1560 Cemetery (33 Sa 13) 1250+70 (Beta-5909) 1170-1330 Muddy Creek (33 Sa 35) 1180+80 (Beta-6765) 1120-1300 Crown (33 Sa 40) 1270±50 (Beta-22865) 1200-1300 Stothers and Abel (1989) Baker (33 Sa 141) 1370+60 (Beta-11682) 1280-1420 Durnwald (33 Sa 187) 1300+90 (Beta-23029) 1200-1420
to OÎ Table 6. Radiocarbon dates from Sandusky Bay and Portage River area Wolf phase components (Continued).
Component Date (A.D.) MASCA Range Reference Blue Banks Sub-phase Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8) 1160+60 (Beta-22864) 1120-1260 Stothers and Abel (1989) 1520+60 (Beta-11681) 1360-1500 Pearson (33 Sa 9) 1500±50 (UGa-2536) 1365-1565 1570+70 (Beta-7973) 1390-1510
to < 1 Table 7, Radiocarbon dates from northwestern Ohio Wolf phase components east of the mouth of Sandusky Bay.
Component Date (A.D.) MASCA Range Reference
Kurtz (33 Er 7) 1390+60 (Beta-5902) 1305-1445 1410+60 (Beta-5901) 1315-1455 Heckelman (33 Er 14) 1495+95 (GX-1745) 1315-1525 Prufer and Shane (1976) Mixter (33 Er 15) 1340±60 (Beta-5907) 1260-1400 1390±70 (Beta-5908) 1315-1455 Monroeville (33 Hu 37) 1370+60 (Beta-13233) 1280-1420 Yingling (1987) 1780+60 (Beta-8549) 1590-1730 Yingling (1987)
to 00 Table 8. Radiocarbon dates from northwestern Ohio Fort Meigs/Indian Hills phase components.
Component Date (A.D.) MASCA Range Reference Western Area Fort Meigs phase Fort Meigs (33 Wo 8) 1340±60 (DIC-399) 1290-1400 Rutter (1984) 1440±55 (DIC-398) 1330-1450 Rutter (1984) 1770+45 (DIC-1672) 1590-1710 Stothers and Abel (1989) Orleans Park (33 Wo 74) 1250+50 (DIC-2004) 1190-1310 Redmond (1981) 1470+45 (DIC-2005) 1355-1465 Redmond (1981) Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8) 1680+70 (Beta-13234) 1450-1690 Pearson (33 Sa 9) 1780+50 (Beta-7972) 1600-1720 Western area Indian Hills phase Indian Hills (33 Wo 4) 1460±125 (GX-10264-G) 1275-1545 Graves(1984) 1510+120 (Beta-6174) 1330-1560 Graves(1984) 1610+100 (M-2268) 1360-1630 Graves(1984) 1640+55 (DIC-2290) 1445-1665 Graves(1984) 1665+180 (GX-10264-A) 1500-1810 Stothers and Abel (1989) 1710+55 (DIC-2289) 1565-1695 Graves(1984) 1850±50 (DIC-2288) 1590-1710 Graves(1984) Eastern area Indian Hills phase Pearson (33 Sa 9) 1730+60 (Beta-12585) 1570-1710 CHAPTER II
ENVIRONMENTAL SETTING
Physiography
The approximately 14,000 km^ northwestern Ohio study area
(Figure 1) is underlain by Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. Between about
1,000,000 B.C. and about 12,000 B.C. the entire study area was succes- siyely coyered by the Nebraskan, Kansan, Illinoisan, and Wisconsinan glaciations. Northwestern Ohio was thus covered with a mantle of glacial till (Hough 1958:90-94).
During the twelfth millennium B.C., after the Wisconsinan glacia tion of northwestern Ohio had ended. Lake Maumee formed in what is now the Lake Erie basin. This glacial lake, which had an elevation of about 244 meters above mean sea level and drained to the southwest into the Wabash River, covered nearly one-half of the study area. The largest predecessor of Lake Erie, Lake Maumee, left a prominent fossil beach ridge which separates the lake plain from the till plain. Clay sediments settling out of the waters of Lake Maumee and its successors covered the glacial till, forming a very flat lake plain (Forsyth 1975:29;
Hough 1958:140).
30 31 Two subsequent glacial lakes, Lake Whittlesey and Lake Warren, had elevations of about 224 and 206 meters above mean sea level, respectively, and they drained into the Lake Huron basin through the
Grand River. Both left prominent fossil beach ridges just to the north of that of Lake Maumee (Forsyth 1975:41-42; Hough 1958:140, 148-152).
Sometime during the eleventh millennium B.C., the Wisconsinan glacial ice retreated far enough to the north of the Niagara region that it exposed an outlet lower in elevation than that into the Lake Huron basin, to the northwest. At that point, early Lake Erie began to drain into the Lake Ontario basin, as it does today. Because the weight of the glacial ice had depressed the Niagara region, that outlet was about 46 meters lower than it is today. Thus, as that outlet to the east became totally free of ice, the waters of early Lake Erie dropped to about 128 meters above sea level, much lower than the current level of 174 meters.
Thus, by about 10,000 B.C., the waters of early Lake Erie were located about 180 km to the east of the study area (Forsyth 1975:44-45).
After the tremendous weight of the ice was removed from the
Niagara outlet, isostatic rebound of the landscape caused it to slowly rise in elevation. By about 2500 B.C., the beginning of the study period, the waters of Lake Erie had reached the study area. By about 500 B.C. the waters of Lake Erie had advanced westward to a point just east of
Little Cedar Point, about 15 km east of the present mouth of the 32 Maumee River. By the A.D. 500 Lake Erie had risen to essentially its current level (Forsyth 1975:47-48; Graves 1977:55).
As the glacial lakes receded into what is now the lake plain, the
Maumee, Portage, Sandusky, and Huron Rivers extended their courses farther downstream. As each successive lake was formed, the rivers picked-up sand and silt, and deposited it in deltas at their new mouths further downstream. Thus, extensive tracts of sandy loam soils often occur near the rivers in the lake plain (Forsyth 1975:43-44).
W aterwavs
The northeastern portion of the study area borders Lake Erie, which is the twelfth largest body of fresh water in the world, with a surface area of 25,740 km^ (Hough 1958:4). Its major tributary which lies within the northwestern Ohio study area is the Maumee River. The
Maumee River flows over exposed Silurian dolomite near its mouth, creating an excellent spawning rapids.
The Maumee River enters Lake Erie through one of its embay- ments, Maumee Bay, which has a surface area of about 50 km^. Graves
(1977:55), based on sediment analyses, suggested that Maumee Bay had begun to form by about 1 A.D. Thus, only Middle Woodland and later populations would have been able to exploit the resources of Maumee
Bay. 33 The Portage River enters Lake Erie about 50 km east of the mouth of the Maumee River. It is one of the smallest rivers in north western Ohio. Although the Portage River flows over exposed Silurian dolomite about 30 km above its mouth, creating an excellent spawning rapids, there are no records of lake fish ascending there to spawn. It is possible that the early construction of dams may have blocked any spawning migrations before they could become important to early nineteenth century Euroamerican populations.
The Sandusky River enters Lake Erie about 10 km east of the mouth of the Portage River. Like the Maumee River, the Sandusky
River flows over exposed Silurian dolomite near its mouth, and huge numbers of walleye and white bass spawn there every spring. The
Sandusky River enters Lake Erie through Sandusky Bay, which has a surface area of about 100 km^. Based on shoreline recession rates and core samples, Moseley (1905) suggested that Sandusky Bay, like Maum ee Bay, began to form about A.D. 1, and that it was only half its current size by the seventeenth century A.D.
The Huron River and the Vermilion River are the two major streams in the study area which flow into lake Erie east of the mouth of
Sandusky Bay. Each flows over exposed Devonian shale, so that no spawning rapids are created. Thus, these two rivers are less productive for fishing than are the Maumee, the Portage, and the Sandusky. 34 Clim ate
Under current climatic conditions, the advent of March heralds the end of deep winter. With temperatures alternating between freez ing and thawing the ice breaks up on Lake Erie and the rivers, the maple sap begins to run, and the migratory waterfowl return. By mid-
March the stillness of the night is broken by the call of the spring peepers. Toward the end of the month the Turkey Vultures have re turned, and the walleye are spawning in the lower rapids of the
Maumee and Sandusky Rivers. The final snowfall of the season usually occurs at this time.
The first thunderstorm of spring usually occurs at about the end of April. By the middle of May the trees are leafing out, and the soil is warm enough for the planting of corn. The departure of the last of the spawning white bass from the lower rapids of the Maumee and San dusky rivers at the end of May marks the advent of consistently warm temperatures, with highs commonly ranging from about 17-30°C, and lows at about 10-17°C. In July, the middle of the warm portion of the year is marked by the call of the cicada, and the ripening of the wild red raspberries.
The end of consistently warm temperatures comes in late Septem ber, as the nuts drop to the ground. The last thunderstorm of the season usually occurs at this time, and the falling temperatures begin to 35 require periodically the wearing of heavy clothing, even during the daytime. By the middle of October temperatures often fall to below freezing at night, and the night no longer resounds with the call of the katydid, or any of the other insects. As October draws to a close, the leaves have fallen, and the Turkey Vultures have departed for the south. The first snowfall of the season usually occurs in late November.
At this time most of the migratory waterfowl depart.
Deep winter sets in as December begins, and it lasts through the end of February. Temperatures as low as -15°C are common, and lows of-25°C occasionally occur. The winters of northwestern Ohio are punctuated by thaws of several days duration, and snow cover, though occasionally a third of a meter deep, is intermittent.
P rairies
Although a multitude of smaller prairies were scattered through out the forests of northwestern Ohio, two of them were much more extensive than any of the others. These were the Oak Openings (1,500 km^) and Castalia Prairies (500 km^).
The large prairie tracts were broken by groves of oak and hickory trees (especially the former). An analysis of trunk diameters of oaks in the western portion of the Castalia Prairie which served as witness trees for General Land Office surveys during the 1820s suggested that this prairie may have been open prior to about A.D. 1750 (Blakeman 36 n.d.), and that it was probably in the process of reverting back to a forest, perhaps as a result of the cessation of annual burning by native populations. The predominate grasses were big bluestem (Schizachrium scoparium), blue joint {Calamagrostis canadensis), Indian grass (Sor- ghastrum nutans), slough grass (Spartina pectinata), and reed grass
(JPhragmites communis) (Whitney and Steiger 1985:423).
M ammals
Although approximately 75 mammalian species were present in northwestern Ohio during late prehistoric times (Barbour and Davis
1974; Burt 1964, 1972), only 9 species have been selected for special attention as having significant economic importance to the contempora neous human populations. These selections have been made using ethnographic data, body weight, ease of procurement, and the archaeo logical record.
The white tail deer {Odocoileus virginianus) was the species hunted most extensively by most early historic native populations of the eastern United States and adjacent portions of Canada. Deer remains dominate most prehistoric faunal assemblages from that region. Deer weigh about 55 kg (Rue 1979:114), and are large enough to provide hides suitable for the manufacture of durable clothing. From September through January (Rue 1979:60, 69) the bucks have antlers suitable for the manufacture of flint chipping tools and conical projectile points. 37 Large awls and scraping tools may be manufactured from bones of the deer, and the animal is also a significant source of sinew heavy enough for binding and sewing.
The diet and the habits of deer vary significantly throughout the year (Rue 1979:178, 190, 242, 255, 260, 297, 428). In the spring the bucks are either solitary or are aggregated into very small groups, and they are more cautious than any other season. The does are also dispersed, but feed more during daylight hours because of their addi tional nutritional requirements for the development of pairs of fawns, which are born in late May and nurse throughout the summer. Does feed in the morning before 10 a.m., from 1-2 p.m., and again from 4 p.m. until dark on foods such as bluestem grass, hawthorn, poke weed, willow, sassafras, and poison ivy, all of which were particularly common in the wet oak/hickory prairies.
In the summer even the does become almost completely nocturnal, with most feeding being done at night, early in the morning, or late in the evening. Favorite summer foods include dogwood, sassafras, grape, elderberry, and jewel weed.
During the fall acorns may compose as much as 80% of a deer’s diet. Other foods regularly consumed during this season include oak, willow, cherry, sumac, grape, rose, raspberry, and elderberry. Deer feed more during daylight hours and move about more throughout their 38 home ranges during the fall than at any other time of the year. During the mating period (November-December) the bucks are especially active in their search for sexually receptive does.
Deer do most of their wintertime feeding during daylight hours, but they are less mobile and feed for shorter periods of time than during the fall. Winter foods of primary importance include acorns, oak, ash, dogwood, cottonwood, sassafras, sumac, locust, rose, and strawberry.
Elk (Cervus canadensis) were present in northwestern Ohio during the late prehistoric period. They were extirpated in the eastern
United States by the mid-nineteenth century A.D. (Hoffmeister and
Mohr 1972), so dubious analogies must be drawn with populations living in mountainous regions west of the Mississippi River.
Elk weigh about 300 kg, and they are large enough to provide useful hides, sinews, and bones, like the whitetail deer. The Dulls have antlers which mature in August and are shed in February (Burt 1964:
227-228), and they are useful as raw material in the manufacture of gouges, flint chipping tools, hoes, clubs, and implement handles. Elk are largely nocturnal, but they may also be active in the early morning or late evening (Burt 1972:150).
During the summer elk live in small groups, with the cows and calves separate from the bulls. During warm weather grass is the major dietary component (Burt 1964:228; Houston 1982:143). Perhaps the 39 extra nutritional requirements of the cows during the latter stages of gestation of the calves, which are born about June 1st (Houston 1982:
71), and subsequent lactation, especially attracted them to the extensive prairie tracts.
Elk mate in September and October. At that time they are quite active, with the bulls attempting to assemble and maintain harems of over a dozen cows (Burt 1964:228). After the rut, during the winter, elk are concentrated into large herds with both sexes together, in numbers of up to 200 individuals. Main foods eaten during the winter include dried grasses and the twigs of trees (Houston 1982:73, 177).
Although of uncertain economic importance to the late prehistoric peoples of northwestern Ohio, the 500 kg bison {Bison bison) was at least intermittently present in the area (Burt 1964:236; McDonald
1981:102-105, 282). These large bovids possess hides suitable for the manufacture of clothing and shelter, as well as useful bones and sinews.
Bison are primarily grazers, although they do consume twigs as well.
They are both diurnal and gregarious, living in herds which are active during the day (Burt 1964:236; McDonald 1981:102). Their populations may have been greatest in northwestern Ohio during the warm and dry xerothermic climatic episodes (3000-2000 B.C.), when the prairies were greatest in extent. 40 The 150 kg black bear (Ursus americanus), an omnivore which feeds on items such as carrion, small mammals, fish, eggs, insects, acoms, beechnuts, grapes, elderberries, and grass (Barbour and Davis
1974:250-254), was present in northwestern Ohio during late prehistoric times. Bears are nocturnal, and do not aggregate into large groups.
They grow quite fat in the fall before retiring to their dens, usually in hollow trees, from December through March. A common method of killing bears by historic native groups was to identify their den trees and shoot them as they were flushed out (Johnson 1973:264).
Raccoon {Procyon lotor) abound in northwestern Ohio and the surrounding regions. These nocturnal animals weigh about 8 kg. They are omnivorous, consuming foods such as amphibians, eggs, crustaceans, insects, nuts, and fruits. Raccoons have a special fondness for corn kernels, just before they harden (Burt 1972:58-60).
The 20 kg beaver (Castor canadensis) has a fur which is suitable for the manufacture of warm and durable robes, not to mention felt hats. They are nocturnal, and eat waterplants, twigs, and bark.
Beavers which live on rivers burrow into the banks, but those on small streams live in stick lodges built in ponds, which they create through damming (Barbour and Davis 1974:158-159, 161). The beaver may have been most vulnerable to human predation when confined to their lodges 41 while their ponds were iced over during the wintertime. Young com plants are a favorite food of the beaver (Barbour and Davis 1974:161).
The muskrat {Odantra zibethica) is currently the most exploited native fur bearer in northwestern Ohio and the surrounding regions
(Errington 1978:1). These 1 kg mammals occupy lodges constructed of rushes and cattails in marshes. Aquatic plants compose most of the muskrat’s diet, along with small amounts of turtles, frogs, fish, and clams (Burt 1972:132-133). The marshy margins of Lake Erie probably supported most of the muskrats present in northwestern Ohio during late prehistoric times, as they do today.
Two species of squirrel, the fox (Sciurus niger) and the gray
(Sciurus carolinensis), are abundant in northwestern Ohio. Individuals of these species weigh about 1 kg and .5 kg, respectively. They consume foods such as nuts, fruits, small seeds, buds, and mushrooms. Squirrels are also fond of eating ripe corn (Burt 1972:100-104).
Birds
Many dozens of species of birds were present in northwestern
Ohio during the late prehistoric period. However, the ethnographic and archaeological records suggest that only four categories were of major economic importance during those times. They are the Wild Turkey, the
Passenger Pigeon, small waterfowl (i.e. Mallard), and large waterfowl
(i.e. Canada Goose). 42 The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was abundant in north western Ohio during the late prehistoric period. These birds, which weigh about 5 kg, feed primarily upon vegetal matter (acorns, chest nuts, small seeds, grapes), with a small amount of animal matter
(insects, arachnids) being ingested. Although more dispersed at other times of the year, sexually segregated flocks of 10-100 toms and 70-80 hens form in October and remain together until spring. Wild Turkeys are fond of corn kernels, and multiple individuals may be trapped in pens using it as bait, especially during the winter (Bent 1963:328, 334-
335, 339).
Although small in size, weighing less than 1 kg, the Passenger
Pigeon’s (Ecopistes migratorius)extreme gregariousness made it a resource of potentially great economic importance. Now extinct, it was once abundant in northwestern Ohio, where it arrived in mid-March and departed in mid-September, after the termination of the nesting period.
Flocks of as many as 2 billion birds were recorded, and as many as 100 nests were sometimes built in the same tree. The Passenger Pigeon subsisted mainly on acorns, chestnuts, beechnuts, berries, and small seeds (Bent 1963:388, 393, 401-402).
In addition to the meat provided by adult Passenger Pigeons, native populations sometimes used the squab for the production of an edible oil. Three major nesting sites have been recorded in northwest 43 Ohio. They were located on the western shore of the Savannah Lakes at the head of the Vermilion River (Fulk 1989), at the edge of the Willard
Marsh near the head of the Huron River (Niles 1864:58), and at the edge of the Scioto Marsh near the head of the Scioto River (Drumm
1976:9).
Over a dozen species of small waterfowl (i.e. Mallard, Blue-wing
Teal, and American Coot) were present in northwestern Ohio during the late prehistoric period. The Mallard Duck (Anus platyrhyncha), the most abundant species of this group in the study area, is used as a representative sample.
Mallards are present in northwestern Ohio from March through
November. These 1 kg birds consume mainly aquatic plants, acorns, and hackberries, along with minor amounts of crustaceans, mollusks, and fish. The drakes molt their flight feathers in July, the hens in
August, and they are both flightless for a period of about three weeks
(Bent 1962:40, 42, 46; Bellrose 1976:229, 240-242). Although present in wetlands throughout northwestern Ohio during the spring and fall migrations, most individuals who remain in the area to nest do so in the marshes bordering Lake Erie.
Several species of large waterfowl, such as the Canada Goose,
Snow Goose, Trumpeter Swan, and Whistling Swan were present in northwestern Ohio during late prehistory. The most abundant of this 44 group, the Canada Goose (Branta canadensis), will be examined in detail.
The Canada Goose is present in northwestern Ohio from March through November. Although abundant throughout the region during the spring and fall migrations, most nesting summer residents are located near the marshes which border Lake Erie. Aquatic plants, seeds, berries, crustaceans, and a few fish are eaten by this 4 kg bird.
The Canada Goose is flightless for a few weeks during the molt, which occurs between mid-June and mid-July (Bellrose 1976:141, 163; Bent
1962:213, 222-223).
Fish
Over 100 species of fish were present in the waters of northwest ern Ohio during the late prehistoric period. They abounded in the lakes, rivers, and streams. Two species, however, deserve special mention because of their seasonal behavior and restricted habitats.
They are the walleye {Stizostedion vitreum) and the white bass (Morone chrysops) (Trautman 1981:542-545, 607-610).
N uts
The nuts of three genera of trees were probably of primary impor tance in the diets of late prehistoric peoples in northwestern Ohio.
They are the acorn (Quercus), the hickory nut (Carya), and the wal nut/butternut iJuglans). Oak and hickory trees were especially abun- 45 dant throughout northwestern Ohio. These nuts, which fall to the ground in the late summer/early fall (Sargent 1965:169-172, 188-194,
241-261), would have been resources of potentially significant impor tance in the human diet.
Human Exploitation of Resources
Mason (1981:58), following Cleland (1966) divided the environ ment of the Great Lakes region into five biotic provinces, the Hudson- ian, Canadian, Transitional, lllinoian, and Carolinian. Mason (1981:60-
61) noted that while the forested eastern and southern portions of northwestern Ohio are typical of the Carolinian biotic province ("oak- deer-maple biome"), the areas of extensive prairie in the northwestern portion of the study area exhibit many characteristics of the lllinoian biotic province ("grass-oak-bison biome"). This reflects the position of the northwestern Ohio study area at the eastern terminus of the Prairie
Peninsula (Transeau 1935) on the southern shores of the Great Lakes.
Many of the major food resources of late prehistoric northwestern
Ohio were seasonal in nature. While some were more readily available during certain seasons, others were available only at very specific times of the year. The seasonal availabilities of many of the major late prehistoric food resources of northwestern Ohio are shown in Figure 3.
Bison are shown as having been marginally available throughout the year, as the prairies of northwestern Ohio were at the extreme Figure 3. Seasonal availability of major food resources.
o .eoreJan. Mar. Apr. May June. JulyAugust Sept. Oct. Nov.Resource Dec. bison elk deer bear raccoon beaver squirrel muskrat Wild Turkey Passenger Pigeon waterfowl fish nuts 47 eastern edge of their range, and their actual availability is doubtful.
They are included in this list of resources, however, because of the large amount of meat that even a few kills would have yielded.
Elk are shown as being easiest to kill from September through
February, when they would have been aggregated into herds. While available throughout the year, they would have been more dispersed at other times. Deer are represented as having been more readily avail able to harvest from April through June, and again from October through December. That is because in the spring, the first gestating and then lactating does would have been concentrated in the prairie tracts, eating large amounts of newly emerged grasses to satisfy their special nutritional requirements. During the fall mating season both sexes would have been more active during the daylight hours than at any other times of the year.
Raccoon, squirrel, and muskrat were probably available to rela tively stable extents throughout the year. Beaver, however, would have been most vulnerable to human predation while in their dens during the wintertime. Similarly, bears may have been the easiest to locate and kill while ija their winter dens.
Wild Turkeys would have been the easiest to locate and kill from
October through March, while aggregated into sexually segregated flocks. While available throughout the year. Wild Turkeys would have 48 been more dispersed at other times. Passenger Pigeons were present in northwestern Ohio only in the spring and summer. During the fall and winter these migratory birds would have been absent.
Large numbers of migratory waterfowl continue to be present in northwestern Ohio from March through November. During late prehis tory they would have been most vulnerable to human predation during
July and August, while flightless during their annual molts. While huge quantities of fish are still available for human predation in the waters of northwestern Ohio throughout the year, they would have been especially easy to exploit from March through May. During the spring enormous numbers of walleye, redhorse sucker, white bass, and stur geon would have been concentrated to spawn in the lower reaches of the
Maumee and Sandusky rivers. Finally, nuts such as the acorn, chest nut, hickory nut, walnut, and butternut would have been available for human harvesting from September through November.
If members of a late prehistoric human group were able to exploit the resources of their choice within northwestern Ohio, without competi tion from other human populations, they may have chosen to subsist in a manner similar to what is about to be described (Figure 4). In March they would aggregate in the vicinity of the lower rapids of the Maumee or Sandusky River, exploiting the spawning walleye, redhorse suckers, white bass, and sturgeon until the end of May. As the last of the PCLCt tiLâND
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Figure 4. Environmental zones used in a hypothetical seasonal round. 1 - lower rapids for soring fish runs (a: lower rapids of Maumee River and b: lower rapids of Sandusky .River), 2 - praires for does and fawns in late spring (a; Oak Openings and b: Castalia Prairie), 3 - Lake Erie Embayments for molting waterfowl in summer (a: Maumee Bay and b: Sandusky Bay), 4 - prairie/forest margins for Wild Turkey, elk, deer, and nuts in fall/wiinter (a: Maumee River area and b: Sandusky River area). 4^
Openings in the Maumee River area, and the Castalia Prairie east of the lower Sandusky River. By the end of June the does and their fawns had dispersed, but the duck and geese nesting in the marshy areas near
Maumee Bay and Sandusky Bay were beginning to molt, and many of them remained flightless and vulnerable until late August.
In September the acorns and hickory nuts were beginning to fall, and they would have been the most available for human harvest in the groves in and at the margins of the prairies, such as the Oak Openings and the Castalia Prairie. At this time the elk aggregated into herds in these same grasslands, remaining so until their dispersal at the end of
February. The deer were mating, and thus very active during daylight hours from October through December, and thus more exposed to human predation. In October the Wild Turkeys aggregated into sexual ly segregated flocks, remaining so until their dispersal at the end of
March. Both deer and Wild Turkeys would have been abundant in the oak/hickory forests between the Oak Openings and the lower rapids of the Maumee River, and in such forests between the Castalia Prairie and the lower rapids of the Sandusky River. Acorns make up a large propor tion of the diets of both species during the fall. In the spring, the 51 population would again aggregate at the lower rapids of the Maumee or the Sandusky River to exploit the spawning runs.
Thus, with the entire area of northwestern Ohio at its disposal, a late protohistoric population probably would have chosen to follow a seasonal round in the lower Maumee River area (between the Oak
Openings, the lower rapids, and Maumee Bay) or lower Sandusky River area (between the Castalia Prairie, the lower rapids, and Sandusky
Bay). It must be remembered, however, that neither Maumee Bay nor
Sandusky Bay existed prior to Middle Woodland times, about 2000 years ago. Also, with the rising levels of Lake Erie, one would expect that most of the earlier late prehistoric lacustrine components are inundat ed, and thus archaeologically invisible.
It is not realistic to expect that all of the late prehistoric human populations of northwestern Ohio had access to all of the resource zones mentioned above. When one examines the archaeological record for the post-750 B.C. period one finds both the resource-rich lower reaches of the Maumee and Sandusky rivers occupied by peoples of the Western
Basin tradition. Stothers, Pratt, and Shane (1979) noted that the homeland of the Western Basin tradition was richer in food resources than the surrounding areas.
Those late prehistoric human populations living in areas of northwestern Ohio without access to either massive numbers of fish 52 spawning in the spring or large concentrations of flightless waterfowl in the summer would have followed a different seasonal round. By April such populations would have been able to exploit the concentrations of gestating and then lactating does which were concentrated in the prairies until the end of June. In forested areas at the edges of the prairies enormous numbers of Passenger Pigeons nested from April through August.
As the Passenger Pigeons departed for the south, the elk aggre gated into herds, remaining until they dispersed at the end of February.
The nut resources also became available at this time. From early
October through December the deer were mating, and thus moving about more during daylight hours than at any other time of the year.
Wild Turkeys were the most vulnerable from October through March, when they were aggregated into sexually segregated flocks in the mast- rich forests. During the winter both bears and beaver would have been the most vulnerable to human predation, while confined to their dens and lodges, respectively. CHAPTER III
PREVIOUS RESEARCH
Culture History
Several researchers have constructed cultural-historical models for the past human populations who lived in the dynamic environment of northwestern Ohio.
As recently as 1965 James Fitting (1965) was able to note that northwestern Ohio was a "cultural blank" as far as Woodland period manifestations were concerned. In that same paper, based on work by
Greenman (1937, 1939, 1957), he proposed a cultural-historical sequence of the Riviere au Vase (A.D, 500-800), Younge (A.D. 800—1200), Spring- well s (A.D. 1200-1300), and Wolf (A.D. 1300-1500) phases for south eastern Michigan. Fitting concluded that these cultural phases exem plified cultural continuity within the Younge tradition (Table 9).
Two years earlier, based on his analysis of Arthur George Smith’s materials excavated from the Mixter site (33 Er 15) on the Huron River,
Shane (1967) suggested that those materials related to the Wolf phase, going on to conclude that Fitting’s model of Late Woodland culture history may, at least to a large extent, be applicable to northwestern
53 Table 9. Previously constructed cultural-historical models.
Fitting (1965) Stothers (ore-1986) Stothers (nost-1986) Chronology Younge Western Basin Sanduskv Western Basin Sanduskv A.D. 1600 Indian Hills Indian Hills .EsrLMeigs___ Fort Meigs A.D. 1400 Wolf Wolf Wolf
A.D. 1200 Sprin£wells Springwells Snringwells
A.D. 1000 Youngg Youngg Younge _ ......
A.D. 800 Riviere au Vase Riviere au Vase Riviere au Vase Green Creek
A D. 600
A.D. 400 Esch Western Basin Middle Woodland Esch
A.D. 200 Western Basin Middle Woodland
A.D. 1 Western Basin Earlv Woodland Leimbach Leimbach 200 B.C. 55 Ohio as well. Shane, following Fitting, placed the Wolf phase materials from the Mixter site at the end of the Younge tradition,
A decade later Prufer and Shane (1976) made further steps toward formulating a culture-historical sequence for the Late Wood land/Upper Mississippian materials found within northwestern Ohio.
They related the ceramics recovered from the Libben site (33 Ot 6) on the lower Portage River to a "Libben phase", which they saw as a regional variant of Fitting’s (1965) Riviere au Vase/Younge phases.
Based on their surface collections from the Petersen site (33 Ot 9), located across the Portage River from Libben, they suggested that the same regional tradition was still living in the area after about A.D.
1500. Thus, in 1976, Prufer and Shane suggested that cultural continu ity existed within northwestern Ohio from as early as A.D. 500 through the end of prehistory. They also concluded that these were Central
Algonquian people.
A short time later, David Stothers (1978a-b) unveiled his culture- historical reconstruction for northwestern Ohio (Table 9). He concluded that the ca. A.D. 500-1300 Riviere au Vase-Younge-Springwells sequence of phases were not ancestral to Fitting’s (1965) terminal Wolf phase. Stothers went on to rename the first three phases of the Younge tradition the Western Basin tradition, suggesting that Wolf phase populations from the Huron/Vermilion River area expanded to the west. 56 displacing the Springwells phase people of northwestern Ohio around the end of Lake Erie into Ontario, where they eventually became part of the Neutral Confederacy. Thus, Stothers stated that the people of the
Western Basin tradition must have been Iroquoians.
At the Chillicothe Hopewell Conference Stothers, Pratt, and
Shane (1979) collaborated in a synthesis of northwestern Ohio Early/
Middle Woodland culture history. They pushed the Western Basin tradition back into the Middle Woodland period, simply calling those populations "Western Basin Middle Woodland" instead of naming a new phase. In the Huron/V ermilion River area to the west, they placed the
Early Woodland Leimbach and the Middle Woodland Esch phases into a separate, but unnamed regional cultural tradition. While the people of the Leimbach phase lived in fortified blufftop settlements, those of the succeeding Esch phase constructed earthworks and participated in the
Hopewellian Interaction sphere to a significant extent.
In 1981, G. Michael Pratt completed his Ph.D. dissertation on
"The Western Basin Tradition". He adopted Stothers’ model for the
Western Basin tradition, but pushed it back until at least the Early
Woodland period, the beginning of the time span under consideration in this study. Thus, he concluded that a cultural sequence that had lasted more than 2000 years was terminated by invaders from the Huron/
Vermilion River area about A.D. 1300. 57 In the meantime, both Bowen (1980) and Stothers and Pratt
(1980), noting that only a single regional cultural tradition could be identified within northwestern Ohio after about A.D. 1300, defined the
Sandusky tradition, with Wolf (A.D. 1300-1500), Fort Meigs (A.D.
1500-1600), and Indian Hills (A.D. 1600-1650) phases. All agreed that this was probably a Central Algonquian group. Stothers and Graves
(1983) later placed the Sandusky tradition, along with the Whittlesey tradition of northeastern Ohio into the "Prairie Peninsula co-tradition, suggesting that while the former were Mascouten, the latter were the
Kickapoo. They also concluded that the Sandusky tradition people were dispersed in A.D. 1643 by the traditional Iroquoian Neutral enemies from Ontario, whose ancestors had been displaced from northwestern
Ohio more than three centuries earlier.
A few years later, Stothers (1986) began to modify his position regarding the origins of the Western Basin tradition (Table 9). He stated that, through additional assays by other laboratories, his radio carbon dates for the Western Basin Middle Woodland were all in error, and that those remains actually all dated to the Younge phase. In personal conversations, Stothers has suggested that, after about A.D.
500, Riviere au Vase phase Iroquoians began to expand into northwest ern Ohio from Ontario through southeastern Michigan. After A.D. 1300, 58 they were again limited to Ontario, having been displaced out of north western Ohio by Algonquian Wolf phase populations.
The cultural history of the western Lake Erie basin seems to have come back to hypotheses current in the mid 1970s, fifteen years ago. In their chapter in the Ontario prehistory volume, Murphy and Ferris
(1991) included the Riviere au Vase, Younge, Springwells, Wolf, Fort
Meigs, and Indian Hills phases in the Western Basin tradition, with cultural continuity from A.D. 500 through A.D. 1650. Unlike Stothers
(1978a-b), but in agreement with Prufer and Shane (1976), they suggest that the Western Basin people were a Central Algonquian group.
In this study I use the Stothers, Pratt, and Shane (1979) model of cultural development, adding a few more recently defined phases to both the Western Basin and Firelands traditions. Since the culture-histor ical data are equivocal, I detach the post-A.D. 1300 Sandusky tradition from either of the preceding cultural traditions (Table 10). The radio carbon dates upon which I base my crucial post-A.D. 1300 chronology are presented in Tables 5-8.
Settlement/Subsistence
Stothers, Graves, and Redmond (1984) compared settlement/ subsistence patterns of both the Riviere au Vase-Young-Springwells phases of the Western Basin tradition and the Wolf-Fort Meigs-Indian
Hills phases of the Sandusky tradition. Graves (1984) and Redmond 59
Table 10. Cultural-historical model used in this study.
Western Basin Firelands Sanduskv A.D. 1600 Indian Hills Fort Meigs A.D. 1400 Wolf Wolf A.D. 1200 Springwells
A.D. 1000 Younge
A.D. 800 Weilnau Riviere au Vase A.D. 600 preen Creek A.D. 400
A.D. 200 Wineston Esch
A.D. 1
200 B.C. Providence Leimbach
400 B.C. 60 (1984) had just completed M.A. theses under the advisorship of Stothers on the Younge phase Doctors site (33 Lu 11) and the type site (33 Wo 4) of the Indian Hills phase. In addition, Rutter (1984) was finishing his
M.A. thesis on the type site (33 Wo 8) of the Fort Meigs phase. Sto thers, Graves, and Redmond (1984) concluded that the people of the
Western Basin tradition were following an Iroquoian-like lifestyle, with a temporal trend to small, upland hamlets where moderate amounts of corn were being grown. These relatively small settlements were being supported by numerous satellite extractive encampments. On the other hand, they saw the Sandusky tradition peoples as following an Upper
Mississippian lifestyle, with a nucleated, riverine-based settlement pattern, with greater reliance on corn. Finally, Stothers, Graves, and
Redmond suggested that segmentary lineages of the Wolf phase left their Huron/Vermilion homeland to the east and settled in the home land of the Western Basin tradition, displacing the people of the Spring- wells phase, who were not as well organized, into Ontario.
In his Ph.D. dissertation, Pratt (1981) concluded that the people of the Sandusky tradition who, after A.D. 1300 had displaced those of the Western Basin tradition, followed a Mississippian lifeway. He wrote that they settled at sites where they had access to both extensive tracts of bottomland and periodic fish spawning runs. Pratt noted that these
Sandusky tradition populations were living on subsidized resources, as 61 the annual high water levels brought in silt from upstream to renew the fertility of the cropland, while the fish that usually lived in Lake Erie came upriver to the settlements periodically for easy harvest.
Stothers and Miller (1977) and Stothers, Pratt, and Shane (1979) have shown that corn was being grown in extreme southern Michigan only two kilometers north of the northwestern Ohio study area since the
Riviere au Vase phase, shortly after A.D. 500. In 1987 Stothers and
Bechtel published the results of twenty-four stable carbon isotope assays of human bone collagen samples from northwestern Ohio. They concluded that corn consumption became important after A.D. 500, with a gradual increase through time.
It is readily apparent that most of the archaeological research carried out within northwestern Ohio has been of a cultural-historical nature, with an emphasis on following the developments of ethnic groups through time. This is not surprising, since, with the exception of
G. Michael Pratt, most of the work done in the last 15 years has been by
David Stothers, and his students who specialized in ceramic/ethnicity studies. The study of corn consumption through time via stable carbon isotope analyses by Stothers and Bechtel (1987) is the major exception. CHAPTER IV
SETTLEMENT PATTERNS
Introduction
This chapter deals with both the regional distributions of ceramic sites as well as the individual areal extents of those sites. Pertinent data regarding site sizes are most abundant for the post-A.D. 1300 portion of the study period, the final 350 years. On the other hand, distributional data are available for the entire 750 B.C.-A.D. 1650 time span.
Earlv Woodland (750 B.C.-A.D. 1)
During the Early Woodland period nucleated settlements with refuse-filled cylindrical storage pits and perimeter earthen walls are limited to the Firelands tradition area in the HuronA^ermilion drainage area. Such nucleated settlements include Heckelman (33 Er 14) and
Seaman’s Fort (33 Er 85) on bluffs of the Huron River (Stothers, Pratt, and Shane 1979), as well as Leimbach (33 Ln 7) on a bluff of the Vermil ion River. Based on his work at that site, Shane (1967) defined the
Leimbach phase.
62 63 No such nucleated settlements have been identified in the West ern Basin tradition area to the west. There, settlements are typified by the Providence site (33 Lu 150), which is located on the bottomland of the Maumee River at the Grand Rapids. I place such materials in the
Providence phase of the Western Basin tradition.
Middle Woodland (A.D. 1-500)
By Middle Woodland times, settlements such as Esch (33 Er 2) and Heckelman (33 Er 14) were in existence on blufftops overlooking the
Huron River. Stothers, Pratt, and Shane (1979) placed these sites, each about 1.2 ha in extent, in the Hopewellian Esch phase. Two burial mounds (33 Er 1) located on the Esch property contained bladelets of
Vanport chert, Hopewellian pottery, conch shell containers, a copper panpipe, and copper ear spools. Further to the south, but still on the
Huron River, the extensive Norwalk Works (33 Hu 1) are likely of
Hopewellian origin (Squier and Davis 1848). Thus, in Middle Woodland times peoples of the Hopewellian Esch phase were living in nucleated blufftop settlements in the Firelands tradition area.
No such nucleated settlements, Hopewellian mounds, or earth works have been identified in the homeland of the Western Basin tradition to the west. Identifiable Middle Woodland materials are scarce, consisting of sporadic bladelets and Snyders points, sometimes in association with pottery. Three such sites are located on the upper 64 reaches of the Portage River in the vicinity of Wingston, Ohio (33 Wo
89, 121, 148). To maintain theoretical continuity, I place such materials in the Wingston phase of the Western Basin tradition. Like the preced ing Providence phase, the materials are ubiquitous, but not concentrat ed and are poorly understood.
Earlv Late Woodland (A.D. 500-900)
Within the Firelands tradition area, on a blufftop overlooking the
Huron River, James Haas and David Stothers have conducted extensive excavations at the Weilnau site (33 Er 409). Their work uncovered the remains of a nucleated village of circular houses surrounded by a palisade. Haas and Stothers have radiometrically and typologically dated the Weilnau settlement to the early Late Woodland period. I place it in the Weilnau phase of the Firelands tradition, noting the continuity of Firelands tradition nucleated blufftop settlements since
Early Woodland times, for the preceding
1000 years.
Reflecting continuity within the Western Basin tradition to the west, the early Late Woodland people of the Green Creek and Riviere au
Vase phases (Stothers 1989, Greenman 1957) were living in small sites widely dispersed across the landscape. No evidence of any palisaded settlements has been found. The only difference that I see between the 65 Green Creek and Riviere au Vase phases is that while the pottery of the former is merely cordmarked, that of the latter is highly decorated.
Younge phase (A.D. 900-1200)
By A.D. 900 people of the Younge phase of the Western Basin tradition were living throughout northwestern Ohio west of the Huron
River. Their settlements were dispersed along the rivers (i.e. Libben,
Dodge) as well as the shore of Lake Erie and its embayments (i.e.
Harbour, Waterworks). Many settlements were also located in the uplands (i.e. 33 Er 401). None were palisaded.
Crow Bottom phase (A.D. 900-1200)
At this same time populations of the Crow Bottom phase were living on blufftops of the Huron River as well as on bluffs of the San dusky River just above the upriver distribution of Younge phase ceramic sites. I define the Crow Bottom phase on the basis of Younge phase pottery co-occurring with collared, cordmarked pottery in roughly equal proportions in the same pit features. Unlike sites of the contemporane ous Younge phase. Crow Bottom phase ceramic sites occur only on blufftops.
SpringwellsAVoIf phases (A.D. 1200-1500)
It is after A.D. 1200 that settlement patterns in northwestern
Ohio become more variable both temporally and geographically. During the period of A.D. 1200-1300 Springwells phase people of the Western 66 Basin tradition were living in the uplands west of the Sandusky River as well as along the Maumee River above the Grand Rapids. In the
Huron/V ermilion River homeland of the Firelands Tradition people of the Wolf phase were carrying on the custom of living in nucleated blufftop settlements by A.D. 1300, and perhaps a century earlier.
By about A.D. 1300 people of the Wolf phase were living on the streams south of Sandusky Bay, on the Sandusky River at the lower rapids and below, on the lower reaches of the Portage River, as well as at the Roche de Boeuf rapids of the Maumee River and below, all areas formerly inhabited by people of the Younge phase of the Western Basin tradition. After A.D. 1300 the Western Basin Springwells phase no longer existed in Ohio, and all of the pottery being produced in the study area was of types attributed to the Wolf phase. As only a single regional cultural tradition is identifiable in northwestern Ohio after
A.D. 1300, those remains have been placed in the Sandusky tradition
(Bowen 1980; Stothers and Pratt 1980). The Sandusky tradition may have had its origins in the Western Basin tradition, the Firelands tradition, or both.
Pre- 1300 ceramic sites are scattered throughout northwestern
Ohio, indeed, throughout the entire state. After that time, however, much of the central and western portions of Ohio are devoid of sites yielding pottery. While the settlement pattern of the Huron/V ermilion 67 River area, the homeland of the Firelands tradition, remained largely unchanged, that of the Western Basin tradition area to the west changed markedly. In that area. Wolf phase ceramic components have been found only below the Roche de Boeuf rapids of the Maumee River, on the lower reaches of the Portage River below the mouth of the Little
Portage, below the lower rapids of the Sandusky River, on the Lake Erie shoreline, and on the small streams just to the south of Sandusky Bay.
The sites furthest upstream are those of ca. 0.2 ha (50 m diameter) nucleated settlements, some enclosed within perimeter trenches.
Smaller ceramic components are located between the village sites and
Lake Erie. No Sandusky tradition Wolf phase pottery has been reported from large areas where much of the terminal Western Basin tradition has been found.
Stothers (1978a-b) and Pratt (1981) both suggested that the change in ceramic tradition as well as settlement pattern in the West ern Basin tradition area reflects populations of the Firelands tradition from the Huron/V ermilion River area displacing their neighbors to the west. On the other hand, Murphy and Ferris (1990) stated that the evidence shows cultural continuity. A resolution of this controversy is beyond the scope of this study.
This ca. A.D. 1300 change in settlement patterns of the western portions of the study area, those west of the Huron River, coincides with 6 8 both Bryson and Wendland’s (1969) and Graves (1977) proposed shifts from a relatively cool/wet to warm/dry climatic conditions. As I con clude in Chapter VI, A.D. 1300 also marked a change from a diffuse pattern of faunal exploitation to one more narrowly focused on deer and fish. I also conclude that this time marked an increase in the impor tance of corn cultivation.
Fort Meigs phase (A.D. 1500-1600)
Settlement size continued to increase through the Wolf phase (see
Table 1 1 ). By A.D. 1500, the beginning of the Fort Meigs phase, settle ment size (Table 10) had increased to about 1.3 ha (ca. 150 m diameter).
Although this seems to indicate a large increase in population, the entire Huron/V ermilion River area is devoid of post A.D. 1500 ceramic sites of any type, including settlements. Thus, the increase in settle ment surface areas reflects a concentration of population within the former homeland of the Western Basin tradition.
No village site of the Fort Meigs phase occurs any further up stream from Lake Erie than those of the preceding Wolf phase. On the other hand, there are more small upland ceramic sites of the Fort Meigs phase. One of them, at the modern Wingston Cemetery (33 Wo 121), is slightly more than 30 km inland from the nearest Fort Meigs phase village site. This suggests an increased use of the uplands after A.D.
1500. 69
Table 11. Sandusky ceramic tradition village site sizes.
Site Size (ha) Time Period Indian Hills (33 Wo 4) 4.0 A.D. 1525-1575 Pearson I (33 Sa 9) 1.3 A.D. 1525-1575 Miller’s Ridge (33 Sa 65) 1.3 A.D. 1475-1525 Pearson II (33 Sa 9) 0.6 A.D. 1400-1450 Monroeville (33 Hu 37) 0.7 A.D. 1350-1400 Pearson III (33 Sa 9) 0.2 A.D. 1300-1350 Cemetery Ridge (33 Sa 13) 0.2 A.D. 1300-1350 Bloom (33 Sa 40) 0.2 A.D. 1250-1300 Dillon (33 Er 30) 0.2 A.D. 1250-1350 70 The archaeological record shows both a concentration of settle ments and an increased use of the uplands for the post-A.D. 1500 Fort
Meigs phase. In Chapter VI, I suggest that the relative importance of deer hunting may have declined slightly, and that the importance of corn cultivation may have declined sharply. I am unable to correlate these changes with any climatic shift.
Indian Hills phase A.D. 1600-1650)
Settlement size continued to increase after A.D. 1600 (Table 10), as the type site for the Indian Hills phase (33 Wo 4) is at least 4 ha in extent (Graves 1981), Again, as for the Fort Meigs phase, this increase in settlement size probably represents aggregation more than extreme population growth. Although sites of the Fort Meigs phase occur all the way into Ontario east of the Detroit River, none attributed to the subsequent Indian Hills phase have been identified north of the
Maumee River mainstream. Thus, the territorial contraction from the north occurred about a century later than the contraction from the east, at the end rather than the beginning of the Port Meigs phase. Within the northwestern Ohio study area, however, the distribution of Indian
Hills phase ceramic sites approximates that for the preceding Fort
Meigs phase, except for the absence of small ceramic sites located in upstream from the villages. This suggests a decrease in use of the uplands. 71 In Chapter VI, I conclude that while the importance of corn culti vation increased dramatically after 1600, hunting patterns may have continued to become slightly more diverse than during the preceding
Fort Meigs phase, a trend initiated by about A.D. 1500. Only Bryson and Wendland (1969) suggested that a climatic change occurred ca. A.D.
1600. They stated that the climate became cooler and moister at that time.
Conclusions
From at least 700 B.C., the beginning of the study period, until
A.D. 1200, settlements were widely dispersed throughout the homeland of the Western Basin tradition, and a diversity of animals were impor tant dietary items. Although no adequate faunal data exist for that area, settlements in the Firelands tradition homeland to the east were nucleated, occurring on high bluffs overlooking major streams. Corn horticulture was important throughout northwestern Ohio after A.D.
500.
By A.D. 1300 the situation had changed dramatically. Only one regional cultural tradition was present within northwestern Ohio.
Sandusky tradition Wolf phase populations were living in nucleated settlements, consuming large amounts of corn, with their hunting largely focused on deer. This shift in human lifeways apparently coincided with a shift from cool/wet to warm/dry climatic conditions. 72 By A.D. 1500 the former Firelands tradition homeland was devoid of settlements, although the utilization of the uplands to the west had apparently increased. Hunting patterns were slightly less focused on deer, and corn consumption may have declined. No marked climatic change seems to correlate with these cultural shifts.
Population aggregation continued, and the increased sizes of
Indian Hills phase settlements reflect outlying populations coming in from the north. Hunting patterns continued to diversify slightly, and at the Indian Hills site (33 Wo 4) itself, elk remains are relatively more abundant than at any other northwestern Ohio site, although cervid remains as a whole are relatively less abundant than at older Wolf phase sites, and at many of the immediately preceding Fort Meigs phase. Corn appears to have been of unprecedented dietary importance.
No climatic shift appears to be related to these changes. CHAPTER V
TOOLS AND FACILITIES
Introduction
This chapter focuses on temporal and spatial differences in the tools and the facilities made and used by post-700 A.D. prehistoric peoples of northwestern Ohio. The marked downsizing of post-A.D. 800 points chronicle the advent of the bow-and-arrow at that time. Arrow points subsequently vary significantly in abundance, probably reflecting changes in big-game hunting practices. A variety of new tool types were introduced after A.D. 1500, and their significance will also be discussed.
Two major types of facilities have been well enough documented throughout northwestern Ohio in different periods for meaningful com parisons to be made. They are perimeter ditches/earthen rings (proba ble palisades) around settlements, and also large cylindrical or bell shaped storage pits. While the former relate primarily to political relations between settlements, the latter relate to food storage.
Projectile Points
Small, triangular arrow points enter the archaeological record of northwestern Ohio by about A.D. 800, roughly the same time that corn
73 74 horticulture was adopted. Although no data are available for the
Firelands tradition area, arrow points are scarce at pre-A.D. 1300 sites in the homeland of the Western Basin tradition (see Redmond 1984;
Stothers and Prahl 1974). I have conducted excavations at two Younge phase (A.D. 800-1200) sites myself. At one of these Western Basin tradition settlements (33 Er 401), only a single arrowpoint was found in the excavation of about 60 pit features. At the other (Birchard Library
- 33 Sa 172), no arrow points were recovered, despite the excavation of two apparent houses and a small midden.
After A.D. 1300, when both the Western Basin and Firelands traditions are replaced by the Sandusky tradition, more arrow points are present in the deposits. The pit features yield an average of one arrowpoint each, and perhaps about three arrow points per cubic meter of surface midden. This increase in arrow points was apparently con temporaneous with an increased emphasis on both corn cultivation and deer hunting. However, later in this chapter I show that it was also contemporaneous with the advent of palisaded settlements within the former homeland of the Western Basin tradition. It must be remem bered that arrows were effective against humans as well as deer. Both
Bryson and Wendland (1969) and Graves (1977) concluded than the regional climate shifted from cool/wet to warm/dry sometime around
A.D. 1300. 75 Arrow points of the subsequent Fort Meigs phase (1500-1600) are much more abundant, both within the confines of settlements as well as in outlying areas. My own experience indicated that pit features of the
Fort Meigs phase contain an average of about three arrow points, a three-fold increase from the preceding Wolf phase. Arrow points are quite abundant on the surfaces of Fort Meigs phase village sites. At
Miller’s Ridge (33 Sa 65), for example, I found a total of 55 arrow points during a systematic surface collection, and Gene Edwards of the San dusky Bay Indian Museum found an equal number there the next time that the site was cultivated.
Arrow points of the Fort Meigs phase are also more abundant away from village sites than are those of the preceding Wolf phase. In the Sandusky River area, where adequate data are available, a total of eight Wolf phase points have been reported. While five of those speci mens were isolated finds, three were found at the Stokes/Hartley site
(Table 12). On the other hand, while seven isolated Fort Meigs arrow points have been recovered from that same area, four additional sites have yielded two to four specimens, for a total of 20 points (Table 13).
Thus, at aceramic sites away from the villages, arrow points of the Fort
Meigs phase are twice as abundant as those of the preceding Wolf phase, and they more often occur in small clusters than those of the preceding phase. 76
Table 12. Non-village site Wolf phase arrow points from the Sandusky River area.
Site Number of Points Setting Stokes-Hartley 3 Beach ridge A.D. Bowen (33 Se 13) 1 Upland creek Meyer Farm 1 Upland Meyers (33 Se 161) 1 Sandusky River Pipe Creek Farms 1 Upland creek Yetter Farm 1 Upland creek 77
Table 13. Non-village site Fort Meigs phase arrow points from the Sandusky River area.
Site Number of Points Setting Hasselbach Farm 4 Upland spring McClory Farm 3 Beach ridge Shaw (33 Se 1) 4 Sandusky River Rousch Farm 2 Upland creek Brown (33 Se 389) 1 Sandusky River Findlay Collection 1 Upland Gilbert (33 Sa 124) 1 Beach ridge Mittower (33 Se 8) 1 Upland creek Shaull (33 Se 317) 1 Head of ravine Winters (33 Sa 193) 1 Upland creek Wonder Farm 1 Sandusky River 78 Post-A.D. 1500 Fort Meigs phase arrow points are at least twice as abundant as those of the preceding Wolf phase, both within the nucleated villages and throughout the landscape. While no climatic shift appears to correlate with this increase, it was simultaneous with increased settlement nucléation and coalescence. It does not appear to coincide with an increased emphasis on big-game hunting, as deer and elk make up a slightly smaller proportion of the avian/mammalian faunal assemblage than previously.
Other Tools
Several tools enter the archaeological record of northwestern Ohio after about A.D. 1500, the beginning of the Fort Meigs phase. Bifacial endscrapers are the most abundant. Chipped stone endscrapers of any sort are quite scarce at sites from the first portion of the study period
(700 B.C.-A.D. 1500). At the end of prehistory, however, they are very abundant. At village sites of the Fort Meigs phase (A.D. 1500-1600) in the Sandusky River area, they occur at about a 1:1 ratio to arrow points. At Miller’s Ridge, for example, I found 50 bifacial endscrapers during a systematic surface collection and Gene Edwards of the San dusky Bay Indian Museum found an equal number there the next time the site was cultivated. Thus, after A.D. 1500, endscrapers go from being almost non-existent to extreme abundance. 79 Elk antler scraper/gouge/hoes also enter the archaeological record in abundance after A.D. 1500, while that are virtually absent from earlier assemblages. Also, small celts which would be much to light to use as axes, are very abundant in post-A.D. 1500 assemblages. They, too, may have functioned as scraping implements. Thus, I conclude that scraping was a more important activity after about A.D. 1500. These scraping tools remained abundant in northwestern Ohio until the area was depopulated about A.D. 1650 (see Graves 1983). No climatic shift is easily correlated with this apparent increase in scraping. The incipient fur trade is a tempting explanation, although these tools are abundant at early Fort Meigs phase sites (ca. A.D. 1500, which seems about half a century or so too early).
Facilities
In the homeland of the Firelands tradition, both large storage pits and palisades seem to have been constructed since early Woodland
Leimbach phase times (ca. 700 B.C.). David Stothers and George
DeMuth have found numerous cylindrical storage pits about a meter wide and a meter deep at Seaman’s Fort (33 Er 85). In 1979 Stothers,
Pratt, and Shane noted that Seaman’s Fort, and the nearby Heckelman site (33 Er 14) exhibited Early Woodland defensive earthworks.
On the other hand, in the Western Basin tradition area to the west, no pre-A.D. 1300 defensive earthworks or palisades have been 80 identified. To the east, however, David Stothers and James Haas have just excavated a palisaded ca. A.D. 800 settlement of the Firelands tradition at the Weilnau site 33 Er 409). All post-A.D. 1400 settlements in northwestern Ohio which have been extensively excavated show the remains of encircling earthworks or palisades.
By A.D. 800 cylindrical refuse pits were abundant at settlements in the Western Basin tradition area, as shown by Michael Pratt at the metroparks site (33 Lu 133), David Stothers at the MacNichol site (33
Wo 10), and by myself at the Sandusky Mall (33 Er 401). These pits are slightly over a meter wide and a meter deep. Although large, cylindrical refuse pits were present in the Firelands tradition area since at least
Early Woodlands times, they seem to have come in with corn agriculture in the homeland of the Western Basin tradition. Not enough data are available to estimate the storage capacity of household units as Nass
(1989) has done at the Fort Ancient Sunwatch site (33 My 57) in south western Ohio. However, storage pits at least a meter wide and a meter deep are abundant throughout post-A.D. 1300 northwestern Ohio. CHAPTER VI
SUBSISTENCE
Introduction
In this chapter I examine the hunting and horticultural patterns of the late prehistoric peoples of northwestern Ohio who constructed the facilities and manufactured the tools discussed in the previous chapter.
A total of 31 faunal samples of different ages from the northwest ern Ohio study area were available for use in this study. They were recovered from various components at 21 archaeological sites (Figure 1).
I excavated about one-half of the faunal samples myself. The rest were obtained by David Stothers or by G. Michael Pratt. With the exception of four samples (Williams, Waterworks, MacNichol and Squaw Island), I analyzed all of them myself, which improves the comparability of the data set. Those four were analyzed by Peter Hamalainen.
The 31 faunal samples range in size from about 100 to ca. 5000 mammalian/avian specimens. Also, as some samples are more frag mentary than others, the percentages of elements which could be identified varies widely. Thus, the samples were mathematically standardized to percentages of taxa per total identified mammal and
81 82 bird elements. Thus, if a sample contained 1000 identified mammali an/avian elements, and 10 of them were beaver, they would be enumerated as one percent (1%) of the assemblage.
Faunal Analysis
The analysis of faunal remains recovered from archaeological sites has long been a popular method of attempting to reconstruct the diets of the human populations who left those deposits. Almost four decades ago White (1953) made an attempt to quantify the relative importance of various animal taxa in the diets of human populations through the study of faunal evidence. He determined the average amount of meat that various kinds of animals yield. Those values could then be com bined with the minimum numbers of individuals (MNI) of each taxon, and the minimum meat yield of that taxon could then be calculated.
Relative meat yields between taxa in archaeological samples could then be quantified. Such an approach to faunal analysis was popular for many years.
About a decade ago Grayson (1979, 1984) began to suggest that the methodology of White (1953) may have been too simplistic in its assumptions and too optimistic in its expectations. The following criticisms were emphasized:
1. Animal meat yields may differ significantly depending on age, sex, season, and nutritional status. 83 2. The determination of the minimum numbers of individuals (MNI) depends on:
a. Whether the sample is aggregated as a whole or sub divided (i.e. between pit feature or levels); and,
b. Whether the analyst has measured the element of determination (i.e. to see if some of the right distal humeri are too wide to match any of the left humeri).
Grayson (1979, 1984) suggested the number of identified speci mens (NISP) may be the best measure of the relative proportions of various kinds of animals that were harvested by human populations.
The following advantages were noted:
1. The values are not affected by aggregation or subdivision of the sample.
2. Although a much faster method, the NISP proportional values usually approximate the MNI proportional values.
3. While common sense can still be applied (i.e. an elk has a much higher meat yield than does a muskrat), potentially misleading over-reliance on meat yield values is avoided.
In this study faunal remains are quantified according to the numbers of identified specimens (NISP). For comparability of assem blages of differing sizes I have calculated the percentage of each taxon relative to the total identified mammals and birds. Fish were not included in the calculations because their extreme abundance in many of the assemblages would have reduced the percentages of the other taxa to less than one percent. Invertebrates were also excluded. 84 Finally, the skill of the analysis may affect the result of any faunal quantification. The same sample, if analyzed by two individuals of differing skill, will yield two different analytical results. Fortunately,
I have been able to quantify personally almost all of the faunal assemblages used in this study, except for the fish remains. Ted Caven- der of the Ohio State University Museum of Zoology has quantified nearly all of the piscine remains considered here. Any exceptions are carefully noted in the text and tables.
Stable Carbon Isotopes
The measurement of the importance of the consumption of com through time and across space in northwestern Ohio is an important focus of this study. This is done through the examination of stable carbon isotope ratios available from human bone collagen samples.
Stable carbon isotope ratios in bone collagen reflect that organ ism’s diet. The ratio is elevated by the inclusion of marine (saltwater) organisms, or of plants with a C-4 (Slack-Hatch) photosynthetic path way in the diet. In the Great Lakes region, including northwestern
Ohio, and prehistoric consumption of marine organisms can be ruled
out. Of the plants with a C-4 photo synthetic pathway that were prehis- torically available in northwestern Ohio, corn is the only one likely to have been a major component of the human diet. 85 Most grasses also have a C-4 photosynthetic pathway, and the elevated stable carbon isotope ratios can be passed down the food chain.
Thus, significant consumption of the meat of grazers, such as bison and probably elk, will elevate the stable carbon isotope ratio in the preda tor’s bone collagen (Bender, Baerreis, and Steventon 1981; Browman
1981; DeNiro and Epstein 1978; van der Merwe and Vogel 1978).
Several criticisms may be leveled at the use of stable carbon isotopes to measure corn consumption. As I note above, other plants often consumed by humans, notably amaranths, also have a C-4 photo synthetic pathway. Their consumption in large amounts should elevate the relative amount of in the consumer’s collagen, as does corn.
Although Ohio Hopewell (ca. 100 B.C.-A.D, 300) populations apparently consumed significant amounts of amaranth seeds (Wymer 1987, Smith
1985), their collagen stable carbon isotope values are still quite low, in no way mimicking corn consumption (Bender, Baerreis, and Steventon
1981). It is only after corn remains enter the archaeological record in substantial amounts that the stable carbon isotope values rise.
As Sealy and van der Merwe (1985) have shown, the consumption of marine organisms changes the stable carbon isotope values of the consumer’s collagen in a manner similar to corn. Freshwater organisms do not. To illustrate this, one may consider the non-corn, non-marine values for two individuals at the DuPont site, a Late Archaic shell 86 midden in southwestern Ohio. The consumption of large amounts of clams by these people in no way altered their stable carbon isotope values to mimic corn consumption (Stothers and Bechtel 1987; Table 2).
On the other hand, the use of limestone or dolomite (marine sediments) in corn preparation has not been adequately studied. It is entirely possible that the use of such thermally broken down sedimentary rocks in the production of hominy may, like corn consumption itself, elevate the stable carbon values in the consumer’s collagen. Thermally-altered marine sedimentary rocks abound on post-A.D. 800 sites throughout northwestern Ohio. It is certainly possible that the consumption of these ancient marine sediments as a component of hominy may elevate stable carbon values above the levels produced by corn consumption alone.
Deer
Deer remains (Table 14) vary markedly in proportional abun dance between the samples, from only 4.4% at Waterworks (33 Lu 6) to as much as 85.4% at Missionary Island (33 Lu 391). Interestingly enough, both of those samples were deposited during the Late Woodland
Younge phase (A.D. 800-1200). The Younge phase samples sort out into three clusters in terms of proportional deer abundance. The Water works (33 Lu 6), Squaw Island (33 Sa 7), and Harbour (33 Er 280) samples have 4.4- 13.0% deer. All three sites are located in lacustrine Table 14. Percentages of deer (NISP) within the mammalian/avian species-identified assemblage.
Early Crow Deer Woodland Younge Bottom Springwells Wolf Fort Meigs Indian Hills NISP (%) 500 B.C. A.D. 800-1200 A.D. 1100 A.D. 1200 A.D. 1300-1500 A.D. 1500-1600 A.D. 1625 0-10 Waterworks Harbour Squaw Island 11-20 Harbour 21-30 Crosby’s Ridge 41-50 Indian Hills Petersen 51-60 MacNichol Sandusky Petersen Fort Meigs D odge 61-70 Dillon Sand Ave (m) Sand Ave (B) Blue Banks Miller’s Ridge LaSalle Pearson Williams 71-80 Seaman’s Ft. Doctors Monroeville Sand Ave (A) Crown Sand Ave (e) Sand Ave (m) Pearson Harbour 81-90 Missionary Is. Missionary Is. (str)
Key: e = early in phase; m = middle of phase.
0 0 -q 88 settings. The Dodge (33 Wo 9) and MacNichol (33 Wo 10) samples have
53.7% and 56.7% deer remains, respectively. Both are located on the banks of the Maumee River at major rapids.
The correlation of environmental setting with proportional abun dance of deer breaks down in the third cluster of samples. The sample for the Doctors site (33 Lu 11) and both assemblages from Missionary
Island (33 Lu 391) have 76.7-85.4% deer remains. Redmond (1984) and
Stothers and Graves (1983) thought that these two localities, respective ly, were the sites of deer hunting encampments. The only pre-corn horticulture faunal sample available from northwestern Ohio, that obtained from Early Woodland (ca. 500 B.C.) Seaman’s Fort (33 Er 85) on the Huron River, has a similar proportion (77.1%) of deer remains.
It is difficult at assess the importance of deer in the diet of the
Younge phase population as a whole in northwestern Ohio. We do not know whether separate groups lived in the various environmental zones
(i.e. riverine and lacustrine), or whether the same population used each area in different parts of a seasonal round. Except for the Doctor’s (33
Lu 11) sample, all from the lacustrine sites have less than 20% deer, while those from the sites on the riverine rapids have at least 50% deer remains. The Doctors site, in its setting near Maumee Bay, is anoma lous in its relative abundance of deer elements. 89 The only faunal sample from the contemporaneous Crow Bottom phase of the southern Younge phase periphery, that from the Sandusky site (33 Se 5), consists of 55.9% deer elements. That is similar to the proportions of deer remains from the Dodge (33 Wo 9) and MacNichol
(33 Wo 10) sites on rapids of the Maumee River. Thus, although of a different cultural phase, the sample from the Sandusky sites on the
Sandusky River fits the Younge phase pattern as far as deer remains are concerned.
Only a single faunal sample is available from any site of the subsequent Springwells phase (A.D. 1200-1300) sites in northwestern
Ohio. Exactly 25.0% of the identified mammalian/avian assemblage from Crosby’s Ridge (33 Lu 214), which is situated on a small stream in the uplands north of the Maumee River, consists of deer elements.
Unlike the preceding Younge phase, ceramic components of the
Springwells phase in northwestern Ohio are nearly all located in upland settings. Thus, this appears to reflect an actual decline in the impor tance of deer hunting after A.D. 1200, at least for most of the people who were not living in lacustrine settings. It is the relative abundance of waterfowl elements in the Crosby’s Ridge sample that makes deer seem less important.
By A.D. 1300, however, the picture of the proportional abundance of deer remains had again changed, and it is a portrait of unity. What- 90 ever the environmental setting they were recovered from, deer elements make up 56-78% of each of the 11 Wolf phase (A.D. 1300-1500) faunal assemblages. In contrast to the pattern for the Younge phase, the only
Wolf phase sample from a lacustrine setting, that from the harbour site
(33 Er 280), consists of 70.2% deer elements. In short, deer hunting seems to have increased in importance after about A.D. 1300.
With the exception of two components, the subsequent Fort Meigs phase (A.D. 1500-1600) shows even more unity as far as the proportion al abundance of deer remains in concerned. Four sites. Fort Meigs (33
Wo 8) on the Maumee River, Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8) on the San dusky River, and Pearson (33 Sa 9) and Miller’s Ridge (33 Sa 65) on
Green Creek south of Sandusky Bay, all of which have long been identi fied as major village sites (see Stothers and Abel 1989; Bowen 1980), all have 57.9-68.4% deer elements. On the other hand, the sample the
Harbour site (33 Er 280), which seems to have been quite ephemeral
(see Pratt, Croninger, and del Castillo 1983), contains only 11.8% deer remains, in marked contrast to the value of 70.2% for the preceding
Wolf phase from the same site. It is, however, virtually identical with the still older Younge phase (A.D. 800-1200) faunal samples from the
Harbour site.
The other exception to the picture of unity is the early Fort Meigs phase faunal assemblage recovered from Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8). 91 That sample contains 84.5% deer elements, comparable to the propor tions from the two Younge phase samples recovered on Missionary
Island (33 Lu 391), and slightly higher than any faunal assemblage available from the immediately preceding Wolf phase. This does, how ever, seem to be a special-purpose (non-village) site at Sandusky
Avenue, as only a hearth and a roasting pit were uncovered, and most of the deer elements were those from below the hock. In conclusion, deer hunting seems to have been of about the same importance, or perhaps slightly less importance, than during the preceding Wolf phase.
Deer remains make up 41-72% of the four available faunal sam ples of the subsequent Indian Hills phase (A.D. 1600-1650). Although the data are meager, some spatial patterning is apparent. The Indian
Hills site (33 Wo 4) itself, on the lower, marshy reaches of the Maumee
River and the Petersen site (33 Ot 9) on the analogous portion of the
Portage River contained 41.3% and 48.6% deer elements, respectively.
On the other hand, each of the two samples from adjacent cylindrical storage pits at Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8), on the lower rapids of the
Sandusky River, exhibit 65.6% and 71.4% deer remains. Thus, it seems that deer hunting may possibly have been more important on the
Sandusky River than to the north or west. It should be noted that, during the preceding Fort Meigs phase, the only sample available from the Maumee River has a slightly lower proportion of doer remains than 92 the other village sites. In summary, it seems that, after about A.D.
1600, the importance of deer hunting either stayed about the same, or perhaps slightly decreased.
The proportions of deer remains is extremely variable in samples from the Younge phase (A.D. 800-1200). The only sample available from the subsequent Springwells phase (A.D. 1200-1300) suggests that deer hunting may have been about as important as in the lower end of the spectrum of the preceding Younge phase. Deer remains are propor tionally much more abundant after A.D. 1300, with perhaps a slight decrease through A.D. 1650, when the region was depopulated.
Other Terrestrial Vertebrates
Elk remains (Table 15) are generally scarce in the 31 faunal samples from northwestern Ohio which are being examined in this study. In fact, only at the Indian Hills site (33 Wo 4) on the lower reaches of the Maumee River do they make up more than 8.4% of the identified mammalian/avian assemblage. At the Indian Hills phase
(A.D. 1600-1650) component, elk elements make up 15.8% of the sam ple, nearly twice the value for any of the other 27 earlier or 3 other contemporaneous samples. However, the cervid (deer/elk) value for the
Indian Hills assemblage is still only 57.1%, lower than the values for deer alone at any of the village sites of the preceding Wolf or Fort Meigs phases. At any rate. Graves (1984) thought that Indian Hills may have Table 15. Percentages of deer/elk (NISP) within the mammalian/avian species-identified assemblage.
Early Crow Cervid Woodland Younge Bottom Springwells Wolf Fort Meigs Indian Hills NISP (%) 500 B.C. A.D. 800-1200 A.D. 1100 A.D. 1200 A.D. 1300-1500 A.D. 1500-1600 A.D. 1625 0-10 Waterworks Squaw Island 11-20 Harbour Harbour 31-40 Crosby’s Ridge 51-60 MacNichol Sandusky Petersen Indian Hills Dodge Petersen 61-70 Blue Banks Williams LaSalle 71-80 Doctors Harbour Sand Ave (m) Sand Ave (B) Dillon Pearson Crown Sand Ave (m) Pearson 81-90 Seaman’s Missionary Is. Monroeville Sand Ave (e) Missionary Is. (str) Sand Ave (e) Key: e = early in phase; m = middle of phase.
% 94 been the site of the very last village occupied anywhere in northwestern
Ohio before the region was depopulated during the 1640s. Thus, the increase in the proportion of elk remains may be a post-A.D. 1630 phenomenon.
Bear remains are similarly scarce. At only three sites do they make up more than 6.2% of the faunal assemblage. Interestingly, bear bones make up the largest proportions of the samples (8.7-11.8%) at three sites at rapids of the Maumee River, the Younge phase Dodge site
(33 Wo 9) and the Wolf phase LaSalle (33 Wo 42) and Williams (33 Wo
7) sites. In the case of bear remains, location seems to have been more important than time period or cultural affiliation.
In none of the 31 faunal samples do raccoon (Table 16) elements make up more than 20% of the identified mammalian/avian assemblage.
The only apparent temporal or spatial patterning is that the two sites that yielded the highest proportions of raccoon bones are the two latest village sites on the Maumee River, the Fort Meigs phase (A.D. 1500-
1600) Port Meigs site (33 Wo 8) and the Indian Hills phase (A.D, 1600-
1650) Indian Hills site (A.D. 1600-1650) have values for raccoon of
16.2% and 20.0%, respectively. This high value does not occur in other contemporaneous assemblages.
Beaver bones (Table 17) make up less than 10% of the faunal samples from any of the sites in northwestern Ohio. The highest value Table 16. Percentages of raccoon (NISP) within the mammalian/avian species-identified assemblage.
Early Crow Raccoon Woodland Younge Bottom Springwells Wolf Fort Meigs Indian Hills NISP (%) 600 B.C. A.D. 800-1200 A.D. 1100 A.D. 1200 A.D. 1300-1500 A.D. 1500-1600 A.D. 1625
0-10 Seaman’s MacNichol Crosby’s Ridge Dillon Sand Ave (e) Sand Ave (A) Missionary Is. Monroeville Pearson Petersen Missionary Is. (str) Crown Harbour Doctors Sand Ave (e) Waterworks Williams Squaw Island Pearson Harbour Harbour Petersen 11-20 Dodge Sandusky LaSalle Miller’s Ridge Indian Hills Sand Ave (m) Fort Meigs Sand Ave (B) Blue Banks Sand Ave (m) Key: e = early in phase; m = middle of phase. Table 17. Percentages of beaver (NISP) within the mammalian/avian species-identified assemblage.
Early Crow Beaver Woodland Younge Bottom Springwells Wolf Fort Meigs Indian Hills NISP (%) 500 B.C. A.D. 800-1200 A.D. 1100 A.D. 1200 A.D. 1300-1500 A.D. 1500-1600 A.D. 1625
0-5 Seaman’s MacNichol Sandusky Crosby’s Ridge Dillon Sand Ave (e) Indiand Hills Doctors Monroeville Sand Ave (m) Missionary Is. Crown Harbour Missionary Is.(str) Sand Ave (e) Waterworks Sand Ave (m) Squaw Island Blue Banks Harbour Williams Pearson Harbour Petersen 5-10 Dodge LaSalle Miller’s Ridge Sand Ave (A) Pearson Sand Ave (B) Fort Meigs Petersen Key; e = early in phase; m = middle of phase.
«3 0 3 97 is 9.6%, which occurs in one of the Indian Hills phase (A.D. 1600-1650) storage pits at Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8), located on the lower rapids of the Sandusky River. Furthermore, the beaver values for the six pre-
A.D. 1600 samples from the lower rapids of the Sandusky River are all less than 2.5%, while the two post-A.D. 1600 samples from that location both have more than 7.5% beaver elements. Perhaps this is a reflection of the early fur trade. In the other areas, however, beaver remains show no such patterning, but in some cases even decrease through time.
While muskrat remains make up more than 90% of the identified mammalian/avian faunal assemblages at some sites, they are entirely absent at others (Table 18). In general, as would be expected, they are most abundant at sites in marshy settings. No temporal patterning is evident as far as muskrat remains are concerned.
Squirrel bones are quite scarce in most of the 31 faunal samples from northwestern Ohio. In fact, they make up less than 6% of the assemblages from all of the sites except for two, MacNichol (33 Wo 10) and Sandusky (33 Se 5). At those sites, they make up 16.0% and 21.2% of the samples, respectively. The early Younge phase (A.D. 800-1000)
MacNichol site is located at the lower rapids of the Maumee River, while the Crow Bottom phase (A.D. 1000-1200) Sandusky site is located on the Sandusky River mainstem. No other faunal samples are avail able for the Crow Bottom phase, so it is impossible to know whether the Table 18. Percentages of muskrat (NISP) within the mammalian/avian species-identified assemblage.
Early Crow Cervid Woodland Younge Bottom Springwells Wolf Fort Meigs Indian Hills NISP (%) 500 B.C. A.D. 800-1200 A.D. 1100 A.D. 1200 A.D. 1300-1500 A.D. 1500-1600 A.D. 1625
0-10 Seaman’s Missionary Is. Sandusky LaSalle Fort Meigs Indian Hills Missionary Is. (str) Williams Miller’s Ridge Sand Ave (A) Dodge Petersen Pearson Sand Ave (B) MacNichol Pearson Sand Ave (e) Crown Sand Ave (m) Sand Ave (e) Sand Ave (m) Blue Banks Dillon Monroeville 11-20 Doctors Harbour 21-30 Petersen 31-40 Harbour 61-70 Harbour 91-100 Waterworks Squaw Island Key: e = early in phase; m = middle of phase. 99 high proportion of squirrel bones is typical for that cultural group. It is not, however, typical for the Younge phase. About all that I can say is that two samples from about A.D. 1000 have exceptionally high propor tions of squirrel elements.
Some temporal patterning is apparent in the proportional abun dance of Wild Turkey elements (Table 19) from archaeological sites in northwestern Ohio. While the values for Wild Turkey range from 0-10% in samples deposited prior to A.D. 1600, none of the four later Indian
Hills phase samples contains more than 5% Wild Turkey. Thus, the importance of Wild Turkey hunting seems to have slightly declined after
A.D. 1600.
One sample contains proportionally many more Wild Turkey elements than any of the others. It is that from the Dillon site (33 Er
30), an early Wolf phase (A.D. 1300-1400) village located on the Huron
River mainstem. It yielded 22.5% Wild Turkey remains, more than twice the value anywhere else. The other Wolf phase faunal sample from the Huron River, that from Monroeville (33 Hu 37), yielded only
5.7% Wild Turkey.
Both in Early Woodland times (ca. 500 B.C.) and after A.D. 1300 waterfowl remains (Table 20) make up less than 30% of the faunal assemblage in any given sample, not surprisingly being the most abun dant in the samples from marshy areas. In the Younge/Springwells Table 19. Percentages of Wild Turkey (NISP) within the mammalian/avian species-identified assemblage.
1------1 Wild Early Crow Turkey Woodland Younge Bottom Springwells Wolf Fort Meigs Indian Hills NISP (%) 500 B.C. A.D. 800-1200 A.D. 1100 A.D. 1200 A.D. 1300-1500 A.D. 1500-1600 A.D. 1625
0-5 Seaman’s Dodge Crosby’s Ridge Harbour Harbour Petersen Missionary Is. (str) Petersen Sand Ave (m) Sand Ave (A) Waterworks Crown Port Meigs Sand Ave (B) Squaw Island Sand Ave (e) Indian Hills Blue Banks LaSalle 6-10 MacNichol Sandusky Williams Miller’s Ridge Missionary Is. Pearson Pearson Sand Ave (m) Sand Ave (e) Monroeville 21-25 Dillon Key: e = early in phase; m = middle of phase.
o o Table 20. Percentages of waterfowl (NISP) within the mammalian/avian species-identified assemblage.
Early Crow Waterfowl Woodland Younge Bottom Springwells Wolf Fort Meigs Indian Hills NISP (%) 500 B.C. A.D. 800-1200 A.D. 1100 A.D. 1200 A.D. 1300-1500 A.D. 1500-1600 A.D. 1625 0-10 Seaman’s MacNichol Sandusky Crown Sand Ave (e) Sand Ave (A) Dodge Sand Ave (e) Sand Ave (m) Sand Ave (B) Missionary Is. Sand Ave (m) Miller’s Ridge Indian Hills Missionary Is. (str) Blue Banks Pearson Doctors Pearson Fort Meigs Waterworks LaSalle Squaw Island Williams Dillon Monroeville 11-20 Harbour Petersen 21-30 Petersen Harbour 41-50 Harbour 61-70 Crosby’s Ridge Key: e = early in phase; m = middle of phase.
O 102 phases (A.D. 800-1300) of the Western Basin tradition, however, water fowl exploitation seems to have reached a peak of importance. While the Younge phase sample from the Harbour site (33 Er 280) contains
46.5% waterfowl bones, they make up 66.6% of the slightly later assem blage from Crosby’s Ridge (33 Lu 214). Thus, it appears that, at some locations, waterfowl were exploited more intensively during the period of A.D. 800-1300 than at other times.
Clams also appear to have been used more intensively in some locations at the end of that time period. In most of the faunal assem blages clams are best described as ubiquitous. At the Crow Bottom phase (A.D. 1000-1200) Sandusky site (33 Se 5) on the Sandusky River two large pit features, each containing thousands of clamshells, were uncovered. A Springwells phase (A.D. 1200-1300) shell midden several meters thick has been reported on the Maumee River at the western boundary of the study area (Stothers, Graves, and Redmond 1984) at 33
Hy 167). Clamshells are also very abundant in the faunal sample from
Crosby’s Ridge, valves matching mammalian/avian bone fragments virtually 1:1. For some reason, clams seem to have been gathered much more intensively, at least west of the Huron River area, during the period of A.D. 1000-1300. 103 Fish
Prior to Wolf phase times, the abundance and species composition of fish remains generally merely reflects the availability of that resource in the immediate vicinities of the sites from which they were excavated.
After A.D. 1300, however, some interesting temporal patterning exists.
At the lower rapids of the Maumee River, the Wolf phase (A.D. 1300-
—1500) sample from the Williams site (33 Wo 7) is dominated by walleye remains, while that from the adjacent Fort Meigs phase (A.D. 1500—
1600) component at Fort Meigs (33 Wo 8) is dominated by white bass.
Those fishes spawn in those rapids in late March-mid April and May, respectively. The sample downstream at Indian Hills (33 Wo 4) is composed mainly of freshwater drum and walleye elements.
Somewhat temporal patterning is apparent at the lower rapids of the Sandusky River at Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8). As at the Williams site on the Maumee River, the Wolf phase deposits at Sandusky Avenue contains numerous walleye elements. The early Fort Meigs phase (ca.
A.D. 1500) deposits from Sandusky Avenue, however, contains a very different piscine assemblage. While fish were still being intensively exploited, the sample is dominated by small/largemouth bass elements.
On the other hand, the middle Fort Meigs samples from the same site are overwhelmed by redhorse suckers, which spawn in the rapids from late April through early May. The later (post-A.D. 1600) Indian Hills 104 phase fish samples from Sandusky Avenue are composed of species such as catfish, bowfin, and freshwater drum.
Thus, at the lower rapids of the Sandusky River, walleye were intensively exploited during their late March-early April spawning run during the period of A.D. 1300-1500. At the end of that time span, however, the fishing was being done in the lower reaches of the river below the rapids. By the mid-1500s, the late April spawning runs of the redhorse suckers were being intensively exploited. After A.D. 1600 fish remains are much less abundant, and seem to reflect constant, low- intensity exploitation.
On Green Creek south of Sandusky Bay, walleye and freshwater drum dominate the piscine sample from the late Wolf phase (A.D,
1400-1500) component at the Pearson site (33 Sa 9). On the other hand, the middle Fort Meigs component (A.D. 1550) at the same location contains large numbers of white bass elements, much like the Fort
Meigs site itself.
Corn
The history of corn cultivation can be measured by two different methods: the recovery of actual archaeobotanical remains and the analysis of stable carbon isotopes in human remains. The archaeo botanical data suggests that corn has been grown in northwestern Ohio since Riviere au Vase phase (A.D. 500-800) times (Stothers and Yarnell 105 1977). Pit features literally filled with corn have been found at three
Wolf phase (A.D. 1300-1500) sites, Petersen (33 Ot 9) on the lower
Portage River (Abel 1991), Crown (33 Sa 40) on the lower Sandusky
River, and Harbour (33 Er 280) at the mouth of Sandusky Bay (Pratt,
Croninger, and del Castillo 1983). At least the first two components date to the early portion of the Wolf phase. The Petersen site also yielded hundreds of cultivated beans (Abel 1991).
Although never actually quantified, corn remains may be described as scarce in deposits of the subsequent Fort Meigs phase (A.D.
1500-1600). On the other hand, the fill from Indian Hills phase (post-
A.D. 1600) storage pit 1991B was totally subjected to water flotation, and yielded about 1 kernel/4 liters, certainly an increase in density from the previous Fort Meigs phase.
In summary, the archaeobotanical data suggest the adoption of corn horticulture by about A.D. 800 and a gradual increase in its impor tance through A.D. 1300, when it surged upward. After about A.D. 1500 corn consumption appears to have declined, with an apparent increase after A.D. 1600.
The stable carbon isotopic data are largely complementary (Tables
21-22). They, also, suggest that corn became an important dietary item prior to A.D. 800, with a gradual increase through A.D. 1200, when it may have declined briefly prior to a further increase by A.D. 1300. Table 21. Pre-A.D. 400 stable carbon isotope ratios (no corn).
Phase Site/Laboratory Number i%/"C (°/°° ) Huron River Late Archaic Bores (Beta-5906)* -21.26 Maumee River Late Archaic Williams (Beta-6180)* -22.31 Maumee River Late Archaic Williams (Beta-6698)* -24.05 Maumee River Late Archaic Williams (Beta-6177)* -23.63 Maumee River Late Archaic Williams (GX-10236-G)* -19.7 Maumee River Late Archaic Williams (GX-10262)* -21.2 Maumee River Late Archaic Williams (GX-10260)* -21.6 Maumee River Late Archaic Williams (GX-10261)* -21.4 Maumee River Late Archaic Williams (GX-10257-G)* -19.6 Maumee River Late Archaic Williams (GX-10258)* -21.0 Maumee River Late Archaic Williams (GX-10259)* -21.7 Providence Phase Early Woodland Marblehead (Beta-6699)* -27.45 Providence Phase Early Woodland Green Creek (Beta-6763)® -25.27 Esch Phase Middle Woodland Esch Mound (Beta-6762)® -24.13 Esch Phase Middle Woodland Esch Mound (Beta-5664)® -21.85 Esch Phase Middle Woodland Esch Mound (Beta-5665)® -25.01 Green Creek Late Woodland (A.D. 380) Green Creek (Beta-14758)® -23.57 References: * Stothers and Bechtel (1987); ® this study.
o 05 Table 22. Post-A.D. 500 stable carbon isotope values from human bone collagen recovered from northwestern Ohio.
Phase Site/Laboratory Number Area Value Riviere au Vase (A.D. 500)^ Missionary Island (Beta-8686)* Maumee River -18.88 Younge (AD. 800-1200) Missionary Island (GX-10265-G)* Maumee River -15.50 Waterworks (Beta-6176)* Lake Erie -12.42 North Bass Island (Beta-6175) Lake Erie -13.20 Birchard Library (Beta-23336) Sandusky River -17.50 Birchard Library (Beta-23613) Sandusky River -19.0 Root (Beta-5911) Muddy Creek upland -15.94 Hemminger (Beta-6764) Pipe Creek upland -12.83 Springwells (A.D. 1200-1300) Pat-Dowling (GX-10742-G)* Swan Creek upland -13.40 Pat-Dowling (Beta-8691)* Swan Creek upland -16.51 Pelahatchie (Beta-6766) Muddy Creek upland -25.67 Wolf (A.D. 1300-1500) LaSalle (Beta-6167)* Maumee River -11.35 Dodge (GX-11469)* Maumee River -15.50 Dodge (GX-11468)* Maumee River -15.70 Williams (Beta-6172)* Maumee River -11.70 Williams (Beta-6173)* Maumee River -13.22
o -4 Table 22. Post-A.D. 500 stable carbon isotope values from human bone collagen recovered from northwestern Ohio (continued).
Phase Site/Laboratory Number Area Value
Wolf (AD. 1300-1500) Durnwald (Beta-23029) Sandusky River -20.20 Muddy Creek (Beta-6765) Muddy Creek -15.37 Baker (Beta-11682) Green Creek upland -11.79 Cemetery Ridge (Beta-5909) Green Creek upland -15.01 Pearson (Beta-5913) Green Creek upland -11.81 Pearson (Beta-5903) Green Creek upland -12.42 Pearson (Beta-5174) Green Creek upland -13.21 Pearson (Beta-5910) Green Creek upland -13.78 Pearson (Beta-4990) Green Creek upland -20.01 Mixter (Beta-5907) Huron River -9.82 Mixter (Beta-5908) Huron River -14.95 Kurtz (Beta-5901) Huron River -11.80 Kurtz (Beta-5902) Huron River -16.00 Taylor (Beta-4639) Huron River -12.06 Fort Meigs (A.D. 1500-1600) Miller’s Ridge (Beta-5914) Green Creek upland -19.27 Pearson (Beta-5912) Green Creek upland -19.45
o 00 Table 22. Post-A.D, 500 stable carbon isotope values from human bone collagen recovered from northwestern Ohio (continued).
Phase Site/Laboratory Number Area Value Indian Hills (A.D. 1600-1650) Indian Hills (GX-10264-A)*-® Maumee River -6.40 Indian Hills (Beta-6174)^ Maumee River -9.92 Inidan Hills (GX-10264-G)* Maumee River -11.50 References: * Stothers and Bechtel (1987); ° Stothers and Abel (1989).
o CO 110 After A.D. 1500 corn consumption appears to have declined sharply, but that a dramatic, unprecedented increase occurred by A.D. 1600.
It appears that two periods of unfavorable growing conditions may have led to decreased corn consumption. One is during the Springwells phase (A.D. 1200-1300), the other during the Fort Meigs phase (A.D,
1500-1600). The case for the later decline, although far from secure, is still stronger than that for the first decline. Only the remarkable stable carbon isotope value of -25.67, which suggests that individual (a young woman) consumed no significant amount of corn, suggests a decline in the importance of corn cultivation during the Springwells phase. The other two values average out at -14.9, a slight increase in corn consump tion from the average for the preceding Younge phase. Both assays for the Fort Meigs phase suggests that corn consumption had declined significantly in the archaeobotanical assemblages of that period.
Conclusion
Corn horticulture was adopted in northwestern Ohio by A.D. 800.
Younge phase people of the Western Basin tradition consumed moderate to heavy amounts of corn. Their pattern of faunal exploitation was far from uniform, but was largely determined by what resources were the easiest to obtained near any given settlement. No subsistence data are available for the contemporaneous Weilnau phase population to the east. I l l By A.D. 1200 less corn was being eaten by the people of the
Western Basin tradition, those of the succeeding Springwells phase.
Also, at this period clams seem to have been exploited far more exten sively that at any other time. Perhaps this relates to an intensification of second-line resources. Both Griffin (1961) and Bryson and Wendland
(1969) suggested that the climate shifted from warm/dry to cool/wet about A.D. 1200.
By A.D. 1300 corn cultivation had once again increased in impor tance, surpassing even the Younge phase level prior to the A.D. 1200 decline. Abel (1991) has shown that significant amounts of beans were being grown by the early portion of the Wolf phase. Hunting patterns were more focused on deer than at any other period since the adoption of corn horticulture. Both Bryson and Wendland (1969) and Graves
(1977) concluded that the climate shifted from cool/wet to warm/dry at this time.
Corn consumption had drastically declined by A.D. 1500, the start of the Fort Meigs phase. Deer hunting may have slightly decreased in importance. No previously-identified climatic shift accounts for this subsistence change.
By the Indian Hills phase, after A.D. 1600, corn consumption had rebounded to unprecedented levels. Deer hunting continued to slightly decline in relatively importance. On the Sandusky River, but not on the 112 Maumee or the Portage, increased proportions of beaver bones reflect initial participation in the fur trade. The increase in corn consumption seems incongruous with the only proposed climatic change, that being the assertion by Bryson and Wendland (1969) that the climate shifted to a cool/wet episode at this time. CHAPTER VII
CONCLUSIONS
In this study I have shown that, within northwestern Ohio, nucleated settlements were present in the east by 500 B.C., while the population remained dispersed within the western area until about A.D.
1300. After that time, all of the inhabitants of northwestern Ohio were living in nucleated settlements. In 1978 David Stothers assigned the pre-A.D. 1300 residents of the western area to the Western Basin tradition; while I include their more nucleated neighbors to the west in my Firelands tradition. In 1980 Stothers and Pratt, and Bowen (1980) argued that the Sandusky tradition included all of the post-A.D. 1300 occupants of northwestern Ohio. All of these people lived in nucleated settlements.
One of my major objectives in this study was to attempt to corre late settlement/ sub si stence change through time with climatic shifts.
While I have been able to document marked settlement/subsistence shifts, demonstrating that those changes were caused or encouraged by climatic shifts has been more elusive. For example, both cool/wet and warm/dry conditions are detrimental for corn cultivation, but in
113 114 different ways. Also, it has proved difficult to determine contemporan eity of cultural phases lasting a century or less and climatic stages of similarly short duration.
By Early Woodland times (ca. 500 B.C.), large nucleated settle ments already existed in the eastern portion of northwestern Ohio.
Populations of the Leimbach phase were living in nucleated, often fortified communities. On the other hand, in the Western Basin tradi tion are to the west. Early Woodland Providence phase ceramic sites are widely distributed across the landscape, and no nucleated settlements are known.
This situation continued on into Middle Woodland times (A.D.
1—500). The Middle Woodland Esch phase people of the Firelands tradition were living in nucleated settlements of about 1.2 ha in surface area, and they participated heavily in the Hopewellian exchange net work. On the other hand, the contemporaneous Wingston phase people of the Western Basin tradition did not participate in the Hopewellian exchange network to any significant extent, and they did not live in nucleated settlements, as did their neighbors to the east.
The initial Late Woodland period (A.D. 500-800) peoples of northwestern Ohio each respectively carried out the tradition of their ancestors, at least as far as settlement patterns are concerned. The
Weilnau phase people of the Firelands tradition lived in fortified 115 blufftop settlements, while those of the Riviere au Vase phase of the
Western Basin tradition had a more dispersed settlement pattern.
Thus, from as Early as 500 B.C. through A.D. 800 (prior to the cultiva tion of maize), the pre-corn cultivation peoples of northwestern Ohio exhibited two diverse settlement patterns. Those of the Firelands tradition to the east were living in nucleated, often fortified blufftop settlements, while those of the Western Basin tradition to the west were quite widely dispersed in small groups through the landscape.
Stable carbon isotope ratios as well as the paleoethnobotanical record show that corn cultivation became a significant subsistence activity about A.D. 800, or shortly thereafter. The initial corn horticul- turalists of northwestern Ohio, the people of the Younge phase of the
Western Basin tradition, continued the dispersed settlement pattern of their ancestors. This is the first period for which substantial faunal samples are available. They show that many types of animals were intensively exploited, with gross differences between many of the sites.
It is unfortunate that no data are available for the Firelands tradition area to the east in this critical period of the advent of significant corn consumption.
The climatological data for this time span are contradictory. Both
Griffin (1961) as well as Bryson and Wendland (1969) concluded that a warm/dry episode lasted from A.D. 800 through A.D. 1200. On the other 116 hand, Graves (1977) concluded that a cool/wet period lasted from A.D.
700 through A.D. 1300. The archaeological record for northwestern
Ohio does, however, support Griffin’s (1961) assertion that a warm/dry episode at this time favored the adoption and maintenance of significant corn cultivation.
The period of A.D. 1200-1300 is both critical and confusing. By this time Wolf phase people were living in the Firelands tradition area to the east in nucleated blufftop settlements, as people had been doing there for the previous 1800 years. However, they were also expanding into the homeland of the Western Basin tradition to the west, and after
A.D. 1300 only Wolf phase pottery was being produced anywhere within northwestern Ohio. The Wolf phase people, who occupied northwestern
Ohio through A.D. 1500, ate large amounts of corn, and their hunting was more focused on deer than any other post-A.D. 800 group in north western Ohio.
People of the Springwells phase of the Western Basin tradition occupied the western area ca. A.D. 1200-1300. Most of their ceramic sites are located in the uplands, or on the upper reaches of rivers.
Stothers (1978) suggested that this is a reflection of their displacement from the lower riverine mainstems by Wolf phase intruders from the east. The Springwells phase hunting patterns appear to have been quite diffuse, as during the earlier phases of the Western Basin 117 tradition. It is unfortunate that only three stable carbon isotope values are available to measure human corn consumption. While two indicate that significant amounts of corn were eaten, the third individual appar ently consumed no corn at all, at least not enough to alter the carbon make up of her bone collagen.
In the Western Basin tradition area to the west, ca. A.D. 1200-
1300, lived people who were continuing the dispersed settlement pattern and the diffuse hunting pattern of their ancestors. Corn consumption
(and therefore the intensity of its cultivation) appears to have been highly variable. However, these Springwells phase peoples were living in the uplands and on the upper reaches of rivers, having abandoned the lower riverine settlement areas of their ancestors.
On the other hand, the first people of the Wolf phase were living in the Firelands tradition area to the west. They consumed large amounts of corn, and they were intensive deer hunters. Like their
Firelands tradition ancestors, they continued to dwell in nucleated blufftop settlements. By A.D. 1300 only the Wolf phase was present in northwestern Ohio, and it had expanded throughout the region, includ ing the homeland of the Western Basin tradition. These post-A.D. 1300
"Sandusky tradition" Wolf phase populations continued to live in nucle ated settlements, to consume large amounts of corn, and to hunt deer intensively. 118 Griffin (1961) suggested that, about A.D. 1200, the climate shifted from warm/dry to cool/wet, lessening the importance of horticulture and increasing the importance of hunting to many peoples. Bryson and
Wendland (1969) also concluded that a cool/wet episode commenced about A.D. 1200, but lasted only until about A.D. 400, when the climate warmed until A.D. 1600. This cool/wet period could have placed stress on the horticulture of the peoples of both the Western Basin and Fire lands traditions. However, although Graves (1977) agreed that this was a cool/wet period, he found that it had already been cool/wet since about
A.D. 600, and that no significant climatic shift occurred at this time.
The meaning of the replacement of the Springwells phase by the
Wolf phase is highly controversial. While some (e.g. Stothers 1978) suggested that the more highly nucleated and horticultural Wolf phase people physically displaced the more dispersed and less horticultural
Springwells phase people, others (e.g. Murphy and Ferris 1978) have just as emphatically concluded that the replacement of the Springwells phase by the Wolf phase represents social evolution in situ. At any rate, in the Western Basin tradition area, a drastic change occurred about A.D. 1300. Prior to the time the area was inhabited by people who were dispersed, hunted comparable proportions of many animals, and practiced corn cultivation to quite variable extents. After A.D.
1300, the area was occupied by people who were highly nucleated. 119 hunted deer intensively, and consumed large amounts of corn. The climate may have shifted from cool/wet to warm/dry at this time.
By A.D. 1500 the descendants of the Wolf phase, the people of the
Fort Meigs phase, no longer maintained settlements, are had any ceramic components at all, in the former homeland of the Firelands tradition to the east. Their hunting patterns were still focused on deer, although not quite as intensely as during the preceding Wolf phase.
However, arrow points are more abundant both within village sites and throughout the landscape, and flint endscrapers go from extreme rarity to abundance, suggesting more hunting and hide processing. It is possible that as many or more deer may have been harvested than during the Wolf phase, but that more individually of other species were also taken, thus decreasing the relative abundance of deer remains in the faunal assemblages.
Prior to A.D. 1500, not all peoples of northwestern Ohio were intensively exploiting the spring fish spawning runs. That is because the peoples living in the Firelands tradition area had no such spawning runs available to them. I think that the post-A.D. 1500 concentration of population in the Western Basin tradition area to the west was the result of a decision to maintain settlements only at sites close enough to those rapids to intensively exploit those spawning fishes. 120 Although large storage pits are abundant on Fort Meigs phase village sites, the stable carbon isotope values from the only two assayed individuals indicate that neither of them consumed significant amounts of corn. Thus, A.D. 1500 saw a shift to more intensive fishing, perhaps more intensive although slightly more diffuse hunting, and perhaps a decrease in the importance of corn cultivation. Both Graves (1977) and
Bryson and Wendland (1969) concluded that, at about this time, the climate shifted from cool/wet to warm/dry. Perhaps the climate became too warm and dry for consistently successful corn horticulture, although the sample of only two individuals for corn isotopic study may be charitably described as minuscule. It is, however, all that is currently available.
Hunting patterns changed little after the transition to the ensuing
Indian Hills phase (A.D. 1600-1600). Since as early as about A.D. 1500 beaver remains began to become slightly more abundant (Table 12), but that is probably a reflection of the incipient fur trade, rather than changing climatic conditions. On the other hand, based on human bone collagen stable carbon isotope values, corn consumption appears to have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. This is especially striking because, with the exception of the village site at Sandusky Avenue (33
Sa 8), Indian Hills phase settlements are in areas of heavy, poorly 121 drained soils which appear to have been unsuited to aboriginal corn horticulture.
Recently Brown (1990:163), based on earlier work by Gallagher et al. (1985), identified a resolution of this apparent paradox. Like those in northwestern Ohio, many protohistoric village sites in the southern
Lake Michigan area are located within areas of heavy, poorly drained soils. These researchers, however, concluded that, by about A.D. 1600, such soils were extensively cultivated through a simple system of low artificial ridges, which would be archaeologically invisible after plowing or significant erosion.
The aboriginal inhabitants of northwestern Ohio were dispersed to locations outside of the region by A.D. 1650, most probably through a combination of European-induced epidemic diseases and/or inter-group warfare related to the fur trade. The question remains: "Did climatic fiuctuations significantly alter late prehistoric settlement and subsis tence, or were other factors the prime movers?"
It is clear that, sometime around A.D. 1200-1300, a long-standing regional cultural tradition with a dispersed settlement pattern and a diffuse economy came to an end. Were these Western Basin Springwells phase people driven away by their nucleated neighbors to the east, those of the Wolf phase, or did they evolve into Wolf phase populations 122 themselves? Either or neither could have been encouraged by climatic shifts.
I conclude that the climate became more variable, probably cooler and wetter, about A.D, 1200-1300. The nucleated, focused deer hunter, strongly corn horticultural Wolf phase people in the eastern portion of northwestern Ohio expanded to the west in order to have access to a vastly more productive fishery. The fish would at the least part, have made up for the ever-increasing poor corn-yield years. The indigenous
Springwells phase peoples of the Western Basin tradition, with their more dispersed settlement pattern, were displaced and/or assimilated into the Wolf phase populations.
By A.D. 1500, when the Little Ice Age was in full effect, settle ments were no longer maintained in the Firelands tradition homeland to the east, the entire population of northwestern Ohio had concentrated near the most productive fisheries, probably as a result of the growing uncertainty of corn production. A ridged-field technology may have made corn horticulture again more consistently productive after A.D.
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TABLES CONTAINING BASIC STUDY DATA
Table 23. Faunal Remains from the Early Woodland Providence phase (700 B.C.-A.D. 1) component at 33 Lu 150.
Taxon Element Number deer mandible 1 deer premolar 2 deer innominate 1 deer metatarsal 3 deer astragalus 1 unidentified mammal unknown 115 unidentified bird unknown 5 sturgeon armor plate 2 redhorse sucker premaxilla 2 unidentified fish unknown 33 clam valve 4
131 132
Table 24. Faunal Sample (number of identified specimens) from 33 Er 85 (ca. 500 B.C.).
Taxon Midden Ten Pits Total deer 523 53 576 elk 38 4 42 bear 6 1 7 raccoon 63 6 69 beaver 20 7 27 squirrel 2 0 2 woodchuck 3 1 4 rabbit 1 0 1 mink 2 0 2 unidentified mammal 2791 329 3120 Total mammal 3449 401 3850 Wild Turkey 9 1 10 waterfowl 1 1 2 eagle 3 0 3 unidentified bird 120 28 148 Total bird 133 30 163 snapping turtle 1 0 1 soft-shell turtle 3 0 3 painted turtle 1 0 1 box turtle 2 0 2 unidentified turtle 7 1 8 Total turtle 14 1 15 catfish 1 0 1 freshwater drum 2 1 3 sucker 2 1 3 walleye 1 1 2 133
Table 24, Faunal Sample (number of identified specimens) from 33 Er 85 (ca. 500 B.C.) [continued].
Taxon Midden Ten Pits Total bass 0 1 1 unidentified fish 19 83 102 Total fish 25 87 112 clam 2 1 3 TOTAL 3623 520 4143 134
Table 25. Faunal remains from the Younge component a t 33 Wo 10 (A.D. 800-1200) [Hamalainen 1977].
Taxon NISP deer 45 elk 1 bear 3 raccoon 5 beaver 3 squirrel 12 muskrat 5 other rodant 9 other mammal 7 unidentified mammal 922 Wild Turkey 5 duck 1 unidentified bird 37 turtle 47 snake 52 clam 3 white bass 105 sucker 335 walleye 62 freshwater drum 39 channel cat 9 northern pike 9 sturgeon 9 brown bullhead 1 stonecat 1 unidentified fish ca. 3500 135
Table 26. Doctors site (33 Lu 11) - on lower Ottawa River near Maumee Bay - ca. A.D. 1100.
Feature Number
Taxon 34 40 41 44 45 46 deer 4 83 4 2 9 4 raccoon 0 3 0 3 9 1 muskrat 5 5 1 0 6 2 squirrel 0 0 0 0 6 2 rabbit 0 0 0 0 1 0 wolf 0 0 0 0 1 0 unidentified mammal 151 558 135 102 291 142 Wild Turkey 0 1 0 0 0 0 duck 0 0 1 0 0 0 unidentified bird 19 76 41 20 43 31 snapping turtle 0 1 0 0 0 0 unidentified turtle 0 1 4 1 0 6 frog 0 0 0 0 1 0 fish (mostly bowfin, drum, walleye,) approxi 150 100 150 100 500 150 mations clam 0 1 1 0 3 1 Feature 45 contains a full-term fawn, suggesting June; Feature 34 contains a deer cranium with a newly mature antler, suggesting September. 136
Table 27. Doctors site (33 Lu 11) - on lower Ottawa River near Maumee Bay - ca. A.D. 1100.
Taxon Midden Six pits* deer 144 106 raccoon 4 16 beaver 1 0 muskrat 17 19 squirrel 3 1 rabbit 1 1 mink 2 0 fisher 2 0 wolf 3 1 unidentified mammal 1365 1378 Wild Turkey 0 1 duck 3 1 snapping turtle 6 1 painted turtle 11 0 sofb-shell turtle 3 0 unidentified turtle 50 12 frog 0 1 fish fish (mostly bowfin, drum, walleye,) approximations 2000 1150 clam 3 6 * pits 34, 40, 41, 44, 45, 49. 137
Table 28. Missionary Island I (33 Lu 391) - in Maumee River, ca. A.D. 1000-1100.
Feature Number Taxon 1 3 4 5 7 Total
deer 1 10 19 7 4 41 raccoon 0 0 1 1 0 2 beaver 0 0 1 0 0 1 squirrel 0 0 0 1 0 1 unidentified mammal 30 119 44 68 62 323 Wild Turkey 0 0 2 0 1 3 snapping turtle 0 0 0 1 0 1 unidentified turtle 4 8 8 24 2 46 sturgeon 1 6 5 1 0 13 freshwater drum 2 4 2 8 2 18 channel cat 2 9 6 2 3 22 redhorse 2 7 3 3 2 17 pike 0 0 1 0 0 1 unidentified fish 7 206 42 51 99 405 clam 13 4 18 13 24 72 A deer mandible from Feature 4 indicates 12-17 months, suggesting June- October. 138
Table 29. Missionary Island (33 Lu 391) - in Maumee River - ca. A.D. 1000-1100.
NISP for Several Features NISP for Taxon Near Structure Structure Floor deer 73 9 elk 2 1 raccoon 4 0 beaver 1 1 squirrel 1 0 1 muskrat 1 0 unidentified mammal 696 10 unidentified bird 41 0 snapping turtle 2 0 soft-shell turtle 2 0 unidentified turtle 118 4 sturgeon 3 0 freshwater drum 9 1 channel cat 30 1 redhorse 3 0 unidentified fish 156 0 clam 20 0 Table 30. Dodge site (33 Wo 9) - Maumee near Missionary Island (A.D. 800-1200).
Taxon Layer 3 Zone 4 Zone 5 Zone 6 Zone 7 Zone 8 Feature 8a Feature 11-12 Feature 13 Total
dear 7 11 16 41 8 3 9 4 8 96 elk 0 0 0 2 0 1 2 1 0 6 bear 0 1 3 5 2 1 3 2 0 17 raccoon 0 1 6 4 1 1 4 2 0 15 beaver 5 0 0 6 0 0 1 2 0 14 porcupine 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 4 muskrat 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 woodchuck 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 rabbit 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 fox 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 mink 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 dog/wolf 1 0 5 0 2 0 5 0 0 13 unidentified mammal 146 126 291 229 85 62 38 139 54 1170 Wild Turkey 2 1 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 8 duck 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 Bald Eagle 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2
CO CO Table 30. Dodge site (33 Wo 9) - Maumee near Missionary Island (A.D. 800-1200) [continued].
Taxon Layer 3 Zone 4 Zone 5 Zone 6 Zone 7 Zone 8 Feature 8a Feature 11-12 Feature 13 Total unidentified bird 14 6 24 6 8 1 5 8 1 73 turtle 0 0 2 3 1 0 1 0 0 7 redhorse 8 4 11 12 3 11 0 5 0 55 walleye 1 1 2 5 0 2 0 1 1 13 largomouth/drum/ bluegill 0 0 1 0 1 2 0 1 0 3 unidentified fish 74 49 84 206 32 82 33 73 29 662 clam 5 2 1 1 0 0 0 3 0 12
è 141
Table 31. Faunal remains from Springwells phase (A.D. 1200-1300) component at 33 Lu 214.
Taxon NISP deer 3 elk 1 unidentified mammal 51 duck 8 unidentified bird 11 painted turtle 2 walleye 12 redhorse 2 unidentified fish 50 clams 70 crayfish 1 Table 32. Faunal remains from the Sandusky Avenue (33 Sa 8) site.
early Wolf middle Wolf early Fort Meigs middle Fort Meigs Indian Hills Indian Hills Taxon A.D. 1300 A.D. 1350 A.D. 1500 A.D. 1550 Pit A, A.D. 1600 Pit B, A.D. 1600
deer 192 99 98 37 71 66 elk 4 2 6 3 3 4 bear 2 0 3 1 1 3 raccoon 14 19 1 11 8 13 beaver 2 3 1 1 8 10 muskrat 0 2 1 0 1 1 squirrel 1 2 0 0 1 2 143
Table 33. Non-fish remains from the ca. A.D. 1550 Fort Meigs phase component at Pearson Village (33 Sa 8).
Taxon NISP deer 186 elk 6 bear 10 raccoon 9 beaver 16 porcupine 1 muskrat 1 squirrel 3 dog 10 unidentified mammal 1486 Wild Turkey 20 duck 3 Bald Eagle 4 unidentified bird 276 turtle 22 144
Table 34. Faunal remains from the Indian Hills phase (ca. A.D. 1600-1650) component at Indian Hills (33 Wo 4).
Taxon NISP deer 221 elk 161 bear 6 raccoon 134 beaver 32 muskrat 16 squirrel 39 Wild Turkey 10 waterfowl 29 145
Table 35, Faunal remains from the Fort Meigs phase (ca. A.D. 1500-1600) component at Fort Meigs (33 Wo 8).
Taxon NISP deer 519 elk 37 bear 27 raccoon 230 beaver 97 muskrat 9 squirrel 100 Wild Turkey 31 waterfowl 30 146
Table 36. Non-fish vertebrates from the Crow Bottom (ca. A.D. 1100) component at the Sandusky site (33 Se 5).
Taxon NISP deer 170 elk 6 bear 0 raccoon 32 beaver 6 squirrel 61 Wild Turkey 20 waterfowl 1 147
Table 37. Faunal remains from the Fort Meigs phase (ca, A.D. 1450-1550) component at the Harbour site (33 Er 280).
Taxon NISP deer 11 muskrat 60 dog 1 unidentified mammal (mostly muskrat size) 184 small waterfowl 20 large waterfowl 3 unidentified bird 44 walleye 3 large/small mouth bass 5 drum 16 bullhead 1 bowfin 15 unidentified fish 120 clam (Lampsilis - ?) 2 frog 1 148
Table 38. Faunal remains from eight Wolf phase features (118, 133, 134, 143, 157, 190, 250, 263) at the Harbour site (33 Er 280).
Taxon NISP deer 25 raccoon 1 muskrat 4 unidentified mammal (mostly deer size) 173 small waterfowl 7 Wild Turkey 1 Bald Eagle 14 unidentified bird 73 painted turtle 1 snapping turtle 4 unidentified turtle 20 walleye abundant bowfin abundant channel cat fish abundant drum present unidentified fish abundant clam (Lampsilis) 5 frog 4 149
Table 39. Non-fish vertebrate remains from the Wolf phase (ca. A.D. 1300) component at Crown Battery (33 Sa 40).
Taxon NISP deer 51 elk 3 bear 1 raccoon 5 beaver 1 porcupine 2 muskrat 1 squirrelfied bird 1 unidentified mammal 540 Wild Turkey 3 duck 4 unidentified bird 48 snapping turtle 1 unidentified turtle 8 150
Table 40. Non-fish vertebrate remains from the Wolf phase (ca. A.D. 1400) component at Monroe ville (33 Hu 37).
Taxon NISP deer 212 elk 16 raccoon 27 beaver 1 squirrel 7 porcupine 1 dog/wolf 2 fisher 2 rabbit 1 unidentified mammal 4050 Wild Turkey 18 duck 1 unidentified bird 685 unidentified turtle 2 unidentified snake 15 frog 6 151
Table 41. LaSalle site (33 Wo 42), Maumee bluff upstream from lower rapids; faunal remains from three features (1, 43, 44): Wolf phase (ca. 1350-1400).
Taxon NISP MNI deer 56 3 bear 10 2 raccoon 13 3 beaver 6 2 dog 1 1 unidentified mammal 327 softshell turtle 1 1 predominately channel fish 325 cat and redhorse clams 23 Seasonal Indicators
immature raccoon - late summer/early fall 152
Table 42. Vertebrates from the Indian Hills site (33 Wo 4) ca. A.D. 1600-1650.
Taxon Feature 371 Midden X deer 13 147 elk 10 107 bear 4 raccoon 19 78 beaver 3 20 porcupine 11 muskrat 1 15 squirrel 4 24 wolf 8 dog 4 3 otter 2 unidentified mammal 104 2718 Wild Turkey 7 waterfowl 5 16 unidentified bird 17 283 snapping turtle 3 painted turtle 1 1 softshelled turtle 1 unidentified turtle 69 fish (approximate) [mostly drum and walleye] 250 900 One deer has May velvet in Midden X.