Ohio Archaeological Council Presentations May 8, 2009

On Friday, May 8, 2009, the Ohio Archaeological Council (OAC) will hold its Spring Membership Meeting at Battelle Darby Creek Metropark,1775 Darby Creek Drive, Galloway, Ohio at the Cedar Ridge Lodge (accessible off the Cedar Ridge Entrance, see http://www.metroparks.net/MapBattelle.aspx).

Below is the program for the day and paper abstracts can be obtained from the OAC website http://www.ohioarchaeology.org/joomla/ . If you are interested in partaking in the lunch cookout ($6.00 cost) , please RSVP to Lynn Simonelli at lsimonelli@boonshoftmuseum.org.

We are thrilled that information on work done at two Ohio Historical Society sites (Fort Ancient and Rankin House) are going to presented.

Ohio Archaeological Council Spring Membership Meeting

Friday, May 8, 2009

9:30-10:00: Coffee, donuts, and bagels

10:00-10:20: The Possum Hollow Site (33CT645), a Stratified Floodplain Site in Clermont County, Ohio, Anne B. Lee

10:20-10:40: A Newly Discovered Newtown Phase Village in Southern Ohio: A Preliminary Assessment, Matthew P. Purtill

10:40-11:00: Discovery of an Early Woodland Paired-post Structure During Recent Investigations in Adams County, Ohio, Jeremy A. Norr, Matthew P. Purtill, and Jonathan B. Frodge

11:00-11:15: Break

11:15-12:15: Business Meeting

12:15-1:30: Lunch (cookout)

1:30-1:50: The Patton Site (33AT990): A Sedentary Middle Woodland Community in Southeastern Ohio, Sarah Weaver and Elliot Abrams

1:50-2:10: The Wildcat Site (33My499), a Small Fort Ancient Habitation in Dayton, Ohio, Robert Cook

2:10-2:30: Excavations, Ancient and Modern, at the Moorehead Circle at Fort Ancient, Robert Riordan

2:30-2:40: Break

2:40-3:00: The 2008 Excavation at the Heckleman Site (33Er14), Investigating Northern Ohio Hopewell, Brian Scanlan

3:00-3:20: Potential Rankin-era Archaeological Features at the Rankin State Memorial, Ripley, Ohio, Michael Striker

3:20-3:40: A Window into Hahn: Middle Fort Ancient at a Late Fort Ancient Village, Robert Genheimer

3:40-4:00: Archaeology in Eddie Rickenbacker’s Back Yard: Searching for a World War I Hero’s Youth, Jarrod Burks

Nautical Archaeology Workshop

On April 18th and 19th, 2009 approximately 50 divers from Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Canada came together to learn about nautical archaeology (figure 1). The event was put on by the Peachman Lake Erie Shipwreck Research Center (PLESRC) of the Great Lakes Historical Society in Vermilion Ohio, along with assistance from the Maritime Archaeological Survey Team (MAST), and was made possible through a grant from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Office of Coastal Management.

The goal of the workshop was to give divers skills to help document Ohio’s underwater cultural resources, otherwise known as shipwrecks. By creating final products such as site maps, reports and dive slates they can educate the general and diving public about the multitude (between 1000-8000) of wrecks that are in our “backyard”. Of those, seven (Adventure, W.R. Hanna, F.H. Prince, The Craftsman, Dundee, Sarah Sheldon and the Anthony Wayne) have been surveyed and recorded as archaeological sites, all by MAST divers working with PLESRC. Topics for the weekend included historical research, Ohio, Federal and International shipwreck laws, report writing, diving/boat safety, survey logistics and equipment, trilateration, drawing techniques, among many others.

The Saturday seminars were broken into sections. First time students learned basic survey techniques. Second year students learned more advanced techniques and mentored first time students. And third year students were given a small budget and taught additional skills they would need to plan and run their own survey in 2009.

On Sunday, the second year students were responsible for running the survey of the S.S. Vermilion, a simulated shipwreck conveniently located just outside the classroom on the shore of Lake Erie (figure 2). The ship was divided into survey sections and the first year students were assigned tasks. On the first "dive" the surveyors could talk to each other and ask questions of the second year students. On subsequent dives they were to remain silent (there is no talking under water after all) and were to communicate using signals, tugs and by writing notes to their dive buddy. After the assigned measurements were taken, the divers went inside to plot their data (figure 3). Upon finishing that task, they "re-entered the water" and took additional measurements until their section was completed. After all the sections were finished they were collected and put together so the students could see how the whole site plan looked after just a few hours of work (figure 4).

The next step for these divers will be to do a practice survey in White Star Quarry in Fremont, OH on May 16th and 17th. This will be the first time they will use their newly acquired skills underwater. Upon completing this portion of the workshop, the students will be official MAST members and can then participate in this year's survey of the barge crane Hickory Stick later this summer.

For additional information on the Peachman Lake Erie Shipwreck Research Center (PLESRC) go to http://www.inlandseas.org/plesrc/index.html
For more on MAST go to http://www.ohiomast.org/

By Linda Pansing

Octagon Open House This Weekend - April 19-20

As Moundbuilders Country Club approaches 100 years of their history on the site of the Octagon Earthworks, bought with property tax dollars in 1890 to preserve these 2000 year old marvels, they hold off on the golf four times each spring and summer to allow public access over the entire grounds, not just the public viewing platform that's open all year.

This Sunday from Noon to 4 pm, and Monday 10 am to 2 pm, the Ohio Historical Society will offer programming and tours out into the 50+ acre octagonal enclosure and attached nearly 30 acre circle, all the way to the 14 foot tall reconstructed "Observatory Mound" visible from the Licking Memorial Hospital parking lots.

The site is actually open for public exploration from dawn to dusk on those two days, but the programmed activities are during those hours mentioned above, off the MBCC parking lot, at the corner of 33rd St. north of West Main, and Parkview Drive, one way off of 30th St. opposite Cherry Valley School.

With flowering trees and greening grass, the scenery is beautiful, and a number of us will be delighted to tell you about the history buried just below the surface, as well as the alignments standing out among the geometric shapes of this ancient marvel and wonder of the world -- about to be named to the United Nations' World Heritage Site list.

Come join us!

Jeff Gill

Stones or Bones: The “Tail” of the Stone-a-Saurus

A few weeks back I received a call from a couple of sources that some large bones had been excavated in eastern Ohio near St Clairsville. However, neither of the sources could say for sure exactly what it was that had been found, if anything at all. But you never know! In the very cold winter of 1989 a contractor building a golf course pond (above) in a natural bog area near Newark, Ohio unearthed a magnificent specimen of the American Mastodon or Mammut americanum, what would later come to be known as the Burning Tree Mastodon. Below is a view of a full size cast of the mastodon skeleton. The actual skeleton was sold by the owner to a museum in Japan for a quite handsome sum of money. Not only was it one of the most complete specimens ever recovered but it appeared that the animal had been processed much like a modern butchered steer. That is, all the bones (save one rear leg) were present, many of them articulated one to the other in their natural associations but rearranged by sections, especially the leg quarters (much like a processed side of beef in a deep freeze). It became obvious that this could only have been the work of humans. Even more evidence of human interaction was the numerous butchering marks noted on the bones of the rib cage. It appeared that the whole package, except the missing leg that may have been someone's lunch, was purposely stashed in the pond for safe keeping. According to Dan Fisher, Professor of Paleontology at the University of Michigan, the caching of butchered animals in bog ponds during the cold months appears to have been common practice of ancient hunters, at least in this part of the world. Not only would this preserve the meat to some degree but would keep it away from scavengers, both the two and four legged varieties I suppose. This being said, what was distinctly unique about the Burning Tree find was that the gut contents or the remains of the animals last meal of moss, swamp grass and water lilies was still intact and that the digestive bacteria, dormant for more than 100 centuries, were still alive and well and for a while were considered the oldest living things on Earth!
Additional mastodon specimens have also been discovered in Darke County near Rossburg, in Knox County near Martinsburg northeast of Mt Vernon and near Johnstown in Licking County. The Conway Mastodon, to the left, was discovered in a swamp near the Clark / Champaign County line in 1887. In the 1990’s the skull cap of a very rare Pleistocene musk ox Bootherium bombifrons, with horn cores intact, was found south of Newark during the construction of the SR 79 bypass around Hebron. The horn cores and an artist's rendering can be seen below. For scale, it is nearly 16 inches between the tips of the horn cores. The cores are projections of living bone that support the actual horns composed mostly of keritin and other protiens, similar to our fingernails. Both the Conway Mastodon and the Hebron Musk Ox skull cap (case in foreground) are on display next to each other at the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus.
More recently a contractor was digging clay at a site in Medina County. The excavated material was to be used to create a compacted floor for a horse paddock. At about 14 feet deep he snagged the antler rack of an ice age stag-moose known as Cervalces scotti. Excited with his find but not sure of what it was he found he took the time to look in the back dirt and recovered several more bones. He also had the presence of mind to report this very significant find to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. Word soon reached Bob Glotshober, Curator of Natural History at OHS and subsequent explorations by OHS personnel recovered additional bones of this same animal now known as the King Ranch Cervalces. It was only the ninth but most complete specimen of Cervalces discovered in Ohio. One of the other eight can be seen laid out below the Conway Mastodon in the frame above. Another was comprised of just two long bone fragments recovered at the Burning Tree site. Above is a mounted skeleton of Cervalces scotti at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, accompanied by an artists interpretation of how Cervalces may appeared in its natural environment ( both below).
The point is that there are indeed remains of giant ice age beasts, technically referred to as Pleistocene megafauna, yet to be discovered in Ohio and elsewhere and as land is developed especially around the Great Lakes other specimens will continue to turn up from time to time. For a variety of geologic reasons the Great Lakes region rich in such remains, enough so that the mastodon is Michigan’s state fossil. As we all know, rich is only relative and the recognized discovery of any fossil bones is uncommon. Discovery of complete or nearly complete skeletons remain as extremely rare occurrences. It should be easy to understand then why a phone call indicating that another specimen may have been discovered would create a measure of excitement. I later talked to the contractor and he informed me that the next week he had business in Columbus and would be glad to bring them by. What he presented appeared at first glance to be several cartons of chalky white limestone nodules. However he took several pieces from one carton and laid them in a line and said that was pretty much how he found them. It looked for all the world very much like articulated giant flanges or finger bones or perhaps a series of bones from the tail of some great beast or "Stone-a-Saurus" as seen below. This series of bone-shaped objects total nearly three feet in length. However the chalky limestone material they were composed of was nothing like mastodon bone, or any other megafauna bone, which comes out of the ground as exactly that - bone! Even at several thousands of years old they simply aren’t of sufficient age to have lithified or turn to stone. That process that takes precise environmental/geological requirements not to mention millions upon millions of years. Yes, dinosaur “bones” are really stone. The bed rock in the far eastern edge of Ohio and western Pennsylvania was laid down between about 300 and 250 million years before present during the Permian Period at the end of the Paleozoic Era. Dinosaurs did not come along until later, during the Mesozoic Era. For whatever reason Mesozoic bedrock does not occur in Ohio so fossil dinosaur bones are never found around here. But, that doesn’t mean there weren’t sizable vertebrate animals, both terrestrial and marine, to be found during the middle to late Permian period. To be sure some of them were quite large but I don’t know that the remains of the great Permian reptiles and/or fishes, large or larger, have ever been found around here either.
As an interesting aside it was the terrestrial reptilian forms of the Permian Period, known as Thecodonts (Greek for socket tooth referring to the trait of teeth set in individual sockets, just like we humans), that gave rise to the dinosaurs and just about everything that has evolved since. Renowned dinosaur expert Bob Bakker in his 1986 book The Dinosaur Heresies argues that these proto-dinosaurs they were actually warm blooded, a trait that was passed down to the descendant dinosaurs. This ability to internally regulate their body temperature is why many dinosaurs, especially those at the smaller end of the size scale, were able to thrive and survive in those regions that were at that time polar-like environments. Bakker's controversial views run pretty much contrary to everything anyone ever knew about dinosaurs before this.
So what of our alleged fossils? Several people who have seen them and who have also seen a lot of genuine fossil forms think that they are tremendously interesting and sure look like they ought to be something but exactly what they can’t say. One explanation offered is that they are simply weathered limestone nodules from a freshwater limestone/clay unit, showing some degree of selectivity on the part of the individual who collected them or in the mind of those who look at them. Are they really fossils or perhaps derived from fossils or are they some sort of pseudomorphic form that only mimics what we think bones should look like? It is all quite plausible.
Selection can be a funny thing and play tricks on the selector. I have done numerous artifact identification events where the public is asked to bring in artifacts and other stone oddities to be identified. I have seen such things presented as stone plowshares and stone shoe lasts, neither of which probably ever existed but whoever collected them had some expectation of what they thought it should look like so when they saw it they saw it. At one of these events a few years ago a young man showed be his collection of hammer stones. They all looked like they could be just that, nice round rocks that native people would use to pound stakes or whatever. The thing was that he said they were all collected from a creek behind his house and I informed him that they were just water worn rocks that have tumbled down the creek bed for a long time. He looked as if he didn’t believe me and asked “then why are they all so perfectly round”? My answer was because you chose to pick up the roundest ones. He said “oh” and then asked if I had a rock garden in which I would like to put them.
Below is an image of several of the stone-bones including those elements that appear to articulate one to the other. What are they? Are the stone-bones some sort of fossil remnant or are they just oddly shaped rocks that sure ought to be something but you just don’t know what? I guess it’s a case of you be the judge. If anyone has any ideas I would like to hear them.

Bill Pickard

SCIENCE fiction, or PSEUDOSCIENCE fiction?

I've recently been reading, and enjoying immensely by the way, a series of science fiction novels written by the team of David Weber and John Ringo. In the third installment, entitled March to the Stars, I encountered a surprising and disturbing reference to archaeology.

The principal characters in the book, admirably brave and intelligent folk, claim that ancient Phoenicians carried the cult of Baal far and wide around the Pre-Columbian world. They even suggest the influence of these intrepid sea-farers was responsible for the Aztecs' adoption of their extreme form of human sacrifice. The characters refer to the 27th century discovery of ancient ship's logs that finally and conclusively proved that Phoenicians traveled throughout the world and had significant contacts with the Americas. These astounding tablets had to be rescued from a professor of archaeology intent on destroying them, because this evidence would (and did) overturn the orthodoxy to which he was irrationally devoted. According to our heroes, this discovery finally ended the "reign of the Land-Bridge Fanatics in anthropology." At another point in the story, one of the characters noted that archaeologists got a deservedly bad reputation for arguing that the pyramids of Egypt and the pyramids of Mesoamerica were a "spontaneous serial development," rather than the result of direct cultural exchange.

Science fiction is a wonderful genre that allows authors to extrapolate fascinating tomorrows based on the implications of projected changes in science and society. I don't object to Weber and Ringo exploring the implications of Phoenician sailors reaching the Americas centuries before Columbus, even though there isn't a shred of data to support the idea. On the other hand, I do object to their characterization of archaeologists as "Land Bridge Fanatics" who would even consider the willful destruction of evidence to prevent any changes to the academic status quo. Such notions derive from and appeal to the silly conspiracy theories of some proponents of Pre-Columbian contacts who believe that mainstream scientists are afraid of challenges to academic orthodoxy and are busily covering up all the data that might undermine their carefully constructed view of the past. Certainly, there is some inherent conservatism in academia, but contrary to this dismal view of modern (to say nothing of 27th century) archaeology, scientists are rewarded for making discoveries that shake up the received view of things. Finding a lost library of Phoenician ship's logs demonstrating ancient visits to America would get any scholar on the cover of National Geographic. It is absurd to think someone would destroy the evidence that would make them famous and lead to lucrative book contracts and appearances on TV shows.

As for "Land Bridge Fanatics" – the evidence indicating that the first Americans arrived in this hemisphere from Asia by crossing either the land bridge that was exposed during parts of the Ice Age, or the waters of the Bering Straits in boats, is massively overwhelming. Moreover, there is no credible archaeological, genetic, skeletal, linguistic, or other evidence that any Africans, Asians, or Europeans had any significant contact with established American cultures until the Vikings made landfall in Newfoundland at around AD 1000 and, possibly, a few visits of Polynesian voyagers to the western coast of South America as much as a century or two earlier. The fact that European diseases decimated American Indian populations only after AD 1492 is a compelling argument that there can have been no significant or sustained contact between the so-called Old and New Worlds prior to that time, else those diseases already would have been present in America and those populations would have possessed a greater degree of immunity to their ravages. Hence, the post-1492 epidemics would have occurred much earlier -- at the time of the first sustained contacts -- and could not have occurred again in 1492.

Regarding the presence of pyramids in both Egypt and Mesoamerica, there really isn't much to explain. These monumental structures are only superficially similar and they served very different functions in these very different cultures. The main reason they are similar at all is that, without the arch, the only way to make a tall, stable, stone structure is by piling stones on top of each other into an almost inevitably conical or pyramidal mass.

I close with a relevant passage from an article written by the early archaeologist Gerard Fowke in 1888. It was published in the second volume of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society Quarterly. He was responding to those who claimed that Ohio's wonderful earthworks had been built, not by the ancestors of American Indians, but by a mysterious lost race of European or Asian origin, such as the Phoenicians or Hebrews.

"The truth of the matter probably is, that all this misconception is due to the readiness of the people to accept notoriety and bombast for authority and learning; to believe the false, rather than the true, so long as it appeals strongly to their love of the marvelous.

And this credulity is, in turn, fostered and encouraged by shrewd empirics who see in it something that may be worked to their own advantage; or stimulated by the honest but mistaken enthusiast who wishes to believe, and to have others believe, that these mounds of earth indicate for ancient America a dominion and glory like that shadowed forth by the stupendous ruins of half-forgotten empires of the East."

It is not "fanatical" to follow the data where they lead; and the folks who dismiss archaeologists as, for example, "Land Bridge Fanatics" tend to be ignorant both of the current data and a basic understanding of how science works. For these reasons, it was disappointing to see this pseudoscience championed in a novel of "science" fiction.


For further reading

Brace, C. Loring
2002 Background for the peopling of the New World: Old World roots for New World branches. Athena Review 3(2):53-61, 103-104.

Dixon, E. James
1999 Bone's, boats, and bison. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

2002 How and when did people first come to North America? Athena Review 3(2):23-27, 99. Available online at: http://www.athenapub.com/10Dixon.htm; site last viewed, 9 February 2009.

Feder, Kenneth L.
2008 Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: science and pseudoscience in archaeology. McGraw-Hill, New York.

Lepper, Bradley T.
2008 Largest-ever survey of Native American genes sheds light on First Americans. Mammoth Trumpet 23(2):12-14, 19.

Meltzer, David
1993 Search for the First Americans. Smithsonian Books, Washington, D.C.

Schurr, Theodore G.
2002 A molecular anthropological perspective on the peopling of the Americas. Athena Review 3(2):62-75, 104-108.

Ubelaker, Douglas, editor
2006 Handbook of North American Indians, Volume 3: Environment, Origins, and Population. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Spotlight on Staff

Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down and talking with Sharon Dean who, on December 15, 2008, started her position as Director of Collection Services for the Ohio Historical Society.

Linda: Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to participate in this interview for our readers.
Sharon: You are very welcome.
Linda: Tell our readers a little bit about your previous experience.
Sharon: I’d be glad too. I received my Ph.D. in Anthropology from New School University in New York. Some of the positions I have held include Executive Director of the Cleveland Artists Foundation; Curator, Head of Cultural Anthropology, Visual Arts and Conservation for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Assistant Curator, Head of Photographic Archives, National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution; as well as Adjunct Professor for Case Western Reserve University, The College of Staten Island, New York; and Queens College, New York.
Linda: How did you get interested in cultural anthropology?
Sharon: Originally I wanted to be a wildlife photographer and travel to the African savanna. But, while taking pictures offered a way of seeing something, it didn’t answer questions as to why things were the way they were. Cultural anthropology helps to address those intriguing questions by looking at social demographics, processes and relationships. This is what drew me to the field. Also being a photographer can be a pretty solitary job and I am too much of a social person to have been happy being a photographer in the long run.
Linda: What do you enjoy the most about cultural anthropology?
Sharon: Fieldwork! I have had the great pleasure to work with Mayan populations in Central America, the Waimiri Atroari of Brazil, and the Paiute and Shoshone in the western United States.
Linda: What was one of the most memorable or rewarding experience you have had doing field work.
Sharon: That is hard question to answer since there are so many things I could pick. One of the projects I participated in was while I was at the National Museum of the American Indian. I was in charge of the photographic archives and was tasked with cataloging over 100,000 photographs that were taken between 1880 and 1950. As part of this collection were a series of images taken of Mayan individuals showing front and profile views that dated between 1920 and 1930. It should be noted that during the late part of the 19th and early part of the 20th century there was a movement within physical anthropology called craniometry that theorized one could tell how intelligent a person was by examining the measurement of their skull. Needless to say these antiquated views are no longer accepted today. I wrote a grant to go to the area where the pictures were taken to see if anyone knew who these people were so we could tell their story. It was really rewarding to be able to find out about the lives of the people in the photographs and to be able to give family members copies so they could have images of their parents and grandparent. It was fulfilling to be able to take a negative (the stereotyping an indigenous people) and turn it into a positive by being able to contribute and give something back to their community.
Another was while I was at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. I was part of a project reviewing how Paiute and Shoshone basket making techniques changed to accommodate tourism tastes in the early part of the 20th century. The intricate designs and weaving techniques are very beautiful and impressive and the research resulted in a book entitled Weaving A Legacy: Indian Baskets and the People of Owens Valley, California.
And the final project I’ll bring up for the blog was also for the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. We had some cultural material from the Waimiri Atroari of Brazil and were interested in doing an exhibit. So we applied for and received a permit to visit them to discuss the exhibit. Before I go into anymore detail, I want to explain what is special about the Wairimi Atroari. In the 1960’s the Government of Brazil built a hydroelectric dam and mining companies were extracting resources from the Waimiri Atroari reservation. The impacts of these actions were relocation, disease, welfare and subsequently the population of the Waimiri Atroari declined from approximately 1500 to 350 individuals. They sued and won a 25 year subsidy from the government and decided to take their future into their own hands by returning to a traditional way of life. They fenced off 250 hectares of land, returned to sustainable agriculture, raised cattle, wore traditional dress, made baskets for export, and decided to raise their children speaking their native language until the age of seven when they are taught Portuguese. Since then they have thrived and rebuilt and strengthened their culture. Unfortunately before our exhibit planning was finished they became involved in a political battle so the project ended. But it was truly awe inspiring to see how they took control of their circumstances and the future of their culture.
Linda: What attracted you to your position at OHS?
Sharon: As Director of Collection Services I have the opportunity to work again with two of my passions; photographic and ethnographic collections. I believe that by working together as a team we can accomplish great things and I look forward to supporting and enabling our staff in the process. I hope to open the door for better communications with the Native American population all over the State in regards to issues regarding human remains and funeral objects. One thing I am particularly excited about is instituting a Curator’s Roundtable where all of the Curator’s will come together, share their concerns, talk about research projects, publications they are doing, etc.. By doing so we can take advantage of each others wisdom and help set the direction of the collections and formulate long term collection and research goals.
Linda: Thank you for giving us an insight into your interests and vision.
Sharon: Thank you for the opportunity.