Fort Ancient is a name for a Native American culture that flourished from 1000-1750 CE[1] among a people who predominantly inhabited land along the Ohio River in areas of modern-day Southern Ohio, Northern Kentucky, Southeastern Indiana and Western West Virginia. They were a maize based agricultural society who lived in sedentary villages and built ceremonial platform mounds. The Fort Ancient culture was once thought to have been an expansion of the Mississippian cultures. It is now accepted as an independently developed culture descended from the Hopewell culture (100 BCE–500 CE).
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The name of the culture originates from the Fort Ancient, Ohio archeological site; however, the Fort Ancient Site itself is now thought to have been built by Ohio Hopewellian people. It was likely occupied later by the Fort Ancient culture. The fort is located on a hill above the Little Miami River, close to Lebanon, Ohio. Despite its name, most archaeologists do not believe that Fort Ancient was used primarily as a fortress by either the Ohio Hopewell culture or the Fort Ancient culture; it was more likely to have been a ceremonial location.[2]
| Periods | Phase | Dates |
|---|---|---|
| Early Fort Ancient | Croghan | 1000 to 1200 |
| Middle Fort Ancient | Manion | 1200 to 1400 |
| Late Fort Ancient | Gist | 1400 to 1550 |
| Montour | 1550 to 1750 |
Starting in about 1000 CE terminal Late Woodland groups in the Middle Ohio Valley adopted maize agriculture and began settling in small, year-round nuclear family households of no more than 40 to 50 individuals. These small scattered settlements, located along terraces that overlooked rivers and sometimes on flood plains, would be occupied for short periods before the groups moved on to new locations. By 1200 the small villages began to coalesce into larger settlements with up to 300 people and would be occupied for longer periods, possibly up to 25 years. During the Early and Middle Fort Ancient period, the houses were designed as single-family dwellings. Later Fort Ancient buildings are larger multi-family dwellings. Settlements were rarely permanent, usually being shifted to a new location after one or two generations when the resources surrounding the old village were exhausted. Villages were laid out with an open oval central plaza surrounded by circular and/or rectangular domestic structures facing into the plaza. The arrangement of buildings in Fort Ancient settlements is thought to have served as a sort of solar calendar, marking the positions of the solstices and other significant dates.[3] Low platform mounds began to be constructed in some villages and many villages add defensive palisades.[1] The plaza was the center of village life and was a place where ceremonies, games (such as chunkey)[4] and other social events were held.
The Late Fort Ancient period from 1400 to 1750 is the protohistoric era in the Middle Ohio Valley. This era saw a coalescencing of the formerly more dispersed populations, with Gist phase villages (1400 to 1550) becoming much larger than the preceding period with populations as high as 500 individuals. This factor and the increase in defensive palisades has led archaeologists to speculate that after 1450 warfare and intergroup strife increased, leading them to consolidate their villages for better protection. Villages appear to have been inhabited all year round during the Montour phase, although less densely in the winter than in the summer months. This may indicate that during the winter family groups and hunting parties may have returned to the regions previously occupied by their ancestors before the consolidations into larger villages. This is a pattern observed during historic times among the Miami and Potawatomi.[1] This era also show increased contact with Mississippian peoples and may have included actual migration and integration of some culturally Mississippian peoples into Fort Ancient villages. The Madisonville horizon after 1400 includes relatively high proportions of bowls, salt pans, triangular strap handles, colanders, negative painted pottery, notched and beaded rims, and some effigies, materials more usually associated with the Mississippian cultures of the Lower Ohio Valley such as Angel Mounds and Kincaid Mounds, which were abandoned during this time period.[1] During the Montour phase (1550 to 1700) the introduction of European trade items such as glass, iron, brass, and copper as grave goods at sites such as Lower Shawneetown and Hardin Village precede the actual arrival of Europeans into the area.[5] Although the Fort Ancient peoples didn't actually meet Europeans at this time, they, like other groups in the interior of the continent, may have felt the effects of their diseases. After this time period is a gap in the archaeological record and the next known inhabitants (encountered by French and English explorers) are the historic Shawnee tribe.[6] Most likely their society, like the Mississippian cultures to the south and west, was severely disrupted by waves of epidemics from the very first Spanish explorers in the mid 16th century.[7] After 1525 at the Madisonville Site, the type site for the Madisonville Phase, the village's house size becomes smaller and fewer with evidence to be a less horticulture-centered, sedentary way of life. However, it is generally accepted that similarities in material culture, art, mythology, and Shawnee oral history linking them to the Fort Ancients can be used to establish the shift of Fort Ancient society into historical Shawnee society.[6]
Fort Ancient culture is divided into four distinct local variations known as foci (plural of focus). They are the Madisonville Focus, the Baum Focus, the Feurt Focus, and the Anderson Focus.
The rise in socio-political complexity evidenced by the building of substructure mounds and new village layouts may indicate influences from Middle Mississippian cultures down the Ohio River (the northeastern most extent of Middle Mississippian was the Prather Complex in the Falls of the Ohio region 95 miles (153 km) away),[8] but the differences in ceramics show they were a culture distinct from that of the Middle Mississippian peoples.[9] Fort Ancient settlements lacked other Mississippian traits such as political centralization and elite social structures. Although individuals might have risen to the status of leader, the Fort Ancient culture appears to have been egalitarian. Grave goods rarely vary between individuals, which shows that social levels were weakly defined. It is thought that their societies were organized into groups (maybe tribes) based on kinship. If social organization was based on kinship, then it is likely that one's status was the result of personal qualities such as sharing/giving, being a good hunter or food provider, charisma, etc. Sometimes, one person might achieve high status. Such high-status people were probably leaders of communities and were potentially responsible for organizing trade, for settling disputes among other members of the village, and for presiding over ceremonies.[4]
Fort Ancient peoples used a technique known as coiling to make their pottery, because as with all other Native American groups the potters wheel was unknown. They would first roll the clay into long, rounded strips and then use the strips to model the vessel, layering the strips one on top of another. The inside of the vessel was then smoothed out using a potters anvil ( a smooth round stone ) and the outside was smoothed using a wooden paddle. It could then be decorated in a variety of styles, including cord-marking and engraving.[10] The pottery of this period has thinner walls than preceding Woodland pottery. Common shapes are large plain cooking jars with strap or loop handles.[11] A hallmark of Fort Ancient pottery is engraved decorations on the rim and neck of the vessels, consisting of a series of interlocking lines, called guilloché. This design emerged with the beginning of the Fort Ancient culture in the region and is used as a diagnostic tool for identifying the culture.[10]
During the Early Fort Ancient period grit (crushed stone) and grog (crushed pottery) were more often used as tempering agents, with ground mussel shells occasionally being used. As time progressed however, mussel shells or a mixture of mussel shell with other agents becomes increasingly present as the tempering agent of choice. The use of ground shells as a temper is a feature often associated with Mississippian cultures. This new technology was not adopted wholesale however, as it was accepted in different Fort Ancient areas a different times and seems to become more prevalent in some villages as time goes by, moving north and east from the Ohio River and the direction of closest Mississippian groups in the southwest. With this change of temper also came different vessel forms and decorations, several of them also strongly associated with Mississippian cultures. Early Fort Ancient vessels are often jug forms often with lug handles. By the Middle Fort Ancient period bowls and plates are also being produced more frequently and the use of strap handles develops. Negative painting (a decoration often associated with the Angel Phase sites in the Lower Ohio Valley) and Ramey Incised designs (elite motifs associated with the Cahokia polity in Illinois) was found to have been used on some examples. A few examples have even had a blending of different styles, with the engraved guilloché decoration overlain by negative painting. Excavations have found examples of exotic non local pottery from this period as well. These articles are made from non local clay sources and show designs or vessel forms atypical for local wares. One example found at the Madisonville Site was a head pot similar to those produced in the Central Mississippi Valley by the peoples of the Middle Mississippian Parkin and Nodena Phases. Archaeologists have theorized that this change in pottery styles was a result of increased contact with the Mississippian cultures to the south and west of the Fort Ancient peoples.[12][13]
Tools were made by the Fort Ancient peoples from a variety of materials including stone, bone, horn, shells and antlers, although stone tools more frequently show up in archaeological digs. They are particularly known for their small triangular flint arrowheads and large triangular flint knives. Hoes for farming were made from mussel shells and axes for felling trees were made by grinding and polishing stones into the proper shape. Most of the flint tools were made from varieties of locally available materials, showing the Fort Ancient peoples either felt no need for or did not have access to exotic stone varieties through trade routes.[11]
The Fort Ancient were primarily a farming and hunting people. Their diet was composed mainly of the New World staples known as the three sisters ( maize, squash, and beans ) supplemented with hunting and fishing in nearby forests and rivers. Important game species included the black bear, turkey, white tail deer and elk. Archaeologists have found evidence at some sites that suggest turkeys were even kept in pens. This heavy dependence on maize did have its drawbacks though. The average lifespan during this time period decreased from that of their ancestors. The people were also smaller in stature and less able to fend off infectious diseases. In archaeological investigations of their cemeteries it has been determined that almost all Fort Ancients peoples showed pathology of some kind, with high incidents of dental disease and arthritis.[11]
| Site | Image | DescriptionCleek-McCabe Site |
|---|---|---|
| Buckner Site | A Middle Fort Ancient site located in Bourbon County, Kentucky on Strodes Creek. It has two large circular village areas, each surrounding its own central plaza and several smaller special use areas to the north and northeast of the site.[5] | |
| Buffalo Indian Village Site | A site with at least two overlapping Mid to Late Fort Ancient villages (1300 to 1600) located near Buffalo, Putnam County, West Virginia along the Kanawha River.[14] | |
| Cleek-McCabe Site | A Middle Fort Ancient site located near Walton in Boone County, Kentucky with several components, including two mounds and a village.[5] | |
| Clover Site | A Late Fort Ancient Madisonville Focus site (the type site for the Clover Phase 1550 to 1600) located near Lesage in Cabell County, West Virginia.[15] | |
| Feurt Mounds and Village Site | A site with three burial mounds and an associated village, located in Scioto County, Ohio. It is the type site for the Feurt Focus. | |
| Fort Ancient Site | The site is the largest prehistoric hilltop enclosure in the United States with three and one-half miles (18,000 ft) of walls in a 100-acre (0.40 km2) complex, built by the Hopewell peoples, who lived in the area from the 1st century BCE to the 6th century CE. Centuries later during the Fort Ancient period a village and cemetery were constructed within the embankments. When archaeologists excavated the site in the nineteenth century they mistakenly believed the "fort" and the village were built by the same people. It is located in Washington Township, Warren County, Ohio, along the eastern shore of the Little Miami River about seven miles (11 km) southeast of Lebanon on State Route 350.[16] | |
| Fox Farm Site | A Manion Phase site located near Mays Lick in Mason County, Kentucky. The site consists of a large village complex on a ridge 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) south of the Licking River and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) south of the Ohio River. The site covers 10-hectare (100,000 m2) to 16-hectare (160,000 m2) and has midden areas up to 80 centimetres (31 in) thick.[5] | |
| Hardin Village Site | A Montour Phase site located on a terrace of the Ohio River near South Shore in Greenup County, Kentucky. It was occupied from sometime in the early 1500s and abandoned by about 1625. During its occupation it covered an area of about 4.5-hectare (45,000 m2). Like other Fort Ancient villages it had a defensive palisade surrounding it, but unlike other sites it does not seem to have had a central oval plaza.[17] | |
| Hobson Site | Located 1.5 miles (2.4 km) below Middleport, Ohio on the north bank of the Ohio River. It has minor traces of Archaic, Woodland and Late Prehistoric artifacts. However, the largest component is a village of the Feurt Phase dating to 1100 to 1200 CE.[18] | |
| Leo Petroglyph | A sandstone petroglyph containing 37 images of humans and animals as well as footprints of each, located near the small village of Leo, Ohio in Jackson County, Ohio[19] | |
| Lower Shawneetown | Also known as the Bentley Site, Shannoah and Sonnontio, it is a Madisonville horizon (post 1400) archaeological site overlain by an 18th century Shawnee village located near South Portsmouth in Greenup County, Kentucky.[5] | |
| Ronald Watson Gravel Site | A Middle Fort Ancient Anderson Focus site located near Petersburg in Boone County, Kentucky, on an inside bend of a meander of the Ohio River.[20][21] | |
| Sand Ridge Site | A Madisonville Focus site located along a prominent ridgeline to the west of the old Union Bridge along the road between Cincinnati and Batavia.[22] | |
| Serpent Mound | The Fort Ancient people built the largest effigy mound in the United States according to carbon dating of charcoal found underneath the mound.[23][24] | |
| SunWatch Indian Village | A recreated Fort Ancient village located in Dayton, Ohio. Many archaeological excavations were done here at the park which has revealed much about the Fort Ancient people. | |
| State Line Site | A Middle Fort Ancient complex of sites west of Elizabethtown, Ohio on both sides of the Indiana/Ohio border,[25] composed of five contributing properties spread out across 8-acre (32,000 m2) of land. Pottery found at the site was found to use shell tempering and had other characteristics such as distinctive styles of painting and the presence of pottery modelled after owls and the human heads, traits which signify contact with Middle Mississippian cultures.[25][26][27][28] | |
| Thompson Site | A Croghan Phase site located near South Portsmouth, Kentucky in Greenup County, next to the Ohio River across from the mouth of the Scioto River.[5] | |
| Turpin Site | An Early Fort Ancient Madisonville Focus site located near Newtown in Hamilton County, Ohio. The site includes the remains of a village and multiple burial mounds. |
The people of the Fort Ancient regions were surrounded by other groups, some similar in their lifestyles and some not. To their northeast in present-day Western Pennsylvania, Eastern Ohio and West Virginia were the peoples of the Monongahela culture, who inhabited the Monongahela River Valley from 1050 to 1635.[29] They had a similar lifestyle to the Fort Ancients; they were also maize agriculturalists and lived in well laid out palisaded villages with central oval plazas, some of which consisted of as many as 50-100 structures. To the northwest of the Fort Ancients were the people of the Oliver Phase who lived along the east and west forks of the White River in central and southern Indiana from 1200 and 1450.[30] Their villages were also circular with palisades.[31] Although their sites began in central Indiana, over the years they spread to the southeast toward the Fort Ancients.[30] The Oliver Phase people were part of the Western Basin Tradition which also includes the Springwells Phase, the Younge Phase, and the Riviere au Vase Phases of Northern Ohio and Indiana. The colder weather of the Little Ice Age may have caused inter-group battling over food and other resources, according to some scholars. The crops did not prosper as well during this colder period, causing food shortages for populations that had grown after their introduction. Some studies show that the culture began failing due to poor health conditions.
These groups, along with others such as the Oneota, were once classified as Upper Mississippian cultures under the assumption that they were either Mississippian peoples intruding into these areas or they were heavily influenced by the Mississippian peoples to their south and east. Today it is thought that these groups were local in situ developments of Late Woodland peoples.[32]
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