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]
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
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
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
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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).
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.