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

where fishing and farming may have been practiced
together (Bechtel and Stothers 1993). Excavations at the
Gladieux, MacNichol, and Missionary Island sites
(Schneider 2000; Stothers and Pratt 1981; Stothers et al.
1984) produced numerous overlapping large deep storage
pits, hearths, and post mold patterns, Riviere Ware
pottery, animal and fish bone, and maize. The
Missionary Island site excavations produced a distinct
ovoid habitation structure and Younge-phase burials
(cf. Stothers and Bechtel 2000). The neighboring Dodge
site (Stothers and Pratt 1981; Stothers et al. 1984), located
on a terrace above the Maumee River, just downriver
from the Missionary Island site, revealed deeply
stratified deposits associated with Riviere Ware pottery
and fish bone. Though poorly documented, a late
Younge-phase unfortified hamlet has been proposed to
be represented by the Crosby’s Ridge site, located on
Swan Creek, interior to both Maumee Bay and the
Maumee River (Bechtel and Stothers 1993; Schneider
2000; Stothers et al. 1984). In Ontario, Murphy and
Ferris (1990) have suggested that the Dymock site represents
a similar occupation, although there may have
been a single palisade encircling the occupation (Fox
1986). Numerous earthen enclosures around Lake St.
Clair and in southeastern and central Michigan attest
to the development of interior-oriented, fortified seasonal
villages by the Springwells phase (cf. Murphy
and Ferris 1990; Stothers et al. 1994; Zurel 1999).
The burial program of the Younge phase again suggests
transition. Communal aggregation and burial at
large mortuary/interaction districts common during
the Riviere au Vase phase appears to continue into the
initial Younge phase. Younge populations appear to
have interred some of their dead into Gibraltar and
Riviere au Vase phase burial mounds. This has been
demonstrated at the North Bass, Springwells,
Whittlesey, and Waterworks Mound complexes
(Halsey 1968, 1976; Stothers 1994; Stothers and Bechtel
2000). Terminal Springwells phase burial practices are
characterized by ossuary burial, as suggested by the
Turkey Creek Ossuary in southeastern Michigan
(Stothers 1995).
In contrast, the ST Eiden phase is witness to the
emergence of Mixter Ware from the small, squat, globular
vessels of the Green Creek phase (Figure 4.10).
Mixter Ware is characterized by large bag-shaped vessels
with high rims and subconical bases. The rims are
everted but not rolled or folded. There is no interior
Figure 4.8. Distribution of available Sandusky Tradition stable carbon isotope ratios.
Chapter 4 The Early Late Woodland in the Southwestern Lake Erie Littoral Region 85