Middle Woodland Settlement Patterns in the Midwest

As part of a larger project, Scale and Community in Hopewell Networks (SCHoN), we submitted a series of 19 dates from seven Scioto Valley Hopewell sites. The larger project focuses on attribute analysis and source identification of copper, ceramic, and lithic artifacts. Our first batch of dates begin to shake up previous narratives on the arc of Hopewell history. Here we present raw measurements and calibrated dates with minimal commentary. Future work will delve into the meaning of these and another batch of dates yet to be submitted. We submitted our dates to the CAIS laboratory at the University of Georgia for AMS analysis.

Over the last two years we have systematically analyzed samples of three material types from 32 Scioto Valley Middle Woodland sites to investigate multiple levels of social and economic interactions.  Copper, lithic, and ceramic material types were subjected to source identification (geological and/or chemical sourcing), and the ceramics were the subject of an extensive attribute analysis.  The materials and variables were selected to reveal details about multiple different scales of communities and networks operating during the Middle Woodland period in the Scioto Valley.  Here we present a preliminary summary of this new systematically collected database.  Our findings reveal unexpected and multifaceted variability and ubiquity.  Specifically, we have revealed that there are clusters of copper chemical sources within sites, but differences among sites in geological provenance.  While there are general tendencies in lithic source use, ties to southeastern sources serves to discriminate either changing or variable relations to the south.  The ceramic chemical sources substantially overlap, with in some case more than 45% of a site’s assemblage matching the chemical signature of another site.  Future analyses and data generation will refine these understandings and shed new light on the structure of relations among Hopewell societies over time and space.

[Click on the link to see some of the 3D models we have created during this project. Many can be downloaded for free.  If you would like access to additional models or data please contact the lead author.]