Geochronological aspects of terminal Late Fort Ancient sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area and their archeological significance

Abstract

A geochronological approach is used to examine the temporal and spatial parameters of terminal Late Fort Ancient (∼1450 –1750 CE) habitation sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area. We use a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates, microtephrochronology, a biostratigraphic indicator (Bison bison), and ethnohistorical records to examine terminal Late Fort Ancient sites in this region. Circular, stockaded villages (≤ 5 ha), consisting of single-family dwellings were replaced with large linear villages (≤ 8 ha), consisting of multifamily longhouses constructed parallel to the Little Miami and Ohio rivers. Smaller contemporary habitations and a plethora of underground maize silos suggest a seasonal pattern of population fission and fusion. At the time of Hernando de Soto's military conquests, ∼350 km to the south, terminal Late Fort Ancient villages in this region were increasing in number and size.

Keywords

Ancestral Algonquians Radiocarbon Dating Ethnohistory

Introduction

We use the term Fort Ancient to refer to the agriculturally based ancestral Algonquian people who lived in the Midwestern United States from ∼900 to 1750 CE. It long has been assumed that Early Fort Ancient settlements (∼950–1250 CE) developed out of the Late Woodland cultural complex with villages consisting of small scattered dwellings (contra Cook, 2017; Griffin, 1937, 1943, 1967; Tankersley and Haines, 2010). With increasing population, Middle Fort Ancient villages (∼1250–1450) grew into larger well-planned, circular villages surrounded by wooden stockades (Cowan, 1998; Henderson, 1992). Perzigian et al. (1984) have shown that there is a dramatic increase in dental caries and linear enamel hypoplasia during the Fort Ancient cultural period, which is directly related to a decrease in the nutritional value of food from a dependency on maize agriculture. It has been presumed that Late Fort Ancient (∼1450–1750 CE) villages diminished into smaller unplanned habitations that decreased in the number and size until the region was abandoned during the terminal Late Fort Ancient (Cowan, 1998; Henderson, 1992). This theoretical cultural downturn cooccured with the profound climatic changes associated with the Little Ice Age and genocidal impact of European contact.

The archaeological hallmarks of indigenous terminal Late Fort Ancient material culture include shell-tempered, cord-marked, and plain-surfaced earthenware jars with flaring pie-crust rims, an absence of neck decorations, and four strap handles, unifacially flaked-stone end scrapers, bipointed bifaces, concave-base triangular bifaces, ground stone pipes (disk, keel, ovoid, vasiform), distinctive ground bone artifacts (e.g. arm bands, combs, harpoon heads, rasps, and shaft wrenches) (Drooker, 1997; Railey, 1992). Terminal Late Fort Ancient archaeological sites frequently contain European trade goods such as coils and cut scraps of brass and copper hammered into serpentine shapes or rolled into beads or tinkling cones, glass beads, gunflints, iron axes, iron celts, and pieces of kettle iron used as strike-a-lites (Drooker, 1997; Railey, 1992). Terminal Late Fort Ancient faunal assemblages include Little Ice Age climate proxies such as the bones of bison, porcupine, and prairie vole (Tankersley and Lyle, 2019). Botanically, maize is the predominant terminal Late Fort Ancient produce along with beans, sunflower, squash, and tobacco (Drooker, 1997).

This study uses a geochronological approach to re-examine the theoretical decline in the size and number of terminal Late Fort Ancient villages in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area (Figure 1). We use a Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates, microtephrochronology, a biostratigraphic indicator, and ethnohistorical records to examine the temporal and spatial parameters of terminal Late Fort Ancient sites in this region. Rather than using the traditional method of examining the density of ubiquitous artifact classes, we examine the chronometric and relative terminal Late Fort Ancient ages and maximum site boundaries to examine spatial and temporal changes in the occupation of the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area.

Figure 1.

Geographic setting of Late Fort Ancient sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area.

Geologic setting of the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area

The Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area is located in the glaciated Outer Bluegrass region of southwestern Ohio (Potter, 2007) (Figure 2). This area is drained by the Little Miami and Ohio Rivers, which are deeply eroded into Upper Ordovician, Cincinnatian Series shales and limestones (Meyer and Davis, 2009). These river valleys were part of a pre-glacial drainage basin (pre-glacial Licking and Ohio Rivers, ∼2,000,000 to ∼1,000,000 years ago respectively) that was covered by the maximum advance of the Illinoisan ice sheet (Teller, 1973). The valley walls and ridge tops of the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area represent a high Illinoisan terrace capped by calcareous, fine-grained, friable, homogenous, porous, silty, unstratified Wisconsin age loess (Dalby, 2007). The underlying Illinoisan deposits are composed of a complex suite of outwash and lacustrine deposits that range from a brown friable silt, silty clay, and clay loam to a stratified sandy loam underlain by Ordovician age fossiliferous limestone and shale (Potter, 2007).

Figure 2.

Lidar image of Late Fort Ancient sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area.

The Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area was ∼18 km south of the Wisconsin ice sheet ice margin (Laurentide) at the time of the last glacial maximum, ∼20,000 years ago. Subsequent retreating of the Laurentide ice sheet margin filled the confluence area with > 30 m of glacial outwash (sand and gravel) (Potter, 2007). Glacial meltwater oscillations and the associated hydrological changes during the Oldest Dryas (18,560–25,520 B.P.) and Older Dryas (11,630–14,040 B.P.) resulted in two Wisconsin terraces along the valley walls (Dalby, 2007). The modern floodplain began forming at the beginning of the Holocene. It consists of ∼2 m of alluvium derived from nearby soils and the weathering and erosion of Upper Ordovician bedrock (Dalby, 2007; Potter, 2007). The alluvium is a friable brown to dark brown, finely laminated silt loam, which increases in clay content and subangular blocky structure with depth (Lerch et al., 1982).

Terminal Late Fort Ancient sites

Fourteen Fort Ancient sites (Blum, Clear Creek, Clough Creek, Dale Park 1, Dale Park 2, Driving Range, Hahn's Field, Kuntz, Madisonville, Mariemont Embankment, Sand Ridge, Turpin, Waterworks, and Wynema) have been documented in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area. Blum, Clear Creek, Clough Creek, and Kuntz have earlier Fort Ancient components and the Driving Range, Sand Ridge, and Turpin sites have a transitional Middle-to-Late Fort Ancient component (Purtill, 1999). The Dale Park 1, Dale Park 2, Hahn's Field, Madisonville, Mariemont Embankment, Waterworks, and Wynema sites, however, have demonstrable terminal Late Fort Ancient components (Figure 2, Table 1).

Table 1.

Spatial and Temporal Data of Late Fort Ancient sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers Confluence Area in Order by Site Size.

Site Name	Size (ha)	Age (CE)¹	Landform	Distance from the Confluence Area (km)	Distance from the Little Miami River (km)²	Side of the Little Miami River (Direction)
Waterworks	8.00	1400-1755³	Wisconsin Terrace	0.0	0.0	South
Wynema	8.00	1450-1634	Holocene Floodplain	8.0	0.0	North
Hahn's Field	5.00	1438-1799	Holocene Floodplain	7.6	1.0	South
Madisonville	2.00	1440-1803	Wisconsin Terrace	8.0	0.2	North
Dale Park 1	0.30	1470-1635	Illinoisan Terrace	9.0	0.7	North
Dale Park 2	0.25	1470-1635	Illinoisan Terrace	9.0	0.7	North
Mariemont Embankment	0.18	1480-1640	Illinoisan Terrace	8.0	0.2	North

^1.

Based on calibrated radiocarbon age range (95%).

^2.

At the time of occupation.

^3.

Based on ceramic typology and ethnohistorical records (Drooker, 1997; Marshall, 1921).

Of these sites, Madisonville has been considered the archaeological linchpin in interpreting terminal Late Fort Ancient cultural interactions and changes because it is presumed to have been the most populous and completely excavated site (Drooker, 1997, 1998). Consequently, it became the type site for the terminal Late Fort Ancient cultural complex, the Madisonville Focus, and the Madisonville Horizon (Griffin, 1943). Essentially, artifacts, features, and the dimensions of the Madisonville site have been used to portray terminal Late Fort Ancient culture. Subsequently, they have been used to identify Madisonville components elsewhere in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia (Cook, 2017; Cowan, 1998; Drooker, 1997; Henderson, 1992; Railey, 1992).

Madisonville

The Madisonville site is a stratified, multicomponent site, which was occupied during every cultural period in the Ohio River valley from Early Paleoindian to European contact. The ∼2 ha mortuary and storage site is situated on a late Pleistocene (Wisconsin) glacial outwash terrace composed of coarse sand and gravel on the north side of the Little Miami River, ∼8 km from its confluence with the Ohio River. Today, the site is located ∼0.7 km north of the Little Miami River, but the river was adjacent to the site (∼0.2 km) during the terminal Late Fort ancient cultural period (Figure 2, Table 1).

Outcrops of high-quality clay, used for the production of earthenware, occur in the Illinoisan glacial deposits along the banks of Whiskey Run on the western and northern margins of the site (Tankersley and Haines, 2010; Tankersley and Meinhart, 1982). Exposures of a fine-grained to conglomerate sandstone (cemented Illinoisan outwash) used to manufacture ground bone and stone tools also occur on Whiskey Run on the western and northern margins of the site. These raw material resources, in addition to the highly porous underlying coarse-grained gravel and sand deposits, were likely among the reasons for site selection (Tankersley, 1986, 1992).

Much of the archaeological information we know about the Madisonville site has been derived from artifact collections assembled between 1878 and 1918 under the auspices of the Madisonville Literary and Scientific Society, the Peabody Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History (Drooker, 1997; Hooton and Willoughby, 1920; Metz, 1878, 1881; Tankersley and Newman, 2016). During this time, ∼1400 burials and associated funerary objects were excavated as well as ∼1000 bell-shaped storage features resembling the shape of an Erlenmeyer flask in cross-section (Hooton and Willoughby, 1920). The storage features served as underground maize silos, which were dug into the underling sand and gravel, lined with bluestem grass (Andropogon sp.), and held up to 1233 kg (35 bushels) of maize (Cowan, 1998; Tankersley, 1992). Although post-holes were discovered in what appeared to be rectangular patterns, they were few in number (Drooker, 1997, 1998).

An abundance of Middle-to-Late sixteenth century European trade goods were found in the teminal Late Fort Ancient features (68% from storage features, 32% as funerary objects) (Drooker, 1997; Hooton and Willoughby, 1920). Because of their small size and low diversity, the sixteenth century European material culture has been interpreted as evidence of indirect trade (Figures 3 and 4) (Drooker, 1997, 1998). On the other hand, two stemmed pedestal pots are, which are unmistakably chalice-like vessels, suggest direct contact with Roman Catholic Jesuits (Figure 5) (Griffin, 1967; Drooker, 1997).

Figure 3.

The brass Clarksdale bell excavated from the Madisonville site.

Figure 4.

European iron artifacts excavated from the Madisonville site: (A) a strike-a-lite manufactured from kettle iron; and (B) an iron celt.

Figure 5.

One of two stemmed pedestal pots, chalice-like vessels, which were excavated from the Madisonville site.

Exhausted honey-colored rifle and pistol French gunflints and a European flintlock lathe-turned bone tool recovered from the site were likely directly procured (Figure 6). Archaeologically, French gunflints date from ∼1675 CE to the present, and they were widely in use in the Ohio River valley by 1775 CE (Kenmotsu, 1990). French gunflints were also the most common gunflints used by Native Americans prior to 1800 CE (Kenmotsu, 1990). Similarly, bone beamers, manufactured from the spinous process of bison thoracic vertebra, which date to the same time period as the French gunflints, have been excavated from the site. They were also directly procured. The spinous process of bison thoracic vertebra from the Madisonville site have been matched with broken bison thoracic vertebra excavated from terminal Late Fort Ancient bison kill sites at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky (see Tankersley, 1986, 1992; Tankersley et al., 2015).

Figure 6.

Exhausted honey-colored rifle and pistol French gunflints and a European flintlock lathe-turned bone tool excavated from the Madisonville site.

Wynema

The Wynema site is a deeply stratified (> 3 m) multicomponent site, which was occupied during the Middle Woodland and terminal Late Fort Ancient cultural periods. The ∼8 ha village site is located on the late Holocene floodplain on the north side of the Little Miami River (Shaffer, 2014; Tankersley et al., 2018; Tankersley and Newman, 2016). It is situated ∼0.3 km southeast of the Madisonville site and ∼8.0 km from the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence. Today, the site is located ∼0.2 km north of the Little Miami River, but based on the location of an abandoned river channel, the site was immediately adjacent to the stream at the time of terminal Late Fort Ancient habitation (Figure 2, Table 1).

Between 2007 and 2017, the University of Cincinnati conducted archaeological surveys and excavations of the Wynema village site (Shaffer, 2014; Tankersley et al., 2018; Tankersley and Newman, 2016). This fieldwork exposed a linear pattern of longhouse style dwellings (∼18.6 × 10.0 m) parallel to the former Little Miami River channel (Figure 8). The eastern entrance of a longhouse was found to align with the summer solstice moonrise, which is a significant ceremonial event celebrated by Algonquian speaking tribes such as the Myaamia and Shawnee (Tankersley et al., 2018). While many archaeologists are uncomfortable with the use of the term “longhouse” to describe terminal Late Fort Ancient structures, they were observed in Shawnee villages during the early 18^th century in the Scioto-Ohio Rivers confluence area (Warren, 2014). Christopher Gist addressed the Shawnee in a longhouse at the Lower Shawneetown village in 1751 (Summers, 1929). Today, the nearby Miami Tribe of Indiana continue to celebrate longhouse ceremonies quarterly.

Figure 8.

Post hole features from a long-house style terminal Fort Ancient structure at the Wynema site: (A) north wall; and, (B) south wall.

Unlike the nearby Madisonville site, no burials or storage pits were encountered at the Wynema site. Bison remains and European trade goods were found in the village midden including cut copper and brass, iron, and glass beads co-occurring with terminal Late Fort Ancient earthenware, flaked and ground-stone artifacts, carbonized plant remains, and invertebrate and vertebrate remains (Shaffer, 2014; Tankersley et al., 2018; Tankersley and Lyle, 2019; Tankersley and Newman, 2016).

Mariemont Embankment

The Mariemont Embankment is a hilltop serpentine-shaped earthwork located on the southern margin of an Illinoisan terrace capped by Wisconsin age loess, immediately above (∼65 m) the Wynema village site, and extending ∼900 m eastward from the Madisonville site. The earthwork is situated on the north side of the Little Miami River, ∼8.0 km from the confluence with the Ohio River. Today, it is located 0.4 km from the Little Miami River, but at the time of construction, it would have been < 0.2 km away (Figure 2, Table 1).

The Mariemont Embankment was first described by Charles Metz in 1878 as a series of “elevations or tumuli with an average height of three or four feet” on a continuous ridge elevated about 200 feet above the Little Miami River (Hooton and Willoughby, 1920, 1–3; Metz, 1878, 119; Starr, 1960, 43). Although the location of the Mariemont Embankment has been known since 1878, chronometric dating of the earthwork had never been attempted until recently (Tankersley, 2008). In 1925, a 133 m section of the Mariemont Embankment was destroyed during the construction of a limestone concourse and pergola immediately above the eastern boundary of the Wynema site (Parks, 1967). Construction activity exposed a group of terminal Late Fort Ancient burials, which had been interred at the base of the earthwork. They were likely individuals associated with the nearby Wynema village.

Between 2007 and 2017, the University of Cincinnati conducted an archaeological survey and systematic solid-sediment coring of the earthwork. The earthwork is composed of a sandy alluvium, which was likely selected for construction because of it is molded and resistant to weathering. Terminal Late Fort Ancient earthenware, flaked-stone artifacts, carbonized plant remains, and invertebrate and vertebrate remains were found along the entire length of the earthwork (Tankersley, 2008).

Dale Park 1 (Ferris Cemetery)

The Dale Park 1 site, also known as the Ferris Cemetery, is a stratified multicomponent site, which was occupied during the terminal Late Fort Ancient cultural period and used by the Ferris family as a cemetery during the nineteenth century. The ∼0.3 ha habitation site is located on an Illinoisan terrace adjacent to the north side of Whiskey Run, a tributary of the Little Miami River. It is situated ∼0.7 km northeast of the Madisonville site and ∼9.0 km from the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence. Today, the site is located ∼0.9 km north of the Little Miami River, and it would have been at a distance of ∼0.7 km at the time of habitation (Figure 2, Table 1).

The Dale Park 1 site was first documented by Charles Metz in 1878 (Metz, 1878; Tankersley and Newman, 2016). Because the Ferris family cemetery was built over a portion of the site, it has been largely ignored in subsequent archaeological surveys of the area (Tankersley and Newman, 2016). Following recent incidents of digging and site vandalism, the University of Cincinnati was asked by Mariemont Mayor, Dan Policastro, to conduct an archaeological survey of the site in 2018. Our systematic surface survey of the site identified terminal Late Fort Ancient human remains exposed in the recently disturbed areas of the site as well as earthenware, flaked and ground-stone artifacts, carbonized plant remains, and invertebrate and vertebrate remains eroding and weathering from the village midden.

Dale Park 2

Dale Park 2 is a ∼0.25 ha terminal Late Fort Ancient cultural period habitation site located on an Illinoisan terrace, adjacent to the south side of Whiskey Run, 0.1 km east of the Dale Park 1 site. It is situated ∼0.8 km northeast of the Madisonville site and ∼9.0 km from the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence. Like Dale Park 1, the site is located ∼0.9 km north of the Little Miami River, and it would have been at a distance of ∼0.7 km from the stream at the time of habitation (Figure 2, Table 1). Although Starr (1960, 78) noted that in addition to the Madisonville site there were two other distinctive Late Fort Ancient villages in Mariemont, it is unknown whether or not Dale Park 1 and 2 were the other two village sites he was referencing.

Metz (1878) first described Dale Park 2 as having a large burial mound (∼33 × 30 m) near the center of the site. Starr (1960, 18) suggested the mound was part of an “Adena Circle,” however, all of the artifacts collected from archaeological surveys of the site by the University of Cincinnati date to the terminal Late Fort Ancient cultural period (earthenware, flaked and ground-stone artifacts, carbonized plant remains, and invertebrate and vertebrate remains). The location of Dale Park 2 was likely selected because of the salt springs, which discharge under high hydrostatic pressure on the north side of the site at the base of the terrace. Chemically, the springwater is a CaCl₂ brine, comparable in composition to the saline springs located at the Big Bone Lick terminal Late Fort Ancient bison kill site (Tankersley et al., 2015). The saltwater likely originates from the permeable Middle Ordovician St Peter Sandstone Formation.

Hahn's Field

The Hahn's Field site is a stratified multicomponent site, which was occupied during the Middle Woodland, Late Woodland, and Middle and Late Fort Ancient cultural periods. The ∼5.0 ha village site is located on the late Holocene floodplain on the south side of Clear Creek, a tributary of the Little Miami River Drooker, 1997; Starr, 1960; Tankersley and Newman, 2016). The site is located ∼1.0 km south of the Little Miami River, ∼1.6 km southeast of the Madisonville site, and ∼7.6 km from the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence (Figure 2, Table 1).

The Hahn's Field site was discovered by Charles Metz ∼1878 and first excavated in 1881 (Griffin 1967). During the late winter of 1884 and the spring of 1885, Metz continued his excavations at the site under the auspices of the Peabody Museum (Tankersley and Newman, 2016, 240, 242, 245). In a March 2, 1885 letter to Frederic Ward Putnam (Peabody Museum), Metz described the site as “an ancient cemetery” (Tankersley and Newman, 2016, 242). More recently, the site has been excavated by the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History during the summers of 1946, 1947, and 1996, and by the Cincinnati Museum Center from 2008 to 2020. Excavations at the site over a period of some 140 years have resulted in a massive assemblage of Late Fort Ancient artifacts including European trade goods, earthenware, flaked and ground-stone artifacts, cabonized plant remains, and invertebrate and vertebrate remains (Swinney, 2015). Despite the extensive excavations at the site during the 20^th and 21^st centuries, detailed information about the site remains unpublished.

Waterworks Site

The Waterworks site is a stratified multicomponent site, which was occupied during the Middle and Late Fort Ancient cultural periods. The ∼12.0 ha village site is located on a late Pleistocene (Wisconsin) terrace on the south side of of the Little Miami River Drooker, 1997; Starr, 1960; Tankersley and Newman, 2016). The Waterworks site is located at the Little Miami-Ohio River confluence ∼8.0 km southeast of the Madisonville site (Figures 1 and 2, Table 1).

The Waterworks site was first documented by Charles Metz (1878, 1881). His field assistant, William Jewitt, made a selective collection of Middle and transitional Middle-to-Late Fort Ancient cultural period pot sherds and salt pan fragments from the site during the 1885 construction of the Cincinnati Water Works (Starr, 1960; Tankersley and Newman, 2016). However, the site undoubtedly contains a much later Fort Ancient component as it was described ethnohistorically. The Waterworks site appears on Bonneramp's map of the route of Monsieur de Celoron's 1749 Expedition as the location of the Twightwee village of le Baril (The Barrel) (Marshall, 1921).

Geochronology

Determining synchroneity is crucial in evaluating terminal Late Fort Ancient land use in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area because the cultural period spans some 300 years (∼1450–1750 CE). Our ability to assess the synchroneity of terminal Late Fort Ancient sites can be improved by using multiple dating techniques. For this study we used radiocarbon dating, microtephrochronology, and a biostratigraphic indicator to determine the age of terminal Late Fort Ancient archaeological sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area. While biostratigraphy cannot provide a chronometric age, it can be used to place an archaeological component within a period of time.

Radiocarbon dating

Radiocarbon ages were obtained for five terminal Late Fort Ancient archaeological sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area (Dale Park 1, Hahn's Field, Madisonville, Mariemont Earthwork, and Wynema). Regardless of the radiocarbon dating technique, Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) or conventional beta decay, we calibrated the measured ages to obtain credible intervals with probability density functions using a Bayesian analysis (IntCal20 calibration curve in the OxCal 4.4 computer program). These analyses are used to clarify the terminal Late Fort Ancient chronology in the confluence area with objectivity and scientific rigor.

Two radiocarbon ages were obtained on transitional Middle-to-Late Fort Ancient age storage pit features (Purtill and Leone, 2014). Nine radiocarbon ages were obtained for storage pit features and the upper strata of the Madisonville site (Drooker, 1997, 137). Calibrated ages span from 1440 CE to the present (Table 2, Figure 9). Eight of the nine ages overlap at 1σ and their weighted average at 95% probability ranges from 1519 to 1642 CE. A calibrated age of 1656–1896 CE at a 78.1% probability was obtained for a single radiocarbon sample (Beta-51845) collected from the uppermost stratum of the Madisonville site. Statistically, it is an outlier and dates to the European contact cultural period.

Figure 9.

Bayesian age model of radiocarbon ages from OXCAL 4.4. Calibrated radiocarbon ages are plotted by terminal Late Fort Ancient site.

Table 2.

Radiocarbon Ages for the Late Fort Ancient Component of the Madisonville Site.

Lab Number	Sample	¹⁴C Age (yr. B.P.)	Calibrated Age C.E. (Probability)¹	References
Beta-51845	Cellulose	170 ± 50²	1656-1896 (78.1%) 1902- (17.4%)	Tankersley, 1986, 1992
AA-10220-2B	Cellulose	265 ± 45²	1485-1683 (78. %) 1736-1803 (15.2%) 1936- (1.5%)	Drooker, 1997
Beta-45674	Cellulose	290 ± 45	1473-1669 (92.2%) 1781 (3.3%)	Drooker, 1997
Beta-45676	Cellulose	300 ± 60	1450-1678 (89.8%) 1741-1752 (0.7%) 1764-1800 (4.9%)	Drooker, 1997
Beta-51846	Cellulose	310 ± 70	1441-1683 (88.2%) 1737-1755 (1.3%) 1761-1802 (5.1%) 1937- (0.8%)	Tankersley, 1986, 1992
AA-10217	Cellulose	315 ± 40	1475-1653 (95.4%)	Drooker, 1997
AA-10220-2A	Cellulose	325 ± 50	1458-1653 (95.4%)	Drooker, 1997
AA-10215	Cellulose	370 ± 45	1448-1531 (47.7%) 1537-1636 (47.7%)	Drooker, 1997
AA-10220-1B	Cellulose	385 ± 40	1440-1529 (56.5%) 1544-1635 (39.0%)	Drooker, 1997
Beta-63343	Cellulose	480 ± 60³	1309-1362 (11.1%) 1386-1521 (78.9%) 1584-1623 (5.4%)	Purtill and Leone, 2014
CAMS-7697	Cellulose	480 ± 60³	1309-1362 (11.1%) 1386-1521 (78.9%) 1584-1623 (5.4%)	Purtill and Leone, 2014

^1.

Oxcal Calibration Program 4.4.

^2.

Terminal Radiocarbon Ages.

^3.

Transitional Middle-to-Late Fort Ancient Age.

Three radiocarbon samples were obtained from Late Fort Ancient features of the Hahn's Field site (Drooker, 1997, 77). Their calibrated ages span from 1439 to 1799 CE and overlap at 1σ (Table 3, Figure 9). A weighted average at 95% probability ranges from 1486 to 1640 CE and overlap at 1σ with eight of the calibrated radiocarbon ages from the Madisonville site.

Table 3.

Terminal Radiocarbon Ages for the Late Fort Ancient Component of the Archaeological Sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers Confluence Area.

Site Name	Lab Number	Sample	¹⁴C Age (yr. B.P.)	Calibrated Age C.E. (Probability)¹	References
Hahn's Field	AA-10223-2	Cellulose	285 ± 45	1473-1671 (91.0%) 1778-1799 (4.4%)	Drooker, 1997
Mariemont Embankment	Beta-599764	Collagen	330 ± 30	1480-1640 (94.5%)	This Paper
Dale Park 1	UGa-40789	Collagen	350 ± 20	1470-1529 (39.8%) 1545-1635 (55.7%)	This Paper
Wynema	Beta-4291	Collagen	370 ± 30	1450-1528 (52.3%) 1551-1634 (43.1%)	Shaffer, 2014; Tankersley et al., 2018

^1.

Oxcal Calibration Program 4.4.

An AMS radiocarbon sample collected from the uppermost terminal Late Fort Ancient midden (0.27–32 m) of the Wynema village site has a 95% probability age range from 1450 to 1634 CE. This age range overlaps at 1σ with eight of the calibrated radiocarbon ages from the Madisonville site and all of the radiocarbon ages from the Hahn's Field site (Table 3, Figure 9).

An AMS radiocarbon sample collected from the exposed surface of the terminal Late Fort Ancient midden of the Dale Park 1 site has a 95% probability age range from 1470 to 1635 CE. This age range overlaps at 1σ with eight of the calibrated radiocarbon ages from the Madisonville site, all of the radiocarbon ages from the Hahn's Field site, and it is nearly identical to the radiocarbon age for the Wynema village site (Table 3, Figure 9).

An AMS radiocarbon sample was collected from the base of the Mariemont Embankment, the serpentine earthwork, which extends from the Madisonville site to the eastern end of the Wynema site (Figure 7). A 1480–1640 CE age range with a 95% probability demonstrates that the earthwork was built during the terminal Late Fort Ancient cultural period. This age range overlaps at 1σ with eight of the calibrated radiocarbon ages from the Madisonville site, all of the radiocarbon dates from the Hahn's Field site, and it is nearly identical to the radiocarbon ages for the Wynema village and Dale Park 1 sites (Table 3, Figure 2).

Figure 7.

Lidar image of the Wynema Village sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area.

Microtephrochronology

Microtephrochronology is a dating technique, which uses the chemical fingerprint of a volcanic eruption of a known age. A microtephrochronological horizon is a stratum that contains a chemical fingerprint of a widespread temporally distinctive volcanic ashfall. Microtephrochronology not only provides an accurate chronostratigraphic marker, but it can also be used to evaluate other chronometric dating techniques. This innovative dating method has been used successfully to identify volcanic ashfalls of known ages at the Albert Porter Pueblo and Wallace Ruin, Colorado, Bajo La Justa and Tikal, Guatemala, Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico, Great Serpent Mound, Ohio, La Milpa in Belize, and Xcoch, Mexico (Tankersley et al., 2011; Tankersley et al., 2016; Tankersley et al., 2018)

Since 900 CE, there have been three catastrophic vocalnic events, which had global ashfalls and are preserved in the Little Miami-Ohio River confluence area—the 1783–1784 CE eruption of the Laki volcano system, the 1452–1453 CE eruption of the Kuwae volcano, and the ∼CE 934 eruption of the Eldgjá volcano (Tankersley et al., 2018). These eruptions created positive Pt anomalies in contemporary sediments across the Western Hemisphere. A Pt aerosol layer forms in the stratosphere after major volcanic eruptions and may remain in the stratosphere from a week or up to two years. Catastrophic volcanic aerosols have platinum concentrations that are significantly higher than in urban air (Tankersley et al., 2018).

Because the Wynema site contains more than three meters of deeply stratified alluvium, it is ideally suited for microtephrachronology. ICP-MS analyses was used to measure the level of Pt at the ppb in the Wynema site sediments (Tankersley et al., 2018). A positive Pt anomaly (2.9 ppb) associated with the Laki volcanic system eruption was found in sediment from the upper 0.27 m strata, another positive Pt anomaly (0.6 ppb) was found in sediments from a 0.87–1.15 m stratum that dates to the time of the Kuwae volcanic eruption, and a positive Pt anomaly was also found in the 1.15–1.39 m stratum that dates to the time of the Eldgjá volcanic eruption (Figure 10).

Figure 10.

Finely laminated late Holocene alluvium exposed in an excavation unit at the Wynema site.

The terminal Late Fort Ancient stratum of the Wynema site occurs below the positive Pt anamoly from the 1783–1784 CE eruption of the Laki volcano and above the 1452–1453 CE eruption of the Kuwae volcano and the ∼CE 934 eruption of the Eldgjá volcano (Tankersley et al., 2018). In other words, the microtephrochronologic age of the terminal Late Fort Ancient component of the Wynema site dates between 1453 and 1783 CE. This age range compares well with the calibrated AMS radiocarbon age of the site.

Biostratigraphic indicator

A biostratigraphic indicator provides a relative age for a cultural stratum using a species with a known age range. Because the modern bison (Bison bison) expanded their biogeographic distribution into the Ohio River valley during the Little Ice Age and were extirpated by 1800 CE, this species can be used to demonstrate that an archaeological stratum dates to the terminal Late Fort Ancient cultural period (Tankersley, 1986, 1992). A suite of AMS radiocarbon and Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) ages have been obtained from the terminal Late Fort Ancient bison kill site at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky, ∼34 km southwest from the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence (Tankersley, 1986, 1992; Tankersley et al., 2015).

The age of bison kill assemblage at Big Bone Lick can be used to designate the duration of terminal Late Fort Ancient in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area. Calibrated AMS and conventional β-decay radiocarbon ages for bison at the Big Bone Lick kill site range from 1300 CE to modern (Table 4). The OSL age range for the bison kill site is 1220 to 1620 CE. These biostratigraphic ages of bison remains compare favorably with the radiocarbon ages for both the Madisonville and Wynema village sites.

Table 4.

Radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) Ages Obtained for the Late Fort Ancient Bison (Bison Bison) Kill Site at Big Bone Lick, Kentucky (After Tankersley et al., 2015).

Dating Method	Lab Number¹	Sample	¹⁴C Age (yr. B.P.)	Calibrated Age C.E. (Probability)²
AMS Radiocarbon	Beta-257505	Collagen	80 ± 40	1683-1736 (26.3%) 1758-1761 (0.3%) 1802-1936 (68.8%)
	Beta-259933	Cellulose	130 ± 40	1672-1778 (35.8%) 1798-1944 (59.6%)
	CAMS-61264	Collagen	245 ± 30	1523-1572 (11.0%) 1630-1683 (53.5%) 1737-1755 (3.0%)
	CAMS-61265	Collagen	260 ± 30	1515-1591 (29.4%) 1620-1674 (52.6%) 1767-1800 (13.5%)
	Beta-330555	Cellulose	310 ± 30	1490-1649 (95.4%)
Optically Stimulated Luminescence	UC-BBL-3	Quartz	400 ± 10	1220 -1620 (95.4%)
Conventional β-Decay Counting	UGa-4291	Collagen	530 ± 105	1275-1526 (86.9%) 1555-1633 (8.6%)
AMS Radiocarbon	Beta-257506	Cellulose	560 ± 50	1300-1371 (50.4%) 1377-1440 (45%)
Weighted Average				1640-1660 (95.4%)

^1.

Beta Analytic Radiocarbon Laboratory, CAMS Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, UGa University of Georgia Radiocarbon Laboratory, UC University of Cincinnati OSL Laboratory.

^2.

Oxcal Calibration Program 4.4.

Table 5.

Ethnographic Records of Daily Maize Consumption in the Western Hemisphere (After Ranum et al., 2014).

Country	Grams
Mexico	267
Guatemala	187
Honduras	169
El Salvador	157
Nicaragua	148
Venezuela	135
Belize	61

Ethnohistory

The question of exactly when Europeans first arrived in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area continues to be debated. Similarly, the issue of whether or not Europeans came in direct contact with terminal Fort Ancient people remains in question. The earliest European expedition into eastern North America was led by the conquistador Hernando de Soto between 1539 and 1543. His army's direct and deleterious impact on the Siouan speaking Catawba, the Iroquoian speaking Cherokee, and the Muskogean speaking Chiaha, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek is undisputable (Swanton, 1939).

DeSoto and his army traveled through the area known today as the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee (Curren, 1987; Hudson, 1985; Smith, 1907; Swanton, 1939). In 1540, his expedition came within 350 km of the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area when they arrived at a Chiaha village, located on the lower French Broad River in what is today eastern Tennessee (Swanton, 1939). DeSoto sometimes gifted the brass Clarksdale bells to Native Americans, but they were used primarily in trade (Clayton et al., 1993). Charles Metz excavated a brass Clarksdale bell from a terminal Late Fort Ancient feature at the Madisonville site (see Figure 3) (Drooker, 1996, 1997, 162; Low, 1880, 131).

The French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle's 1669 expedition through the Great Lakes region brought him within 345 km of the of the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area (Cox, 1905). Some historians have argued that he reached the Ohio River and followed its course downstream as far as the Falls of the Ohio in what is today Louisville, Kentucky (Clark, 1887; Parkman, 1896). At that time, between 15 and 20 Algonquian villages were reported along the banks of the Ohio (Clark, 1887, 40, 231). If this version of his travels is true, then he would have, indeed, come in contact with the terminal Late Fort Ancient people living in the confluence area. However, there is no archaeological evidence at the present that La Salle reached the Ohio River.

In 1673, Jacques Marquette reported that the Chaouanons (Shawnee) were living in great numbers (∼38 villages) in the Ohio River valley, and he noted that they were participating in long-distance trade with the Spanish in Florida (Thwaites, 1899, 145). At that time, British expeditions were coming into regular contact with the Algonquian speaking Shawnee on the Ohio River (Clark, 1887). By 1744, the French cartographer, Jacques Nicolas Bellin, had mapped the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area.

In 1749, Pierre Joseph Céloron de Blainville visited the Myaamia (Miami) Twightwee village of le Baril (Waterworks site) located immediately east of the headwaters of the Riviere la Blanche, known to the British and today as the Little Miami River (Figure 11). Céloron noted that the Miami Chief le Baril had a second village consisting of seven or eight cabins several kilometers upstream from the confluence area (Galbreath, 1921; Hildreth, 1848). While the calibrated radiocarbon ages for both the Hahn's Field and Madisonville sites date to this time period, French gunflints and a flintlock lathed-turned bone tool of the type used during the Céloron expedition have only been found at the Madisonville site (Austin, 2011) (see Figure 6).

Figure 11.

The Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area shown on Jacques Nicolas Bellin's 1755 map Partie occidentale de la Nouvelle France ou Canada. Note that the Miami Indian village of Le Baril is located near Riviere la Blanche, the mid-eighteenth-century French name for the Little Miami, and the present location of the Waterworks site.

The Treaty of Fort Finney was signed on January 31, 1786 at the mouth of the Great Miami River. It relinquished all Algonquian land claims north of the Ohio River between the Little and Great Miami rivers. However, the Shawnee continued to recognize the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area as their land. Skirmishes between colonists and the Shawnee intensified between 1789 and 1795 in the confluence area (Scamyhorn and Steinle, 1986, 119–120). The last documented presence of the Shawnee in the confluence area was in 1810 (Tankersley and Newman, 2016, 149–150).

Madisonville is the only site that has a radiocarbon age dating to the post-Fort Finney Treaty. Skirmishes during this time period occurred within two kilometers of the Madisonville site. To date, the French gunflints and a flintlock lathe-turned bone tool are the only artifacts, which could possibly date to this time period and as previously note, they likely date earlier. Also, this time period co-occurs with the extirpation of the bison from the area, the loss of a significant source of meat protein.

Discussion

It has been suggested that Fort Ancient pottery is similary to ceramics produced by Siouan-speaking people, such as the Tutelo and Saponi (Spencer, 2016). However, the archaeological and ethnographic records for the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area are consistent with ancestral Algonquian people (Griffin, 1937, 1943, 1967). The theoretical position that terminal Late Fort Ancient habitations diminished into smaller unplanned villages that decreased in the number and size when compared to earlier Fort Ancient villages is based largely on the role that the Madisonville site plays in diachronic and spatial comparisons. This theory is attractive to many archaeologists and historians because it argues that Native Americans in the Ohio River valley were already in cultural and population decline at the time of European colonization. However, our geochronological examination of the temporal and spatial parameters of archaeological sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area was unable to provide support for the presumed terminal Late Fort Ancient cultural downturn.

Of the 14 Fort Ancient habitations documented in the confluence area, nine archaeological sites have a Late Fort Ancient component (Dale Park 1, Dale Park 2, Driving Range, Hahn's Field, Madisonville, Mariemont Embankment, Sand Ridge, Turpin, Waterworks, Wynema). In other words, there are more archaeological sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area with a Late Fort Ancient component than there are those with an Early and/or Middle Fort Ancient component. If we exclude the Driving Range, Sand Ridge, and Turpin sites because of their transitional Middle-to-Late Fort Ancient components, then we are still left with seven Late Fort Ancient sites. In other words, half of the known Fort Ancient sites in the confluence area have a late to terminal component.

It long has been assumed that the Madisonville site was the largest and most populated terminal Late Fort Ancient village site in the confluence area (Drooker, 1997). Because Madisonville is smaller in size than Early and Middle Fort Ancient sites in the area, the site has been used in support of a terminal Late Fort Ancient spatial and temporal cultural decline. However, we found that terminal Fort Ancient habitations in the confluence area increase rather than decrease in size from the Early to Late Fort Ancient cultural periods (see Table 1, Figure 12).

Figure 12.

A bar graph of the maximum geographic extent of Early, Middle, Middle-to-Late, and Late Fort Ancient sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area.

While it is true that terminal Late Fort Ancient sites in the confluence area are not circular stockaded villages, their linear pattern parallel to the river may reflect a decline in inter-tribal warfare and perhaps a change in social organization. Indeed, the earliest ethnohistorical records describe Native Americans villages in the confluence area under the leadership of a tribal chief and peaceable (Galbreath, 1921; Hildreth, 1848; Marshall, 1921). We also found a profound Middle-to-Late Fort Ancient shift from single family dwellings to large, consolidated, long-house style cabins.

It is important to note that not all of the terminal Late Fort Ancient sites in the confluence area are large. Indeed, the Dale Park 1, Dale Park 2, and Mariemont Earthwork site occupy less than 0.5 ha (see Table 1). All of the contemporary terminal Late Fort Ancient sites, which are < 1 ha in size, as well as the much larger 8 ha Wynema village, are located within a kilometer of the Madisonville site. They may have been part of a single community, which had a seasonal pattern of population fusion during the winter months when food was scarce and population fission during the warmer months when food was abundant as described in the early ethnohistorical records (Densmore, 1929; Galbreath, 1921; Hildreth, 1848; Marshall, 1921). This scenario is also supported by the plethora of underground maize silos excavated at the Madisonville site.

The storage capacity of a Madisonville silo was ∼1233 kg (35 bushels) of maize. In other words, the ∼1000 excavated storage features represent more than 1000 metric tons of maize. The highest recorded ethnographic records of daily maize consumption in the Western Hemisphere reported by Ranum et al. (2014) suggest a maximum individual daily intake of 270 g of maize (Table 5). If we use this conservative value, then the known storage capacity at the Madisonville site represents more than 3,700,000 person days of maize. If we use the weighted mean of the radiocarbon ages (i.e. 1519 to 1642 CE) for the Late Fort Ancient storage pit features, then they would have provided 82 individuals with a years supply of maize. This estimate of maize surplus would support a population of nearly 90 people (grandparents, their children, spouses, and grandchildren), which could seasonally split into three kinship groups of 30 as documented ethnographically among the Algonqian speaking Anishinabe (Densmore, 1929).

It is important to point out that the storage features are located within a massive Late Fort Ancient cemetery, which contained more than 1400 individuals. Indeed, many of the underground silos unintentially intruded burial features (Hooton and Willoughby, 1920). The co-occurrence of mortuary and storage features at the Madisonville site would have provided a strategic advantage in a subsistence strategy of seasonal population fusion and fission. During periods of site abandonment, storage features in the cemetery, would have provided a strategic advantage because of intertribal taboos against disturbing the dead. The large number silos may be associated with the emergence of an agricultural redistribution strategy as documented ethnohistorically for the confluence area, and perhaps influenced by the incorporation of Mississippian traditions into the Fort Ancient cultural complex (Cook, 2017; Cook and Fargher, 2008).

While this investigation focused on previously documented and recently discovered terminal Late Fort Ancient archaeological sites in the Little Miami-Ohio Rivers confluence area, it is likely that numerous other Early, Middle, and Late Fort Ancient habitations exist Geologically, the Little Miami River is an underfit stream with irregular meander windings (Dury, 1964). These free meanders occur on a broad flood plain that is too large for the valley in which it flows. In this depositional setting, terminal Late Fort Ancient sites were likely buried by lateral and vertical accreting alluvium.

The Late Fort Ancient cultural period occurred during the Little Ice Age, a cool-dry climatic period when the water table was much lower than it is today. The extensive terminal Late Fort Ancient bison kill site at Big Bone Lick occurs below the current water table, 2.5 m to 3.5 m below the surface (Tankersley, 1986, 1992; Tankersley et al., 2015; Tankersley et al., 2018). Thus, we expect that additional and comparable terminal Late Fort Ancient sites in the confluence area will be found to further support these findings.

Footnotes

Acknowledgments

This research was made possible with the invaluable support of the Mariemont Preservation Foundation, the Village of Mariemont, and Mayors Dan Policastro and Bill Brown. We are most grateful to Joe Shaffer's discovery of the Wynema site, his dedication, and detailed excavation. We also want to thank Robert Genheimer for providing access to the Madisonville site collection at the Cincinnati Museum Center's Geier Collections and Research Center. Barbara Lehman, Senior Elder of the Piqua Shawnee, provided important ethnohistorical insights into the Myaamia Twightwee (Miami) villages of le Baril. We are especially thankful for the editing, field, and laboratory contributions of Larry Sandman as well as those of all of the undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Cincinnati who assisted us in the field and laboratory. Finally, we would like to thank the editor and anonymous reviewers who greatly improved the manuscript.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center (grant number No Number).

ORCID iD

Kenneth Barnett Tankersley

Author Biographies

Kenneth Barnett Tankersley received his PhD in anthropology from Indiana University. He is currently an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology and Department of Geology at the University of Cincinnati and Curator of the Court Archaeological Research Facility. His research interests include quaternary research, archaeological geology, and human adaptation to periods of catastrophic change.

Louis Herzner is a graduate student in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Cincinnati. His research interests include Ohio Valley archaeology, the Hopewell cultural Complex, the Fort Ancient cultural period, and Holocene age cosmic airburst events.

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