Chapter 4

Community Organizations in the Scioto, Mann, and Havana Hopewellian Regions

A Comparative Perspective

BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

This chapter has three purposes. First, it reviews the Ohio Hopewell phase of the Scioto tradi- previous and current models of Hopewellian tion (prufer 1965) and the place of the most community organization in the Midwestern elaborate Hopewellian expression in the East- United States, to stand as context for other ern Woodlands (Figure 4.1). Third, this chap- chapters in the book. Community organizations ter aims at an empirical, controlled compari- modeled implicitly by Prufer (1964a, 1965) son of Hopewellian community organizations for Ohio and Struever (1968a, 1968b) for illi- across the three regions. A comparative perspec- nois in the framework of subsistence-settlement tive holds the promise of highlighting variabil- studies, as well as explicitly by Bruce Smith ity in the organization of Hopewellian communi- (1992) for the northern and midsouthern East- ties and resolving the monolithic, homogenized ern Woodlands in general, are considered. Sec- characterization of Hopewellian community or- ond, this chapter reports, summarizes, and cites ganization presented by Smith and others into many new archaeological data, against which its variant forms. At the same time, a compara- previous and current models of Midwestern tive perspective may draw attention to underly- Hopewellian community organization are evalu- ing ecological, social, and historical factors that ated. Three geographic regions are considered: might account for similarities and differences in the lower Illinois valley, which was a home- community organization across regions. land of the Mound House phase of the Havana The chapter begins with a broad, theoret- Hopewellian tradition (Farnsworth and Asch ical consideration of the nature of communi- 1986); the lower Wabash-Ohio River conflu- ties as a framework for interpretation. Three ence area, where the Hopewellian Mann phase kinds of communities are distinguished: res- developed (Ruby 1997a); and the Scioto-Paint idential communities defined by coresidence Creek confluence area, which was the center of and regular, face-to-face interaction; sustainable

119 120 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES )

~T

~ \

200 0 200 400 600 Kilometers I I N

D Wisconsinan Glacial Advance D Older Glacial Advances

Figure 4.1. Three Midwestern study areas of Hopewellian expression: (A) the lower Illinois valley,+ where Havana- tradition Hopewell developed; (B) the lower Wabash-Ohio River confluence area, where the Hopewellian Mann phase developed; and (C) the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence area. Five physiographic provinces in the vicinity of these areas are shown.

communities of the size necessary to meet the continuously negotiated network of social units. long-term demographic requirements of a pop- Different mounds and earthworks can be vari- ulation; and symbolic communities that may be ously interpreted as cemeteries, as earth shrines more fluid in membership and less territorially or shrines to the ancestors, or as stages for ritual bounded, and that are formed for various social, and political action (Buikstra and Charles 1999). political, and/or economic ends. Thus, some Hopewellian mound and earthwork A brief discussion of the roles of mounds centers hosted a much richer array of activi- and earthworks in community formation, or- ties than simply mortuary ritual. We also note ganization, and maintenance is also provided. that mounds and earthworks may vary in their We point out that mounds and earthworks can spatial relationships to communities. They may play very different roles in relation to differ- occur at the centers or edges of communities, ent kinds of communities, such as defining and or in less definable positions where community displaying corporate identity, defining territo- boundaries are fluid, overlapping, and/or contin- rial rights, and/or symbolizing participation in a uously negotiated. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THESCIOTO, MANN, ANDHAVANA REGIONS 121

The chapter proceeds to summarize Bruce Bruce Smith for the Woodlands and Prufer, and Smith's (1992) monolithic model of Hopewellian later Dancey and Pacheco, for the Scioto-Paint community organization in the Eastern Wood- Creek area. However, the image that these mod- lands. Smith (1992), like Prufer (1964a) earlier els construct, of the dispersed households of a for Ohio, envisioned the Hopewellian commu- community of one unspecified kind focused on nity to have been a group of dispersed households a single ceremonial center, is not supported em- that associated with a single mounded ceme- pirically. Specifically, ih each region are found tery or earthwork complex and that supported ceremonial centers of diversified functions rather themselves through farming. We then point out than centers of one kind. Some centers served pri- the need, today, to explore regional variations marily for holding mortuary ceremonies; others in community organization and their natural en- as the locations of predomihantly or exclusively vironmental determinants. The chapter goes on other kinds of ceremonies. Some mounds and to detail environmental variability across the mound groups were built and used by relatively three regions, including their natural plant and small, local social groups, while others hosted animal productivity, climate-based agricultural gatherings of social groups drawn from farther potential, spatial circumscription of food avail- afield, forging symbolic or sustainable communi- ability, and ease of transportation. The lower ties. Local symbolic communities used multiple Wabash-Ohio area and the lower Illinois val- kinds of centers within their own territories, and ley are found to have been privileged relative to some centers were used by multiple local sym- the Scioto-Paint Creek area ih food availability, bolic communities.Ceremonial precincts used potential for sedentism, potential for population by singular local symbolic communities were growth, and/or opportunity for regional social in- sometimes segregated from and sometimes com- tercourse. In addition, the lower Illinois valley is bined with ceremonial precincts used by multi- observed to exhibit the greatest circumscription ple local symbolic communities that constituted of food resources and potential for social com- a broad, sustainable community. Individuals in petition and subsequent development of territo- each region likely visited a range of these cere- riality and social complexity. These conditions monial centers for different purposes, each event are found to have been essential in determining a potential context for the construction of group variations among the three regions in the orga- identities and affiliations of varied membership, nization of their local symbolic and sustainable duration, and spatial extent. communities. In addition, the specifics of the en- We conclude that greater circumscription vironmental variations among the three regions and linear distribution of food resources in the suggest that these factors, alone, cannot account lower Illinois valley most likely fostered local for the unusual elaboration of social complexity symbolic communities there to be territorial and in the Scioto-Paint Creek area. relatively fixed in membership, whereas the less Hopewell community organization in each constraining environments of the lower Wabash- of the three regions is explored next. Key exca- Ohio and Scioto-Paint Creek regions allowed the vated sites and survey areas are described, with construction of local symbolic communities that an emphasis on summarizing new information archaeologically do not indicate their territorial- from the lower Ohio-Wabash and Scioto regions ity and that could have been relatively fluid in that has emerged through a resurgence of field membership. Also, differences in environmen- research in these areas. Equivalent studies in the tal natural productivity and agricultural poten- lower Illinois valley are well published and are tial among the three areas are shown to have led presented more briefly. The evidence indicates to different patterns of residential aggregation that none of the three areas had nucleated vil- and sedentism there. Household aggregation was lages during the Middle Woodland and, instead, greatest in the lower Wabash-Ohio area, where supported small residential units of one to a few food resource productivity was highest. The households, in agreement with this basic element Mann site is unique among Hopewell geomet- of the Hopewellian community models posed by ric earthworks in having a substantial residential 122 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES area within it. Illinois residential sites sometimes invest labor and resources in projects that are were larger than the one-to-two household habi- beyond the capabilities of individual households tation sites that characterized the Scioto-Paint (storage facilities, land clearance, public ar- Creek area.Settlement mobility appears to have chitecture, etc.).Community organization may been greatest in the Scioto-Paint Creek area, afford individuals and households opportunities where food productivity was lowest. for economic specialization. For these reasons All of these variations in the ceremonial and and more, community organization can be a domestic spheres of Hopewellian life, within and useful focus for Hopewellian studies. A com- among the three regions, call for fundamental re- parative perspective on community organization vision of our notions of Hopewellian community will allow us to see both how challenges varied organization. This review clearly reveals that the across the Middle Woodland period landscape pan-Woodlands model ofthe Hopewellian com- and how Hopewellian responses to these trials munity as a group of dispersed households asso- varied. ciated with a single mounded cemetery or earth- However, increasing interest in communi- work complex, as offered by Smith and Prufer, is ties has brought with it considerable debate about overly simplistic. The oversimplification stems their nature. The classic anthropological defini- in part from an uncritical use of the concept of tion is given by Murdock: "the maximal group "community," as well as a tendency to treat all of persons who normally reside together in face- mounds and earthworks as if they were equiv- to-face association"(1949a:79-80). Thus, in the alent in function and interchangeable. Our re- traditional anthropological sense, communities view demonstrates that models of Hopewellian are territorially based social units constituted community organization must consider the vari- through coresidence or close residence and reg- ous ways in which these different kinds of places ular interaction. Alternatively, some recent ar- were used to negotiate, define, and display mem- chaeological studies of the community have de- bership in and boundaries among communities emphasized the spatial and residential aspects of several kinds. of the traditional definition, instead defining the community in symbolic and ideational terms as an "imagined construct" or a "discourse" (see es- CONSIDERING COMMUNITIES pecially Preucel2000 and other papers in Canuto and Yaeger 2000). In this view, community can be Archaeologists today are increasingly focusing thought of as a process of group identity forma- on communities as fundamental units of eco- tion wherein individuals actively construct and nomic, political, and social integration above the negotiate group identities and affiliations. Con- level of the household (Abbott 2000; Adler and ceived in this way, community membership can Varien 1994; Canuto and Yaeger 2000; Dancey be extremely fluid, unbounded, and entirely non- and Pacheco 1997 a; Kantner and Mahoney 2000; residential. Of particular interest in the case of Kolb and Snead 1997; Varien 1999a). Commu- Hopewellian studies is the notion that monumen- nity formation can be seen as an organizational tal architecture may constitute a symbolic means. response by individuals and households to a vari- of community formation: mounds, earthworks, ety of local problems, including subsistence risk, and other man-made elements of the landscape resource competition, the demand for labor, and may have been used as symbols to define commu- local resource deficiencies (Johnson and Earle nity membership and boundaries (Charles 1995; 1987). Community organization can spread out Cohen 1985). subsistence risk through communal storage and These different theoretical approaches to relationships of reciprocity within and among community studies need not be mutually communities. Community organization can exclusive, and each may be appropriate, depend- provide individuals and households a measure ing on ~he nature of the problem under consid- of security through mutual defense of life, land, eration. We have found it useful to differentiate and resources. Communities may collectively three kinds of Hopewellian communities in this COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 123

study: residential communities, sustainable com- and Moseley 2001; Wobst 1974).Because mem- munities, and symbolic or political communities. bers of small social units are mostly related to one The residential community-as defined by another, children in small, lineage-based residen- Mahoney (2000), Varien (1999), and others-is tial groups often find that they are surrounded closest in meaning to Murdock's (1949a) tradi- by siblings and first cousins rather than potential tional definition of the community. Residential mates when they reach marriageable age. Ran- communities are defined by coresidence or close dom variation in sex ratios at birth can further residence, and regular face-to-face interaction. limit the number of potential mates in a small As such, residential communities are uniquely group-a boy might find that there simply are conditioned by coresidence and limited means of no eligible girls in his age grade. Minimum sizes communication and transportation. These condi- for viable mating networks have been estimated tions necessitate a limited geographic scale that at about 500 persons for social and demographic uniquely shapes the interactions among individ- parameters typical of hunter-gatherers (Wobst uals, households, and their natural and social en- 1974). Clearly, small residential communities (a vironments. In the perspective adopted here, res- single village, a cluster of dispersed households) idential communities are a unique type of social sometimes fall well below this population size. formation because they are territorially based so- In these cases, the minimum spatial and demo- cial formations-they are both people and place graphic scales of social interaction necessary to (see Varien 1999:21). maintain a sustainable community over the long The tendency to uncritically equate the term exceed those of the residential community. "site" or "settlement" with the residential com- This last point makes it clear that it is unrea- munity has been the source of some confusion in sonable and unrealistic to conceive of residential archaeological studies of community (see Tring- communities as closed and rigidly bounded so- ham 1972). It is important to recognize, as did cial units. In many cases, individuals must build Murdock, that there is considerable variation and maintain relationships with others beyond in the spatial organization of residential com- their residential community in order to main- munities: "With more or less settled residence, tain a viable mating network. A host of other the community may assume the form either of demands-for labor, defense, land, resources, a village, occupying a concentrated cluster of trading partners, and others-act as further in- dwellings near the center of the exploited terri- centives for individuals and households to build tory, or of a neighborhood, with its families scat- and maintain social ties beyond their own resi- tered in semi-isolated homesteads" (Murdock dential community (Abbott 2000; Netting 1993). 1949a:79-80). In the former case, the residen- Changes in the spatial distributions of any of tial community may in fact equate to a single ar- these demands and social resources over time chaeological site or settlement; in the latter, the may lead to a reworking of the particular resi- archaeological expression of the residential com- dential communities networked together. munity will be a cluster of sites within a small Recognition that individuals and house- vicinity allowing frequent, daily interaction.' holds actively construct and negotiate group The restricted spatial scale of the residential identities and affiliations that may cross-cut res- community poses a demographic challenge to the idential units and be quite fluid in membership long-term viability of this kind of social unit: In and duration gives rise to the notion of the sym- some cases, the residential community will not bolic community. This concept emphasizes that include enough members to ensure the availabil- symbols (e.g., ornamentation, dress, public ar- ity of marriageable mates. This has given rise to chitecture, etc.) may be used to define, com- the distinction between residential communities municate, and negotiate membership in a social and sustainable communities (Mahoney 2000). group that transcends or crosscuts local resi- Incest prohibitions and random factors set lower dence groups (Charles 1995) for common politi- bounds on the population size necessary to ensure cal, economic, social, and/or religious purposes. the availability of marriageable mates (Moore Multiple residential communities, or segments 124 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLASK. CHARLES of them, may link together into a larger or differ- can also be taken as the practical distances within ent, self-identifying unit that is capable of united which persons might interact fairly regularly and decision making and action, such as warfare, irri- construct a local symbolic community. Most gation (Abbott 2000), or maintaining the order of studies find that farmers practicing intensive agri- the cosmos (Rappaport 1968, 1971). A number culture try to limit their work activities and par- of researchers have recently focused attention on ticipation in work parties to within a one to two- the regional scale of some mortuary programs, kilometer radius of their residence. Under less alerting us to the possibility that cemetery pop- intensive agricultural regimes, farmers regularly ulations may constitute symbolic-political com- work fields at distances of three to five kilome- munities, including individuals drawn from mul- ters, with seven to eight kilometers being a good tiple residential communities (see Carr, Chap- estimate of the maximum distance that farmers ters 3 and 7; Beck 1995a; Charles 1995; Peebles will regularly travel to fields. Hunter-gatherers, and Kus 1977). including highly mobile foragers, tend to limit The concept of the symbolic community is a their regular resource exploitation trips to within broad one and includes a variety of kinds of social 10 kilometers of their residential camp. An up- groups or networks traditionally recognized in per, practical limit on frequent social interaction anthropology, such as age grades, gender-based by land-the maximal practical expanse of a lo- groups, cult societies, other sodalities, families or cal symbolic community--can be estimated by larger groups networked in formal trading rela- an 18-kilometer radius, given a day's foot travel tions, and transitory groups centered on particu- of 36 kilometers. larly powerful and charismatic individuals. What In all, symbolic communities can be rigidly is essential to the definition of each of these as a circumscribed geographically or virtually un- "community" is their constructed sense of iden- bounded. They can be stable for long periods tity and purpose. Also, symbolic communities of of time or extremely transitory at different tem- these various kinds are not defined by the physi- poral scales. They can have relatively fixed and cal imperatives of residential or sustainable com- hereditary or highly fluid and voluntary mem- munities, although a symbolic community may bership. They may link whole households or lin- be coterminous with a sustainable one. The self- eages as units, or individuals independently of identification and common goals constructed by their residential community or kinship affiliation. the members of a symbolic community can be Symbolic communities can be of many different the mechanisms that help maintain a sustainable kinds, and these may leave very different archae- community. Finally, symbolic communities of- ological signatures. ten are not concerned with the possession of ter- Among the northern Hopewellian societies ritory, though they may be practically circum- examined in this chapter, the symbolic commu- scribed in the absolute distances from which their nities for which we find evidence were localized, members come. having been constituted by multiple hamlets in When a symbolic community is circum- the vicinity of each other, e.g., within one valley scribed geographically, either practically or by or a sector of a valley. In the Illinois case, there is . a common goal of owning, maintaining, or us- good evidence that local symbolic communities ing a territory, we refer to it as a local symbolic were also involved in the ownership and protec- community. Common, practical geographic lim- tion of territory, whereas in the Indiana and Ohio its of local symbolic communities are implied by cases, it is unclear that local symbolic communi- well-documented, cross-cultural information on ties were territorial. In addition, it is probable that travel costs and the size of resource exploitation membership within local symbolic communities catchments (Chisholm 1962; Roper 1979; Sal- in the lower Illinois valley was relatively fixed, lade and Braun 1982; Stone 1991; Varien 1999). whereas in the Scioto-Paint Creek area, mem- Time and energy costs associated with foot travel bership in and among local symbolic communi- impose limits on the geographic distances over ties may have been more fluid (see below). Our which resources are exploited. These distances use of one term, the local symbolic community, COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 125 should not gloss over the variations among re- tlement becomes an increasingly complicated gions in territoriality and fluidity. pattern of overlapping territories and interact- ing corporate groups. (Clay 1991:20) Mounds, Earthworks, and Communities Note that Clay's alternative formulation Owing to their physical scale, mounds and earth- does not require that a ritual precinct serving as works are almost universally interpreted as pub- cooperative activity loci be located only on the lic or corporate structures and, hence, intimately edges of corporate group territories. He does cau- related to community formation and mainte- tion us that community boundaries may be fluid, nance. Further, the foregoing discussion implies multidimensional, overlapping, and continually that mounds and earthworks can play very differ- renegotiated.Also, note that an earthwork used ent roles in relation to different kinds of commu- by multiple communities as either a bull's-eye or nities. Mounds used for burial might define and hinge need not symbolize territorial or corporate display the corporate identity of a relatively small social units. A multicommunity religious group, residential community or, alternatively or simul- for example, need not be territorial or corporate. taneously, might be used to define and display membership or participation in a much larger symbolic or sustainable community. One goal of SMITH'S GENERAL MODEL OF this paper is to focus attention on this variability. HOPEWELLIAN COMMUNITIES A second goal, following Clay (1991), is to highlight variability in the spatial relation- Bruce Smith (1992) developed a general model ships between mounds, earthworks, and com- of Hopewellian communities using data drawn munities. Clay pointed out that it is intuitively from primarily three regions: the Upper Duck appealing, especially in the case of cemeteries River valley of south-central Tennessee, the or large mounds or earthworks, to assume that lower illinois River valley of west-central Illi- these structures formed the spatial foci of so- nois, and the American Bottom region of the cial groups and stood at the center of corporate central Mississippi River valley. Smith argued group territories. Clay called this arrangement convincingly that Hopewellian communities in the "bull's-eye" model. Clay went on to point each region were fundamentally farming com- out that there might be alternative spatial arrange- munities. In each region, there is clear ev- ments and functions for mounds and earthworks, idence for a "premaize" household farming which we would add particularly holds in relation economy focused on a set of seven indige- to different kinds of communities. Clay formu- nous domesticated and cultivated seed crops: lated one alternative, which we might call the squash (Cucurbita pepo), sumpweed (Iva an- "hinge" model-where mounds and earthworks nua), chenopodium (Chenopodium berlandieriy, are located along the edges rather than at the cen- sunflower (Helianthus annuus), erect knotweed ters of corporate group territories, and serve as (Polygonum erectum), maygrass (Phalaris car- contexts for intergroup interaction and negotia- olinianay, and little barley (Hordeum pusil- lum). These seed crops became both abundant tion. In this model, and ubiquitous in archaeobotanical assemblages the ritual sites represent cooperative activity across all three regions between about A.D. 1- loci and not corporate expressions of ritual ac- 200, long before maize (Zea mays) became abun- tivity.As such, they shifted from being the cen- dant and ubiquitous, after about A.D. 900-1000. tral places of group territories to loci between Smith built his model of Hopewellian com- different groups that served as hinges between munities against this economic background. In them. Expressive of Brose's [1979] emphasis the model, a fundamental principle of community upon cooperation between groups, they repre- sent the architectural expressions of negotia- organization in each region was expressed in a tions between groups. spatial and functional bifurcation into two dis- When the possibility of multiple inter- tinct contexts: the domestic and the corporate- group cooperation is considered, the ritual set- ceremonial spheres of Hopewellian life. 126 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

In Smith's view, the corporate-ceremonial valley. The central Scioto and the lower illinois sphere stood at the spatial and social center River valleys are well known for having the most of Hopewellian community life, and was man- flamboyant and best-documented expressions of ifested in mounds and mortuary facilities, ge- Hopewellian ceremonialism in the Midwest. The ometric earthworks, and a variety of structures Wabash-Ohio River confluence region is less devoted to nonmortuary, nondomestic activities. well known, but offers an interesting compara- Communities were integrated at these corporate- tive perspective by virtue of its geographic loca- ceremonial centers through investments of cor- tion midway between the other regions and its porate labor, through participation in ritual and distinctive natural environment. Each region is ceremony, and perhaps through redistribution also recognizable as a distinct cultural unit-a and feasting. In contrast, the fundamental do- Hopewellian phase-and not simply as a geo- mestic sphere unit was the Hopewellian house- graphic unit. hold unit. It included a single-wall-post struc- In speaking of the ceremonial sphere and ture housing a nuclear or extended family; food ceremonial centers of Hopewellian communities, storage and processing pits; warm-season open- Smith (1992) tied the descriptor "corporate" to sided shelters; scattered post patterns; shallow them. In the remainder of this chapter, we seldom sheet middens; terrace edge or gully trash dumps; use this term because, anthropologically, it im- and, rarely, isolated interments or clusters of hu- plies some specific social conditions that are hard man burials. The business of everyday life- to demonstrate and/or that are probably not true subsistence production and consumption-was in some of the archaeological cases at hand. What carried out in these domestic units. They were is meant by a corporate group is a body of persons dispersed around corporate-ceremonial centers, who are united politically/jurally in being bound either in isolation or grouped into loosely orga- by the decisions and sanctions of their heads; nized settlements of no more than three house- economically by joint ownership, management, hold units. Thus, in Smith's general model, or use of property upon which the persons depend Hopewellian communities were composed of for their daily subsistence; and/or religiously by small, dispersed, river valley farming settlements joint participation in ceremonies or adherence integrated through corporate and ceremonial ac- to religious propositions with supernatural sanc- tivities focused on centers marked by mounds tions (Befu and Plotnicov 1962:382-388). None and earthworks. of these conditions are strictly demonstrable or necessarily expectable for the potentially fluid symbolic and sustainable communities that as- Departure sembled at the large geometric earthworks of This chapter uses Bruce Smith's (1992) gen- the Scioto-Paint Creek and Mann areas, or the eral model as a point of departure. Whereas flood plain mound groups in the lower Illinois Smith's study focused primarily on the domes- valley, save perhaps joint participation in reli- tic sphere and on the household or hamlet level gious ceremonies. Even in the latter, there is of analysis, this chapter brings more attention a distinction between religiously ordered "cer- to variability in the ceremonial sphere and to the emonies" and less formal "gatherings." It is ar- community level of analysis.In particular, we ex- guable that the local symbolic communities that plore the possibility that ceremonial centers, and built bluff-top mound centers in the lower illi- their mounds and earthworks, may have served as nois valley were economically corporate, and contexts for integrating several different kinds of that the small residential communities that some- communities, at several different geographic and times built small isolated mounds and mound demographic scales-residential, symbolic, and groups in the Scioto-Paint Creek area were ju- sustainable communities. In addition, this re- rally corporate (see below), but demonstrating view considers two regions that are only tan- these situations is harder. Given the uncertainty gentially referenced in Smith's study: the cen- of corporateness for some kinds of Hopewellian tral Scioto and the lower Wabash valleys. We ceremonial centers, and the variation in its po- also consider, like Smith, the lower illinois River litical, economic, and/or religious nature among COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN,ANDHAVANA REGIONS 127 ceremonial centers of different kinds, we find it ing to about nine kilometers at its northern end prudent not to automatically link the term corpo- where it joins the central Illinois valley. Most rate to the term ceremonial center. of the valley floor is covered by a series of late Pleistocene and Holocene terrace remnants, and alluvial fans emanating from tributary creek val- SETTING THE STAGE: leys. Seasonally inundated backwater lakes and ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABILITY sloughs are prominent features of the active flood ACROSS THE THREE REGIONS plain. These backwater habitats represented a re- liable, renewable, and easily exploitable source The following section outlines environmental of fish and waterfowl (Styles 1981). The main conditions within each of the three study regions channel was another productive source of fish, (Figure 4.1) and identifies significant differences waterfowl, and mussels. among them that could have contributed to dif- Asch and Asch (1985a) provide a recon- ferences in community organization. Some of the struction of the vegetation and resource poten- variables that are considered here include phys- tial of the lower Illinois valley. Much of the iography and hydrology, which influence wild valley floor was essentially treeless, covered by food resources--especially their species, gross prairie grasses. High-quality plant and animal productivity, density, diversity, seasonality, and food resources would have been scarce here. aggregation or dispersal-and climatic variables, Tributary creeks and the active Illinois River which influence gross productivity, agricultural flood plain supported ribbonlike stands of wet potential, growing season length, and cold season and mesic forests with greater potential for hu- stress. The manner in which community differ- man exploitation in the form of pecans, hick- ences among the three regions relate to environ- ory nuts, acorns, black walnuts, butternuts, hack- mental differences among them is explored in the berries, groundnut tubers, and wildbean. Upland next section. forests-typically dominated by an oak-hickory association-occupied the broken, dissected val- Lower Illinois River Valley ley margins for a distance of 5 to 10 kilometers The lower Illinois River valley study area (Fig- from the valley. Deer, turkey, and squirrels would ure 4.1) encompasses the lower 115 kilometers have been most abundant in these areas. Upland (70 miles) of the valley and extends roughly tallgrass prairies with little potential for human 32 kilometers (20 miles) into the uplands on ei- exploitation became dominant as the topography ther side-an area of about 7,300 square kilo- flattened out. meters. The lower Illinois River valley forms a Most early historic observers described the deeply entrenched trough flowing through the upland oak-hickory forests as thinly timbered Till Plains and Dissected Till Plains sections or barrens--essentially grasslands with scattered of the Central Lowland physiographic province timber. Asch and Asch (1978, 1985a) have ar- (Figure 4.1) (Fenneman 1938). valley edges are gued that this open oak-hickory forest type was abrupt, defined by steep-sided bluffs rising 50 to a consequence of Native American forest man- 75 meters above the valley floor. The flanking agement using fire.Natural succession in an bluffs are broken and hilly, heavily dissected by oak-hickory association should trend toward a many narrow and deep tributary streams and hol- closed-canopy forest in the absence of fire. Asch lows. The upland topography softens to the gen- and Asch (1978, 1985a) posited that Native tly rolling terrain characteristic of the Till Plains Americans may have periodically burned these section 5 to 10 kilometers back from the valley areas to increase the underbrush available for margin. deer forage and to improve acorn, hickory nut, The lower Illinois river is an underfit stream, and hazelnut masts. occupying a valley that formerly served as the The position of the Illinois valley along the course of the much larger Mississippi river. The Mississippi Flyway places it along one of the lower Illinois river valley is about three to five world's greatest waterfowl migration corridors. kilometers wide along most of its course, widen- Modem estimates of duck and goose migration 128 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

Table 4.1. Comparative Data on Duck and Geese Migration Corridor Populations"

Region Duck migration corridor Geese migration corridor

Lower illinois valley 5,250,000-9,000,000 301,000-500,000 Lower Wabash-Ohio river confluence 226,000-750,000 151,000-300,000 Scioto-Paint Creek confluence 50,000-225,000 5,000-75,000

aData from Bellrose (1976:20--23).

corridor populations in the lower Illinois valley bottomlands near the Wabash-Ohio river con- are presented in Table 4.1 and discussed in the fluence approach 13 to 16 kilometers in width- concluding section. twice or three times the width of bottomland seg- It is important to note that the human popu- ments in the lower Illinois valley or the Scioto- lation of the lower Illinois valley was very sparse, Paint Creek region. or perhaps entirely absent, at the beginning of the It has often been noted that the ecology of Middle Woodland period (Charles 1992). Hence, the Wabash Lowland has a Southern rather than a Mound House phase populations were pioneer- Midwestern cast; it represents the northeastern- ing an open frontier, a unique situation among most extension of a relatively mild climatic and the three regions under consideration. hydrologic regime characteristic of the extreme lower Ohio valley and the northern portions of the lower Mississippi valley. That these factors Wabash-Ohio River Confluence had significant adaptive consequences is borne The Wabash-Ohio river confluence study area out by the observation that several plant and an- (Figure 4.1) encompasses five counties in ex- imal species and prehistoric cultures reach the treme southwestern Indiana-an area of roughly northeastern-most extreme of their ranges here 10,000 square kilometers. This includes the (Adams 1949; Green and Munson 1978; Higgen- Indiana side of the lower Wabash valley, from botham 1983; Redmond 1990). Some compara- its confluence with the White river to its mouth tive climate measures are presented below, and (about 90 kilometers), and thence up the lower clearly demonstrate that this region is warmer, Ohio River valley to the mouth of the Ander- wetter, less stressful, and more productive than son river (about 115 kilometers). The Illinois and the lower illinois valley or the Scioto-Paint Kentucky sides of the Wabash and Ohio valleys Creek region. are given only cursory examination in this chap- The Wabash Lowland can be divided into ter, but there is no reason to believe that this in- four environmental subregions. Each subregion troduces serious bias into the study. is defined by a complex association among soil The study area is coterminous with the type, elevation, flood frequency, and floral and Wabash Lowland physiographic province in faunal communities. The four subregions are southwestern Indiana (Figure 4.1)-a region highly correlated with landform and can be de- characterized by low, rolling loess-mantled up- scribed as flood plain, low terrace, high ter- lands and broad alluvial valleys traversed by me- race/lacustrine plain, and upland. Green (1984) andering streams (Fidlar 1948). This area marks presented a reconstruction of the presettlement the beginning of the lower Ohio valley as a dis- vegetation and an estimate of the economic po- tinct environmental zone. It is distinguished from tential of each zone (Green 1984). All four upstream reaches of the Ohio by its meandering subregions were heavily forested in presettle- course and significantly broader flood plain seg- ment times and supported significant stands of ments with well-developed valley-margin ter- nut-bearing trees. Hickory and oak were fore- races and extensive backwater oxbow lakes and most among these, and the low terrace zone har- sloughs. These same characteristics distinguish bored particularly dense stands of them. The the lower Wabash valley from its upstream flood plain zone stands out from the others in hav- reaches. Some of the broader meander loops and ing a greater density and diversity of seeds, fruit, COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONSIN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 129 sap, and cambium-bearing plants, along with a or no flood plain development (Brockman 1998; wide array of marsh and mud flat resources un- Fenneman 1938). The large Hopewellian mound available elsewhere. and earthwork complexes in the area are limited The backwater lakes and sloughs of the primarily to the broad terraces of the Scioto flood plain environmental zone were important river and Paint Creek, where they cross through and geographically restricted sources of aquatic the Allegheny Plateaus section. fauna. For most of the year, the flood plain and Both the Scioto river and Paint Creek are low terrace environmental zones probably har- greatly underfit streams in the confluence region, bored the greatest densities of terrestrial and occupying valleys carved out by much larger semi-aquatic animals such as deer, turkey, rac- preglacial and glacial streams. The Scioto val- coon, squirrel, and beaver. During the fall and ley is about 3 to 5 kilometers wide in the vicinity winter months, some of these populations (es- of Chillicothe, Ohio; the Paint Creek valley is pecially deer and turkey) may have migrated to about 1.5 to 2 kilometers wide within the study the more sheltered and less flood-prone, high ter- area. A complex set of up to six Wisconsinan race and upland environments (Munson 1988; and Illinoisan age terraces flanks the modem Rudolph 1981; Smith 1975). flood plains: their differing elevations, compo- Modem estimates of duck and goose mi- sitions, and drainage regimes influence the biota gration corridor populations in the Wabash-Ohio supported. Backwater lakes and sloughs are not river confluence area are between those for the prominent bottomland features in either valley. Scioto-Paint Creek area and the lower Illinois The study area was largely forested in pre- valley, as presented in Table 4.1. historic times. Shoreline and bottomland hard- wood forests with prairie openings occupied the main valley flood plains. The better-drained ter- Scioto-Paint Creek Confluence races supported mesophytic forests with prairie The Scioto-Paint Creek confluence study area openings. Acorns, maple sap, and edge-adapted (Figure 4.1) encompasses the lower 40 kilo- fauna such as deer and turkey may have been meters of Paint Creek and adjacent portions the resources of primary interest here.The of the Scioto valley for about 30 kilometers uplands supported mixed oak-hickory forests, north and south of the confluence-an area of oak-sugar maple forests, and mixed mesophytic roughly 2,400 square kilometers. This region forests. Hickory nuts and deer were likely the has the greatest physiographic diversity of the primary targets of upland exploitation (Gordon three study areas. It encompasses portions of 1969;Maslowski and Seeman 1992). There is the glaciated Till Plains section of the Central some evidence from the nearby Licking drainage Lowland physiographic province, as well as that Hopewellian farming and forest manage- both unglaciated and glaciated portions of the ment began to have significant impacts on for- Allegheny Plateaus section of the Appalachian est composition (Wymer 1996, 1997). There is Plateaus province (Figure 4.1). Both the no archaeobotanical record from the immediate Illinoisan and the Wisconsinan glacial advances Scioto-Paint Creek area with which to address terminated within the study area.Gently rolling the issue. ground moraine topography characterizes those Modem estimates of duck and goose migra- portions of the study area within the Till Plains tion corridor populations in the Scioto valley and section. Rugged relief and deep steep-sided the other regions are shown in Table 4.1. valleys characterize those portions of the study area within the Allegheny Plateaus section. These characteristics are somewhat subdued in Environmental Comparisons: Summary the glaciated portions of the Allegheny Plateaus. and Conclusion In contrast to the broad Scioto and Paint Creek Differences among the three study areas in valleys, tributary streams in the Allegheny their environments are significant; consequently, Plateaus section tend to be V-shaped, with little we might expect variations in community 130 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

Table 4.2. Comparative Data on Climate"

Climatic parameter White Hall, IL Evansville, IN Circleville, OH

Mean annual temperature (crude measure of 52.0 57.3 51.7 biotic productivity), OF Mean January temperature? (measure of cold-season stress), OF 24.2 32.3 26.6 Median growing-season days (32°F base) 185.0 200.0 172.0 Rainfall (measure of agricultural potential), inches Apr.-June ILl 13.7 11.6 July-Sept. 10.3 11.6 11.3 Total (Apr.-Sepr.) 21.4 25.3 22.9

aSource: http://mccsws.uiuc.edu.(Midwestern Regional Climate Center 2000).

organization among them. One difference is in confluence region. This contrast has impor- spatial scale. The Scioto-Paint Creek confluence tant implications for community organization: study area is the smallest, roughly one-third the Hopewellian populations in the lower illinois size of the lower illinois valley region and one- valley and the Wabash-Ohio river confluence ar- quarter the size of the Wabash-Ohio river con- eas had the option of forming larger and more fluence region. At the same time, there are many sedentary residential communities than did pop- more and much larger mound and earthwork ulations in the Scioto-Paint Creek area. complexes in the Scioto-Paint Creek area than in There are significant differences in climate either of the other two regions. There may have among regions that could influence the spatial been significant differences among the regions and demographic scales of Hopewellian com- in population density, in the number and density munities (Table 4.2). The climatic variables cho- of Hopewellian communities, and in the ways in sen favor the Wabash-Ohio confluence area in which mounds and earthworks wereused to ex- each case. Compared to the Wabash Lowland, the press community identity or served as a context lower illinois valley and central Scioto valley are for integrative activities. less productive, more stressful during the cold The density and distribution of wild food season, and drier through the growing season. resources differ significantly between regions. The median growing season length in the Wabash Abundant, predictable, and easily exploitable Lowland exceeds that in the lower Illinois valley, aquatic resources, backwater lake resources, and mid-Ohio valley, and central Scioto valley values migratory waterfowl are more readily available by two to four weeks. Differences of these mag- in the lower illinois valley and the Wabash-Ohio nitudes could certainly playa role in explaining river confluence areas than in the Scioto-Paint interregional cultural variability (see Maslowski Creek area. Backwater lakes, sloughs, marshes, and Seeman 1992). The Illinois and central and mudflats are virtually absent in the Scioto- Scioto valleys are very similar in their climates. Paint Creek area, severely limiting the avail- The lower illinois valley is unique among all ability of easily exploitable fish, waterfowl, and the regions under consideration in that the distri- other aquatic or semi-aquatic resources. Table 4.1 bution of productive resources is markedly linear highlights the regional differences in the avail- and circumscribed. The region can be character- ability of migratory waterfowl.? The lower illi- ized as a ribbon of highly productive bottom- nois valley enjoys an incredible abundance of lands and talus slopes with rich aquatic resources migratory ducks and geese, owing to its position and nut-bearing forests. These are flanked by along the Mississippi valley Flyway (Bellrose much less productive uplands, where nut-bearing 1976). The lower Wabash-Ohio valley conflu- forests quickly give way to prairie commu- ence region has a lesser but still significant sea- nities. Linearity and circumscription are less sonal migration. The availability of waterfowl marked in the Scioto-Paint Creek area, where is significantly less in the Scioto-Paint Creek nut-bearing forests continue beyond the valley COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONSIN THE SCIOTO, MANN,AND HAVANA REGIONS 131

Table 4.3. Comparison of the Natural Environments of the Central Scioto, Lower Illinois, and Lower Wabash-Ohio Valleys for Their Potential to Encourage Demographically Driven Sociopolitical Development"

Connectedness, Environmentally Agricultural ease of encouraged Natural potential Total Circumscription transportation potential for Study Spatial food relative population of food and sociopolitical region scale productivity to climate potential resources communication development

Scioto valley 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 Lower Illinois valley 2 2 2 2 2 2 Lower Wabash-Ohio valley I 1 1 1 1 1

"Rank order of 1 = biggest/most, 3 = smallest/least. bottoms into the uplands, and much less limit- make for easy water transportation throughout ing in the Wabash-Ohio River confluence area, the area (Seeman 1979a:406-407), In contrast, with its very wide flood plain. We can expect the central Scioto valley and its tributaries have that the linear distribution in the lower Illinois' higher stream gradients, and major tributaries valley would have tended to restrict mobility and into the Scioto are much less frequent. These influence the expression of territoriality among conditions constrain transportation and commu- Hopewellian communities there. nication within the Scioto-Paint Creek region The lower Illinois valley is also unique in (Seeman, p. 406-407). that its most highly productive food patches, in The several ways in which the central the form of backwater lakes, are limited in their Scioto, lower Illinois, and lower Wabash-Ohio locations in the valley. In contrast, in the lower valleys differ from each environmentally, as Wabash-Ohio region, the spatial distribution of just described, are summarized in Table 4.3. highly productive food patches is more uniform, These multiple factors can be combined for each defined by a much more extensive system of region into a gross estimate of its baseline poten- sloughs and backwater lakes. In the Scioto-Paint tial for encouraging demographically driven in- Creek area, the most productive food patches are, creases in sociopolitical complexity (Table 4.3). again, uniformly distributed because backwater The table assumes, for the sake of argument, that lakes simply do not occur. This third, unique food availability translates into sedentism and characteristic of the lower Illinois valley, like its population increases, and that these, along with one-dimensionality and circumscription by less circumscription of natural food resources and at productive uplands, would have encouraged ter- least some ease of transportation and population ritoriality there. interaction, encourage social tensions and, thus, Finally, owing to the topology of the river forms of sociopolitical cooperation and develop- networks in question, the lower Wabash-Ohio ment. Using this coarse logic, the lower Illinois area exhibits a much higher degree of connect- valley has the optimal environmental potential edness than the other two areas. This may have for producing sociopolitical complexity. It is rich implications for risk and opportunity, aggre- (though not the richest) in natural food resources gation and dispersal. The rivers, sloughs, and that would have encouraged sedentism and backwater lakes within the lower Wabash-Ohio population growth. Yet the resources are strongly area provide easy transportation and communi- circumscribed, which could have promoted so- cation within it, as well as access to points farther cial competition, tensions, and concomitant or- up and down the Ohio river; to the Midsouth ganizational complexity. Moderate connectivity through the Green, Tennessee, and Cumberland would have ensured the interactions of local pop- rivers; and to the Great Lakes through the Wabash ulations and the expression of their competition, river. The lower Illinois valley is intermediate but also would have been a vehicle for coop- in its connectedness. The low stream gradients eration and developing social complexity at a of both the Illinois River and its tributaries, and supralocal scale. The central Scioto valley and the rich dendritic pattern of this stream system, lower Wabash-Ohio confluence are each less 132 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES optimal in these regards. The Scioto valley of- plexes) in the lower lllinois valley (Figure 4.2). fers the lowest density of natural food resources (1) Hamlets formed of one to multiple house- and potential for population growth. Its food holds and located in the main Illinois valley, resources are not strongly circumscribed and at the bases of bluffs and within the flood so promoting of social competition. The lower plain, are exemplified by Apple Creek (Struever Wabash-Ohio confluence is the richest of the 1968a), Macoupin (Rackerby 1969, 1982), Gar- three areas in natural foods and has the greatest dens of Kampsville, and Smiling Dan (Stafford potential for population growth. However, food and Sant 1985). Hamlets have also been doc- resources are not circumscribed much and would umented as much as 40 kilometers up tribu- not have encouraged food-based competition. In tary valleys (Asch et al. 1979; Farnsworth 1973; addition, the low circumscription of natural foods Farnsworth and Koski 1985). The relationships within the area, the ease of transportation within between the inhabitants of these sites and the it, and its large size all would have facilitated people who resided in the main valley are not the budding-off of local social groups as local yet clear. (2) Bluff-top, ceremonial-cemetery populations rose, as a strategy for obviating so- sites, comprised of multiple, small, conical cial competition. Increases in social complexity burial mounds, are represented by the Elizabeth would not have been so necessary. (Charles et al. 1988) and Klunk-Gibson (Buik- In short, the relative degrees of Hopewellian stra 1976; Perino 1968, n.d.) sites. (3) Flood sociopolitical development found in the three plain mound/ceremonial sites, with small coni- study regions, with the greatest complexity in cal mounds, larger loaf-shaped mounds, and/or Ohio, less in Indiana, and the least in Illinois, are a plaza organization, are exemplified by Kamp not readily explained by a coarse, materialistic, (Struever 1960), Mound House (Buikstra et al. environmental-demographic framework. Local 1998), Napoleon Hollow (Wiant and McGimsey social, ideological, historical, and/or other fac- 1986), and Peisker (Perino 1966b; Staab 1984; tors may have played equally critical roles in the Struever 1968a). A fourth category of sites- varying rises of Hopewellian expressions across special purpose/extractive camps-has been pro- the three regions. posed, but to date these have been rather elusive in the archaeological record, except in upland ar- eas (Asch et al. 1979; Farnsworth 1990). This HOPEWELLIAN COMMUNITIES formulation differs somewhat from Struever's IN THE LOWER ILLINOIS (l968a, 1968b) now classic settlement model, RIVER VALLEY which included bluff-base settlements, summer (flood plain) agricultural camps, regional ex- The Mound House phase is an occupation of the change centers, and mortuary camps (see below). lower Illinois river valley by peoples of the Ha- vana (Hopewell) tradition between about 50 s.c. and A.D. 250. The available radiocarbon evidence Households and Hamlets and the absence of early Havana tradition ce- Our use of the term "hamlet" contrasts with ramic types in the lower Illinois valley suggest Struever's earlier conception of a bluff-base that these people were immigrants who entered camp. The concept of a hamlet reflects recent the region from a central Illinois valley home- analyses of new and existing databases that indi- land (Charles 1985, 1992, 1995; Farnsworth and cate that small, sedentary, one to three-household Asch 1986). They were farmers who cultivated hamlets, rather than large villages, are char- and domesticated oily- and starchy-seeded annu- acteristic of Middle WoodlandjHopewell set- als. They established full-blown, premaize agri- tlement systems (B. D. Smith 1992) in Ohio cultural systems between about A.D. 1 and A.D. (e.g., Carskadden and Morton 1996; Dancey and 200 (B. D. Smith 1992). Pacheco 1997a; Kozarek 1997; Pacheco 1996, There appear to be three fundamental 1997; Wymer 1'997), the lower Illinois river val- types of Middle Woodland sites (or site com- ley (e.g., Stafford and Sant 1985), the American COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONSIN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 133

Lower Illinois Valley Sites

• Households/Hamlets * Mounds/Earthworks

N

Figure 4.2. Hopewellian mound, earthwork, and base-camp sites in the lower Illinois+valley.

Bottom of the Mississippi river valley (e.g., and Pike Middle Woodland and White Hall early Fortier et al. 1989), and the Duck river valley of Late Woodland components, and all of his es- central Tennessee (e.g., various reports cited in timates are based on surface distributions (see B. D. Smith 1992). The hamlet concept was put also B. D. Smith 1992). Also unresolved for the forward originally as part of Prufer's (1964a, region is the extent to which the larger sites, 1965) Vacant Ceremonial Center-Dispersed such as Apple Creek, Macoupin, and Gardens of Agricultural Hamlet model of Ohio Hopewell Kampsville, represent larger communities (i.e., settlement, but it was ignored in Illinois archae- with more contemporaneous households) rather ology and elsewhere until the last decade, in part than longer-term or more frequently repeated oc- under the assumption by many that the material cupations. efflorescence of Hopewell must have been as- In Struever's settlement model, habitations sociated with substantial villages. This assump- were located at the bluff base at the interface of tion was also reinforced by the size estimates for the upland and the flood plain resource zones, Illinois valley habitations provided by Struever and were contrasted with supposed agricultural and others. Struever's (1968:197, table 7) esti- camps in the flood plain. Subsequent excavations mates range from 0.09 to 6.07 hectares, with a of a site thought to be an agricultural camp-- mean of 1.21 hectares. If the largest habitation, the Macoupin site-indicated that it was similar Mound House, is excluded, since it is actually to the bluff-base hamlets, and that those two included in his regional exchange center cate- categories should be collapsed (Rackerby 1969, gory, the next largest site is 2.48 hectares and 1982).Subsuming the flood plain and bluff-base the mean drops to 0.97 hectare.' Struever's es- hamlets into the same category, and including timates are further problematic in that almost data from more recent regional surveys, indi- all the habitations that he listed contain Havana cates that a better predictor of hamlet location is 134 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES proximity to a large, nonstagnant water source, cupation by one to three households for perhaps such as the Illinois river or a major tributary several hundred years, either continuously or (Asch and Asch 1978; Asch et al. 1979). Thus, episodically. hamlets might be located at the bluff base where Middle Woodland hamlets do not appear the Illinois River flows near the bluff or where to have been evenly distributed along the lower a secondary stream enters the valley and the Illinois valley. A composite map of bluff-base river is more distant. Hamlets might also be lo- hamlets (Struever and Houart 1972:62) indicates cated on levees or terraces in the flood plain ad- that they often cluster in groups of two or three jacent to the Illinois river or larger tributaries. and upward to five, with 0.8 to 1.6 kilometers However, the discovery of the Smiling Dan site between hamlets in a cluster and much larger (Stafford and Sant 1985), in a small side valley distances among clusters or the less common, with only a small stream flowing through it, sug- single hamlets. There are at least eight such clus- gests that further revision of the model may be ters a long the lower Illinois valley." In terms of necessary. the different kinds of communities defined in the The Smiling Dan site, excavated in about theory section above, hamlets like Apple Creek, 1980 as part of the Central Illinois Expressway Macoupin, Gardens of Kampsville, and Smiling mitigation project (Stafford and Sant 1985), is Dan, and closely spaced hamlets within a cluster, the only completely excavated Middle Wood- if they were contemporaneous, correspond to res- land hamlet in the lower Illinois valley. Smil- idential communities.It was within these places ing Dan covered 0.67 hectare, and part of that and restricted locales that the day-to-day activ- area, on the northern margin of the site, includes ities and face-to-face interactions of life took only Late Woodland debris and features. Exten- place. The core of these settlements most proba- sive stripping revealed three, or possibly four, bly consisted of two or three-generation extended structures. These were concluded on ceramic ev- families related through the male line, based on idence not to have been occupied contemporane- certain mortuary evidence (Charles and Buikstra ously (Stafford and Sant 1985), but a more recent 2002). analysis suggests that at least two of the struc- tures were in use at the same time (Charles and Ceremonial Centers Shortell 2002). The structures were of single- In general, there was a dichotomy in the nature post construction, subrectangular in shape, and and function of ceremonial sites, throughout the roughly seven to eight meters across in either prehistory of the lower Illinois valley, between direction. Interior and exterior post alignments those located on the bluffs and those located on associated with one of the structures suggest the elevated ridges and terraces in the flood plain presence of benches, racks or screens.Pit fea- (Buikstra and Charles 1999; Charles and Buik- tures, hearths, and rock concentrations were clus- stra 2002). The bluff-top sites were primarily fu- tered in and around each of the structures, and nerary in nature, and reflected group identity and provide evidence of domestic activities including membership to the exclusion of other groups. In heating, cooking, storage, and refuse disposal. contrast, flood plain ceremonial sites were places Instances of overlapping pit features and post- where multiple groups interacted and were only molds indicate some extended period of occu- secondarily used for funerals. By Middle Wood- pation or reoccupation. Midden deposits rang- land times, this pattern included the construction ing from 30 to 60 centimeters thick were found of very large, loaf-shaped burial mounds along throughout the site, and refuse deposits up to two with conical mounds at some flood plain sites, but meters deep were found in a stream channel bi- only conical burial mounds at bluff-top sites. The secting the site. A series of eight radiocarbon only exception to this pattern is the loaf-shaped dates spans some 400 years, and has three no- Naples-Russell Mound 8 on the bluff top. The ticeable and statistically distinguishable modes sheer size of the unusually large, loaf-shaped, (see Table 4.4, below). In sum, the evidence from flood piam mounds-up to 100 meters long and Smiling Dan points to a relatively intensive oc- 6 meters tall-suggests an investment of labor COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONSIN THE SCIOTO, MANN, ANDHAVANA REGIONS 135 beyond that which could be marshaled by one tivity at these bluff-top sites was directed toward or a few hamlets. The suggestion that some of mortuary ritual and the treatment and burial of these sites were organized around plazas (Buik- the dead. stra 1976; Buikstra et al. 1998:1; Struever and Flood plain mound groups, exemplified by Houart 1972) further argues for a wider partici- the excavated Kamp, Mound House, and Peisker pation in the ceremonies enacted there, as does sites, can be contrasted with the bluff-top ceme- their flood plain location, which made them eas- teries (Baker et al. 1941; Buikstra 1976:41- ily accessible to distant social groups by water 45; Buikstra et al. 1998; Perino 1966a, 1966b; travel. While there are features, structures, de- Struever 1960). Like the bluff-top mounds, flood bris scatters, and midden dumps present at the plain mounds were organized around a central flood plain sites, occupation appears to have been tomb. However, the flood plain mounds are al- temporary and seasonal, rather than year-round. most always larger than any of the bluff-top The Klunk-Gibson mound group provides mounds, and with much larger central tombs. one of the most thoroughly excavated exam- Sometimes the mounds are organized around a ples of a bluff-top cemetery site (Buikstra plaza. The larger flood plain tombs tend to con- 1976; Perino 1968, n.d.). The Gibson group in- tain more individuals within them than the bluff- cluded 6 mounds, the Ben Klunk group included top tombs, but overall the flood plain mound 5 mounds, and the Pete Klunk group had at least groups contain fewer burials per mound and per 14 mounds. The three groups occupy adjacent site.Most flood plain mound centers that have finger ridges forming the bluff crest overlooking been excavated had burial populations between the Illinois river. The area was used for burial 2 and 19 individuals (Asch 1976). Further, burial by Archaic and Late Woodland groups, but Mid- in the flood plain mounds was largely limited dle Woodland use was the most intensive. The to adult males, in contrast to the more inclu- largest mounds'were up to 20 meters in diame- sive burial program expressed in the bluff-top ter and 6 meters tall. The smallest mounds may cemeteries. In short, access to burial in the flood have been natural knolls. The mounds were ar- plain mounds was more restricted, and the greater ranged in a linear fashion following the ridge amounts of energy expended per individual in crests.Over 500 Middle Woodland burials were tomb and mound construction suggest that they excavated from 13 mounds and one natural knoll held positions of social prominence. Buikstra (Braun 1979). Each of the Middle Woodland suggested, "It is not unreasonable to suppose that mounds contained a central tomb, often log-lined these were individuals who exerted influence be- and roofed, and surrounded by earthen ramps. yond the local community" (1976:44). J. A. Brown's (1981) summary of the mortu- Excavations at the Mound House site pro- ary program identifies two burial tracks. The first vide the best evidence for the multi community track involved temporary storage and processing function of the flood plain centers (Buikstra et al. of corpses through the central tomb, eventually 1998). Mound construction at Mound 1 was pre- leading to final burial in and around the surround- ceded by the preparation of a circular space some ing ramp as disarticulated or bundled remains. 20 meters in diameter, marked by a lens of yellow The second track led directly to burial in tombs sand and surrounded by a series of at least three or graves encircling the ramp. Brown suggested concentric rings of postholes filled with yellow that the two tracks represent separate lineages. clays or sands. Buikstra et al. (1998:59-74) in- Charles (1995) extended this interpretation and terpreted this feature as the remains of a series of suggested that the central tomb track may repre- wooden screens or bent-pole structures that had sent lineages that held dominant status because been repeatedly built, dismantled, and rebuilt to they resettled the lower illinois valley earlier than demarcate sacred space as part of a ritual cycle. did other lineages. The subordinate status oflater This ritual complexity is unparalleled at any of immigrant lineages may have been expressed in the bluff-crest mound groups and strongly sug- the peripheral placement of burials in the second gests a broader, multicommunity function for this track (see below). It is clear that virtually all ac- center.Charles and Buikstra (2002) suggested 136 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES that each flood plain center served to forge a so- residential community, comprised of one to sev- cial entity larger than a residential community- eral extended families who lived in isolated ham- a "community of communities.PThese broad lets or closely clustered hamlets of varying size, gatherings would have provided opportunities for such as Apple Creek, Macoupin, Gardens of mate exchanges and other means of securing the Kampsville, and Smiling Dan. At a wider scale, far-reaching social ties necessary to maintain a an individual participated in a local symbolic sustainable community. Here, too, was a con- community that was comprised of members of text for performances intended to forge symbolic several hamlets and was negotiated and main- communities of one kind or another through rit- tained in part through ceremonial activities con- ual enactments, gifting, displays of wealth and ducted at a bluff-top ceremonial center. Each status, and so forth. local symbolic community used and claimed a Relative to the flood plain and bluff- territory, giving the community a political or eco- top dichotomy of ceremonial sites, the Eliz- nomic dimension. At the broadest scale was the abeth/Napoleon Hollow complex is somewhat sustainable community, which was formed from enigmatic. Wiant and McGirnsey (1986) saw the multiple local symbolic communities and was bluff-base Napoleon Hollow site as a ritual camp negotiated and maintained through the ceremo- associated with the bluff-top Elizabeth mounds. nial activities performed at a flood plain center. The authors combined the complex with the A sustainable community constituted a regional Peisker site to form a category that they called the breeding population and probably had other cul- mound/ritual camp. The massive Naples-Russell tural functions. There was an inherent structural Mound 8 on the bluff top, less than one kilometer tension between the structuring of people into a north of Elizabeth, should be included in the site local symbolic community and the structuring of complex, especially since it overlooks the north- people into a broader sustainable community- ern end of the Napoleon Hollow occupation. Sig- between a desire for local control and the need nificantly, recent C-14 dates (Kut and Buikstra for regional integration-which was played out 1998) confirm that this mound was built at the materially in the distinction between the bluff- end of the construction sequence of the Elizabeth top and flood plain ceremonial centers. Each of mound group. It therefore seems more likely that these three kinds of communities is defined more the Elizabeth/N apoleon Hollow /N aples-Russell fully now. complex represents a bluff-top cemetery that ini- Each bluff-top ceremonial site defined tially was used by a local group and that evolved membership in a corporate, territorial, political, into a bluff-top and bluff-base multigroup rit- symbolic community through inclusion in the ual site analogous to the flood plain Kamp, site's cemetery. Age and sex distributions in- Mound House, and Peisker sites (Charles 1985, dicate that virtually everyone-young and old, 1992; Charles et al. 1988). This unusual situa- male and female-was eventually buried in one tion probably arose because the sites are located of the bluff-top mound groups, with the excep- where the Illinois river hugs the western bluff tion of the very highest-status individuals, who for several kilometers and where there was in- were buried in the flood plain mound groups sufficient space for large gatherings of people (Charles and Buikstra 2002). The identification on the flood plain, alone, on that side of the of the bluff-top mound cemeteries as having been river. 6 used by a local symbolic community, but not a sustainable community, is borne out by the sizes of their burial populations. These range be- Community Organization in the tween 25 and 170 individuals, where their ex- Lower Illinois Valley cavation is relatively complete (e.g., Bedford, Middle Woodland individuals in the lower Illi- Gibson, Klunk, Elizabeth, Knight, L'Orient, nois valley belonged to at least three kinds of Montezuma,Mappen, Parsell [Asch 1976; communities at differing geographic and demo- Charles etal. 1988]). These burial populations graphic scales. At the most local level was the sizes are well below what would constitute a COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONSIN THESCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 137 sustainable breeding population (Wobst 1974), tion and boundary contestation between neigh- and would have been generated 'by yet smaller boring local symbolic communities (Charles living populations over the decades. 1995). It is quite likely that several neighboring In contrast, the flood plain ceremonial sites residential communities used the same ceme- involved the coming-together of these econom- tery. The logic of this argument runs as follows. ically competitive, real or fictive lineages from There is genetic continuity through successive several local symbolic, political communities up mounds in a given mound group (Konigsberg and down the river valley. These sites provided a 1990): biological variability within individual context for the construction of sustainable com- mound groups is relatively small compared to munities. The distribution of bluff-top mound that evident between spatially distant mound groups and flood plain ceremonial centers ac- groups along the lower illinois valley trench cords well with this interpretation, as shown by (Buikstra 1976). However, by at least the later the following calculations. A sustainable mar- portion of the Middle Woodland period, a struc- riage network requires a minimum figure of about tural (i.e., spatial) distinction was made in the 500 people (Birdsell 1968;Wobst 1974). About cemeteries between members of dominant lin- 33 hamlets of 15 people each could account for eages that utilized the central crypts and mem- the requisite 500 persons. If three hamlets com- bers of subordinate lineages that were buried prised a bluff-top mound symbolic/political com- in peripheral graves (Brown 1981). The domi- munity, then only 11 of those communities were nant lineages may have resided in one or more necessary to make up the sustainable community. hamlets, while subordinate lineages may have By the end of the Middle Woodland period, bluff- resided in other hamlets. Further, the dominant top mound groups were spaced approximately lineages may have been those who first reset- every 5 kilometers along both sides of the illi- tled the lower illinois valley during the Mid- nois valley, i.e., 2.5 kilometers of river length dle Woodland (founder settlements and daugh- per mound group (Charles 1992). Only 27.5 river ter hamlets), whereas the subordinate lineages kilometers would have been necessary to accom- may have been late-comers (adopted hamlets of modate 11 bluff-top mound communities and a immigrant lineages) (Charles 1992). Thus, the sustainable community of 500 persons. Signifi- bluff-top cemeteries can be interpreted as local cantly, this distance corresponds fairly closely to symbolic, political communities that integrated the distance between large flood plain ceremonial multiple, status-differentiated residential com- centers-about 20 kilometers (Asch et al. 1979; munities, each formed of a hamlet or cluster of Struever and Houart 1972)-suggesting that they hamlets. were built and used by sustainable communities. If the bluff-top mounds constituted iden- Estimates of population density can also be tity markers related to subsistence territories used to explore the relationship between flood (Charles 1992, 1995; Charles and Buikstra plain mound centers and sustainable communi- 1983), then there was not a direct mapping of ties. Based on an independent set of excavated individual residential communities onto discrete mound sites, Asch (1976) estimated a popula- economic catchments. Instead, there was a cor- tion density for illinois valley Middle Woodland respondence among the local symbolic com- populations at 25 persons per river kilometer. At munity, as a set of related lineages defined by this density, flood plain ceremonial sites spaced reference to a bluff-top cemetery, a subsistence at 20-km intervals along the river would each territory, and rights to its use to the exclusion have accommodated a sustainable community of of neighboring local symbolic communities. The 500 persons. conspicuous consumption of grave goods may Marriage networks would not have been have been a medium of status competition and/or the only structures or relations requiring sustain- social cooperation among individuals or resi- able communities. The exchange (e.g., feasting, dential communities. Bluff-top mound construc- gift-giving, formal partnerships) and funerary tion may have been a means for status competi- activities conducted at these sites would have 138 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES served to create a network of relationships that lamellar blades 7 characteristic of the Mann site could have mediated subsistence risks and would blade assemblage. These 111 components, plus have provided opportunities for the exchange of the Mann site and one additional mound (the information (Charles and Buikstra 2002). Sus- GE mound), are now recognized as constituents tainable communities also would have provided of the "Mann phase" occupation of southwest- another arena through which individual and lin- ern Indiana (Figure 4.3).8 Because many aspects eage hierarchies would have been negotiated and of the Mann site and its surrounding sites are contested (Charles 1992, 1995). unpublished, they are described in some detail here. Summary All of the available evidence suggests that A Middle Woodland individual living in the Illi- Mann phase populations had made a significant nois valley would have been a member of three commitment to agriculture. Mann phase seed kinds of communities of differing scales and assemblages are dominated by cultivated starchy functions: a residential community comprised of seeds. At one well-documented site (Grabert), a household, hamlet, or cluster, of closely spaced the ratio of recovered seeds to nutshells is among hamlets; a local symbolic, territorial, political, the highest of those documented for the Midwest 9 and economic community comprised of multiple during the Middle Woodland. households, hamlets, or hamlet clusters, focused Three site types subsume most of the func- on a bluff-top funerary site, and probably asso- tional variability in Mann phase settlements: ciated with a food resource catchment; and a re- households or hamlets, short-term extractive gional sustainable community that was critical to camps, and ceremonial centers. The Mann site, marriage, status contestation, and possibly sub- itself, stands in a class of its own, with both its sistence exchange, and that was materialized in earthen architecture and habitation remains, and a flood plain ceremonial center. cannot be relegated exclusively to either the cere- monial or the domestic sphere. It is distinguished from the other classes by its size, intensity of oc- HOPEWELLIAN COMMUNITIES cupation, and complexity as measured by invest- IN THE WABASH-OHIO RIVER ment in mound and earthwork construction, the CONFLUENCE REGION quantity and diversity of exotica present, and the range of activities evident. Archaeologists have long been aware of the Mann site: a single, very large Hopewellian earthwork, mound, and habitation complex Households and Hamlets located along the lower Ohio river near its con- Households and hamlets of the Mann phase fluence with the Wabash (Adams 1949). How- community conform quite closely to the small ever, until recently, only a handful of archae- Hopewellian settlements composed of one to ological components in the Wabash Lowlands three households, as identified by B. Smith were recognized as related to the Mann site. (1992). In surface collections, these households These were linked to the site by the presence of or hamlets are defined by the presence of util- complicated stamped ceramics. It has recently itarian ceramics, rare occurrences of decorated been possible to identify an additional 51 re- ceramics, and a wide range of lithic tool types lated ceramic-bearing Mann phase components and debitage. Fifty-one components meeting this by focusing on the distinctive attributes of the un- description have been identified to date in south- decorated assemblage from the Mann site (Ruby western Indiana. 1993, 1997a). This same study identified an ad- Test excavations at four of these sites- ditional 60 components bearing temporally di- Grabert (12 Po 248), Hovey Lake (12 Po 10), agnostic Lowe and Copena Cluster bifaces in Kuester (12 Vg 71), and Ellerbusch (12 W combination with the distinctive "Ohio-style" 56)-revealed a redundant pattern of small-scale COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONSIN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 139

Mann Phase Sites

• Households/Hamlets

.•. Lithic-only

+N Figure 4.3. Hopewellian mound and earthwork sites in southwestern Indiana. occupations represented by loose clusters of shal- Middle Woodland domestic household sizes re- low bathtub or basin-shaped pits, thin middens, ported by B. Smith (1992:figure 9.8 [4.5-130.5 and scattered postholes. The basin-shaped pits square meters, 2-18 individualsj.!' Two cor- always contained fire-cracked rock and often rected and uncalibrated radiocarbon dates (Beta- displayed direct evidence of in situ burning, sug- 38550, 1780 ± 60 rcybp; Beta-38551, 1810 ± gesting food processing rather than storage. None 60 rcybp) place the Grabert site occupation close of these sites has produced evidence of below- to A.D. 150. ground storage facilities. The regional, topographic distribution of 51 The Grabert site is the largest and most ex- identified, dispersed households and hamlets of tensively excavated of the four sites. The total the Mann phase, beyond the Mann site, shows area of scatter is 1.6 hectares, but most debris was the same focus on main valley bottomland set- limited to three individual midden concentrations tings characteristic of Middle Woodland-period ranging in size from 500 to 1,500 square meters settlement elsewhere in the Midcontinent. Only (0.05-0.15 hectare). Block excavations exposed three (6%) of the Mann phase habitations oc- 93 square meters of the central and highest con- cupations occur in interior upland settings. The centration and revealed the remains of at least household distribution shows a marked prefer- two overlapping circular or oval, single- wall-post ence for highly productive flood plain (38%), low structures. The more completely exposed struc- terrace (42%) and high terrace/lacustrine plain ture was no more than four meters in diameter. A (15%) soils.About 80% of the habitations lo- structure of this size (12.6 square meters) would cated within the active flood plain or on low ter- accommodate approximately five individuals. 10 race landforms would have been exposed to sig- This is toward the very low end of the range of nificant risk of late winter and spring floods. This 140 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

suggests that they may have been occupied only cal mounds on the eastern edge of the site ap- during the warm season. pear to have had primarily funerary functions, and to have expressed group identity and mem- Short- Term Extractive Camps bership on a scale consistent with a small res- idential or local symbolic community. On the The second element of the Mann phase commu- other hand, a series of much larger geometric nity might be termed the short-term extractive earthworks, loaf-shaped mounds, and platform camp. Unfortunately, none of these sites has been mounds seems to express a nonmortuary cere- excavated, so their actual function remains spec- monialism that may have served to integrate a ulative. Sites identified as short-term extractive much broader suite of communities, analogous camps are characterized by restricted tool as- to the lower Illinois valley flood plain ceremonial semblages, typically including only diagnostic complexes. projectile points, debitage reflecting tool main- In all, the site contains two rectangular en- tenance activities, and lamellar blades. Ceramics closures (IU 2 and 3), a third partial rectangular are absent. Sixty components conforming to this enclosure (IU 4), two C-shaped enclosures (IU description have been found to date in southwest- 7 and 17), a circular enclosure (IU 16), a very ern Indiana. long linear earthwork (IU 10), two large rectan- The extractive camps are more numerous gular mounds (IU8 and 9), two large loaf-shaped than the household sites discussed above, have mounds (IU 1 and 6), and six conical mounds a wider spatial distribution, and occur in a more (IU 5 and 11-15) (Kellar 1979; Ruby 1997:321- diverse array of environmental settings, as would 351). be expected if they were extractive camps. Sev- Two rectangular enclosures dominate the eral sites occupy interior upland and tributary western edge of the site. One (IU 2) is a stream settings, in addition to those found in flood three-sided rectangular enclosure 600 meters plain and terrace settings, which also were cho- long and 300 meters wide, opening on Cypress sen for ceramic-bearing habitations. Slough to the south. The work encloses a very large loaf-shaped mound (IU 1). The other work (IU 3) is a regular square 310 meters on a side, A Ceremonial Center with with 15-meter-wide gateways at the comers and Domestic Habitations: The Mann Site midpoint of each wall. The size and design of this The Mann site is located on a high, flat terrace square enclosure are very similar or identical to that overlooks an extensive backwater slough and those of 10 other Hopewellian mound and earth- a broad expanse of Ohio river flood plain, about work complexes in southern Ohio. These simi- 20 kilometers upstream from the Wabash river larities strongly suggest direct contact between confluence. The site consists of series of geomet- Middle Woodland populations at the Mann site ric earthworks, mounds and an extensive habita- and Ohio Hopewell populations. tion area. The total site complex covers an area The central portion of the site, east of of about 175 hectares (Figure 4.4). the two square enclosures, is dominated by two large rectangular flat-topped mounds, two C-shaped embankments, and a large conical Mann Site Ceremonial Contexts mound. The eastern portion of the site contains a A series of aerial photographs, limited field ob- linear embankment stretching some 700 meters, servations, and amateur excavations reveal some- as well as five smaller conical mounds. A small thing of the nature and magnitude of ceremo- circular enclosure is located along an intermit- nial sphere contexts at the Mann site. As in tent stream defining the eastern edge of the site the contrast between Illinois bluff-top and flood complex. These structures obviously represent a plain mound sites, there seems to be a di- tremendous investment of labor. In fact, two of chotomy in the nature and function of ceremo- the Mann site mounds (IU 1 and 9) rank among nial sphere contexts at Mann. Five small coni- the five largest Middle Woodland mounds in 8 ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ N

IU3 I I c~ ....J...- ~ IU6 ~ ~ , ~ IU2'" ~ v., Q c 1,- ~ IIu4 Mann Site (12 Po 2) ~ I .< ~N= I 500' ~ Contour- Interval=5 feet ~

~;.:.:

~ Figure 4.4. The Mann site, Posey County, southwest Indiana. ~

•.... •.j.;:...o. 142 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES the Midwest (along with the nearby GE mound and associated funerary objects are absent. In- and the Seip-Pricer and Hopewell mound 25 in stead, some other form of ceremonialism is in- Ohio). dicated, which may have promoted integrative None of the Mann site mounds have been functions that cross-cut social divisions based explored professionally. We do have two writ- on residence or kinship. The midden-like de- ten accounts documenting amateur and antiquar- posits are similar to others more typically found ian explorations in the largest of the fiat-topped in habitations, suggesting that food processing, mounds (IV 9) and several of the smaller conical consumption, and discard were important ele- structures (Hiatt n.d.; Lacer n.d.). ments in the ceremonies conducted here. Thus, Excavations in the large fiat-topped mound the platform mounds may have been used in ways (IV 9) indicate that it served as a stage for cer- that brought individuals and social groups to- emonial activities not directly associated with gether in order to share in common experiences, burial of the dead. As documented below, including ones involving food. Joint participa- such structures and activities are not unique tion in or observation of the ritual destruction of to Mann phase contexts. Recent investigations symbolically charged and economically valuable of similar Middle Woodland mounds in south- goods and raw materials is also indicated. central Ohio, the Midsouth, and the lower Mis- In contrast, the group of five relatively small sissippi valley suggest that such structures and conical mounds at the eastern extreme of the site activities were part of a distinctive, patterned ex- is clearly associated with mortuary activity and pression of nonmortuary Hopewellian ceremoni- presumably expressive of kinship-related ties to alism that has only recently been recognized. ancestors. The largest of these mounds, IV 13,12 Excavations in IV 9 produced evidence of is a relatively modest structure, about 40 meters at least three horizontal sand floors located at in- across and 3-5 meters tall. About 25 people could tervals well above the base of the mound. These have built a mound this size in a month.P The strata may reasonably be interpreted as floors, structure and contents of the mound are very sim- as they are associated with several post molds, ilar to those of the bluff-top mounds in Illinois. though no obvious pattern was documented; At least 54 people were buried in and around a midden-like deposits of charcoal, burned bone, central log tomb and a set of surrounding earthen lithic debris, and broken pottery; and eight shal- ramps. All segments of the population are repre- low, basin-shaped pits that contained redeposited sented: infants, children, adolescents, and adults, materials reflecting nonmortuary ceremonial- both male and female (Lacer n.d.). About one- ism. The pits contained a variety of exotic raw half of these burials were accompanied by items materials and finished artifacts, most of which for personal adornment or possibly for marking had been subjected to intense fire or mechan- clan or sodality affiliation (Carr, Chapter 7; Carr ical breakage, including galena, crystal quartz, et al., Chapter 13; Thomas et al., Chapter 8), in- obsidian, mica, engraved bone, drilled canines, cluding marine shell and freshwater pearl beads, turtle shell fragments, ceramic vessel fragments, copper earspools, and cut and drilled bear ca- and more. Several of the pits contained burned nines. The evidence from the other small coni- and unburned animal bone and charred nuts and cal mounds is more fragmentary, but consistent seeds. The evidence suggests that feasting may with the interpretation that these small conical have been one of the activities associated with the mounds represent cemeteries used by one or sev- sand floors and pits on the mound. Charred mate- eral small, residential communities. rial from one of the pits produced a radiocarbon date of A.D. 420 ± 45 (DIC-I017, uncalibrated [Kellar 1979]). Mann Site Domestic Contexts Importantly, there is little evidence to sug- The most unique characteristic of the Mann site gest that the ceremonialism reflected at IV 9 was is the areal extent and density of its midden de- directly related to mortuary activities. Burials posits. Surface surveys and midden stains visible COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 143 in aerial photographs document dense habitation domestic sphere activities: mounds, earthworks, debris covering an area of at least 40'hectares, un- and dense habitation debris are not clearly seg- like anything reported for Ohio Hopewell earth- regated in the most intensively surveyed, central work centers. Some fraction of the 40 hectares portion of the site. While the density of habita- is attributable to a Late Prehistoric (Caborn- tion debris is impressive, the few available radio- Welborn phase) occupation; however, all ob- carbon dates document almost three centuries of servers agree that the vast majority of this de- occupation during the Mann phase, from about bris relates to the Middle Woodland occupation. A.D. 150 to 450. Thus, it is not necessary to con- The debris field is essentially continuous near the clude that a large population was present at any southern margin of the site. As one approaches one time. Also, individual household units need the northern bound, away from the high terrace not have been tightly integrated socially, politi- edge, the surface debris is entirely attributable cally, or economically. The organizationally in- to the Mann phase occupation and begins to re- dependent midden patches on the periphery of solve into a series of discontinuous patches, one- the most heavily occupied area point to a long half hectare or less in size (Kellar 1979: 102; series of temporally and spatially shifting occu- Lacer n.d:I-4), and possibly indicating individ- pations by relatively small and autonomous so- ual households. cial units. Elsewhere in the Wabash Lowlands, Kellar's (1979) four Indiana University there is abundant evidence for small household field schools conducted between 1964 and 1977 or hamlet-sized occupations during the Mann encountered habitation debris far in excess of phase. Even so, the density and intensity of habi- what might be expected if the site had been oc- tation debris at the Mann site far exceeds any cupied by only ritual specialists. Excavations in Middle Woodland site in either Illinois or Ohio. 1964 encountered a terrace-edge trash dump cov- The dates of the habitation remains within ering at least 100 square meters and extending al- the Mann site relative to the dates of its square most 1 meter below the ground surface. Widely enclosures are not fully clear. However, square spaced excavations in 1966 and 1967 encoun- enclosures in Ohio that are very similar or iden- tered clusters of shallow, basin-shaped pits, and tical to IU3 at Mann (see above) date between two very large features approximately 2 meters about A.D. 200 and 300 (De Boer 1997:232, 234; across and up to 1.5 meters deep, with fills sug- see also Greber 1997:215), in the middle of the gesting their use as earth ovens. In 1966, one 5 x span of dates for the habitation areas at Mann. lO-foot trench was excavated through midden deposits to a depth of more than 3 meters, ap- Ceremonial Centers parently sampling a backfilled borrow pit. Fi- Lacking Domestic Habitations nally, in 1977, excavations documented two large At least two other sites in the Wabash-Ohio river pit features: one a straight-sided, cylindrical flat- confluence area served ceremonial functions dur- bottomed pit that may have served as a storage ing the Mann phase. These differ markedly in facility, and the other a very large (3 x 1.5+ scale, one being among the largest Middle Wood- meters), shallow basin containing alternating lay- land constructions anywhere, the other much ers of burned limestone and midden debris, sug- more modest in proportion. gesting a very large food processing facility. In short, each area tested to date has revealed high densities of food processing and storage fa- TheGE Mound cilities, and some very deep midden accumula- The GE mound, or Mount Vernon site (12 Po tions. No structures have been identified, but scat- 885), is located in an upland setting near the tered postholes and the discrete midden patches mouth of the Wabash river, about eight kilome- suggest their presence. The available evidence ters west of the Mann site. The site was discov- on the internal organization of the site suggests ered in 1988 during county earth-moving oper- a very weak spatial separation of ceremonial and ations. The site was subsequently subjected to 144 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES extensive looting, followed by several indict- 18; Griffin 1965; Griffin et al. 1969; Hatch et al. ments and convictions under the Archaeological 1990; Ruhl1992, 1996; Ruhl and Seeman 1998). Resources Protection Act, and the recovery of a Seeman (1992) estimated that the GE assemblage portion of the artifacts removed from the mound. was deposited between about A.D. 100 and A.D. Limited test excavations designed to determine 300. On this basis, GE is assigned to the Mann the extent of the looting were conducted by the phase rather than the earlier Crab Orchard occu- Indiana Department of Transportation (IDOT) in pation of the region. 1988 (General Electric Company 1997; Seeman Several observations support the notion 1992,1995; Tomak 1990, Tomak 1994). that this structure represents something more The GE mound reflects an investment of la- than just a burial ground-that it served as bor on a truly monumental scale.Prior to its dis- a context for integrative ritual, activity, and turbance, the GE mound was a loaf-shaped struc- symbolism.First is the imposing size of the ture approximately 125 meters long, 50 meters structure, itself, which certainly speaks of a wide, and 6 meters high. The site ranks among significant cooperative investment. Second is the the five largest Hopewell mounds in the Mid- structure as a monument--a work possessing the west and was comparable in size to Seip-Pricer attributes of prominence and persistence-an en- in south-central Ohio. during symbol of social affiliation made mani- Information regarding the context of the ar- fest on the landscape (Charles 1985; Wheatley tifacts recovered is sketchy at best, but the GE 1996:84-88). Third is the fact that many of the site was clearly the focus of a complex ceremo- artifacts deposited in the mound had been in- nial program. The "main feature of the mound tentionally destroyed through heating or smash- was a central deposit containing several thou- ing. Although we know nothing of the con- sand bifaces ... this deposit was surrounded or text of this destruction, it seems reasonable that capped with human burials and artifact deposits" the destruction of artifacts so evidently charged (Seeman 1992:24). Most if not all of the arti- with wealth and symbolism had the potential facts appear to have been recovered at or near to serve as the focus of an impressive public the mound floor, perhaps in formal deposits. No spectacle. intact burials were recovered, but the presence The GE mound appears to have been spa- of both burned and unburned human bone in the tially as well as functionally divorced from the IDOT collections from the site suggests that ex- domestic sphere. There is no evidence of any tended processing and manipulation of the dead domestic habitation immediately adjacent to the was a part of the mortuary program. mound or in the nearby lowlands. In fact, the only Often-spectacular status and ceremonial ar- evidence of associated activity in the vicinity of tifacts (Seeman 1992:table 1, 1995) were re- the mound comes in the form of chert debitage covered from the mound in great diversity, reflecting the production or refinement of bifaces suggesting that people were major players for inclusion in the central deposit. in Hopewellian interaction and procurement. Among the artifacts were more than 2,000 large ovate bifaces, most fashioned of Burlington chert The Martin Site (12 Vg 41) from the lower Illinois valley area; at least 3 At least one other site in the lower Wabash region, large crystal quartz bifaces; at least 10 obsid- the Martin site, appears to belong within the cer- ian bifaces; 5 mica cutouts; 13 copper earspools, emonial sphere of the Mann phase Hopewellian 8 with silver covers; 3 copper panpipes, 2 with community. 14 Martin consists of three small con- silver covers; copper nuggets and beads; and a ical mounds preserved in a 19th Century ceme- size-graded series of 23 copper celts. The most tery. The largest stands less than two meters temporally sensitive of these are the obsidian bi- high. Because these have not been excavated, faces and the stylistic attributes of one of the their attribution to the Mann phase is based on silver-covered earspools. Both of these should associated debris surrounding the mounds and date close to or after A.D. 100 (Rule, Chapter is, consequently, less certain. Surrounding the COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 145 mounds is a low-density scatter containing lamel- Small-scale mounded cemeteries in the lar blades and undecorated ceramics similar to Mann area, such as the five small conical mounds those documented at the Mann site. The greatest at the Mann site and the three at the Martin site, density of materials is contained within a single appear from their burial populations and mortu- 40 x 6O-meter area. ary programs to have functioned in forging (lo- The ceremonial centers of Mann, Martin, cal?) symbolic communities composed of mul- and GE are all located on upland or terrace tiple residential communities represented by the landforms. It is possible that activities involv- scattered, often seasonal, hamlets. In structure ing suprahousehold integration were scheduled and content, the cemeteries are similar to the con- to correspond to portions of the year when low- ical bluff-top mounded cemeteries in the lower land habitats were inaccessible. This situation Illinois valley but are relatively few in number. mirrors the accessibility in the Illinois valley of There also is no clear evidence that the conical the elevated ridges and terraces where flood plain mounds in the Mann area were used as territorial ceremonial sites were located. markers to broadcast and validate claims to sub- sistence territories, as were the conical mounds in Illinois. Sites like Mann and GE, marked by truly Community Organization in the monumental public architecture and ceremonial Lower Wabash-Ohio River Confluence facilities, were more closely linked to feasting As in the Illinois case, and as we shall see for and public pageantry than mortuary ritual, and the Ohio case, there is evidence that Mann- likely served to integrate multiple residential and phase peoples organized themselves into com- symbolic communities into a single, large, sym- munities of varying demographic and spatial bolic, and sustainable community organized on scales. Residential communities comprised of a regional scale.Mann and GE, eight kilome- one or a few households were dispersed over the ters apart, appear to have served partially dif- lower Wabash-Ohio river confluence landscape, ferent and partially overlapping functions within much as they were in Ohio. The small size and this regional community. Mann has rectangular apparently seasonal, warm-weather occupation enclosures and rectangular mounds for stag- of the Wabash-Ohio hamlets distinguishes them ing nonmortuary rituals as well as large, loaf- from bluff-base habitations in Illinois, which shaped mounds that, by analogy to GE and simi- seem to have been occupied year-round, were larly shaped mounds in Ohio and Illinois (e.g., commonly somewhat larger, and occasionally Hopewell Mound 25, the Seip-Pricer, Seip- may have been much larger.Mann phase hamlets Conjoined, Edwin Harness, and Kamp mounds, were certainly smaller than the clusters of two to Mound House), would have been used for cer- five bluff-base habitations along the Illinois val- emonial displays and the decommissioning of ley trench that possibly each constituted a dis- fancy ritual items in deposits, attendant with any- persed residential community. Clusters of sev- where from few to many burials. The GE site eral small, one-household settlements found in lacks earthworks and rectangular staging mounds some Ohio contexts (e.g.,Pacheco 1996:26,29, and has only the one huge and rich mound cre- 1997:56,58; see below) have analogs in the Mann ated in the course of ceremonial display, de- phase area. commissioning, and burial. In its size and di- In contrast to the small, dispersed residential versity of fancy artifacts, it recalls Hopewell communities in the Mann region was a residential Mound 25 in Ohio, which was a specialized community of larger scale, to some unknown de- burial place for social leaders and other per- gree, within the Mann site. This residential com- sons of social importance (Carr, Chapter 7).15 munity probably was as large as or larger than The partially complementary functions of Mann the bigger of the bluff-base settlements in the and GE imply one regional, symbolic, and sus- Illinois valley or the clusters of bluff-base settle- tainable community rather than two smaller ments along that valley. ones. 146 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

In their function as centers for gatherings ble density of mound and earthwork centers or of a sustainable community for considerable a comparable range or concentration of exotic nonmortuary-related activity as well as burial, raw materials or finished artifacts (Prufer 1964a; Mann and GE resemble the flood plain mound Squier and Davis 1848). centers in the lower Illinois valley (see above). In All of the early observers (e.g., Atwater their functional differentiation within one sym- 1820; Squier and Davis 1848) were struck by the bolic community, they remind us of the function- scale and geometry of the works in Ross County, ally differentiated earthworks within symbolic and it seemed intuitively obvious that the earth- communities in Ohio (see below). work builders must have lived in large, perma- In total, the ceremonial sphere of the Mann nent villages and supported their extravagances phase and its archaeological manifestations both through an industrious agriculture. But despite resemble and differ from those in the lower more than 150 years of investigation, few if any Illinois valley. The contrast between the clus- occupations of any size have been identified in ters of small conical mounds that were used to association with the great works. bury persons from multiple residential commu- Almost 40 years ago, Olaf Prufer pro- nities and to create symbolic communities, and posed that Middle Woodland settlement patterns the large, loaf-shaped mounds that were the fo- in the central Scioto region could be charac- cus of larger sustainable communities, holds in terized by "a system of semi-permanent shift- both geographic regions. However, the material- ing agricultural farmsteads or hamlets, clustered spatial organization of symbolic and sustain- around a series of ceremonial centers with which able communities differs between the regions. a number of such settlements identified them- In the Illinois case, the conical and loaf-shaped selves" (1965: 137). The central tenets of Prufer 's mounds that represented local symbolic com- "model" were that individual settlements were munities and sustainable communities, respec- small and dispersed, occupied for no more than a tively, were separated in distinct bluff-top and generation or so, and the monumental mound and flood plain locations, whereas in southwestern earthwork centers were "vacant", in the sense that Indiana, the conical and loaf-shaped mounds they did not serve the domestic residential needs that represented these two social units, respec- of any significant number of people (Prufer 1965, tively, were sometimes located apart (e.g., Mar- 1997c). tin versus GE) and sometimes together (e.g., A 1992 Society for American Archaeol- at Mann). ogy symposium dedicated to a reevaluation of Prufer's "vacant center" model confirmed the HOPEWELLIAN COMMUNITIES utility of the model with only minor revi- AT THE PAINT CREEK-SCIOTO sions (Dancey and Pacheco 1997b). Dancey and RIVER CONFLUENCE Pacheco formalized and extended Prufer's ideas as the "dispersed sedentary community model" The confluence of Paint Creek and the Scioto (Dancey and Pacheco 1997b). In this model, River in Ross County, Ohio, has long been rec- the fundamental organizational unit of Ohio ognized as the center of the most flamboyant Hopewell society is a community of unspecified Hopewellian expression anywhere in the Eastern kind, composed of isolated, sedentary, farming, Woodlands. At least nine major mound and earth- single or multiple-family households (ham- work centers, several minor centers, and dozens lets) dispersed around a centrally located ritual of mounds or mound groups are concentrated precinct marked by mounds and earthworks. Spe- within a 30-kilometer radius of the Scioto-Paint cialized camps and activity loci related to the Creek confluence (Figure 4.5). Several of these use and construction of mound and earthworks centers are unmatched in scale anywhere out- may be found within the ritual precinct, but there side the south-central Ohio area, enclosing ar- should be little if any evidence of domestic occu- eas as large as 31 hectares. No other region of pation. Individual communities, each identified Hopewellian development displays a compara- with its own central earthwork group, are spaced COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANAREGIONS 147

37

47

44

45

1 2

AN- o 30 : Key # Sites in this book 10 N Streams and rivers

Figure 4.5. Hopewellian mound and earthwork sites in the Scioto-Paint Creek area and broader Ohio. Isolated mounds and mound groups are denoted by name only; earthworks are specified as such. (1) Pense, (2) Lee, (3) West, (4) Turner earthwork, (5) Boyles Farm, (6) Finney, (7) Rutledge, (8) Wright, (9) Melvin Phillips, (10) Rock- hold, (11) Seip earthwork, (12) Baum earthwork, (13) Bourneville, (14) Frankfort earthwork, (15) Ater, (16) Hopewell earthwork, (17) Anderson earthwork, (18) Junction earthworks, (19) Snake Den, (20) Circleville earthwork, (21) Westenhaver, (22) Blackwater earthwork, (23) Dunlap earthwork, (24) Cedar Bank earthwork, (25) Ginther, (26) Shilder, (27) Hopeton earthwork, (28) Mound City earthwork, (29) Shriver earthwork, (30) Works East earthwork, (31) High Bank earthwork, (32) Liberty earthwork, (33) McKenzie, (34) Seal earthwork, (35) Tremper earthwork, (36) Portsmouth Square earthwork, (37) Esch, (38) Wells,(39) Eagle, (40) Stone, (41) Hazlett, (42) Rollins Ford Farm, (43) Martin, (44) Yant, (45) Kohl, (46) Marietta earthwork, and (47) North Benton. at regular intervals along river courses, accord- valley margins (Dancey and Pacheco 1997a:7, ing to Dancey and Pacheco's schema. Pacheco's figure 1.2b). Specialized camps supporting spe- (l996a) description of Hopewellian communi- cific subsistence pursuits and extractive activi- ties in the central Muskingum region is perhaps ties, as well as significant symbolic places, may the clearest expression of this. He described six be found throughout the community's territorial independent Ohio Hopewell communities, each range. It is impossible to specify whether the focused on an earthwork center.Where multi- Ohio Hopewellian communities envisioned by ple earthworks fall within the apparent territorial Dancey and Pacheco would be residential, lo- bounds of a single community, he posited that this cal symbolic, and/or sustainable communities "is probably indicative of time, rather than addi- in the terms used in this chapter. The authors tional communities" (Pacheco 1996:24). Territo- do not model enough about the social com- rial boundaries between contiguous communities position, functions, and activities of such hy- are fixed on valley floors, but more open and fluid pothetical communities to define them to this where they face into upland hunting grounds on detail. 148 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLASK. CHARLES

At a broader scale, Dancey and Pacheco vestigations in the area since 1994. Expansion of (1997a:9b) postulated that some of "the burial the former Mound City Group National Mon- groups under the conjoined mounds at sites ument to include four additional Hopewellian like Seip, Liberty, and Hopewell may represent mound and earthwork centers in Ross County, the dominant lineages of several adjacent com- Ohio (the Hopeton Works, Hopewell Mound munities," elaborating on Carr and Maslowski Group, High Bank Works, and Seip Earthworks), (1995:338-339).Each such set of contiguous has prompted new surveys and excavations de- communities may have constituted a peer polity, signed to evaluate the nature and integrity of the focused on its own, centrally located public new park units, and to evaluate additional sites in works. Dancey and Pacheco (1997a:9-1O) sug- the region for possible inclusion in the park. Re- gested that the very largest mound and earthwork cent investigations in the vicinity of Mound City, centers in each of the various southern Ohio re- Hopeton, Hopewell, and Seip have not yet been gions may have served this role: for example, fully reported, but the preliminary results support the Hopewell Mound Group in the Scioto-Paint the contention that individual Hopewellian do- Creek confluence region, the Newark complex mestic habitations in the Scioto-Paint Creek re- in the Muskingum watershed, the Portsmouth gion were small-more aptly described as house- works at the mouth of the Scioto, and Turner holds or hamlets than villages (contra Griffin Earthworks in the region drained by the Great 1996). The new research also documents a va- Miami and Little Miami rivers. riety of special-purpose areas in association with In Dancey and Pacheco's model, the orga- these major enclosures. nization of Ohio Hopewellian communities was based on a swidden agricultural subsistence strat- Households and Hamlets egy. Agriculture was developed enough to pro- duce the dietary staples of the peoples and to have Habitations and Specialized Sites in the had a major impact on the local forest ecology Immediate Scioto-Paint Creek Area (Dancey and Pacheco 1997 a: i1). The McGraw site, excavated in 1963, remains There is a growing body of empirical data the only published example of an excavated do- in support of the most fundamental tenets of mestic habitation in the vicinity of the Scioto- this model. Large nucleated settlements have Paint Creek confluence (Prufer 1965). There, not been identified in association with any ma- Prufer found buried in the active Scioto River jor earthwork center or elsewhere on the land- flood plain a midden deposit averaging about scape. Instead, wherever intensive and system- 18 centimeters thick and covering an area of atic surveys have been undertaken in the vicinity about 0.12 hectare (about 30 x 40 meters). No of the major Ohio centers, these reveal a pat- remains of structures or other features were iden- tern of small-scale domestic habitations located tified, possibly because the area excavated was a outside of the earthwork walls, along with a va- trash dump downslope of a work and/or habi- riety of special-purpose activity areas both in- tation area (Carr and Haas 1996:28; Dancey side and outside the walls. The specialized loci 1991:38). Erosion and the difficulties of iden- are variously interpreted as ritual camps, work- tifying postmolds and pits in the midden-stained shops, plazas, and blade manufacturing and use soils remain other possibilities. The midden as- areas. semblage conforms to the expected composi- The following sections summarize some tion of a domestic refuse deposit. The artifact of this evidence and supplement it with no- assemblage is dominated by utilitarian ceram- tices of new data emerging from recent field- ics, chert debitage, cutting tools, and projec- work in the region. After a long hiatus that wit- tiles. Only a few items hint at participation in nessed only sporadic field investigations in the Hopewellian ritual and long-distance procure- Scioto-Paint Creek region, the National Park ment: some scrap mica, a copper awl or drill, Service has sponsored a ressurgence in field in- two worked bear canines, a sandstone cone, and COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 149 five crude ceramic figurine fragments. By far, riod activity across the entire landform, and three the bulk of the assemblage reflects 'more mun- relatively dense concentrations of Middle Wood- dane concerns. Faunal remains were abundant land period diagnostics: the "Triangle" (33 Ro throughout-mostly deer, with turkey, turtles, 812), "Overly" (33Ro 110), and "Redwing" (33 fish, and shellfish as subdominants. Flotation was Ro 813) components. In no case do the material not used, the technique having been in its infancy, densities approach those characteristic of nearby but nonetheless, the midden yielded some wild Late Woodland or Fort Ancient-period village plant food remains (nutshell and berry seeds), occupations, such as Harness-28 (Coughlin and and a single cob and a few kernels of maize (Zea Seeman 1997; Seeman 1981a, 1981b), Gartner mays).16 (Mills 1904; Troy 2002), and Baum (Mills 1906). There is little other direct evidence of sub- Two of the densest concentrations of Mid- sistence practices, particularly with respect to dle Woodland-period debris at the Hopeton agricultural practices, from Hopewellian sites Works were intensively investigated by archaeo- in the immediate Scioto-Paint Creek area. A geophysical methods and wide-area mechanical few samples from the Salt Creek valley are stripping: Mark Lynott's 1994 and 1998 investi- discussed below. However, cultivated and do- gations at the Triangle component and William mesticated plant resources including cucur- Dancey's 1995 investigations at the Overly Tract bits, sunflower, sumpweed, goosefoot, maygrass, (Dancey 1997; Lynott 1998a, 1998b, Lynott knotweed, and little barley are consistently 2001; Weymouth 1996, 1998a, 1998b). In both present in Hopewellian assemblages from sites areas, loose clusters of shallow refuse and rock- in the nearby Licking River drainage (Wymer filled basins and occasional earth ovens were re- 1997). The co-occurrence of these plants along vealed, and no remains of structures were iden- with genera characteristic of both mature and tified. Portions of both of these concentrations early successional forests suggests the operation could be attributed to pre or post-Middle Wood- of a forest swidden agricultural system (Wymer land period occupations. Field observations sug- 1997). Hopewellian botanical assemblages from gest that the Middle Woodland period occupa- locations farther afield along the Ohio river, in tions were household or hamlet-scale habita- southwestern and southeastern Ohio, are remark- tions with evidence for a full range of domes- ably similar in the representation of cultigens and tic activities, but with no evidence of the inten- domesticates (Wymer 1996). sive and structured use of space characteristic of Systematic surface surveys and excava- later Ohio village-scale occupations. Surface sur- tions at the Hopeton and Hopewell earthworks, vey, geophysical exploration, and limited subsur- yet unpublished, have provided evidence on face testing at the Redwing component revealed habitations that complements that from McGraw. what may be a specialized locus of activities At Hopeton, systematic surface surveys under the that were more likely corporate-ceremonial than direction of Ruby (1996, 1997c; Ruby and Troy domestic (see below; also Ruby 1997b, 1997c, 1997), Dancey (1997), and Burks et al. (2002) 1997d). have produced the most comprehensive and de- The flood plain below the Hopeton Works tailed artifact distribution maps in the vicinity of has not been as intensively surveyed, but there any major Ohio Hopewell earthwork. Virtually are indications of Middle Woodland activity in the entire terrace surface within 1,000 meters the area (Brose 1976). Ruby excavated a small- of the earthworks was surveyed under condi- scale test trench in 1995 and identified a low- tions of good surface visibility (open, culti- density midden deposit buried by a meter of allu- vated soils) at transect intervals of no more than vial sediments. It was radiocarbon dated to about 10 meters. In most areas, all artifacts-including A.D. 100 radiocarbon time (33 Ro 811, Beta- chert debitage and fire-cracked rock-were in- 109961; see Appendix 4.1 and Dancey 1995). dividually piece-plotted. These detailed studies Survey in and around the Hopewell Mound documented widespread Middle Woodland pe- Group has failed to locate evidence of large, 150 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHERCARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

nucleated villages (Seeman 1981a, 1981b). How- Archaic and Middle Woodland lithics and one ever, a recent shovel-test survey of 21 local- possible Middle Woodland period ceramic sherd ities within a lO-kilometer radius did doc- within an area of about 100 x 120 meters (1.2 ument widespread, if somewhat ephemeral, hectares) (Bush et al. 1992). Plow-zone strip- Middle Woodland activity in the vicinity. One ping exposed an estimated 25% of the total site of these localities ("Datum H") produced a rel- area and revealed six refuse-filled pits and 53 atively high proportion (approximately 25%) of postmolds (Ohio Department of Transportation undecorated ceramics, and is a strong candidate 1993). Five of the refuse-filled pits were shallow for a small-scale domestic habitation just outside and basin-shaped; the sixth was nearly one me- the earthwork walls (Dancey 1996; Hopewell ter deep, with basal deposits of fire-cracked rock Culture National Historical Park 2003). Other and charcoal suggesting its use as an earth oven. recent work (see below) has documented indica- Additional diagnostic artifacts recovered include tions of more specialized occupations, especially 7 fragmentary Vanport chert bladelets, 14 (proba- within the earthwork enclosure. ble) McGraw Cordmarked sherds, and 2 possible Chillicothe Incised or Turner Simple Stamped Habitations and Specialized Sites sherds. There is a possibility that substantial Elsewhere in the Scioto Drainage secondary refuse deposits could exist in nearby buried swale contexts not sampled (Ohio Depart- Survey and excavation data on small habitations ment of Transportation 1993:23-24). are also available from sections of the Scioto drainage farther north and south of the Paint The postmolds suggest at least three struc- tures (Appendix 4.2). One, only partially ex- Creek confluence. Three previously unpublished cases are summarized here. Each evidence short, posed, was circular, 6.8 meters in diameter, with an estimated floor area of 36.3 square meters, ephemeral occupation compared to the McGraw and Murphy sites, with abandonment and reoc- and capable of having accommodated about 8 cupation probable in two of the cases. individuals. This is the modal size for Middle Woodland habitation structures identified by Madeira-Brown. The Madeira-Brown B. Smith (1992:figure 9.8). One of the basin- site (33 Pk 153) is an example of a Scioto shaped pits was inside the post pattern, and one Hopewell habitation in the Unglaciated Alleg- of the possible Chillicothe Incised sherds was heny Plateau province, in a main valley set- recovered from a posthole fill. A second, less ting. The site is located on a flood-prone low complete arc of postholes overlaps the first and terrace in the Scioto river bottomlands in Pike suggests a rebuilding episode.A third, incom- County, Ohio, about 30 kilometers south of plete post pattern about 20 meters away appears the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence. The nearest to describe a rectilinear structure, with rounded mounds or earthworks consist of a group of comers. It is estimated to have been a minimum conical mounds located about 800 meters 6.1 x 9.8 meters, with a floor area of 59.8 square northeast. The "Graded Way" at Piketon (Fowke meters, and capable of having accommodated 1902:274-278; Squier and Davis 1848:88-90) is 11 individuals. This area is toward the upper end located about two kilometers north, and the Seal of the size range for Middle Woodland habita- Township Works (Fowke 1902: 179-181; Squier tion structures identified by B. Smith (1992:fig- and Davis 1848:66-67) are located about eight ure 9.8). kilometers south. The nearest major mound Baker (Ohio Department of Transportation and earthwork complexes are located about 1993) interpreted the Middle Woodland compo- 30 kilometers distance, at Liberty to the north nent at Madeira-Brown as a hamlet-scale res- and Portsmouth to the south. idential occupation within a settlement system The site was heavily investigated (Bush that also included specialized logistical camps et al. 1989, 1992; Ohio Department of Trans- in upland, settings. It should be noted that the portation 1993).17 Intensive surface collection site produced very few artifacts in compari- identified a relatively light scatter of Late son to other Ohio Hopewell habitations such as COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 151

McGraw and Murphy, and the contrast is even others appeared to have been purposely re- more striking when compared to settlements such moved, suggesting several periods of site use as Smiling Dan in the lower Illinois river valley and reuse. No significant midden deposits were and Mann in the lower Ohio valley (Table 4.5). identified. The material assemblage documents a wide Marsh Run. The Marsh Run (33 Fr 895; range of domestic activities. The assemblage in- a.k.a. "Wal-Mart site") and Clarence Ford (33 cludes at least 1 diagnostic Middle Woodland Fa 81) sites provide the best examples of up- projectile point, 2 drills, and 5 endscrapers; 102 land habitation sites in the central Scioto basin. whole and fragmentary bladelets and 7 blade let Marsh Run is located on a gentle upland rise in cores; 4 celts, 2 pitted stones, 1 grinding stone, the central Ohio Till Plains, in Franklin County, 1 fragmentary gorget, and 1 fragmentary pen- just southwest of Columbus, Ohio (Aument et al. dant; and 149 grit-tempered sherds and many 1991; Aument and Gibbs 1992; Cowan 2003a). sherdlets. The small archaeobotanical assem- The site is situated near a wetland depression at blage is dominated by locally available nuts and the headwaters of Marsh Run, a small stream that wild varieties of goosefoot (Chenopodium sp.) flows east to the central Scioto river, about 8 kilo- and maygrass (Phalaris sp.). Cultivated cucurbit meters distance. The nearest mounds or earth- rind is present. Faunal remains are virtually ab- works are reported in Mills's (1914) Atlas and sent, likely due to poor preservation. include two circular enclosures located approx- Six radiocarbon dates were obtained from imately 4.8 and 6.4 kilometers away, and two charred wood samples (Appendix 4.1). Four of isolated mounds located approximately 1.6 and these apparently relate to intermittent occupa- 2.4 kilometers away. The major earthworks at tions during the Early and Middle Woodland Newark and Chillicothe are nearly equidistant, periods. The spread among the calibrated dates about 65 kilometers away. more strongly supports a series of short-term The site was intensively investigated occupations than a long period of continuous through survey, which revealed two concen- occupation, as discussed below and shown in trations of artifacts on two small knolls lo- Table 4.4. cated about 100-150 meters apart within an ap- proximately 1.5-hectare scatter. Both concen- Clarence Ford. The Clarence Ford site is trations had diagnostic Hopewellian blade lets also located in the rolling uplands of the cen- and were mechanically stripped, exposing some tral Ohio Till Plains, in Fairfield County just east 4,392 square meters. The bulk of the artifacts of Columbus (Aument 2003; Aument and Gibbs and features on the two knolls relate to the Mid- 1992). The site overlooks the narrow flood plain dle Woodland period. One concentration was of Sycamore Creek, a tributary stream that flows estimated to have been about 0.14 hectare; the into the central Scioto valley about 20 kilometers other, about 0.70 hectare. The underlying sub- to the west. There are no mounds or earthworks plow-zone features, however, occupied much in the immediate neighborhood, but the Newark smaller areas, estimated at 100 and 240 square Works lie about 30 kilometers to the northeast. meters. One cluster included three postmolds The site is multicomponent, complicating and two shallow basin-shaped pits associated estimates of site size, but the Middle Woodland with heating, cooking, and/or processing func- component is probably less than 0.35 hectare. tions, but not storage. The second cluster in- Limited testing identified a stone-lined earth cluded 21 postmolds and 5 shallow, basin-shaped oven separated by about 12 meters from a basin- heating/cooking/processing pits. The postmold shaped cooking/heating facility and three large patterns cannot be confidently interpreted, but and deep postmolds, 30 centimeters in diam- several linear alignments suggest the presence eter x 50-60 centimeters deep, with ceramic of rectangular structures, screens, or racks (Ap- and stone chinking. A mud dauber's nest with pendix 4.3). Some postmolds contained charred a sedge stem imprint was found in the cook- wood fragments or burned clay nodules, while ing/heating facility. The excavators interpreted 152 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

the postmolds as remnants of a structure, which but this might be attributed to acidic soils and the mud dauber's nest corroborates and sug- poor preservation. Virtually the same descrip- gests was built partly of sedge.Time constraints tion could be applied to the limited excava- did not permit the full pattern of posts to be tions at the nearby Ilif Riddle I site reported exposed (Aument 2003; Aument and Gibbs by Prufer (1997b). Nutshell and economically 1992). important seeds including some possible culti- The material assemblage included diagnos- gens (maygrass [Phalaris sp.] and goosefoot tic bladelets, McGraw-series cordmarked ceram- [Chenopodium sp.]) were recovered at Wade by ics, Chesser Notched bifaces, and groundstone flotation, along with wild seeds indicating dis- items including pitted stones and celt and gorget turbed habitats. fragments. The botanical assemblage includes Church and Ericksen (1997) interpreted the exclusively wild plant food resources: sumac Wade site as a seasonally occupied, household- seeds and nuts including hickory nuts, black wal- scale settlement. Baker (Ohio Department of nuts, hazelnuts, and acorns. Faunal remains are Transportation 1993) points out that the Wade virtually absent, again likely due to poor preser- site occupation was orders of magnitude smaller vation. in its area of debris scatter, number of fea- Aument and Gibbs (1992) note that the up- tures, number of artifacts, and density of food land Marsh Run and Clarence Ford sites differ in remains than the McGraw and Murphy occupa- several respects from valley-bottom sites inter- tions, which are commonly described as "typi- preted as year-round sedentary hamlets, such as cal" Ohio Hopewell hamlets (see Dancey 1991; the Murphy I occupation (Dancey 1991; Pacheco Prufer 1965). Thus, Baker suggested that Wade, 1997). The upland occupations are smaller, with which is in a flood plain setting, as well as small fewer and less functionally diverse features, mid- sites in the uplands, such as Marsh Run and den development is absent, there is evidence of Clarence Ford, may represent logistical camps periodic abandonment and rebuilding of struc- that complemented more substantial residential tures, and the botanical assemblages are domi- occupations elsewhere. nated by wild plant foods rather than agricultural Beyond the Scioto-Paint Creek area, in products. These observations led Aument and the neighboring Licking-Muskingum drainage Gibbs (1992) to infer that the sites may represent basin, a few habitation sites have been docu- seasonal, fall-winter occupations, perhaps com- mented by excavation, but are beyond the geo- plementary to valley-bottom warm-season farm- graphic scope of this study. The Murphy I ing occupations. site (Dancey 1991) was explored and reported most fully. Information is also available from Wade. The Wade site is located in the excavations at the Murphy ill and Cox B flood plain of Salt Creek-a good-sized trib- sites (Morton and Carskadden 1987; Pacheco utary that drains the Unglaciated Allegheny 1996:27-28). Plateau south and east of the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence (Church and Ericksen 1997; Prufer 1975, 1997b). Excavations within a Patterning among Habitation Sites 0.16-hectare area revealed a loose cluster Middle Woodland dwellings in the Scioto-Paint of shallow basins, hearths, earth ovens, and Creek area and neighboring drainages usually fire-cracked rock concentrations interpreted as were isolated or occurred in twos or threes, the heating or food processing facilities. Undeco- generational contemporaneity of which is hard rated ceramics, chert debitage, cutting tools, and to demonstrate. The two or three dwellings at the projectiles made up the vast majority of the re- Marsh Run site described above, and three cou- covered artifacts. A few pieces of scrap mica plets of habitations in a small tributary of the constitute the only evidence of nonsubsistence Licking vall~y that likely date to three differ- activities. No faunal remains were recovered, ent periods (Pacheco 1997:56, 58), provide the COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 153 best evidence for multiple household residential and Haas (1996) that indicate its substantially sites. Other, less chronologically clear cases in- shorter occupation. clude clusters of up to six apparent habitations The periodic movement of residential sites within one kilometer in the Dresden subregion of by Scioto and neighboring Hopewellian peoples the Muskingum valley (Carskadden 1997:374), is also suggested by the multimodality of ra- clusters of two or three apparent habitations diocarbon dates typically obtained from them within one kilometer in the Philo district of that (Table 4.4). Of nine Middle Woodland habita- valley (Carskadden 1996:321), some couplets of tion sites with multiple, reasonable radiocarbon apparent habitations within one-half kilometer assays in the region, eight sites have two or three of each other in the upper Jonathan Creek sub- statistically distinct modalities, suggesting aban- region of the Muskingum (Pacheco 1996:31), donments and later reoccupations, and only one and a group of up to seven possible habita- site appears to represent a single occupation. This tions within one kilometer southwest of the Lib- pattern is an expectable product of swidden farm- erty earthworks (Seeman 1997). These group- ing, where residences are cyclically relocated to ings of households in the greater Scioto area previously used areas in order to take advan- all have fewer households than the larger of the tage of the greater food resource diversity created bluff-based residential communities in the lower there by former human disturbances and the less Illinois valley (e.g., Apple Creek, Macoupin, mature, more easily cut forests there. The length Gardens of Kampsville). of reoccupation cycles for specific habitation lo- The probability that Scioto and neighbor- cations in the sampled sites commonly falls be- ing Hopewellian farmers employed a swidden tween 175 and 300 years. The duration of cycles strategy, as evidenced by archaeobotanical infor- for household moves within a general area, with mation (Wymer 1997), suggests the possibility the potential use and reuse of many more alterna- that they moved their residences periodically to tive habitation sites within it by a local farming remain near to their fields. Rainey (2003) has unit, could be significantly less, and is probably summarized ethnographic literature on the res- best estimated by the up to 25 to 50-year period idential and field mobility of historic Native of farming plot regrowth estimated by Rainey. American farmers in the northeastern United States and found that villages were commonly moved every 10 to 20 years, usually in coordi- Specialized Activity Areas nation with changes in the locations of fields, There is comparatively little evidence of special- which were typically placed close to or within the ized extractive camps, such as nut-processing villages. Field houses, which would have al- camps or fishing or shellfishing stations, that lowed the working of more distant fields and date to the Middle Woodland period. Excep- longer-term residential stability, were not used. tions include the apparently seasonal upland oc- In addition, Rainey estimated from the ecologi- cupations at sites like Marsh Run and Clarence cal successional nature of the wild plant food re- Ford (see above), and a few reported specialized mains found in six Middle Woodland habitation sites in the Muskingum drainage in the Philo sites in the Scioto area that fields abandoned up- district (Carskadden 1996) and along a small wards of 25 to 50 years were sometimes used for seasonal tributary of Raccoon Creek (Pacheco their secondary-growth wild resources, implying 1997). There is also some evidence for Middle up to this duration between residential moves Woodland use of upland rockshelters throughout for some habitation sites. The paleobotanical the heavily dissected hill country of southeastern records of some other sites imply shorter occupa- Ohio. Remains at the rockshelters indicate that tions. All of these durations are shorter than the they were used markedly less during the Middle 100 years of occupation estimated by Dancey Woodland than the preceding Early Woodland (1991) for the Murphy I site, and more in accord period (Seeman 1996). Seeman suggests that this with the multiple lines of evidence cited by Carr pattern is "consistent with increased sedentism 154 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

Table 4.4. Modalities in Calibrated Radiocarbon Dates from Middle Woodland Habitations"

Separation(s) among Site Number of dates Means of modalities means of modalities

Ohio McGraw 11 A.D. 40 A.D. 315 A.D. 585 275 yr, 270 yr Li 79.1 2 A.D. 137 A.D. 420 283 yr Murphy I 6 40 B.C. 283 B.C. 323 yr Marsh Run 3 180 B.C. A.D. 120 A.D. 290 300 yr, 170 yr Jennison Guard 3 A.D. 224 A.D. 398 174yr Decco 4 A.D. 320 A.D. 441 121 yr Hamess-28 3 50 B.C. A.D. 380 430 yr Newark Campus 2 A.D. 20 A.D. 540 520yr Locust 3 A.D. 176 One mode only Illinois Smiling Dan 8 A.D. 50 A.D. 238 A.D. 400 188 yr, 162 yr

a Dates are reported by Carr and Haas (1996), Dancey and Pacheco (1997), and Stafford and Sant (1985). Dates taken from Carr and Haas. and Stafford and Sant, have been clustered into distinguishable modes, per procedures described in Carr and Haas. Dates taken from Dancey and Pacheco have been sorted into modes qualitatively, noting their standard deviations and disallowing any overlap among the standard deviations of dates in separate modes. An exception is the Jennison Guard site, where overlap among defined modes is minor. When a mode is defined by a single calibrated date with multiple intersect points, the average of the multiple intersect points has been used as the estimated mode. When a mode is defined by multiple calibrated dates, the average of the dates, and/or their multiple intersection points, has been used as the best estimate of the mode. For example, the calibrated dates reported for the Decca site include one with multiple intersections (A.D. 268/273/338) and three with single intersection points (A.D. 343, A.D. 381, A.D. 441). One mode (A.D. 320) is defined by the average of the three intersection points of the first date and the single intersection points of the second and third dates. The second mode (A.D. 441) is defined by the single intersection point of the fourth date.

and settlement pattern simplification, the concen- yielded fragmentary mica, crystal quartz, and ob- tration of settlement in a few high-yield environ- sidian, as well as much of the skeletons of a ments, or both" (Seeman, p. 312a). To this might gray fox and a salamander. It had an unusual line be added the intensification of farming systems of functionally similar pits that ran diagonally and the increased dietary importance of cultigens across it, most of which contained large cobble- compared to wild food resources (Wymer 2003). stone cores.Two other buildings had, along one There is considerably more evidence of spe- wall, a line of equally spaced pits that were each cialized activity areas related to the mounded packed with small sandstone slabs and limestone and enclosed ritual precincts in the Scioto-Paint cobbles arranged carefully in layers, and that Creek confluence area. The best-known example had sticky black residues in their bottoms. The is the remains of a series of 8 to 10 formal wooden structures were ultimately taken down and cov- buildings constructed within the Seip Earthworks ered with a low mantle of gravel and soil. Nearby (Baby and Langlois 1979). The large size and are several prepared floors made by removing the formal architectural plan of these buildings mark topsoil down to the firm, gravelly subsoil. Some them as something more than everyday domestic of these floors were large enough to be described structures, and their contents suggest a special- as "plazas." The floors contain traces of open fires ized use (Greber et al. 2002). The layout of the and large posts alternately raised and removed. buildings mirrors that of the submound charnel These spaces, too, were ultimately mantled with structures at Mound City and other burial sites, a thin lens of gravel and soil (Greber 1997; but the Seip buildings contained no human re- Greber et al. 2002). mains. All of the buildings had large numbers of Another type of specialized activity area in- bladelets and fragments of mica, but each was volved the use and manufacture of Hopewellian unique in other ways apparently related to the blades and cores. Small areas characterized by manufacture and use of varying kinds of ritual very high densities of lamellar blades and blade paraphernalia. One building had large quantities cores have been' identified at the Liberty and of mica and completed mica cutouts. Another Baum earthworks (Coughlin and Seeman 1997; COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 155

Greber 1997:217; Greber et al. 1981). These placed for exploitation of flood plain, riverine, specialized sites appear to be found only in asso- and terrace subsistence resources, the Redwing ciation with mounds and earthworks. component is located about 100 meters south- Other kinds of specialized activity areas west of Hopeton's large geometric enclosure, are known from the Hopewell site. Moorehead apparently oriented toward that feature rather (1922), and later Shetrone (1926), labeled two than any clearly identifiable aspect of the natural areas inside the earthwork wall "village sites". environment. Seeman (1981a, 1981b) evaluated the nature of When the surface-collected assemblage these supposed villages by controlled surface sur- from the Redwing area is compared to the debris vey. He did not find debris at densities expectable densities reported for other Hopewellian occu- for large nucleated villages. However, he did find pations and the early Late Woodland Hamess- evidence for widespread Hopewellian activity in 28 village in the vicinity (Coughlin and See- and around the site, with the highest densities oc- man 1997; Seeman 1981), it is apparent that the curring within the earthwork enclosure. In some density of diagnostics is far below that seen on cases, the nature of the debris-fragments of ob- village-scale occupations, and is comparable to sidian, quartz crystal, and exotic Flint Ridge and that of household-scale occupations. However, Harrison County flints-suggests specialized lo- the range of utilitarian debris is restricted, and cales devoted to the use or manufacture of ritual the assemblage includes some exotic raw mate- paraphernalia. rials: ceramics are entirely absent, blade cores A recent systematic shovel-test survey di- are virtually absent, and the assemblage has a rected by Ruby, Pederson, and Burks in the relatively high proportion of nonlocal materials "Eastern Village" at the Hopewell Mound Group including obsidian, quartz crystal, and certain confirmed Seeman's conclusion (Burks and cherts. The subsurface investigations identified Pederson 1999,2000; Pederson and Burks 2000). only one cultural feature: a sheet midden be- Only very low debris densities and two subsur- tween 20 and 30 centimeters thick and no more face pit features were observed. Included in the than 30 meters in diameter. The cultural materi- fill of these two pit features were exotic (South- als recovered from this midden are again remark- eastern) stamped and footed vessel fragments able for their restricted range. The assemblage is and modified human remains, suggesting activ- dominated by lamellar blades, whereas bifaces, ities beyond the mundane. One of the pits had groundstone tools, and faunal remains are ab- a massive deposit of fire-cracked rock, suggest- sent, and fewer than a dozen ceramic sherds were ing food preparation and food sharing on a scale recovered. Two conventional radiometric deter- larger than the individual household. A similar minations on wood charcoal help to date the shovel test survey of the "West Village" was di- component. One, at about A.D. 50, is consistent rected by Pederson, Burks, and Dancey and doc- with other Hopewellian activities in the region umented somewhat higher debris densities, but (Beta-109963; see Appendix 4.1). The second again, quartz crystal and obsidian debitage point date, at about A.D. 800, falls within the local Late to nondomestic activities (Pederson and Dancey Woodland period (Beta-109964; see Appendix 2002; Pederson et al. 2002a). 4.1) and suggests that some portion of the deposit Recent work at the Hopeton Earthworks has can be attributed to this later time. In short, the also identified areas of apparently specialized Redwing component appears to represent some- activities. In 1996 and 1997, the National Park thing other than an ordinary domestic habitation. Service sponsored controlled surface collection, Various features related to ceremonial ac- resistance survey, and systematic subsurface test- tivity have been encountered in recent investi- ing at the Redwing component-one of the three gations in and around the earthwork walls at densest concentrations of Middle Woodland de- Hopeton. Beneath the earthwork wall at the bris documented at the site (Ruby 1997b, 1997c, northwest comer of the great rectangular enclo- 1997d). Whereas the other two concentrations sure are a burned area and a deposit of wood are located in terrace-edge settings and optimally charcoal containing mica flecks atop a prepared 156 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLASK. CHARLES

surface composed of thin layers of silt, sand, ent postmolds are scattered outside of the circu- and clay. These prepared and burned surfaces are lar alignment in no clear order. Some postmolds interpreted as the remains of ceremonial activi- were tightly packed with fire-cracked rocks, ties that marked the initiation of construction on suggesting that the structure was intentionally this earthwork segment. The charcoal has been dismantled. dated to about A.D 20 radiocarbon time (Beta- A pot containing carbonized hickory nuts 96598; see Appendix 4.1)(Ruby 1997b). A lens was found in a small pit within the post pat- of redeposited midden located above the base of tern and dated to A.D. 240 radiocarbon time the wall on the lower north (exterior) slope of (Appendix 4.1). A second pit within the post pat- this same earthwork segment has recently been tern contained red ocher, and another pit contain- dated to about A.D 110 radiocarbon time (Beta- ing red ocher was found about 15 meters out- 109962; see Appendix 4.1). This midden may side the post pattern. A second pot, containing have been deposited at the time of construction large pieces of mica (up to 12.5 centimeters), was from a nearby nonearthwork context, or may found in a stone-lined earth oven approximately have been redeposited by erosion from higher 50 meters east of the structure. This feature was up on the earthwork wall. More recent work has dated to A.D. 250 radiocarbon time (Appendix documented additional burning and a prepared 4.1). At least three other cooking/heating pits clay basin at several locations beneath and adja- were found in and around the structure. A poorly cent to the west and south walls of the rectangu- defined area of dark soil, chert debitage, and lar enclosure (Lynott 2002a, 2002b; Lynott and ceramics (and some historic pottery and nails), Weymouth 2001a, 2001b;Weymouth 2002). approximately 5 x 10 meters in area and 15 to Farther afield from the Scioto-Paint Creek 40 centimeters deep, may represent a midden de- area, the DECCO-l site provides a final example posit located about 15 meters outside the struc- of an apparently specialized, non-domestic site. ture. Two burial features were found about 3 me- The site is located in Delaware County, on the ters outside the structure, but a Late Prehistoric flood plain of the Olentangy River, a major trib- radiocarbon date from one of the features calls utary to the Scioto river in the Till Plains north into question their association with the structure of Columbus, Ohio (Aument et al. 1991; Cowan (Appendix 4.1). 2003b; Phagan 1977, n.d.a, n.d.b). Mounds and Phagan (n.d.a) interpreted the site as a "liv- earthworks occur in the general vicinity, but none ing site of the 'average' woodland people". How- are directly associated with the site. The Newark ever, several lines of evidence argue that the complex is the nearest major Hopewellian center, site was used for ceremonial rather than domes- located about 50 kilometers to the east. tic purposes. Only five diagnostic Hopewellian Surface survey identified four concentra- lamellar blades were recovered in an assem- tions within an area of about 60 x 145 meters blage of more than 4,000 chert flakes and tools- (0.87 hectare) and diagnostic artifacts indicating suggesting a relatively short-term or special- multiple occupations from the Archaic through ized Middle Woodland-period occupation. 18 The the Historic periods. Excavation revealed a presence of considerable quantities of mica and Middle Woodland building: a circular, single- red ocher in cache or deposit contexts points to post structure, about 12.8 meters in diameter ceremonial activities. Perhaps the strongest ev- (Appendix 4.4). The individual posts were large, idence that the site was ceremonial rather than approximately 20 centimeters in diameter, and domestic in use is the size of the structure it- spaced at about l-meter intervals. A bigger post, self. Its floor area-128.8 square meters, ca- 30 centimeters in diameter, occupied the center pable of accommodating about 18 persons- of the alignment, and four other posts are scat- is larger than all but 1 of the 57 Hopewellian tered in the interior. The center post was dated to habitation structures measured by B. Smith A.D. 370 radiocarbon time (Appendix 4.1), and (1992:figure 9.8), and is more comfortably one of the outer posts was dated to A.D. 270 radio- classed with the larger ceremonial structures . carbon time (Appendix 4.1). A few other appar- in Ohio . COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 157

Summary "Interaction Sphere" goods. This same interest There is now considerable evidence in sup- continues among Illinois valley archaeologists, port of the most basic tenets of Prufer's va- who are actively documenting and seeking to cant center model and Dancey and Pacheco's explain and interpret variability among Illinois updated version, the dispersed sedentary com- valley ceremonial contexts (see especially Buik- munity model. Hopewellian settlements in the stra and Charles 1999; Buikstra et al. 1998; Scioto-Paint Creek confluence region are clearly Farnsworth 1990; Styles and Purdue 1991; Wiant small and dispersed, and most of the activity ar- and McGimsey 1986). eas directly associated with the major earthwork In contrast, there has been very little re- centers are attributable to ceremonial activities search along these lines in the Ohio region. This rather than domestic occupations. There is ev- is something of a paradox, because the pioneer- idence that Dancey and Pacheco's model over- ing 19th Century research of Squier and Davis states the degree of residential stability charac- (1848) included an overriding concern with teristic of Scioto Hopewell habitations. Rather classifying mounds into functional categories: than long-term stability over centuries, this re- mounds of sepulcher, defensive works, sacred view finds that individual domestic settlements enclosures, and the like. Prufer (1964a, 1997a) were likely abandoned and reoccupied on scales continued this concern to some extent, recog- measured in decades at most. nizing a functional distinction between the hill- top enclosures and the lowland geometric works. Community Organization in the However, there has been very little discussion of Scioto-Paint Creek Confluence Region possible functional variability beyond this most basic division. In the most recent general formu- Although most of the fundamental features of lation of Ohio Hopewell settlement systems- Prufer's and Dancey and Pacheco's models of Dancey and Pacheco's (1997a) dispersed seden- Scioto Hopewell community organization now tary community model-variability among appear to be firmly established empirically, these mound and earthwork centers is largely attributed models are largely silent on two critical issues. to differences in the timing or duration of earth- The issues are: (1) whether earthwork-mound work use and construction, and other authors ceremonial centers were functionally differenti- follow suit (e.g., DeBoer 1997; Greber 1997). ated, and (2) whether at least some centers served (For further details on the history of ideas about multiple local symbolic communities rather than Hopewellian ceremonial site variation by Illinois just one. Understanding the dynamics of Scioto and Ohio archaeologists, see Carr, Chapter 3, Hopewellian community organization requires Previous Models of Hopewellian Communities.) that both question be answered, one way or an- There are several lines of argument that can other. be marshaled as evidence for functional differ- entiation of Hopewellian mound and earthwork Functional Differentiation among sites in the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence re- Mounds and Earthworks gion. First, there is evidence that functional dif- Historically, researchers in the Illinois valley area ferentiation among earthworks has deep roots in have devoted much more attention to variability ancestral Adena ritual. Clay (1987, 1986, 1991) between ceremonial sites than have archaeolo- and others (Niquette et al. 1988; Seeman 1986) gists in the Ohio area. Much of this interest can have argued that the Adena ritual landscape con- be traced to the work of Stuart Struever, who pro- tained several different kinds of sites, includ- posed a complex typology of nondomestic sites ing mounds, paired post wooden enclosures, in the 1960s (Struever 1968; Struever and Houart ceremonial circles (circular earthworks with in- 1972): bluff-crest cemeteries, mortuary camps, terior ditches and exterior embankments), and and flood plain mound groups that served vari- large ditched enclosures. These authors argue ously as "local transaction centers" and "regional that these different site types served various func- transaction centers" involved in the exchange of tions, including burial sites, meeting places, loci 158 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES for staged mortuary ritual, and specialized cen- quantities of Hopewellian debris--domestic or ters for the acquisition of raw materials (e.g., clay, otherwise. Instead, the evidence amassed to date galena) and the production of ritual parapherna- consists of a small quantity of Hopewellian lithic lia. It is reasonable to expect that the yet wider and ceramic debris focused on the gateways lead- range of mound and earthwork forms, submound ing into the enclosure, and prodigious quantities structures, and other ritual features attributable to of burned, even vitrified, rock and soil-again, Hopewellian hands represents an elaboration on in association with the gateways. Activities that the Adena tradition of functionally differentiat- involved intense burning appear to be a com- ing ritual spaces. mon characteristic of Hopewellian hilltop enclo- Second, in Ross County, alone, a bewil- sures, with similar evidence having been reported dering variety of construction is found: single at Fort Ancient (Moorehead 1890), Foster's mounds, mounds in groups, mounds in low- Crossing (Fowke 1902; Moorehead 1890), Fort lands, mounds on hilltops; conical mounds, loaf- Miami (Moorehead 1890), Four Mile Creek shaped mounds, effigy mounds; enclosures with (McFarland 1887), and the Pollock Works mounds, enclosures without mounds; geometric (Riordan 1995, 1996,2002). earthworks, irregular earthworks; lowland enclo- Squier and Davis (1848:181-183), too, sures, hilltop enclosures. The sheer variety of noted that many of the most prominent hill- forms and locations .of Hopewellian mounds and tops overlooking the lowland mounds and earth- earthworks almost assuredly reflects some de- works bear traces of intense burning, perhaps gree of functional differentiation. the remains of signal fires or ceremonial pyres. Third, recent work at the Spruce Hill Works Christopher Turner (1983, 1999,2000) recently in the Paint Creek valley has provided additional undertook a systematic survey of the horizons evidence that the hilltop enclosures of southern surrounding the Hopeton Works and mapped a Ohio were functionally distinct from the lowland number of burned rock piles or "fire cairns." geometric works (Ruby 1998). Very early on, He found that several of these mark locations Squier and Davis (1848) and others ascribed to along sightlines defined by gateways in the these works a defensive function, owing to their Hopeton enclosures. In three cases, burned stone placement on often precipitous hilltops, their piles correspond with sightlines indexing cal- often massive encircling embankments, and oc- endrical solar and lunar rise events: the May casional architectural details such as reentrant cross-quarter sunrise, the minimum south lu- gateways and parapets that are reminiscent of nar extreme, and the maximum south lunar a number of well-known European hilltop for- extreme. tifications of the prehistoric and historic peri- It is far from clear whether this burning is ods. Prufer (1997:313a) has continued to cham- related to some specific ritual activity, to con- pion the view that "the primary function of the flict and conflagration, or simply to a construc- enclosures was defensive, although it is clear, tion technique common to these hilltop enclo- and not especially surprising, that some cere- sures and analogous to the timber-laced vitrified monial functions were also carried out in the forts of western Europe (see Cotton 1955; context of these edifices." The Spruce Hill case MacKie 1976). At any rate, similar evidence has provides little support for the martial hypothe- not been found in association with the lowland sis. The area enclosed is likely too large, and enclosures, which suggests that the hilltop sites the walls too low, to have offered much protec- hosted an entirely different set of activities. tion, yet the site clearly differs from the geomet- Fourth, evidence of functional differenti- ric Baum earthwork located immediately below ation also comes from at least three sites in it and the nearby Seip geometric enclosure. In south-central Ohio: Cedar Banks and Ginther contrast to Seip and despite years of amateur and in the Scioto-Paint Creek area, and Marietta, professional exploration, Spruce Hill has never at the mouth of the Muskingum (Pickard 1996; produced evidence of human burials or large Prufer (968:41-45; Shetrone 1925; Squier and COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 159

Davis 1848:73-77).19 These sitesare predom- or inhumation) given the deceased; and in the inated by rectangular platform mounds and range of social roles of the deceased, as indi- apparently represent a nonmortuary ceremonial- cated by grave goods. These variations suggest ism similar to that described above for the Mann differences among centers in the kinds of ritu- site platform mounds (Pickard 1996; Prufer 1968: als enacted at them and/or in the social segments 41-45; Shetrone 1925; Squier and Davis that they served. These and other arguments are 1848:73-77).Limited testing in one of the Ma- presented in detail by Carr (Chapter 3). rietta platform mounds has recently yielded a In sum, many kinds of archaeological evi- Middle Woodland artifact assemblage in asso- dence and lines of reasoning suggest that mound ciation with charred material radiocarbon dated and earthwork ceremonial centers in the Scioto- to the second and third centuries A.D. The in- Paint Creek area varied in their functions and the ternal structure of the mound revealed a series range of activities that occurred at them. An ear- of prepared horizontal activity floors composed lier Adena tradition offunctionally differentiated of thin lenses of clays, sands, and gravels sim- earthworks, the great range of shapes and loca- ilar to those documented in Mann mound IV tions of Hopewellian mounds and earthworks, 9 (Pickard 1996). The functional differentiation clear evidence for differences among earthworks of Marietta, Cedar Banks, and Ginther from in the kinds of activities and rituals that did and other earthworks in south-central Ohio is also did not take place in them, such as mortuary ac- hinted at by the correlation of their flat-topped tivities, and a functional distinction between sites mounds with embankments that are only square that had platform mounds for stages and those in shape or are dominated by squares. This is that lacked them and had only burial mounds each also the situation at the Mann site. Farther afield, point to a complex, richly differentiated, ritual Middle Woodland platform mounds have also landscape that was constructed by Hopewellian been reported from several locations in the Mid- peoples. south and lower Mississippi valley: the Pinson, Johnston, and Ames Plantation sites in western Multiple Centers within Tennessee (Kwas and Mainfort 1986; Mainfort 1986; Mainfort and Walling 1992; Mainfort Residential Communities and et al. 1982; Peterson 1979), the Ingomar site in Multicommunity Ceremonial Centers northeastern Mississippi (Rafferty 1983, 1987), If mound and earthwork centers in the Scioto- the Walling site in Alabama (Knight 1990b), the Paint Creek region varied in their function, as Leist site in the Yazoo Basin (Phillips 1970:368- they seem to have, a question naturally arises 369), and the Marksville site in the lower as to whether they differed functionally in the Mississippi valley (Toth 1974).Taken together, specific ways that bluff-top and flood plain all of these platform mound sites suggest the ex- ceremonial centers did in the lower Illinois istence of a particular expression of Hopewellian valley. There, each bluff-top mound group served ceremonialism that was not focused on mortuary to integrate and define a local symbolic com- processing but, instead, used earthen platforms munity through burial in a common cemetery, as stages for ceremonial performance and/or whereas each flood plain mound group was a participation. context for interaction between several of these Several other kinds of evidence that point local communities from up and down the val- to the functional differentiation of ceremonial ley, which formed a demographically sustain- centers in the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence able community.This multi scalar organization include systematic and significant differences of Havana Hopewell ceremonial and sociopo- among them in their orientations relative to ce- liticallife contrasts with Dancey and Pacheco's lestial phenomena; in the age and sex distribu- model of community organization in the Scioto- tions of their burials; in the sizes of their burial Paint Creek area, where mounds and earthworks populations; in the body treatment (cremation are envisioned as having functioned in only one 160 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES manner, analogous to the bluff-top mound groups vate fields at distances of three to five kilo- in the lower Illinois valley. In the Dancey- meters, with seven to eight kilometers being Pacheco model, scattered homesteads or small a good estimate of the maximum distance of clusters of them, which we call residential com- travel. We can take these distances also as the munities, were integrated into a local sym- practical distances within which swidden farm- bolic community, in our terms, through common ers might interact fairly regularly and construct burial and interaction at a centrally located ritual a local symbolic community. This catchment precinct marked by a mound and/or earthwork size, in turn, matches well with archaeological complex. In Clay's (1991) parlance, Dancey data on the sizes of Hopewellian local symbolic and Pacheco's model is essentially a "bull's- communities in central Ohio. Some of the best- eye" model. Is it possible that some earthwork- documented Hopewellian site distributions in the mound complexes in the Scioto-Paint Creek con- Ohio valley are those in the central Muskingum fluence also were gathering places for multiple valley region, as a result of a long-term research local symbolic communities, rather than only program there (Pacheco 1989, 1993, 1996). The one? data suggest that local symbolic communities The most compelling form of evidence that in this area had catchment radii of the order some mounds and earthworks in the Scioto- of 3 to 5.5 kilometers. A well-defined cluster Paint Creek confluence region did serve as cen- of small habitation sites, mounds, and a small ters for multiple local symbolic communities is earthwork in the Dresden subregion of the cen- that many contemporary earthwork-mound com- tral Muskingum has a diameter of about 6 kilo- plexes in this region are simply "too close" to- meters, or a catchment radius of about 3 kilome- gether to have stood at the territorial centers of ters (Pacheco 1996:29, fig. 2.11). A second, well- distinct local symbolic communities. The tight defined cluster of small habitation sites, mounds, clustering of earthwork-mound complexes in the and earthworks in the upper Jonathan Creek sub- Scioto-Paint creek area suggests, instead, an in- region of the central Muskingum valley has a terrelated ritual landscape of functionally dif- diameter of about 11 kilometers, or a catch- ferentiated ceremonial centers, at least many of ment radius of about 5.5 kilometers (Pacheco which were each made and used by multiple lo- 1996:31, fig 2.11).20 The central Muskingum val- cal symbolic communities, of varying numbers ley, within the Appalachian highlands, is physio- over generations (Ruby 1997c). In other words, graphically similar to the Paint Creek and Scioto we are suggesting that earthworks of multiple valleys. functions were found within and/or among the Comparison of the above ethnographic and territories of local symbolic communities, and archaeological estimates of local symbolic com- that these earthworks were commonly used by munity sizes to the distances between earthwork- persons from multiple local symbolic communi- mound complexes in the Scioto-Paint Creek ties rather than single ones. region indicates that these complexes were To make this argument requires a rough es- very probably not the centers of distinct local timate of the likely catchment sizes of Scioto symbolic communities, and that a bull's-eye Hopewellian local symbolic communities. Both model of Scioto Hopewell community organi- cross-cultural and Ohio Hopewell-specific data zation is unlikely. Several ways of presenting are useful in this regard. Cross-cultural studies of the data are relevant, here, to drawing this con- the travel costs and the sizes of resource exploita- clusion. First, the Hopeton Works and Mound tion catchments of farmers and hunter-gatherers City Group provide a well-dated, specific case have been summarized by Varien (1999:153- in point. These two works are directly opposite 155) and reported above (see Considering Com- one another on either side of the Scioto river. munities). Most studies have found that farmers They are less than 2.5 kilometers apart, or have that use swidden techniques, which probably are a catchment radius between them of only 1.25 analogous to the ones used by Scioto Hopewell kilometers. This radius is substantially less than peoples (Wymer 1996, 1997), regularly culti- the 3 to 5 kilometer radii found cross-culturally COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONSIN THESCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 161

D 10 D I •• I _

500 250 o 250 500 750 calBC calAD Figure 4.6. Calibrated radiocarbon dates from the neighboring Scioto valley earthwork sites of Mound City and Hopeton. The solid bars indicate the one standard deviation ranges for the dates. The open bars indicate the two standard deviation ranges. Multiple solid or open bars for a date reflect its multiple point estimates on the calibrated time curve (Stuiver and Reimer 1993; Stuiver et al.I998). SeeAppendix 4.1 for dates and archaeological proveniences. and archaeologically likely to have been the house" public architecture in the Mesa Verde re- rough size of Scioto Hopewellian local sym- gion of Colorado and found it to be bimodal. bolic communities, implying that Hopeton and Great houses tended to cluster either at distances Mound City are too close to have been ceremo- of less than one kilometer from one another or at nial complexes each at the center of its own local distances of between five and seven kilometers symbolic community territory (Ruby 1997c). In from one another. They interpreted the first mode fact, the two works are less than an hour's walk as the spacing of multiple great houses within the apart." territory of a single community, and the second Until recently, it was possible to maintain mode as the distances between individual com- that the two sites were sequential in time and, munities (Varien 1999:172-174). hence, explain away their problematic proxim- A similar organizational principle appears ity. However, a series of recent radiocarbon dates to hold for the public architecture (earthworks) (Figure 4.6, Appendix 4.1) demonstrates that the in the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence region. A two works were built and used simultaneously histogram of nearest-neighbor distances for 14 and probably resided within one local symbolic major geometric earthworks in the Scioto-Paint community. Creek confluence region (Figure 4.7)22 has at That earthwork-mound complexes in the least three modes: one at 2-4 kilometers, which Scioto-Paint Creek region are too proximate to would equate to a 1 to 2 kilometer catchment ra- have stood at the centers of distinct, local sym- dius; a second at 8-10 kilometers, which would bolic community territories can be illustrated in correspond to a 4 to 5 kilometer catchment a second way, using an approach developed by radius; and a third at 18-20 kilometers, or a 9 to Adler and Varien (1994; Varien 1999, 2000). 10 kilometer catchment radius. Clearly, many They examined the spatial distribution of "great sites are very closely packed. In fact, all but 162 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHERCARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

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5

0 • 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29•• 31 Class Midpoints (km)

Figure 4.7. Histogram of nearest-neighbor distances for fourteen earthworks in the Scioto- Paint Creek confluence area. First through fourteenth nearest-neighbor distances are included for each earthwork. See Note 22 for a listing of the fourteen earthworks. three sites (79%) have a neighbor within an second mode, with a 4 to 5 kilometer catch- hour's walk, less than 4.5 kilometers away, or ment radius, appears to indicate the distances a catchment radius of less than 2.25 kilome- between individual local symbolic communities ters. These earthwork-mound site catchments (see just below). The third mode, with a 9 to are substantially less than the 3 to 5 kilometer- 10 kilometer catchment radius, seems to rep- radius catchments found for swidden farmers resent the distances between broad, sustainable cross-culturally and for Hopewellian local sym- communities comprised of multiple local sym- bolic communities in the central Muskingum. bolic communities (see below, Comparisons: Only one Scioto Hopewellian earthwork-mound Similarity and Difference). complex has a catchment radius of 4.5 kilome- A third way by which it can be revea- ters or greater with a neighbor-Frankfort, at led that earthwork-mound complexes in the 9.3 kilometers from Hopewell, or a catch- Scioto-Paint creek region are too close together ment radius of right around 4.5 kilometers. to represent the centers of individual local sym- Frankfort is about two hours' walk from bolic community territories is through the use Hopewell. of Theissen polygons. If Theissen polygons The results of this nearest-neighbor anal- are constructed+' around each of the 14 works ysis, to follow Varien's lead and the available (Figure 4.8), the works are allocated widely vary- cross-cultural and central Muskingum informa- ing support areas. The areas range from a low of tion on local symbolic community catchment 9 square kilometers at Mound City to a high of sizes, suggest that most centers are too close 197 square kilometers at Frankfort (Appendix to each other to comprise the centers of local 4.6). Such widely varying support areas would symbolic communities. The first mode in the not be expected for local symbolic communi- Scioto Hopewell histogram, with a 1 to 2 kilome- ties in similar environmental conditions and of ter catchment radius, appears to represent multi- roughly similar sizes. ple earthwork-mound complexes within the ter- If analysis is restricted to just those 10 sites ritory of a single local symbolic community. The for which there is some reason to expect at least COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, ANDHAVANA REGIONS 163

Ross County, Ohio

s 10 o 10 j

Figure 4,8. Theissen polygons for fourteen earthworks in the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence area. See Note 22 for a listing of the fourteen earthworks. their partial contemporaneity (whether on the ba- those sites on the farthest fringes of the distribu- sis of radiocarbon dates, artifact styles, or archi- tion are within a single day's walk of their most tectural similarityj.s' essentially the same three distant neighbor « 36 kilometersj.P modes of nearest-neighbor distances appear: at Figure 4.10 illustrates this more tangible 2--4 kilometers (i.e., a 1 to 2 kilometer radius), 8- picture of the spatial distribution of earthwork- 10 kilometers (i.e., a 4 to 5 kilometer radius), and mound complexes in the. Scioto-Paint Creek 16-18 kilometers (i.e., an 8 to 9 kilometerradius) region. Drawing a catchment of 5 kilometers (Figure 4.9). If the 10 sites are analyzed within radius around each of the 10 ceremonial centers, Theissen polygons, then the areas allocated to which averages the cross-cultural and central each work are highly variable: 54 to 205 square Muskingum estimates of the expanse of a kilometers (Appendix 4.6). Neither the close dis- local symbolic community, shows the extensive tances between most adjacent earthwork-mound overlap among catchments. Similar overlap complexes nor their widely varying supporting is found in the 5 kilometer radius catchments areas lend credence to the notion that each lies around a more restricted set of 6 earthworks at the center of a local symbolic community, let of tripartite or closely related geometery alone a sustainable community capable of long- in the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence area term reproduction. (Figure 4.11), which are most easily demon- Fourth, to put these results in more tangi- strated empirically to have been at least partially ble terms, almost all of the lO sites have at least contemporaneous.i" Clearly, if Hopewellian one very close neighbor within about an hour's local symbolic communities were centered walk (4.5 kilometers) and many close neighbors around ceremonial precincts, then each commu- within about two hours' walking distance (9 kilo- nity would have been associated with multiple meters), and almost all sites could be reached centers, even at this restricted spatial scale. The within a half-day's walk (18 kilometers). Even multiple centers within a local symbolic 164 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

14

12

10

>- c c 8 GI co::J GI u•.... 6

4

2

0 I I I I I I I I I I III ,U 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31

Class Midpoints (km)

Figure 4.9. Histogram of nearest-neighbor distances for ten earthworks in the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence area and suspected to have been fully or partially contemporaneous. First through tenth nearest-neighbor distances are included for each earthwork. See Note 24 for a listing of the ten earthworks.

Ross County, Ohio

o 10 s Figure 4.10. Five kilometer radius catchments around ten earthworks in the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence area and suspected to be fully or partially contemporaneous. See Note 24 for a listing of the ten earthworks. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 165

Ross County, Ohio

10 o 10 i s Figure 4.11. Five kilometer radius catchments around six tripartite earthworks in the Scioto-Paint Creek con- fluence area that are more easily argued empirically to have been at least partially contemporaneous. See Note 26 for a listing of the six earthworks.

community would most probably have been if each had two functionally differentiated earth- functionally differentiated, and also would nec- works within it. essarily have served multiple local symbolic This specific conclusion, as well as the more communities. general conclusion that local symbolic commu- The distribution of six coeval sites and nities might have multiple, functionally differ- their catchments in Figure 4.11 supports a more entiated earthworks within them, is reiterated by particular interpretation involving functionally analyses made by Carr (Chapter 7). The two differentiated earthworks within local symbolic analyses corroborate each other, ours based on communities. The distribution has a number of regional catchment analysis and his on intrasite unique properties. First, the works form three burial analysis of some of the same sites we ex- spatial pairs, the members of each pair being amine here. Carr points out that there are three spaced at six to nine kilometers apart. Second, segregated groups of burials under each of the each pair is located in a separate drainage-main Seip-Pricer, Hopewell 25, and Edwin Harness Paint Creek valley, the North Fork of Paint Creek, mounds, which were built within the Seip earth- and the Scioto valley. None of the three pairs of work in main Paint Creek valley, the Hopewell earthworks overlap with one another. Third, if an- earthwork in the North Fork of Paint Creek, and alyzed within Theissen polygons, then each work the Liberty earthwork in the Scioto valley, re- is allocated an approximately equal area with rel- spectively. From analyses of the burials in these atively little variance (Appendix 4.6; range, 173- mounds, using multiple forms of evidence, Carr 209 square kilometers; mean, 195 square kilo- concludes that the three burial clusters under meters; SD, 15 square kilometers). Importantly, each mound represent members from three dif- these equivalencies among paired earthworks in ferent communities in the three different valleys, the three valleys are expectable if each pair rep- and that each community had within them two resented a separate local symbolic community, functionally differentiated earthwork centers if the communities were similar in nature, and with tripartite symbolism. 166 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHERCARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

A final variant on the argument that the work effort per year by up to a factor of nine earthwork-mound complexes in the Scioto-Paint would still produce overlap in the labor pools. Creek confluence are too close together for each Several other strong arguments that some of to be a center of a local symbolic community, the mounds and earthworks in the Scioto-Paint with the conclusion that multiple local symbolic Creek confluence region were multi community communities built and used individual earth- centers are presented by Carr in Chapter 3. works, is implied in a labor analysis made by Wesley Bernardini (1999; see also refinements in Bernardini 2004). The argument is not as strong Summary as those made above, because it assumes certain As in the lower Illinois valley and lower Ohio- conditions that can be estimated only roughly; Wabash valley cases, there is good evidence in however, this is balanced by results with wide the Scioto-Paint Creek region that earthwork- confidence limits. Specifically, from estimates mound sites were functionally differentiated, and of the volume of earth used to construct the that single local symbolic communities built 11 largest earthworks in the Scioto-Paint Creek and/or made use of multiple, functionally dif- area, Bernardini calculated that, on average, ferentiated earthwork-mound sites. There is lit- 100 people could have built almost any of the tle support for a simple bull's-eye model that large earthworks in one year of 40 workdays. portrays a series of local symbolic communi- The 40 workday year is based on certain ethno- ties, each focused around its own central mound graphic records of the time allocated by commu- and/or earthwork center. Moreover, given the nities in middle-range societies to their public short distances that separate most of the ma- works. The average construction effort also as- jor earthworks in the region, it is unlikely that sumes a five-hour workday and the amount of these served as group symbols that identified earth that could be dug up, transported, and de- the territorial claims of individual local sym- posited in this time. Bernardini then applied this bolic communities, in contrast to the situation construction model to five of the six earthworks in the lower Illinois valley. Further, given that in in the Scioto-Paint Creek area that can easily be the Scioto region, multiple local symbolic com- . argued to have been at least partially contem- munities, in all probability, commonly used sin- poraneous by their similar tripartite shapes and gular earthwork-mound complexes suggests that equivalent acreage-Seip, Baum, Liberty, East these communities could have been relatively Bank, and Frankfort (see Note 26). When a popu- fluid in membership. Gatherings of people from lation density of one person per square kilometer several local symbolic communities in these cer- is assumed, following estimates by Pacheco and emonial centers would have provided contexts Dancey (n.d.) for the well-documented, neigh- for community affiliation to be negotiated. This boring, central Muskingum valley area of Ohio, situation would contrast with the Illinois one, the labor pools of 100 persons used to build these where bluff-top centered, local symbolic com- five sites overlap extensively in space. The over- munities were probably territorial units and, thus, lap implies that many people in the region would likely more bound in social composition. Finally, have participated in the construction of several that multiple local symbolic communities in the earthworks in their lifetime, and that any sin- Scioto area probably used singular earthwork- gle earthwork would probably have been built mound sites suggests that such sites probably by people from multiple local symbolic commu- served more than one type of community: not nities. The pattern of overlap is extensive enough only local symbolic communities, but also a that this conclusion would hold even if some of larger sustainable community. The Scioto-Paint these earthworks were functionally differentiated Creek ceremonial complexes appear to have pro- and there were more than one earthwork per local vided the contexts for performances intended to symbolic community. These qualitative conclu- forge broader, demographically sustainable com- sions of Bernardini's appear to be quite robust: munities at a much larger scale than a local a reduction in labor pool size or an increase in symbolic community through ritual enactments, COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 167 gifting, displays of wealth and prestige, and that were available-as well as the concentra- so on. tion of resources near the Wabash-Ohio con- fluence specifically, may have favored aggrega- tion here on at least a seasonal basis to a de- COMPARISONS AMONGREGIONS: gree not seen in Illinois and Ohio. In all, de- SIMILARITIES ANDDIFFERENCES spite some broad interregional similarities in the organization of Hopewellian domestic spheres, This review took B. Smith's (1992) general there was also considerable interregional model of Hopewellian community organization variability. as a point of departure. While the basic tenets Household aggregation also differed in de- and general framework of that model hold true, gree between the lower Illinois valley and the our review points up a number of subjects where Scioto-Paint Creek area, although more sub- Smith's model glosses over significant interre- tly.No habitation sites with more than two or gional variability in community organization. We three possibly contemporaneous households are begin with variability in aspects of community known for the Scioto-Paint Creek region. In con- organization pertaining to households and pro- trast, the larger of the bluff-base residential com- ceed to that involving ceremonial centers. munities in the lower Illinois valley (e.g.,Apple Creek, Macoupin, Gardens of Kampsville) prob- Households, Sedentism, and the ably witnessed somewhat larger congregations Natural Environment of households, although their numbers are hard Although it is clear that the small, largely au- to estimate firmly. At a broader scale, clusters tonomous household was a constant element of habitation sites, which string along within a in the lower Illinois valley, the lower Ohio- kilometer or so of each other, occur in both re- Wabash area, and the Scioto-Paint Creek re- gions. Their relative commonality for the two gion, there is considerable variation in the ways regions is unknown. The range of habitation in which households related to each other and sites per cluster is similar in the two areas-up to ceremonial centers. One way is in their de- to six or seven (Carskadden 1996:374;Seeman gree of aggregation over the landscape. This is 1997:244; Struever and Houart 1972:62)-but seen most clearly in the anomalous size and the total number of households per cluster may density of the domestic occupation present at have been somewhat larger in the Illinois case, the Mann site, which indicate significant ag- given the generally large size of bluff-base res- gregation of households there. No other con- idential communities there. The contemporane- temporary site in any of the three regions ap- ity of habitation sites within a cluster cannot be proaches this scale of occupation. We have gone judged. to some length to emphasize that this need not Beyond household aggregation, one can and probably should not be interpreted as a well- also contrast the "intensity" of occupation of integrated village or "urban" center.The basic hamlets among regions, intensity being an un- social unit here may still have been a relatively controlled mix of number of years of occupa- autonomous household unit. Nonetheless, this tion and seasonality of a hamlet and, to a degree, anomaly highlights that relationships between the number of households per hamlet. Informa- individual Hopewellian household units in gen- tion on this characteristic is available for the eral were driven by a complex web of economic, lower Illinois valley and the Scioto-Paint Creek ecological, social, and political forces that acted area, and indicates greater occupational inten- both centripetally and centrifugally. In the case sity in the Illinois case. At a qualitative level, of the lower Ohio-Wabash area, it is possible one argument in favor of a real difference be- that its relatively higher resource potential-as tween the two areas is that Illinois Hopewell measured by greater rainfall, a longer growing habitation sites never suffered an "identity cri- season, warmer temperatures, and the extensive sis." Workers in Illinois had no difficulty in flood plain, backwater, and riverine resources locating and excavating relatively large and 168 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES substantial Hopewellian habitations, as wit- tions, with the Ohio sites having been smaller or nessed by the numerous excavations published less intensively occupied and, hence, harder to by the mid-1960s: Weaver (Wray and Mac- find. Neish 1961), Snyders (Montet-White 1963; This difference between the Illinois and Powell 1957; Struever 1961; White 1963), the Ohio situations can be shown quantitatively. Pool and Irving (McGregor 1958), Havana Table 4.5 highlights a comparison between the (McGregor 1952), and Clear Lake (Fowler Smiling Dan site in the lower Illinois valley and 1952). Several other monograph-length treat- the McGraw site near the Paint Creek-Scioto ments of nonrnound Middle Woodland con- confluence. Data from the Murphy I site, located texts in the lower Illinois valley have appeared near the Newark Earthworks in a major drainage in the years since: Smiling Dan (Stafford and that neighbors the Paint Creek-Scioto region, are Sant 1985), Massey and Archie (Farnsworth also shown. Murphy is included in the compari- and Koski 1985), and Napoleon Hollow (Wiant son to temper any bias that might be introduced and McGimsey 1986). In contrast, the first sig- because McGraw was less intensively investi- nificant excavation of a Hopewellian habitation gated than Smiling Dan: Murphy was system- site in Ohio was not published until 1965 (Prufer atically sampled and stripped in a fashion com- 1965), and McGraw remains the only exca- parable to Smiling Dan. In B. Smith's (1992) vated Hopewellian habitation in the Scioto-Paint model, all three of these would be examples of Creek region proper. Also, only a few clear habi- small farming settlements made up of one to three tations have been excavated in the much broader household units. However, there are significant southern Ohio region (e.g., Murphy I, Madeira- differences among the three. Smiling Dan con- Brown,Marsh Run, Clarence Ford, Wade). It tains a midden dump in a stream channel that is true that this difference in site recovery may is up to two meters deep and extends across the result in part from the particular institutional north-south span of the Middle Woodland occu- history of research in the respective regions: the pation. No refuse deposit of comparable magni- University of Illinois, the University of Chicago, tude has been identified at any Ohio Hopewell Northwestern University, the Center for Ameri- site. Ceramics and chert debitage are much more can Archaeology, and the Illinois Department of frequent at Smiling Dan than at McGraw or Transportation have all been active in the Illi- Murphy. When standardized to densities per nois valley for many years, whereas almost all square meter, the density of ceramics at Smiling institutional interest in Ross County archaeology Dan is nearly 3 times higher than that at has been on the part of the Ohio Historical So- McGraw and more than 200 times higher than ciety, and their work largely ended before World that at Murphy. The density of chert debitage is War II. At the same time, there is also reason 5 to 7 times higher at Smiling Dan than at to suspect a real difference between Illinois val- McGraw and Murphy, and the density of blade ley and Scioto-Paint Creek Hopewellian habita- tools ranges from almost 2 to 10 times higher

Table 4.5. Comparison of Artifact Density at the Smiling Dan Site, Illinois, versus the McGraw and Murphy Sites,Ohio

Smiling Dana McGrawb Murphy"

Total Items/m? Total Items/rrr' Total Items/m2

Site area (m2) 6,705 1,236 10,000 Ceramics 138,350 20.63 9,946 8.05 858 0.09 Debitage 65,355 9.75 1,691 1.37 > 18,000 >1.80 Lamellar blades 2,254 0.34 233 0.19 >300 >0.03

aSmiling Dan site data from Stafford and Sant (1985:39, table ILl). Ceramic total includes minor Late Woodland and Black Sand components, totaling approximately 1,691 sherds.Debitage total includes flakes plus cultural blocky fragments. bMcGraw site data from Prufer (1965:10, 60, 85, table 3.1). "Murphy site data from Dancey (1991). COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONSIN THE SCIOTO, MANN, ANDHAVANA REGIONS 169

at Smiling Dan than at McGraw and Murphy. Illinois valley environment is distinctive among This example minimally suggests that sites inilli- those of the three areas in being highly lin- nois were probably occupied and reoccupied over ear and circumscribed-a trench of very pro- longer durations than those in Ohio. The probable ductive bottomlands flanked by less productive 25 to 50-year duration of swidden-based upland forests and prairies. This linearity and cycles of field relocation and possibly house- circumscription of productivity in the Illinois hold relocation and site reuse in the greater case would have tended to restrict mobility and Scioto area is relevant here (see Hopewellian to distribute populations more closely to each Communities at the Paint Creek-Scioto River other, up and down the main valley trench. In Confluence: Households and Hamlets, abovej." contrast, the environments in the central Scioto When it is considered that Smiling Dan is a rela- and lower Wabash regions are less markedly lin- tively small bluff-base hamlet in the illinois val- ear and circumscribed in their productive areas. ley compared to some others there (e.g., Ap- The contrast in productivity between the bot- ple Creek, Macoupin, Gardens of Kampsville), tomlands and the surrounding uplands in these the Ohio-Illinois comparison is all the more two regions is more subdued, and populations significant. could have more easily dispersed over these land- The intensity of occupation marked in both scapes, if they chose to. This was the case in Illinois and Ohio habitation records pales in com- Ohio (e.g., the upland sites of Clarence Ford, parison to that evidenced at the Mann site in Marsh Run, and Strait) but not at the Mann site in Indiana. Wide areas of midden accumulation, Indiana. some very deep midden deposits, and high den- sities of food processing and storage facilities at Mann all suggest long periods of habitation by Ceremonial Centers and Community more households than in the Illinois and Ohio Organization cases. In the ceremonial sphere, there is a wide range of There are a number of environmental differ- variability that received little emphasis in Smith's ences among the three regions that would have (1992) model. In all three regions examined here, influenced patterns of household aggregation and ceremonial centers differed greatly in size and sedentism. The lower Illinois valley and the lower complexity, in the kinds of ceremonies and ac- Wabash region are more similar in terms of tivities (e.g., mortuary, nonmortuary, or both) productivity (Table 4.3). Both regions are marked that occurred in them, and in the size and com- by extensive backwater lakes and sloughs that position of the social units engaged there (see serve as concentrated, fixed, and predictable also Carr, et aI.,Chapter 13). All three regions sources of aquatic resources. Both regions also had functionally differentiated ceremonial land- sit astride some of the most important waterfowl scapes. Minimally, each region had relatively migration corridors in North America. These fac- small, conical mounds and mound groups with tors would have promoted more frequent, longer, clear mortuary associations that contrasted with and/or aggregated occupations of favored locales other, often larger, constructions with a wider in the lower Illinois and lower Wabash valleys. In range of ceremonial foci, including strong ev- contrast, backwater lakes and sloughs are com- idence for nonmortuary ceremonies. Examples paratively rare along Paint Creek and the central of small conical mounds and mound groups are Scioto, and the major waterfowl migration cor- the bluff-top cemeteries in the lower Illinois val- ridors largely bypass these valleys. Populations ley, the Martin site and a cluster of such mounds in south-central Ohio had fewer opportunities in the Mann site in Indiana, and small isolated for frequent and extended sedentism in favored mounds and mound groups in the Scioto-Paint locales. Creek area as well as small mounds within and Also affecting household aggregation and around geometric earthworks there. These were sedentism in the three regions would have been the gathering places of local symbolic commu- the structure of their environments. The lower nities or portions of them. More multipurpose 170 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES ceremonial centers include those with loaf- probably used both the Mann site, with its plat- shaped burial mounds in all three regions- form mounds, and the huge, loaf-shaped GE flood plain mound sites in Illinois, the Mann site burial mound. In Ohio, single local symbolic in Indiana, and some geometric earthworks in communities sometimes used both earthworks Ohio (e.g., Seip, Liberty, Hopewell). Multipur- that had a major presence of burial mounds and pose ceremonial centers and facilities also in- those that did not: Seip and Baum, Liberty and clude ones lacking mortuary associations: the Works East, and Mound City and Hopeton, re- platform mounds at the Mann site in Indiana and spectively, for example. several sites in Ohio, and the mound-free geo- Each of the three study areas had communi- metric earthworks and hilltop enclosures in Ohio. ties of multiple scales, including residential, lo- These works were likely built and used by multi- cal symbolic, and sustainable communities. The ple local symbolic communities that comprised small conical mounds and the earthworks and sustainable communities. A simple "bull's-eye" loaf-shaped mounds that respectively character- model of Hopewellian community organization, ized local symbolic communities and sustainable where one ceremonial center stands at the center communities were mentioned above. In addi- of a community and where there is only one kind tion, the geographic scales of both local symbolic of community at one scale, does not fit well for communities and sustainable ones corresponded any of the regions considered. reasonably well between at least the lower Illi- In addition to having had ceremonial sites nois valley and the Scioto-Paint Creek regions, of diverse functions, all three regions share in where data for assessing community sizes are having had local symbolic communities that available. Table 4.6 summarizes the relevant in- used and/or encompassed multiple ceremonial formation taken from earlier portions of this centers. In Illinois, some local symbolic com- chapter. munities included, and all used, both bluff-top However, on a finer level, note in Table cemeteries and flood plain mound complexes. 4.6 that the geographic sizes of local symbolic In Indiana, some local symbolic communities communities in the lower Illinois valley were

Table 4.6. Comparison of Geographic Sizes of Communities of Different Kinds in the Lower Illinois valley and Near the Scioto-Paint Creek Confluence

Spacing (catchment diameter) in

Lower lIIinois Scioto-Paint Kind of distance valley Creek area

Within a local symbolic community Ohio: primary mode in histogram of interearthwork distances" n.d. 1-5 Ian (Mode: 2--4 kin)

Between local symbolic communities Illinois: between bluff-top cemeteries" 5 Ian Ohio: secondary mode in histogram of interearthwork distances" 5-13 Ian (Mode: 8-10 km) Between sustainable communities Illinois: between flood plain mound groups" 20 Ian Ohio: tertiary mode in histogram of interearthwork distances" 13-25+ Ian (Mode: 18-20 Ian)

Ohio: average distance between centroids of paired sites with tripartite symbolism" 20.7 Ian

"See Figures 4.7 and 4.9. bFrom Struever and Houart (1972:61). "From D.K. Charles (this chapter). dFigure 4.11. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 171

somewhat smaller than those in the Scioto-Paint works and large, loaf-shaped mound sites that Creek area. This may indicate somewhat higher are centralized within the overall settlement sys- population densities, and hence more compact lo- tem. The sites are simply too clustered to have cal symbolic communities, in the lower Illinois served as territorial markers for individual lo- valley. Higher population densities would not be cal symbolic communities.f Instead, the large, unexpected there, given the valley's greater natu- geometric earthworks and loaf-shaped mound ral food productivity as well as the circumscrip- sites in Ohio and Indiana were each locations tion and patchiness of natural food resources, where multiple local symbolic communities con- which would have constrained mobility and en- gregated and ensured the integrity of a broader couraged sedentism. Also note that sustainable sustainable community. This greater social con- communities in the two regions were of similar nectivity within the lower Ohio-Wabash and cen- geographic scale. This implies that, on average, tral Scioto valleys, in contrast to the territoriality more local symbolic communities constituted a of local social groups in the lower Illinois valley, sustainable community in the lower Illinois val- was encouraged by the two-dimensional, less cir- ley than in the Scioto-Paint Creek area and, in cumscribed, and more productively uniform na- turn, may reflect the greater geographic breadth ture of the lower Ohio-Wabash and central Scioto and sociopolitical integration of individual local valleys compared to the lower Illinois valley. symbolic communities in the Scioto-Paint Creek The second, and related, way in which the area. This result is entirely in line with standard three regions possibly differed is in the fluidity interpretations of the greater sociopolitical com- of membership in their local symbolic commu- plexity of Ohio Hopewellian societies than of nities. In Illinois, where local symbolic commu- Havana Hopewellian ones (J.A. Brown 1979; nities centered on bluff-top cemeteries appear to Struever 1965). have been territorial, it would not be unexpected In four other ways, however, the ceremo- for these communities also to have been fairly niallandscapes in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio dif- bounded in social composition. In the Scioto re- fered. First is in territoriality. Theory outlined gion, the possibility that local symbolic commu- by Saxe (1970), Goldstein (1980, 1981), and nities were more fluid in their membership is Charles (1985) predicts that groups are more suggested by the fact that multiple ones prob- likely to use formal cemeteries to symbolize ably used single earthwork-mound complexes, the relationship between corporate groups and providing opportunities for group affiliation to their customary territory under conditions of re- be negotiated. The situation in the Mann phase stricted mobility. Charles's (1985) argument that is unclear. bluff-crest conical mound groups served as terri- The third manner in which ceremonial torial markers-"corporate symbols"-is com- spheres were organized differently in the three pelling for the lower Illinois River valley. The regions regards whether single ceremonial cen- mounds are regularly spaced, are placed along ters served as the focus of communities of more with bluff-base habitation sites at critical food than one kind: specifically, a local symbolic com- patches in the natural environment, and have munity and a sustainable community. In Illi- burial populations representative of whole com- nois, these two types of communities were cen- munities. The circumscribed and linear nature tered at different, spatially segregated sites. Local of the Illinois valley, and the restricted distribu- symbolic communities were centered on bluff- tion of highly productive, backwater lake food top, conical-mound cemeteries, whereas sus- patches there, would have encouraged the ter- tainable communities assembled at flood plain ritoriality of local groups. This territorial setup sites, often with loaf-shaped mounds. In the is not, however, suggested by the distribution of Mann phase, conical and loaf-shaped mounds major mound and earthwork centers in either the that marked local symbolic communities and sus- Scioto-Paint Creek or lower Ohio-Wabash areas. tainable communities, respectively, were some- The Ohio and Indiana regions are characterized times separated spatially, as in the Martin and GE by a relatively few, very large geometric earth- mounds, and sometimes located together, as at 172 BRET J. RUBY,CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES the Mann site. The same appears to be true in the pears that the communities were allied ceremo- Scioto-Paint Creek area. Small conical mounds, nially through the burying of their dead together wherein a few, important persons, probably and constituted a single regional symbolic and representative of a local symbolic community sustainable community (Carr, Chapter 7). Com- or part of one, were buried (e.g., Rockhold, munity organization at earlier time planes in the Bourneville), are sometimes found spatially apart region has yet to be defined. from neighboring earthwork complexes where At this point, the reader can appreciate that community and others may have gathered as the much greater complexity of Hopewell a broader sustainable community (e.g., Seip) (see community organizations compared to the one Carr, Chapter 3). In other instances, such small community-one ceremonial center model conical mounds are found within and just outside posited by Smith for the Woodlands, and Prufer, earthwork complexes with large, loaf-shaped Dancey, and Pacheco for the Ohio area. The mounds (e.g., Seip, Liberty, Hopewell), indicat- much more marked variation in Hopewellian ing that both local symbolic and sustainable com- community organization among regions than munities used the earthworks. recognized in the models posed by these The final, striking difference in the com- researchers should also be clear. munity organization of the three regions is in the number and spatial arrangement of sites that may be interpreted as ceremonial centers. In the CONCLUSIONS lower Ohio-Wabash area, there are at best three such centers (Mann, GE, and Martin), with the Hopewellian communities in the Havana, Mann, largest and most complex centers (Mann and GE) and Scioto regions were organized at several centrally located within the overall settlement spatial and demographic scales. At the small- system. Only one center, Mann, includes a ge- est scale, individuals in each region were or- ometric earthwork. The whole area. was prob- ganized into residential communities defined by ably integrated into one regional symbolic and coresidence or close residence, and regular face- sustainable community. In the lower Illinois val- to-face interaction. At the same time, individ- ley, both the bluff-crest mounds and the larger uals participated in wider symbolic and sus- flood plain mound groups are more frequent and tainable communities that served social, polit- more regularly spaced along the length of the ical, economic, and demographic ends beyond main valley trench. Multiple sustainable commu- those that could be met by the local residential nities are indicated. There is only one geometric community earthwork in the valley, at its far southern end- In each of the three Hopewellian regions ex- Golden Eagle-which again may have integrated amined here, residential communities were com- the whole area as one large symbolic community. prised of one to a few nuclear or extended family The Scioto-Paint Creek area stands apart from households (hamlets), and occasionally of clus- the other two in having more and larger ceremo- ters of two or more hamlets. These residential nial centers and more geographically centralized communities were spread over the landscape, centers than in the Illinois case. At least nine partly in response to the nature of their farming major mound and geometric earthwork centers practices. There are differences among regions in and several minor earthworks are concentrated the degree of household aggregation and seden- within a 30 kilometer radius of the Scioto-Paint tism, but nucleated villages are absent in all three Creek confluence. In the later Middle Wood- regions. The availability of highly concentrated land, six or more of these sites (Seip, Baum, and and predictable resources--especially backwa- Spruce Hill?; Hopewell and Frankfort; Liberty, ter lake resources and migratory waterfowl-in and Works East), with two or three in each of the Havana and Mann regions promoted larger three valleys, were the ceremonial centers used and longer occupations and reoccupations of fa- by probably three distinct local symbolic com- vored locales there. In the Havana case, the lin- munities that resided in the three valleys. It ap- ear and spatially restricted distribution of highly ------~------~~~ ...

COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 173 productive resources along the narrow, circum- eluding feasting and the conspicuous display and scribed trench of the lower Illinois valley fa- consumption of wealth-activities often impli- vored a relatively rigid and stable partitioning of cated in the negotiation of status and the building subsistence territories along the length of the val- of cooperative alliances. ley. Here, mounded cemeteries sited on promi- Our review suggests that the simple "bull's- nent bluff tops served to integrate adjacent res- eye" model of Hopewellian community organi- idential communities into larger, local symbolic zation is no longer viable for at least the three communities with common economic interests in regions explored here, despite the fact that it the highly productive resource zones. The place- has carried weight in the Scioto case for nearly ment of these cemeteries at prominent points in 40 years and was generalized to Hopewellian so- the landscape served to display and validate these cieties across the entire Woodlands. In the bull's territorial claims vis-a-vis other similar commu- eye model, a Hopewellian community is por- nities up and down the length of the valley. There trayed as a community of one unspecified kind is little evidence for a similar use of mounded that was comprised of dispersed households fo- cemeteries as territorial markers in the Mann and cused on one centrally located ritual precinct of Scioto regions. one kind marked by mounds and earthworks. Although environmental differences among Instead, Hopewellian social-ritual landscapes in the Havana, Mann, and Scioto regions account each of the three study regions were populated for empirically measurable differences in house- by communities of multiple scales-residential, hold sedentism and aggregation in the three ar- local symbolic, sustainable, and sometimes very eas, they alone do not explain the unusual elab- broad regional symbolic ones. Two or more kinds oration of social complexity in the Scioto area. of ceremonial sites of differing functions were The lower Wabash-Ohio area and the lower Illi- built and used by single local symbolic commu- nois valley, not the Scioto-Paint Creek area, had nities, and multiple local symbolic communities a higher natural food availability, greater poten- used single ceremonial sites. The three regions tials for sedentism and population growth, and/or vary as to whether some single ceremonial sites better opportunity for regional social intercourse. were the gathering places of both a local sym- The lower Illinois valley had the greatest circum- bolic community and a sustainable community scription of natural food resources and potential and whether different ceremonial centers were for social competition and concomitant social built and used by these different kinds of com- development. munities. The regions also may differ in the de- All three study areas contain ceremonial gree to which their local symbolic communities centers that likely served as contexts for the in- were fluid in membership, as a function of com- tegration of spatially and demographically more munity territoriality. The concepts of community expansive communities, which were organized and the variability in Hopewellian community minimally at two different regional scales: that organization disentangled here hopefully will of the local symbolic community and that of the provide archaeologists a firmer foundation for sustainable community. In each area, these cen- investigating Hopewellian communities in the ters reflect investments of labor far in excess of future. that available to individual residential communi- ties. Centers that were the focus of local sym- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: Thanks are due to Dr. bolic communities were comprised of conical James Brown and his students from North- burial mounds and were dominated by mortu- western University for their assistance with ary ceremonialism. Centers that served sustain- the flood plain excavations at Hopeton. We are able communities included unusually large, loaf- grateful to Frank Cowan, Shaune Skinner, of shaped burial mounds for a restricted number Archaeological Services Consultants, Inc., and and set of persons, but also sometimes platform Bruce Aument and Stan Baker, of the Ohio mounds and geometric earthworks. The sites ev- Department of Transportation, for providing idence complex nonmortuary ceremonialism, in- us with unpublished reports and papers on the 174 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

Marsh Run, Clarence Ford, and Madeira-Brown 7. "Ohio style" blades are long and thin compared to the habitation sites in Ohio. We appreciate Kitty short and wide blades characteristic of the Illinoisan Ful- Rainey's GIS drafting of Figure 4.5. ton blade tradition. See Greber et al. (1981) and Montet- White (1963, 1968). 8. At present, funding considerations have not permitted a NOTES search for Mann phase components beyond the Indiana side of the Wabash and Ohio rivers. This is not a seri- 1. As will be seen below, this distinction is particularly ous limitation, as there is every reason to believe that the relevant to Hopewellian communities. Indiana side encompasses the full range of variability in 2. Waterfowl population estimates vary widely from year environment and settlement types that would be encoun- to year, and modem waterfowl migration corridors are tered if the analysis were extended across the rivers into likely shaped by modem agriculture and development. Illinois and Kentucky. Hence, these figures should be used with caution, placing 9. In the archaeobotanical samples from the Mann and greater reliance on the general trends than the absolute Grabert sites, about 80% of the identifiable seeds belong figures. to one of four starchy seeded annual plants believed 3. Asch et al. (1979:82) inexplicably inflate Middle Wood- to have been cultivated in Midwestern premaize land site sizes, stating that many larger Middle Woodland agricultural systems: maygrass (Phalaris caroliniana), flood plain settlements "cover 2 to 4 ha., and a few are goosefoot (Chenopodium sp.), knotweed (Polygonum 15 or more ha. in area." Since no new survey data are sp.), and little barley (Hordeum pusillum). Cucurbit cited, and since the numerals correspond well with the rind fragments are present in the Mann site samples. data Struever presents, except for the areal units, this A common, relative measure of the degree to which a may be a typographical error, with hectares substituted subsistence economy has shifted from a focus on nut for acres.Two large sites at each end of the lower Illi- resources to the intensive collection and production nois valley, Naples to the north and Duncan Farm to the of seed crops is the ratio of the number of seeds to \ south, may cover areas in the IS-hectare range and be the grams of nutshell in archaeobotanical assemblages. large sites to which Asch et al. (1979) refer. However, The Grabert site seed:nutshell ratio is a remarkably the depth, areal continuity, and time span of the deposits high 169 seeds per gram nutshell, among the highest have yet to be established. Moreover, both of these are values reported for any contemporary Midwestern flood plain/ceremonial sites rather than habitations. sample. 4. The clustered distribution of hamlets is not entirely cer- The faunal assemblage from Grabert is small in tain, in that it was not defined by Struever through ei- size and restricted in species diversity, emphasizing ther systematic or representative surface survey. Some terrestrial mammals. In short, the faunal assemblage is between-cluster spaces may have had occupations. How- characteristic of a small-scale, short-term, warm-season ever, the tight spacing of those hamlets that are known occupation (Ruby 1997; Ruby et al. 1993a). Analysis archaeologically is clear, and these clusters can be com- of faunal remains from two refuse-filled pits at the pared to the presence or absence and the approximate Mann site is similarly restricted in focus to terrestrial sizes of hamlet clusters in other regions. mammals, with seasonal indicators pointing to a late 5.In fact, similar use of these flood plain settings stretches winter/spring occupation (Gamiewicz 1993). The back into the Middle Archaic. small samples from both sites make it difficult to 6. The perhaps opportunistic and compromised bluff-top determine whether the restricted assemblages truly and bluff-base locations of the Elizabeth/Napoleon reflect short-term domestic occupations or whether they Hollow/Naples-Russell complex gives pause in the at- might reflect more specialized ceremonial activities tempt to define ceremonial site location as a fully firm, (Garniewicz 1993; Styles and Purdue 1986, 1991). historically deeply rooted, symbolic ingredient for the 10. Following Cook: "For measuring space a fair rule of . creating of ceremonial site function (cf Buikstra and thumb is to count 25 ft. 2 for each of the first six persons Charles 1999). Conversely, since this complex was the and then 100 ft2 for each additional individual" (Cook earliest of the large, Hopewellian ceremonial sites in the 1972:16, as cited in B. D. Smith 1992:figure 9.8). lower Illinois valley (Kut and Buikstra 1998), we may 11. Only 1 of the 26 ceremonial structures reported by be witnessing the interplay between agency and tradi- Smith (1992:figure 9.8) was smaller than this, and most tion in the production of the complex. Ultimately, the had floor areas greater than 130.5 square meters. traditional symbolism of the flood plain locations came 12. Charles Lacer, Jr.'s Mound 6. to dominate. 13. The mound contains about 3,139 cubic yards. At Recent excavations at the Mound House site approximately four cubic yards per person per day, 25 (Buikstra et al. 1998) also document a situation in which people could have built this mound in about 30 days. the ritual/ceremonial activities at a site changed over 14. The Kleinknecht Earthwork (12 Vg 454) is a final time. In this case, mound/mortuary components were possible Mann phase ceremonial structure. This circular added to a location already serving as an important rit- earthwork, 40 meter in diameter and up to I meter tall, ua~ site. is located about 3 kilometers north of the Martin Site. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATIONS IN THE SCIOTO, MANN, AND HAVANA REGIONS 175

A lamellar blade fragment similar to those characteristic were contemporaneous. These various estimates, of2, 5, of the Mann site blade industry was recovered within and 5.5 kilometer radii, fall close to the 3 to 5 kilometer about 100 meters and is the only clue to the nature catchment radii found cross-culturally for swidden and cultural affiliation of the earthwork (see Ruby agriculturalists and the 3 kilometer radius found for 1997:418). the Dresden subregion of the central Muskingum. A 15. The precise nature of the burial populations at the GE third area within the central Muskingum drainage that mound and the two loaf-shaped mounds at Mann, and Pacheco surveyed for habitation sites, mounds, and the degree to which they were analogous to loaf-shaped earthworks-the Granville subregion-is too close to mounds in the flood plain of the Illinois valley or the gigantic Newark earthworks to assess its probable in the Scioto-Paint Creek area, is unclear. There is dimensions (Pacheco 1996:24, fig. 2.3). Newark has too little known about the layout of the deposits and a fairly continuous scatter of habitation sites around burials on the floor of the GE mound, and neither it, up to 20 kilometers away (Pacheco and Dancey of the large, loaf-shaped mounds at Mann has been n.d.). excavated. 21. Normal human walking speed is about 4.5 kilometers 16. The Hopewellian age and association of this particular per hour. The Scioto does not pose much of a barrier maize have been called into question (Ford 1987), but here: one could easily wade the river here, and several Prufer (1997 c) stands by the original interpretation on Historic period fords cross the river at this point. contextual and taxonomic grounds. Other studies attest to 22. The 14 sites are Baum,Frankfort, High Bank, Hopeton, the presence of maize in Hopewellian contexts (Conard Hopewell, Liberty, Mound City, Seip, Works East, et al. 1984), although it does not appear to have been Anderson, Dunlap, Shriver, Spruce Hill, and Bourneville a staple food until after about A.D. 900-1000 (Bender Circle. The Universal Transverse Mercator coordinates et al. 1981; Smith 1992). (UTM Zone 16,North American Datum 1927) for these 17. Church and Ericksen's (1995) final report of additional sites are listed in Appendix 4.5. investigations was not available at the time of writing. 23. In this study, Theissen polygon boundaries are limited 18. Artifacts from DECCa I have not been fully analyzed along the edge of the study area to a maximum distance to date, and their usefulness for functional interpretation of eight kilometers from the center. Given the time and is further complicated by the multicomponent nature of energy constraints on movement, this likely represents the site. an upper bound on the area regularly exploited from the 19. The Marietta site (Squier and Davis 1848:73-77, plate center. XXVI) is comprised of a large square embankment, a 24. The sites for which there is chronological information small square embankment, and a small circular embank- and that are included in the study are Baum, Frankfort, ment and ditch combination. The three geometric forms High Bank, Hopeton, Hopewell, Liberty, Mound City, are not directly conjoined. The large square contains Seip, Works East, and Anderson. For their chronology, four platform mounds, the small square is empty, and the see Figure 4.6 and Appendix 4.1 (on Mound City and small circle contains a large conical mound. The Cedar Hopeton) as well as Carr (Chapter 7), Greber (1983, Banks work is a truncated square that contains a platform 2000), Prufer (1961, 1964a), Ruhl (1996), and RuW and mound. The Ginther site (Shetrone 1925) is about a third Seeman (1998). of a mile from Cedar Banks, and is comprised of an 25. These estimates are based on unrealistic assumptions isolated platform mound and empty embankment-and- of level ground, straight-line journeys, and the like, but ditch circle. The platform mound had a prepared floor at nonetheless, the implications hold true. its base with two pits suggestive of feasting, two hearths, 26. There are six sites in the Scioto-Paint Creek confluence and postholes in a semi-regular pattern. Significantly, area that are uniquely associated with one another by the floor had no burials or ceremonial caches of raw virtue of a common architectural element: a rectangular materials or artifacts on it. The mound was fully enclosure of approximately 300 meters on a side, with excavated. openings at the midpoints and corners of each wall. 20. The upper Johnathan Creek site cluster has five very The sites are Seip, Baum, Frankfort, Hopewell, Works small earthworks within it, which Pacheco (1996:24) East, and Liberty. All but Hopewell also share a basic attributes to construction over time rather than multiple tripartite geometry composed of a square, a large communities. The estimate of a 5.5 kilometer catchment circle, and a smaller circle or polygon.The six sites are radius for this site cluster assumes that no two of these located in three different valleys: the Scioto valley, the ceremonial centers were contemporaneous. However, main Paint Creek valley, and its North Fork. For the even if all of these small earthworks were used simulta- chronology of these sites, see Carr (Chapter 7), Greber neously, representing five residential communities, the (1983, 2000), Prufer (1961, 1964a), Ruhl (1996), and average nearest-neighbor distance between earthworks Ruhl and Seeman (1998). is about four kilometers, equating to catchment radii 27. The durations between the means of three statistically of two kilometers. The distance between the farthest distinguishable radiocarbon modes at Smiling Dan (162 two earthworks in the area is 10 kilometers, equating to and 188 years) fall within the lower end of the range catchment radii of 5 kilometers if only these two centers of the durations between the means of distinguishable 176 BRET J. RUBY, CHRISTOPHER CARR, AND DOUGLAS K. CHARLES

radiocarbon modes in single sites in Ohio (121-520 from lengths of occupation of habitations, which years) (Table 4.4). Thus, the radiocarbon dates from together describe the degree of mobility of a group of Smiling Dan and Ohio habitation sites do not indicate people. significantly shorter cycles of reoccupation of habitation 28. In Ohio, this concentration is also true for smaller, locations in Illinois than in Ohio. Lengths of cycles isolated mounds and mound groups (Seeman and of habitation site reoccupation, of course, are distinct Branch n.d.).