Ohio History Journal

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

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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-

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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.

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