Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700 –1300

CHAPTER 2
CENTRAL OHIO VALLEY DURING THE LATE PREHISTORIC PERIOD:
Subsistence-Settlement Systems’ Responses to Risk
Flora Church and John P. Nass, Jr.
INTRODUCTION
Central Ohio Valley Late Prehistoric societies
referred to as Fort Ancient (Figure 2.1) responded to
environmental and social perturbations associated
with maize farming, population growth, sedentism,
and population aggregation through changes in settlement
arrangement and social organization. The effects
of these choices and population growth upon settlement
and subsistence systems are evaluated in this
chapter by examining changes within the social, economic,
and technological spheres over time. In the
interval of time ca. A.D. 900/1000 to A.D. 1400, several
Late Prehistoric cultural phases have been identified
throughout the central Ohio Valley. Within this roughly
400-year interval, the Feurt, Baum, Anderson,
Osborne, Manion, and Crogham phases of the Fort
Ancient Tradition have been identified (Figure 2.2)
(Griffin 1943; Henderson and Turnbow 1987; Turnbow
and Sharp 1988). Also, Cowan (1986) has described the
Turpin, Shoemaker, and Campbell Island phases within
the lower Great and Little Miami drainages in
southwestern Ohio, while Carskadden and Morton
(1977, 2000) have made a case for the Philo phase in
eastern Ohio (Figure 2.3). These Late Prehistoric phases
differ substantially from the preceding Late
Woodland cultural base (Church 1987; Graybill 1981;
Wagner 1987). Data from a number of central Ohio
Valley Late Woodland sites (Figure 2.4) will also be
used to contrast with the changes documented at Late
Prehistoric sites. We end our study at ca. A.D. 1400,
when the regional variation (denoted by the various
phases) becomes subsumed within a central Ohio
Valley-wide ceramic style zone referred to as the
Madisonville Horizon (Henderson et al. 1992).
Accompanying this ceramic zone is a gravitation of
settlements toward the Ohio River proper and the
lower reaches of its major tributaries.
THEORETICAL ISSUES
The spatial distribution of human populations can
be arranged in a continuum from dispersed to nucleated.
A dispersed population does not occur in
clumps, but is more evenly arranged across the landscape
in smaller units in relation to its resource base.
At the other extreme, a nucleated or aggregated population
resides in larger units that tend to reside at
fixed locations for long periods of time. For this reason,
large populations place greater demands on the
local resource base. Long-term nucleation can result
from a number of factors, such as defense against
resource encroachment, or a need for pooling labor to
facilitate resource procurement, or when resource
productivity exceeds immediate needs and energy
expenditure (Dancey 1992; Fuller 1981; Harris 1989).
Whatever the arrangement of populations and the
technology and buffering methods developed, labor
is organized to ensure a continued supply of
resources, be they collected, hunted, or grown.
Leonard and Reed (1993:651) refer to the logistics of
resource procurement as “strategies” and “tactics.”
Strategies refer to what resources are to be procured or
grown and in what quantities, while tactics refer to the
methods (the organization of labor, social arrangement,
etc.) used to obtain the desired resources. As both local
and regional populations increase and seasonal mobility
as a means of mitigating overexploitation is
reduced, populations will be forced to devise tactics
(which could include buffering mechanisms such as
storage and/or exchange) to ensure a constant supply
of needed resources (Braun and Plog 1982). Leonard
and Reed (1993:651-652) contend those tactics and
buffering mechanisms that are more successful at
maintaining the necessary types and quantities of
dietary staples (which increases the relative fitness or
reproductive success of individuals within the
Northeast Subsistence-Settlement Change: A.D. 700–1300 by John P. Hart and Christina B. Rieth. New York State Museum
© 2002 by the University of the State of New York, The State Education Department, Albany, New York. All rights reserved.
Chapter 2 Central Ohio Valley During the Late Prehistoric Period: Subsistance-Settlement Systems’ Responses to Risk 11