THE LATE PREHISTORIC CULTURES OF THE
OHIO VALLEY
by JAMES B. GRIFFIN
Director, Museum of Anthropology,
University of Michigan
After the decline of the Hopewell
culture there can be recognized
a period of unknown length during which
relatively little cultural
progress was made. Actually, this was a
period of decline in quite
a number of the ceremonial aspects of
Indian life as it is revealed
by materials placed with the dead and
by the type and amount of
time spent in the construction of
tombs. This is the beginning of
Late Woodland, and has been identified
from one end of the Ohio
Valley to the other. In southern
Illinois the materials belonging
to this period have been called the
Lewis Focus by University of
Chicago archaeologists. The Lewis
people sometimes made their
burials in pits, and at others, placed
them under stone slabs with
very little associated grave material.
They continued to make side-
notched and stemmed projectile points,
but gradually toward the
end of their existence, substituted a
small triangular point char-
acteristic of the Mississippi people.
Their pottery is a continuation
of the old Woodland tradition, but it
is markedly thinner than
during the preceding Hopewell period
and has very little decora-
tion. The old Woodland subconoidal and
round-based forms with
relatively straight rims continued to
be made, but toward the end
of the period they began to take on
some of the incised decorative
techniques which were to become common
in the Mississippi period.
Also some of the vessel forms, such as
plates and bowls, are common
in Lewis. They also made a small amount
of red-slipped pottery
which is related to types in the
central and lower Mississippi Valley.
A short distance to the north of the
Lewis Focus is the Carbondale
area, where a very similar Woodland
manifestation has been called
Raymond. This, again, is a rather
generalized Late Woodland group
with very few distinctive
characteristics which would serve to
identify it. It merges
indistinguishably on the north into other Late
Woodland material. In southwestern
Indiana there is a little-known
186
The Late Prehistoric Cultures 187
cultural complex, identified almost
entirely on the basis of ceramic
material to which the name Yankeetown
has been given. So far, this
is simply a distinctive style of
incised and applique pottery which
is found in minor percentages, probably
as trade ware, in Late
Woodland sites in southern Illinois and
as far west as Cahokia. Its
distribution eastward along the Ohio or
into northern Kentucky
is not known.
In the Cincinnati area there is a
cultural complex which has only
recently been recognized as belonging
in a period between Hopewell
and the later Fort Ancient culture. The
recognition of the correct
time position of this culture is the
result of the excavations of the
Cincinnati Museum of Natural History.
These excavations were
made on the Turpin Farm on the Little
Miami River near Newtown,
Ohio. Here were recovered both a burial
and a village complex
which clearly indicate that this Late
Woodland group is closely
connected with many of the stone slab
mounds found along the Ohio
Valley, where they were placed on top
of bluffs overlooking the
main valley or tributary streams. Since
the Turpin Farm is well known
as a Fort Ancient site, it is suggested
that this complex be referred
to as Newtown. Many of the human
remains in the small stone
mound located in the village were in a
fragmented condition and
scattered, seemingly indiscriminately,
in the mound structure. There
were also a few flexed Woodland burials
and a number of clearly
intrusive extended Fort Ancient
burials. At this particular site
there is little or no indication of a
gradual development from the
Newtown Focus into the Turpin Component
of the Fort Ancient
culture. There are, however,
indications of continuity from the pre-
ceding Hopewell period into the
cultural complex of the Newtown
Focus in such things as grooved axes,
gorgets, stemmed and notched
projectile points, notched scrapers,
and beaming tools.
Some three or four years ago
excavations in Delaware County,
Ohio, uncovered a very similar Late
Woodland level heretofore
unknown in the central Ohio area. It is
quite clear then that there
was a Woodland cultural period which
succeeds Hopewell, within
which there was a continuation of some
of the Hopewellian features,
and that this period preceded the
development of Fort Ancient.
188
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
In northern Ohio, in the area east of
Cleveland in the material
classified as Whittlesey Focus, which
is largely to be attributed to
Iroquois-speaking Indians, there is
Late Woodland material showing
a decline from the Hopewellian period,
but which does not yet
indicate that the people had reached a
full Iroquois development.
This is also true of southwestern New
York and northwestern
Pennsylvania, where there can be seen a
development which is com-
parable to Early Owasco in New York,
and to Uren material, the
earliest level of Iroquoian development
in southern Ontario.
The Monongahela Woodland culture in
southwestern Penn-
sylvania is certainly in the
post-Hopewell period, and comes up into
the early historic period of around
1700. As this culture is now
conceived, it covers too long a time
span for an internally homogene-
ous assemblage, and certainly temporal
groupings will be recognized
as the intensive work now being carried
on by the Carnegie Museum
of Pittsburgh progresses.
In summary, it can be said that the
material of the post-Hopewell
period is just beginning to be
recognized, and it will take some
years for archaeologists in the Ohio
Valley to gather sufficient data
on sites of this period to enable us to
characterize it satisfactorily
and to work out the distinctive
regional variations.
In the Mississippi and Ohio valley
areas the outstanding cul-
tural development of the last half
millenium before European
colonization is the rise and
development of the Mississippi Pattern.
One of the most distinctive and
earliest of the traits, or cultural
characteristics, which define this
period, is the appearance of the
large pyramidal earthen mound, used as
a substructure for important
buildings of the Indian communities,
and an associated plaza com-
plex. In this plaza area were performed
the important ceremonies
at various times during the year, and
such sites formed the county
seat, so to speak, of the various
Indian tribal communities. There
was an increased emphasis upon
agriculture during this period, which
is accompanied by population increase,
by a more sedentary way of
life, and by the development of
extensive ceremonialism, which
found expression in many distinctive
artifact types which have been
adequately described and characterized
in the archaeological litera-
ture on the period.
The Late Prehistoric Cultures 189
In the lower Ohio Valley area there are
a number of outstanding
sites which belong to the Middle
Mississippi Phase of the Mis-
sissippi Pattern. Of these, the Kincaid
site of southern Illinois,
about opposite Paducah, and the Angel
site near Evansville, In-
diana, are outstanding, because they
have recently been excavated
and because reports of this material
are now available. Equally out-
standing sites of this period are to be
found in western Kentucky.
One of the best of these sites was
commercially developed and is
now being commercially exploited. It
was rather systematically
excavated, but has been salted, and the
information put out upon
it is romanticized and, in many cases,
unreliable. Many of the sites
of this period had extensive earthen
ramparts with extensive forti-
fications, which were certainly
developed for defense. These ex-
tensive villages, in many cases, have
deep refuse deposits which
indicate occupation for a considerable
period of time. The material
in the lower Ohio Valley indicates a
number of different cultural
complexes which will eventually be
segregated and their more inti-
mate connections established. At the
present time, it would seem
that the earliest occupations of this
period go back fairly far
within the Mississippi Pattern and have
connections with such
major centers as Cahokia and the east
Tennessee area. During the
cultural climax of Middle Mississippi,
these sites, such as Angel
and Kincaid, had close connections with
the Nashville area and
with southeastern Missouri.
In south-central Indiana, opposite
Louisville, there has been re-
ported a Middle Mississippi occupation,
which, at least from the
ceramic evidence, seems to be
relatively early within that period.
Unfortunately, until an adequate survey
can be made along the
Ohio Valley, we will not have too much
idea of the sites and
the materials representative of this
period from this section of the
valley.
In southeastern Indiana and southern
Ohio, West Virginia, and
northern Kentucky there has been
recognized for many years a
rather distinctive, late archaeological
assemblage to which the term
Fort Ancient was applied some forty
years ago. Unfortunately, this
was a misnomer, because the famous Fort
Ancient site in Warren
County, Ohio, is now known to have been
built by the Hopewell
190 Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
people, and was subsequently partially
reoccupied by one of the
subdivisions of the Fort Ancient
culture. The Fort Ancient culture
covers a fairly long period of time,
probably some four to five
hundred years. In its earlier phases it
has contact with the Early
Mississippi cultures in the central
Mississippi Valley, and pre-
sumably, with the area south of the
Kentucky uplands. There are
clear indications in the Fort Ancient
sites, particularly those north
of the Ohio for some seventy to one
hundred miles, that the culture
has a strong Woodland background, and
presumably, is the de-
scendant of such Late Woodland units as
that at Newtown and in
Delaware County, Ohio. Unfortunately,
there is no definite evidence
yet of the transitional steps. It is
highly probable, however, that
the Woodland part of the Fort Ancient
culture indicates its local
background and that, as the Mississippi
Pattern developed to the
south and west, ideas, and no doubt
peoples as well, gradually pro-
duced a change in the cultural
orientation, which resulted in the
Fort Ancient development. These people
were strongly agricultural
with rather sedentary villages. Along
the Ohio and in northeastern
Kentucky they had the same type of
rectangular house structure
which was common in the Mississippi
Pattern. They also had oval
and circular house plans. They built
earthen mounds of pyramidal
type, upon which they erected their
important dwellings. This
connection to the Mississippi Pattern
is certainly true of the Baum
Mound. A similar explanation is here
proposed for the "fort" at
Marietta in which the pyramidal mounds
with ramps were located.
The late eighteenth century statements
in regard to Marietta refer
specifically to shell-tempered pottery
from the first terrace at the
Marietta site. This tempering material
is a very significant time
marker, and is of considerable import
in regard to the probable
location at the mouth of the Muskingum
of one of the Fort Ancient
culture sites.1 The middle
earthwork at Marietta is clearly of Hope-
1 On April 29, 1951, I visited the Campus Martius Museum of the Ohio State
Archaeological and Historical Society at
Marietta accompanied by W. J. Mayer-Oakes,
James L. Swauger, Delf Norona, and E. W.
Fetzer. Collections in the museum from
the Marietta earthwork area clearly
indicate considerable time depth back to the
Early Woodland period, but the
predominant material is Fort Ancient and other
shell-tempered pottery possibly a late
variant of Fort Ancient.
The Late Prehistoric Cultures 191
well type, while the eastern conical
within the embankment is
almost certainly Adena.
A number of regional subdivisions of
Fort Ancient have been
recognized, one of which is located in
the Cincinnati area. This
Madisonville Focus clearly indicates
its connections with both the
Cumberland and eastern Tennessee areas.
There are also some in-
dications of cross-ties with the
northern Illinois area, which will
be presented shortly. Around
Portsmouth, Ohio, there was another
important sub-center of Fort Ancient,
the Feurt Focus, which in-
dicates its intimate connection, not
only with eastern Tennessee, but
significantly with both southwestern
and northwestern Penn-
sylvania. Other centers were located up
both the Big and Little
Miami rivers, up the Scioto towards
Columbus, and up the Kanawha
and New rivers in West Virginia.
Some ten or fifteen years ago it seemed
reasonable to regard the
Fort Ancient culture as being most
closely connected on the one
hand with Iroquoian units, and on the
other hand, with a division
called Oneota. These were then combined
into what was called the
Upper Mississippi Phase of the
Mississippi Pattern. At present, I
feel that this is not quite the best
alignment, but would suggest
rather that Fort Ancient represents a
northern group marginal to,
and a part of, the general Middle
Mississippi culture development.
Fort Ancient comes up definitely into
the historic period at
Madisonville, with a possible historic
indication at a few other
sites. Furthermore, Madisonville-like
material has been found in
sites in the Iroquois country of
southern New York and lower
Canada, which are in the early historic
period. Also at the Feurt
site, near Portsmouth, Ohio, and in
other sites of what has been
called the Feurt Focus, there are
materials from western Pennsylvania
of the late Monongahela Woodland. This
latter archaeological
division, on the basis of evidence from
William Mayer-Oakes, also
may come up into the early historic
period. There are also specimens
in Fort Ancient sites which either were
derived from or very closely
parallel to types from eastern
Tennessee, which in that area come up
into the historic period. Furthermore,
there is Fort Ancient material
which has been found at the Starved
Rock sites by University of
192
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
Chicago expeditions, associated with
the La Salle-Tonti period in
northern Illinois.
To the northeast of the Fort Ancient
culture area, along the
south shore of Lake Erie and
northwestern Pennsylvania, there are
sites which can be attributed to the
Erie Indians, who were destroyed
as a functioning tribal group by the
Iroquois in 1653. These Erie
Indians have left a considerable amount
of material in sites which
the archaeologists recognize as the
Whittlesey Focus. This complex
clearly indicates a connection with the
basic Iroquoian pattern of
the upper St. Lawrence, with Fort
Ancient, and even with Monon-
gahela Woodland. Indeed, some of this
Whittlesey Focus material
is recognized in eastern and
southwestern Michigan, appearing in
sites of a very late prehistoric
period.
In southwestern Pennsylvania the
Monongahela Woodland cul-
ture is one which is gradually becoming
engulfed by characteristics
of the Mississippi Pattern. The
archaeological connections here
definitely indicate that the majority
of Monongahela Woodland is
on the same general time level with
Fort Ancient. As its geographical
position would imply, it shows
connections not only with the Ohio
Valley and northwestern Pennsylvania,
but also into the Virginia
Piedmont area and into east Tennessee.
It will be difficult or im-
possible in some cases to separate
clearly Fort Ancient sites and
western Monongahela Woodland sites of
the late prehistoric period.
All of the late prehistoric entities of
the Ohio Valley area are
either regarded as a part of the
Mississippi Pattern, or are closely
connected thereto. They were
semi-sedentary groups, living in vil-
lages of from one hundred to a few thousand
persons, with strong
dependence upon agriculture, which was
largely practiced by the
women, while the males concentrated
their activities upon furnishing
game for the food supply. They were
well adjusted to their environ-
ment and had an excellent knowledge of
the populations and dif-
ferent groups throughout the eastern
United States. There was a large
series of trails in existence by which
both prehistoric traders and
warriors passed from one area to
another, either for commerce or for
excitement. There was gradually
developing a series of large tribal
entities bound together by common
language and habits, which were
The Late Prehistoric Cultures 193
tending toward the formation of
primitive states. Warfare was be-
ginning to suggest a picture of conflict to preserve
territorial pos-
sessions and to expand territory at the
expense of weaker neighbors.
In this, the eastern United States was
following a pattern long
achieved in Middle America, where, on
the late prehistoric horizon,
the Aztecs had achieved considerable
supremacy over a wide area.
This is foreshadowed by such
developments as the Creek Con-
federacy, the Powhatan Confederacy, and
that of the Iroquois. This
evolution was ended by the intrusion of
European explorers, mis-
sionaries, and colonists into the
eastern United States and the Ohio
Valley.
So far we have spoken in terms of
prehistoric archaeological
groups. It is clearly indicated that
the distinctive ones recognized
come up into the early historic period,
by which I mean, somewhere
between 1600 and 1700. Unfortunately,
there are no good historical
records of European explorers or
missionaries visiting the Ohio
Valley and identifying at a particular
spot an Indian tribal group.
There are references in the Jesuit
Relations and early French docu-
ments to Indian groups which were south
and west of the Iroquois
country and south and east of the
Illinois area. References of this
type appear mainly to refer to various
bands of the Shawnee. There
is an inadequate reference to a
possible Siouan group in the head-
waters of the New River. There is also
a reference to the Akansea
or Quapaw as having been located in the
area of the lower Ohio, at
that time referred to as the Wabash. In
northeastern Ohio and
southwestern New York were the Erie and
the Wenro, Iroquoian-
speaking groups, who were removed from
the area by the Five
Nations. Presumably in southwestern
Pennsylvania was the group
called the Black Minquas, whose exact
tribal and linguistic affilia-
tions are not clearly known. Another
group to which references
have been made in the central Ohio
Valley is the Mosopelea. Recent
historical research on this group
rather clearly indicates that the loca-
tion of the Mosopelea in central Ohio
is an error, that actually they
belonged somewhere in the area of
Memphis. They were never lo-
cated in the Ohio Valley at all. There
are a number of other names
which are located on early maps of the
Ohio Valley, but about which
194
Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Quarterly
little or nothing can be done as to
their tribal identification, let
alone the particular site which such
unidentified groups may have
occupied.
The most logical occupants of the Ohio
Valley, or a fair portion
of it, were the various bands of the
Shawnee. They were the object
of considerable aggression by the
western Iroquois, who went into
the Ohio Valley and brought back
Shawnee prisoners. It is sig-
nificant in this regard that the type
of material from the Ohio
Valley to be found on these western
Iroquois sites of the historic
period is material which is clearly
Fort Ancient in type. Another
identification of this nature which has
recently been excavated is
from Fort St. Louis at Starved Rock in
northern Illinois. Here
material clearly of Fort Ancient type
in association with material of
Kaskaskia Indians of the 1680 period
has been found in the ex-
cavations by archaeologists from the
University of Chicago. It is
known that at Fort St. Louis there were
Shawnee groups brought in
from the Ohio Valley by La Salle, and
the only material of Ohio
Valley type found in the rather
extensive excavations there turns
out to be Fort Ancient.
The Shawnee have long been regarded by
ethnologists as the
most southern of the central Algonquian
groups, and in a recent
extensive study by Dr. Erminie Voegelin
it is clearly indicated by an
analysis of the burial customs of the
Shawnee and contiguous groups
that they had a basic northern Woodland
background with strong
influence from the Southeast. This, of
course, is the picture pre-
sented by the archaeological evidence,
which, coupled with the his-
torical records indicating the presence
of the Shawnee in the Ohio
Valley at this period, plus the
distribution of archaeological material
of Fort Ancient type in areas where the
Shawnee are known to have
been located outside their range,
presents the most conclusive
evidence that we have at the present
time for a possible tribal
affiliation of the majority of the Fort
Ancient culture.
If the Quapaw were in the lower Ohio
Valley, one of the most
likely sites for their occupation is
the Murphy site in Posey County,
Indiana. This material seems to be
quite closely connected with the
archaeological complexes in western
Kentucky and southeast Mis-
The Late Prehistoric Cultures 195
souri. The Angel site and Kincaid may
well represent an area which
some of the Muskoghean people had
occupied and who were then
attracted into the Tennessee Valley in
the late historic period. Up
the Wabash, around Merom, there is a
distinctive late Middle Mis-
sissippi complex which can be most
closely connected culturally
with the Spoon River Focus of central
Illinois. It is not unlikely
that this somewhat northern variant of
Ohio Valley Mississippi
peoples may belong to the southern
members of the Miami. In
the area around Indianapolis there is a
very interesting mixture of
the late period which has Fort Ancient,
Late Woodland, and Fisher
Focus material from northern Illinois,
which suggests a meeting of
late central Algonquian groups in this
central Indiana area.
During the period from 1680 to shortly
after 1700 the Ohio
Valley seems to have been essentially a
no-man's land, a sort of
buffer zone, between the growing
Iroquois strength in the upper
reaches of the Ohio Valley and the
Cherokee-Muskoghean groups in
the Tennessee Valley. This vacuum was
refilled by Shawnee groups
coming back into what I believe was
essentially their old homeland.
By the time of their reappearance,
however, they had been in as-
sociation with Europeans for some fifty
years and had acquired quite
a good number of European cultural
traits and associated habits.
While they maintained some degree of
tribal integrity and their own
cultural patterns, they had very
definitely been influenced by many
of the worst features of European
society, and they were placed in
a position of economic dependence upon
traders and were harrassed
by military groups. Unable to combine
effectively with each other
into strong, persistent, organized
resistance to European aggression,
the Indians and their culture gradually
went downhill to the point
where effective resistance was
impossible and their pride and faith
in their own way of life was
effectively destroyed.
THE LATE PREHISTORIC CULTURES OF THE
OHIO VALLEY
by JAMES B. GRIFFIN
Director, Museum of Anthropology,
University of Michigan
After the decline of the Hopewell
culture there can be recognized
a period of unknown length during which
relatively little cultural
progress was made. Actually, this was a
period of decline in quite
a number of the ceremonial aspects of
Indian life as it is revealed
by materials placed with the dead and
by the type and amount of
time spent in the construction of
tombs. This is the beginning of
Late Woodland, and has been identified
from one end of the Ohio
Valley to the other. In southern
Illinois the materials belonging
to this period have been called the
Lewis Focus by University of
Chicago archaeologists. The Lewis
people sometimes made their
burials in pits, and at others, placed
them under stone slabs with
very little associated grave material.
They continued to make side-
notched and stemmed projectile points,
but gradually toward the
end of their existence, substituted a
small triangular point char-
acteristic of the Mississippi people.
Their pottery is a continuation
of the old Woodland tradition, but it
is markedly thinner than
during the preceding Hopewell period
and has very little decora-
tion. The old Woodland subconoidal and
round-based forms with
relatively straight rims continued to
be made, but toward the end
of the period they began to take on
some of the incised decorative
techniques which were to become common
in the Mississippi period.
Also some of the vessel forms, such as
plates and bowls, are common
in Lewis. They also made a small amount
of red-slipped pottery
which is related to types in the
central and lower Mississippi Valley.
A short distance to the north of the
Lewis Focus is the Carbondale
area, where a very similar Woodland
manifestation has been called
Raymond. This, again, is a rather
generalized Late Woodland group
with very few distinctive
characteristics which would serve to
identify it. It merges
indistinguishably on the north into other Late
Woodland material. In southwestern
Indiana there is a little-known
186