Field School in Ohio Archaeology Sites
2010
The 2010 Field School initiated excavation of the Patton 3 site in Athens County. Despite the heat, students were able to locate several features that reflect domestic occupation. These were principally postholes and hearths. One of the postholes was radiocarbon dated at 300 B.C. Further excavation of these features may reveal more about this Early Woodland habitation.
2008
Students resumed excavation of the Patton site during the summer of 2008. The results of the previous season indicated the presence of a residential site, but the extent of those remains were unknown until we resumed digging. Owing to the unplowed nature of the site, participants uncovered perhaps the most intact Middle Woodland house and house lot yet excavated in the state of Ohio. The final phase of this three-phase house was roughly a 5 x 3 meter rectangular house with wattle and daub (dried mud) walls. An interior and exterior heath were used for cooking and economic activity areas, used to make tools and prepare food, were located. This house and associated artifacts clearly indicate an increased commitment to sedentary life.
2006
The 2006 Field School excavated the Patton site, a habitation site that spanned several time periods. Students focused on recovery of material from about 1100 B.C. through 120 A.D., years that are classified as Early through Middle Woodland. The recovery of pottery, stone tools, and hearths provide data reflecting the patterns of increasing sedentism, technological improvement, and intra-regional interaction. Combined with studies of other habitation sites in the area, researchers expect these analyses from the Patton site to greatly add to the understanding of this important transition from nomadic hunting and gathering communities to more settled horticultural communities.
2004
This research involved the excavation of a rock shelter site north of Nelsonville. This site was used most heavily during the Late Woodland/Late Prehistoric period as a animal processing site. The meat would then be transported to a habitation in the nearby region. Stone tools were also manufactured at the site given the proximity of a lithic outcrop.
2002
The 2002 Field School excavated the Taber Well site. This small site, located along Monday Creek north of Nelsonville, OH, yielded a wide range of artifacts including lithics debris and cutting tools, ground stone grinding and pounding tools, and pottery. Students also uncovered nearly 20 pit features used for cooking foods. The analysis of the data is ongoing, but preliminary results suggest that the site was used by work groups to process chert obtained from a nearby creek bed, as well as to procure wild food resources from the adjacent area. The added significance of the site is that it was used by these work parties from the Late Archaic (ca. 1500 B.C.) through the Middle Woodland (ca. A.D. 100) periods, demonstrating a continuity in lithic procurement patterns while dramatic changes in settlement patterns by the communities were occurring.
2000
Field School students began excavation of the Taber Wells site, a Late Archaic basecamp. Dated to 2000 B.C., they dug several pit features which hopefully will yield food remains which will allow researchers to reconstruct seasonality of occupation. Several posts from houses were recovered as well. A nearby quarry of Upper Mercer chert was surveyed, and the Taber Wells site may have been also an area where chert was reduced for use throughout the year.
The Clark site was surveyed and partially excavated. It is located south of Athens and proved to be a chert reduction site. The site was filled with fragments of Brush Creek chert, and they expect to analyze this site in concert with the other chert quarrying/processing sites. Finally, they surveyed and collected samples of chert from Vinton County and this chert was different from the above samples. Collectively, this site gives us the comparative samples we need to better understand the patterns of chert procurement by these past societies.
1998
Three sites were dug in the summer of 1998. The Wise site proved to be a Late Archaic hunting and gathering area near Stewart. The Walker site similarly was an area where hunters and gatherers procured wild foods. Located on a ridge top overlooking the Hocking River, this site was repeatedly used from 7000 B.C. through A.D. 200.
The largest site dug in 1998 was the County Home site. This was an Early and Middle Woodland village. Still being analyzed, it appears to have been home to from 15 - 30 people. Very large cooking pits indicate that ritual feasting was occurring here by 1500 B.C. as a site where nomadic hunters and gatherers assembled. On-going research projects include botanical identification and architectural analysis. Once analysis is concluded, this site will represent the only data we have for a Middle Woodland community in the Hocking Valley.
1990-96
These four years of field schools focused intensively on one site?the Allen site. This site was a Late Woodland/Fort Ancient village, occupied from A.D. 600 - 1300. It is currently the best site documenting life during those years. The data have been analyzed and publication is being sought for this work.
1986 and 1988
These two field seasons were devoted to excavating the Boudinot 4 site, an Adena hamlet along Sunday Creek. The site was occupied from 2000 B.C. through 100 B.C. and yielded the first evidence from gardening in the area.
1987
This Field School saw the excavation of the Armitage Mound, located in The Plains. Facing imminent destruction, this burial mound yielded a central burial as well as several cremated skeletons.