Ohio History Journal

DIARY OF JOHN BEATTY                 427

 

persons present authorized their names to be signed to the con-

stitution when it should be properly transcribed, paid two dollars

each as a membership fee, and then after an informal talk adjourned

to meet at the call of the President.

I have been reading to day three very interesting and able

articles. The first by Andrew D. White, President of Cornell Uni-

versity, entitled "The Nineteenth Century to the Twentieth" in

which he condemns the spirit of mercantilism now dominant in

this country and insists that if not modified and opposed by other

influences it will lead to the ruin of the people. The second is a

lecture delivered by Charles Francis Adams Jr. to the students of

Harvard on the inutility of Greek and Latin, and the greater value

of German and French. The third: an article on Martin Luther

by James Anthony Froude. "Had there been no Luther the English,

American and German peoples would be thinking differently, would

be having difficulty &c"

[To be continued]

• 1
 

THE RAISCH-SMITH SITE, AN EARLY INDIAN OCCUPATION

IN PREBLE COUNTY, OHIO

by Ross MOFFETT

 

Location and Description of Site

The Raisch-Smith village site is located along Fourmile Creek

in Israel Township, Preble County, Ohio, three miles from the

western boundary of the state and five miles north of the town

of Oxford, on the farms of Ben Raisch and Jake Smith. Fourmile

Creek, it may be said, is a rather beautiful small stream flowing

over interbedded shale and limestone in a generally southeasterly

direction and emptying into the Great Miami River at a point about

sixteen miles below the site and some twenty-five miles above the

confluence of the Great Miami and the Ohio. Hills of moderate

height, often wooded, rise steeply on both sides of the creek valley,

and here and there the stream lies against somewhat striking, nearly

perpendicular, clay banks cut into the Wisconsin drift.  This

fertile, well watered region was much favored by the Indians, and

signs of their occupancy may still be found in almost every corn-

field.

In the general locale of the Raisch-Smith site an important

physical feature, as concerns the Indian sojourn, is a nearly level,

gravelly terrace situated on the southerly side of Fourmile Creek

and elevated twenty feet, well above the reach of flood waters (see

map). Northwest of the terrace is Little Fourmile Creek, a shallow,

rapid stream coming from a westerly direction and entering the

main stream near the site. Bisecting the terrace is the east-west

Jones Road, and extending from this road south to the Smith farm

house is a narrow lane. Also of present interest is a point of high

ground which lies north of the smaller creek and overlooks the

terrace.

The stippled area on the accompanying map shows the main

part of the site as lying on the terrace in an area stretching from

near the creek bank southward about two hundred yards to a sharp

428

• 2
 

RAISCH-SMITH SITE                    429

 

rise leading to the ground on which stand the Smith farm buildings.

The westerly side is defined by a short slope or low bank running

entirely across the terrace and denoting a drop of three or four feet

to a lower and wetter level. It will be noted that this low bank is

roughly parallel in part with Little Fourmile Creek and in part

with a small run tributary to the latter creek. The easterly limit

of the terrace habitation area is difficult to determine with exacti-

tude since the occupational signs tend to thin out gradually. On

the ground adjacent to the larger creek, however, the camp debris

is well marked for at least eighty yards east from the low bank,

and on the southern part of the terrace, near the farmhouse, it is

easily discernible for approximately 135 yards, again measuring

east from the low bank. In addition to the above area, materials

typical of the site are present to some extent on the high point

north of the secondary creek.

Traces of the Indian consist of whole and damaged artifacts,

waste flint, and broken rock, with much of the latter being chipped

and battered slate of an uncertain nature. No charcoal or dark

midden earth was detected. If anywhere, the materials have their

greatest concentration in the rectangle lying south of the road and

east of the lane, the part of the site farthest removed from the

streams. While no serious excavation was possible in fields under

constant cultivation, a few small holes were dug in the tough clay

of the terrace to determine the depth to which the debris extends.

Nothing was found, however, to indicate that it reaches below the

plow line, although of course the possible presence of pits or

graves should not be ruled out. In connection with the apparent

thinness of the site, attention should perhaps be drawn to the cir-

cumstance that the Raisch-Smith materials are distributed over an

area of about five acres, and consideration should also be given to

the fact that the terrace is so situated that natural processes, such as

the depositing of river silt that might aid in building up and pre-

serving an occupational stratum, would not here be operative.

The artifacts with which this report is concerned came from

the surface of the site, most of them being found by the writer in

the spring of 1933, and between the summer of 1945 and the

summer of the year following. In carefully going over the ground

many times no segregation of types was detected, examples of all

• 3
 

RAISCH-SMITH SITE                   431

 

characteristic traits being found on all parts of the site. It can

be stated that, with the exception of a relatively small number of

seemingly nonconformable implements, the materials appear to

exhibit a high degree of homogeneity.

 

Description of Artifacts

Work in Flint

In general the flint artifacts are crude, with irregular flaking

and thick heavy forms the rule. For the most part the materials

used are inferior in grade and have poor fracturing qualities. In

appearance, however, considerable variety is offered. Some sixty

percent of the objects are of light shades of chert, white, pinkish,

or gray, most of which shows a warm toning, or patination, along

with rusty streaks and spots. Leaden, bluish, and dark shades

of gray, sometimes mottled, are also common, as is a grayish

brown or earthy drab. Black and deep red are less frequent.

The sources of the flint materials are not known. It can be said,

though, that there is little or no flint from Flint Ridge.

Stemmed projectile points numbering 296, a representative lot

of which is shown in Fig. 1, Nos. 1-5, 9-17, comprise the numerically

most important class of artifacts from the site. The lengths com-

monly are from 5 cm. to 6.5 cm., although specimens up to 7.5 cm.

are not unusual, those under 5 or over 7.5 cm. being comparatively

rare. Thicknesses, irrespective of lengths, tend to be extreme,

with an average being about 1.1 cm. In general proportions the

stemmed points are inclined to be more or less elongate, having

ratios of widths to lengths ranging between one to two and one to

three. Wide-bladed stubby forms are relatively scarce. The

shoulders, occasionally well developed and angular, are more often

sloping, rounded, or merely incipiently indicated. The stems may

be straight, slightly contracting from the base, or, more rarely,

expanding from the base, while the bases are either straight or

convex. Unusual types for the sites are figured in Fig. 2, Nos. 17,

25, 26.

In regard to the class of points just described, it perhaps

should be observed that as often as not such minor variations in

shape as have been distinguished seem to have resulted from the

• 4
 

432    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

accidents of careless chipping rather than design.  A matter of

interest is the possible function served by these stemmed points.

For the most part they seem too heavy for arrowpoints and too

thick and lumpy for attachment to a shaft of small diameter, which

suggests, as has the presence of similar points elsewhere,¹ the use

of darts with the atlat1, or spear-thrower.

The 111 notched points are divisible into three groups.  In

the first and largest are specimens differing from the prevalent

stemmed type only in being definitely notched (Fig. 1, Nos. 6-8,

19-22). The points of the second group run decidedly shorter and

thinner than standard stemmed forms, although the workmanship

is still inferior (Fig. 1, Nos. 23-26). The third class comprises a

relatively few, small, side and corner notched specimens showing

good craftsmanship and a distinctive smoothing of the bases (Fig.

2, Nos. 18-20). The contrast that these latter offer to the ordinary

run of coarse work from the site may indicate that they are intru-

sive to the main occupation.

The six triangular blades are all around 8 cm. in length. Of

these, two are slightly asymmetrical and one has a rounded point.

They appear to be knives (Fig. 2, Nos. 30, 31). Miscellaneous

leaf-shaped pieces number twenty-nine, of which several differ from

the triangular blades only in having convex bases (Fig. 2, Nos. 27,

28).   Others in his category, however, appear to be elongate

projectile points with unmodified bases (Fig. 1, No. 18).

Triangular arrowpoints of the small thin variety typical of

Mississippi cultures are represented by five specimens (Fig. 2, Nos.

21, 22). There are also two small, thin, stemmed points with

deeply notched, or bifurcated, bases. The above two types would

seem to signify chance camping on the site by relatively late peoples.

Drills number twenty and are either straight or have slightly

expanding thickened bases (Fig. 2, Nos. 8-10).

The hafted scraper is a characteristic trait of the site, as is

indicated by the fact that 104 examples were found (Fig. 2, Nos.

1-6).  Quite obviously these were made from   broken projectile

points of the stemmed and heavy notched types. In rather a small

 

1 William H. Claflin, Jr., The Stallings Island Mound, Columbia County Georgia

(Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology, Papers, XIV, No. 1,

Cambridge, Mass., 1931), 34.

• 5
 

RAISCH-SMITH SITE                     433

 

number of cases the beveled edges show smoothing from use.

Rough flake scrapers, convex and concave, of miscellaneous sizes,

are represented by forty-four specimens (Fig. 2, Nos. 11-13).

Flake knives having one or more edges finely retouched were

in common use (Fig. 2, Nos. 14-16, 23). Owing perhaps to the

lack of skill of the artisans, few of these are of the elongate type,

most of them having been made from irregular shaped flakes and

spalls of flint.

Work in Ground Slate

Subrectangular bars, an important diagnostic trait of the site,

comprise thirty-one flattened, unperforated, rectanguloid, or tapering

objects of plain and banded slate, some of which are well made and

polished. Examples are shown in Fig. 3, Nos. 1-10. The ends, al-

though sometimes rounded, tend to be more or less square, and

the faces may be either gently convex or flat. In measurement,

considerable variation is exhibited, with thicknesses from .5 cm. to

1.8 cm., widths from 4 cm. to 6.5 cm., and lengths, when determin-

able, from 9 cm., to 12.5 cm. Fine longitudinal scratches often appear

on the faces, and the ends are sometimes battered as though from

secondary uses.   In several instances broken edges have been

smoothed. Unfortunately, most of the best-made specimens were

recovered in a fragmentary condition.

Of the two broken bannerstones, little more can be said of one

than that it is of a winged type. The second, shown in Fig. 3, No.

11, has been considerably reworked from what appears to have

been an example of the notched butterfly type.² The central per-

foration has a diameter of 1.3 cm. A secondary drilled hole is in

the left wing.

That both subrectangular bars and bannerstones have, on

occasion at least, been used as weights for the atlatl appears to

have been demonstrated.³ In connection with this, it will be

remembered that the use of this latter implement at the site has

already been suggested, from a consideration of the size and weight

of the dominant type of projectile point.

 

2 From the collection of W. A. Wright, Oxford, Ohio.

3 William S. Webb and William G. Haag, "The Chiggerville Site, Site No. 1,

Ohio County, Kentucky," University of Kentucky, Reports in Anthropology and

Archaeology, IV, No. 1 (1939), 50-58; William S. Webb, "Indian Knoll, Site No. 2,

Ohio County, Kentucky," University of Kentucky, Reports in Anthropology and

Archaeology, IV, No. 3, Part I (1946), 319-333.

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434   OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Heavy Stone Work

The twenty-two axes are all three-quarter grooved, with heads

either convex or flattened on top, and blades usually of medium

proportions, but sometimes long and narrow. Specimens are rep-

resented in Fig. 4, Nos. 1-3. The quality of workmanship varies

from good to extremely crude. The best examples are well pol-

ished, the remainder only on the cutting edge. The lengths range

from 11.7 cm. to 19.5 cm. Many of the axes are of slate, other

materials being diorite, diabase, and rocks of like appearance.

With the exception of the slate axes, the examples have a weathered

gray look.

Bell pestles, numbering fifteen, all have flaring sides and

handles oblique to the bases (Fig. 4, Nos. 6, 7). The top of the

handle may be either flat or rounded and the base flat or slightly

convex. In one case the base is pitted. The surfaces have been

smoothed rather than polished. Three pestles are of quartz, one

of granite, and the rest of various dark crystalline rocks. Like the

axes, the pestles are very weathered.

The most common type of hammerstone, of which twenty-six

specimens are present, is a natural, flattened, oval or rounded

pebble pitted on one or both sides (Fig. 3, Nos. 14, 15). Other

hammerstones include one elongate pebble neatly pecked off on

the two ends and pitted on one side (Fig. 3, No. 13), and three

pecked spherical objects, or balls. The one grooved maul appears

to be a reworked diorite ax (Fig. 4, No. 4). Seven hatchet-shaped,

chipped slate objects having their lower edges blunted from use

are classified as choppers (Fig. 3, No. 12). The list of stone traits

is concluded with two ungrooved axes (Fig. 4, Nos. 8, 9) and

one muller (Fig. 4, No. 5).

 

Comparisons and Conclusions

Raisch-Smith and Indian Knoll

Before discussing the cultural significance of the materials just

described, some general reference by way of background may not

be amiss as respects an important phase of prehistory that has been

uncovered in recent years in the eastern half of the United States.

This matter concerns the hunting, fishing, food-gathering and, for

• 7
 

RAISCH-SMITH SITE                            435

 

the most part, nonpottery horizon to which the term Archaic Pat-

tern applies. Not only a primitive type of economy but also an

early chronological position distinguish the foregoing basic division

from the Woodland and Mississippi patterns, both of which are

identified with agriculture and ceramics. Embraced in the Archaic

as now constituted are some twenty-five more or less well defined,

supposedly roughly contemporaneous, cultural groups, distributed

from the plains of western Nebraska to the east coast of Florida

and from     eastern New    England to lower Texas.4  Of this pre-

agricultural stratum, the regional manifestation of direct interest

here is that which       comprehends the      interrelated   Shell Mound

peoples, with a habitat apparently centered in an area extending

from northern Alabama into central Kentucky, but with extensions

northward to at least beyond the Ohio River. In keeping with the

taxonomic terminology, Webb and DeJarnette5 designated the Shell

Mound categories as comprising the Pickwick Aspect of the Archaic

Pattern. In the Pickwick Aspect they recognized two subdivisions,

or foci, Lauderdale and Indian Knoll.

It is the Indian Knoll Focus, as known from sites on the Green

River and vicinity in west central Kentucky, that, so far as at

present seems determinable, offers the complex with which the

Raisch-Smith material can be most profitably compared. The

accompanying trait table has been arranged with the intent of

bringing out as clearly as possible a comparison in stone traits

of this Ohio site with three of the Green River sites, Chiggerville,⁶

Ward,⁷ and Kirkland,⁸ the first being a shell mound and the other

two being village sites.⁹ As is usual in such cases, the table re-

4 William A. Ritchie, "Archaeological Manifestations and Relative Chronology

in the Northeast," in Frederick Johnson, ed., Man in Northeastern North America

(Robert S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology, Papers, III, 1946), 101; James B.

Griffin, "Cultural Change and Continuity in Eastern United States Archaeology,"

ibid, 41.

⁵ William  S. Webb and David L. DeJarnette, An Archaeological Survey of

Pickwick Basin in the Adjacent Portions of the States of Alabama, Mississippi, and

Tennessee (Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin 129, Washington, 1942), 317-319.

6 Webb and Haag, loc. cit.

7 William S. Webb and William G. Haag, "The Cypress Creek Villages, Sites

Nos. 11 and 12, McLean County, Kentucky," University of Kentucky, Reports in

Anthropology and Archaeology, IV, No. 2 (1940).

8 Ibid.

9 The omission from the table of the Indian Knoll site (Clarence B. Moore,

"Some Aboriginal Sites on Green River Kentucky," Journal of the Academy of Natural

Sciences of Philadelphia, 2d ser., XVI, Part III [1916]; Webb, "Indian Knoll, Site

No. 2.") giving name to the focus, may require a word of explanation. This was

done chiefly for convenience, since the inclusion of this fourth Green River site would

involve the tabulation of thousands of additional stone artifacts, making for an over-

balanced and unwieldy comparison. There was also the consideration, seemingly of

significance, that the flint work from the Indian Knoll site seems clearly superior to

that of any of the sites of the table.

• 8
 

436    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

quires supplementary comment.    Projectile points, drills, and

hafted and flake scrapers from the Kentucky stations differ little

in form, size, and quality of workmanship from the corresponding

artifacts from Raisch-Smith, and the same is true of bell pestles.

There are, however, some points of variation within certain other

traits which should be remarked. For one thing the southern axes

are all fully grooved, as against the three-quarter grooving of the

northern specimens. Also, the triangular and leaf-shaped blades,

as well as the subrectangular bars, from the Kentucky sites tend

to be more elongate than their Ohio counterparts. It will also be

noted that no common, biscuit-shaped, pitted hammerstones are

present at the Green River sites, which may be due though to an

absence of proper pebbles in the southern unglaciated region. As

has been mentioned, true bell pestles are found at the Kentucky

sites; yet from the illustrations in the reports of those sites, it is

apparent that many of the pestles listed in the bell category are

really conical. Since no pestles of the latter type were discovered

at Raisch-Smith, this fact may constitute a divergence of some

importance.

An inspection of the table discloses (1) that the traits account-

ing for most of the Raisch-Smith artifacts, eighty-seven percent to be

exact, are present at all three of the Green River sites, and (2) that

with the exception of conical pestles the traits of the table that do

not occur at Raisch-Smith are those which are poorly represented

at the southern sites, in no case by more than ten items at one loca-

tion. As a matter of fact, some of these latter traits may have been

missed at the northern camp through accident or the depletion of

the ground by other collectors, and it has already been noted

that a few of the scattered Raisch-Smith traits should perhaps not

be attributed to the main occupation. When one allows for dis-

crepancies in classification and for the before mentioned variations

within traits, it is apparent that despite a geographical separation

of one hundred and fifty miles the stone industry of the Ohio site

shows a rather close correspondence with the stone industry of each

• 9
 

RAISCH-SMITH SITE                         437

 

 

TABLE

Raisch- Chigger-

Stone traits           Smith         ville            Ward    Kirkland

1 Stemmed points     .................. . 296        290            233         62

2 Notched points .........................               111 X                     X              X

3 Halted scrapers .......................                  104          93              67            22

4 Flake scrapers ...........................               44            235            111          27

5 Subrectangular bars ................. 31                                    7                                           2

6 Leaf-shaped points, blades ..........                                    29                   X                   X        X

7 Pitted hammerstones ...............                                           23

8 Grooved axes ...........................                                            22                   13                      26

9 Drills ..................................20                                              149                    119                16

10 Bell pestles ...........................15                                          121                    130                21

11 Slate choppers ......................                                               7

12 Triangular blades .................                                              6      10       35        8

13 Small triangular arrowpoints ........                                 5

14 Spherical hammerstones .............                                      3                     30                      26        2

15 Winged bannerstones ..............                                        2                         1                                         2

16 Small bifurcated arrowpoints ..... 2

17 Celts ................................. 2                      1

18 Mullers ...............................1

19 Flint knives .................................                                       X                     X                        X                                   X

20 Prism type bannerstones .............                                                               4                                         6                2

21 Expanded center bannerstones .....                      1                                                      1

22 Cores .............................                                                        10       4

23 Beads ..............................                                                                                  3

24  Cylindrical pestles . ........... ..                                                                     1                     4

25 Mortars ............................                                                                                5                     3        1

26 Whetstones ...................                                                                                                        1

27 Rectangular shale tablet..............                         1

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438     OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

of the Indian Knoll stations on the Green River.10 It seems safe

to conclude, therefore, that Raisch-Smith is an Archaic site of the

Indian Knoll type. However, it appears necessary to qualify the

last statement, since the term Indian Knoll has lately come to have

a somewhat general meaning, possibly beyond the proper scope of

one focus. Whether Raisch-Smith belongs in a focus with the

Kentucky stations with which it has been compared, or in an as

yet undefined focus of the Shell Mound Complex, seems to be a

question whose answer must await further information, especially

as regards the more perishable artifacts, burial practices, and

physical types of this Ohio manifestation.

The known Archaic stations of the general Indian Knoll type

in the states immediately north of the Ohio River have heretofore

been restricted to some of the southern counties of Illinois11 and

Indiana.¹²   At the same time, the status of the Archaic in Ohio has

been unclear. The presence in the Ohio State Museum of a large

number of surface-found bannerstones and other artifacts has been

pointed out by Shetrone,¹3 Morgan,¹⁴ and others as undoubtedly

indicating an Archaic occupation. The Bannerstone Complex of

Ohio archaeology has, however, up to this time at least been pro-

visional, in that it has not been identified with specific sites, and

also in that the connections of bannerstones, in respect to local

cultures, remained conjectural. Raisch-Smith, then, is the first

actual Ohio site, so far as known, to be definitely attributed to

the Archaic horizon. The main importance of this site would seem

to lie in the fact that it has yielded trait associations which should

 

 

10 Space does not permit detailed comparisons with other Archaic groups, but

it may be observed that, next to Indian Knoll, the Raisch-Smith materials appear to

agree best with the Lauderdale Focus (Webb and DeJarnette, op. cit.), which is,

however, without subrectangular bars and flint scrapers of any kind. Although still

more at variance, a resemblance to the Stallings Island site in Georgia (Claflin, loc.

cit.) is to be remarked. Relationships with the Lamoka Focus and the Laurentian

Aspect of the Northeast (William A. Ritchie, The Pre-Iroquoian Occupations of New

York State [Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences, Memoir No. 1, Rochester, 1944])

seem considerably more remote.

11 John Bennett, "Archaeological Horizons in the Southern Illinois Regions,"

American Antiquity, X (1944), 12-13.

12 Elam Y. Guernsey, "Relationships among Various Clark County Sites," Indiana

Academy of Science, Proceedings, XLVIII (1939), 27-32; Rex Miller, McCain Site,

Dubois County, Indiana (Indiana Historical Society, Prehistory Research Series, II,

No. 1, Indianapolis, 1941).

13 Henry C. Shetrone, "The Folsom Phenomena As Seen from Ohio," Ohio State

Archaeological and Historical Quarterly, XLV (1936), 240-256.

14 Richard G. Morgan, personal communication.

• 11
 

RAISCH-SMITH SITE                          439

 

be of value in future work directed towards further clarifying the

Archaic problem of the Ohio region.¹⁵

 

Chronology

We must rely largely on the chronological position assigned

to the Shell Mound cultures16 and the Archaic as a whole,¹⁷ for

a basis on which to infer a relative chronology for the present site.

From the foregoing we may conclude that Raisch-Smith antedates

the Adena or first burial-mound stage in Ohio. Before the Adena

period, Ohio chronology is rather indeterminate, but it appears

likely that both the Glacial Kame and some Rock Shelter manifesta-

tions were interposed between the time of the present site and the

earliest Adena, thus introducing a possible additional time factor.

Furthermore, there seems to have been no small scope for chonology

within the Shell Mound Complex alone. Webb and DeJarnette18

speak of the deep middens of the Lauderdale Focus as having evi-

dently been occupied by one people for many hundreds of years,

and it appears probable that the parallel Indian Knoll Focus also

spanned a long period. More direct evidence of considerable

antiquity for Raisch-Smith is indicated by the actual materials

recovered, in that they fail to show contacts with any of the hither-

to well established Ohio Indian cultures. It would be difficult, for

instance, to conceive of the site as having been contemporaneous

with Adena, or later than Adena, without the inhabitants having

acquired slate gorgets or having made more use of the celt than

is suggested by the two examples found. There are, of course, no

valid data on which to attempt positive dates for the use of the

Raisch-Smith site. However, if we consider the more conservative

of the estimated dates for the appearance of the burial mound

 

15 A perplexing question concerns what bearing the Raisch-Smith materials

may have on the bannerstone question as a whole. It is evident that Indian Knoll

is responsible for some of the bannerstones of the region under consideration, but it

seems also true that in general collections from the same area, bannerstones usually

occur unattended by some of the most important diagnostic traits of Indian Knoll,

as for example, heavy stemmed points, stemmed scrapers, straight drills, and sub-

rectangular bars. It appears that, as respects the Ohio Valley, Indian Knoll may be

only one of several groups comprising the Bannerstone Complex. Some of the material

may be attributed to an Early Woodland occupation.

16 Webb and Haag, "The Cypress Creek Villages," 109.

17 Ritchie, Pre-Iroquoian Occupations, p1. 1; Griffin, loc. cit., fig. 1; Paul S.

Martin, George I. Quimby, and Donald Collier, Indians Before Columbus (Chicago,

c1947), fig. 122.

18 Webb and DeJarnette, op. cit., 306.

• 12
 

440    OHIO ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

Indians in the Ohio Valley, we may reflect that one thousand years

may well have passed since any pre-Adena culture was present in

the same region. The latter figure may be taken as an estimated

minimum possible age for Raisch-Smith. The site may be still

older by some centuries.

 

General Remarks

A few indistinct features of the actual life of this ancient

community may be discerned. To start with, the crudeness of the

artifacts suggests that the material culture was of a low order.

That the economy was largely concerned with hunting appears to be

indicated by the abundance of projectile points. The gathering of

wild plant foods, the fashioning of implements, not only of stone

but of bone, antler, and wood, and the preparing of skins for

clothing and shelter are other activities which we may infer. Be-

cause of the smallness of the adjacent streams, fishing must have

played a minor role, with the taking of shellfish of even less im-

portance. As already mentioned, the atlatl and dart, rather than

the bow and arrow, seems to have been the principal weapon.

Probably there were no vessels of clay or stone that could be

placed over a fire, but this statement, too, rests on inference.19

As respects less utilitarian matters, it would seem that the stress

laid on ceremony and ritual by later Ohio Indians was absent at

Raisch-Smith, for with the exception of a few bannerstones there

were no objects of the problematical class, and there was probably

also no tobacco, that important concomitant of formal observance.

An intriguing question concerns the contacts which these villagers

must have had with like bands elsewhere, for it is unlikely that

this group lived in complete isolation. It does not seem, however,

that there were other camps of this particular culture in the Four-

mile Creek region; at least the flint traits as a whole are not trace-

able much beyond the immediate Raisch-Smith area, an exception

being certain kinds of notched points. Nevertheless, when one con-

siders the larger geographical setting of the site and notes the

direction in which lies the center of Indian Knoll culture, there

 

19 Since this was written it has been pointed out that grit-tempered pottery

of Woodland type may make its first appearance in the Indian Knoll Focus. William

S. Webb and William G. Haag, "Archaic Sites in McLean County, Kentucky," Uni-

versity of Kentucky, Reports in Anthropology and Archaeology, VII, No. 1 (1947).

• 13
 

RAISCH-SMITH SITE                   441

 

appears to be ground for speculating that connections with Raisch-

Smith would have existed somewhere to the southward, probably

along the Great Miami and Ohio rivers.

 

Summary

In Raisch-Smith we have, in brief, for the first time an Ohio

Indian site which has yielded an assemblage of stone traits definitely

referable to the Archaic horizon. More particularly, the culture

of the site is of the Indian Knoll type, without implying, however,

its complete identity with that of the Kentucky sites which have

been introduced for comparison. That the present site is only one

of perhaps many scattered, isolated stations marking a northward

extension of a somewhat generalized Indian Knoll is attested by

sites furnishing similar materials in Illinois and Indiana.  By

inference, Raisch-Smith antedates, possibly by a considerable

period, the arrival of the Adena people in Ohio, and probably also

the beginnings of agriculture and ceramics in the same region. In

concluding, it may be observed that the unraveling of the story of

the Archaic groups in the territory contiguous to the Ohio River

is an archaeological problem which is just begun, but which in the

future will most certainly receive increasing attention.

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