Schurr, Mark R. and Noel D. Justice (Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology,
Indiana University, Bloomington)
PREHISTORIC OCCUPATIONS OF THE STEUBEN MORAINAL LAKE AREA:
THE STEUBEN COUNTY SURVEY
During July of 1989, a field crew from the Glenn A. Black Laboratory conducted
a field reconnaissance in Steuben County, Indiana. The project was supported by
a grant from the Indiana Division of Natural Resources, Department of Historic
Preservation and Archaeology, and was directed by Mark R. Schurr. The field crew
consisted of Jessica Marks, Jennifer Rieman, Jennifer Smith, and John Williams.
Steuben County lies in the extreme northeastern corner of Indiana and is located
in the physiographic zone known as the Steuben Morainal Lake Area. Both the topography
and physiography of the area were produced by the activities of the Huron-Saginaw
and Ontario-Erie lobes of the Wisconsin ice sheet and subsequent post-glacial
modifications of the glacial landforms.
Relatively little was known about the archaeology of Steuben County prior to this
survey. Only 45 prehistoric archaeological sites had been reported, and cultural
affiliations were known for less than half of this number. Published descriptions
of the archaeology of the county also were very limited. They were restricted
to descriptions of several groups of small mounds that no longer exist (written
by Leavette in the late 19th century), a brief summary by the late Cameron Parks,
and to reports showing exceptional pieces from Steuben County owned by local collectors.
The project was designed to produce information about the locations and characteristics
of archaeological sites in Steuben County, Indiana. Field surveys, informant interviews,
and records reviews were used to locate and identify sites. Site records were
obtained for 140 previously unrecorded sites. The cultural affiliations of the
newly recorded sites ranged from the Paleo-lndian period to 19th century Euro-
American occupations.
A total area of 1.2 square miles, distributed across 25 separate parcels, was
examined during the field survey. The parcels ranged in size from 2.3 to 107.2
acres, and were chosen because they were in several different environmental zones
and because they offered good ground visibility. The landforms examined during
the field survey included end moraines, ground moraines, kames, outwash plains,
valley train deposits, and dune deposits.
Site density within a parcel appeared to be independent of the topographic setting
of the parcel, and the average density of prehistoric sites in Steuben County
(1.0 sites/10 acres) is relatively low when compared to site densities from other
areas with comparable data. Although site densities within parcels appear to be
independent of landform, different types of sites occurred on different types
of landforms. Isolated tools were found relatively more frequently on morainal
landforms than on outwash deposits, and sites located on morainal landforms were
significantly smaller (with an average area of 0.91 acres) than sites on outwash
deposits (with an average area of 2.31 acres). Sites with specialized types of
artifacts (such as worked slate, sandstone abraders, and nutting stones) tend
to be larger on the average, than sites without these specialized artifacts.
The sample size limited inferences that could be drawn about changes in site distribudon
over time. There were no significant differences in the distributions of Archaic
sites and Woodland Period sites within the two major landform types (moraine versus
outwash features). However, slightly more Archaic period sites than expected were
located on morainal landforms, and slightly more Woodland period sites than expected
were located on outwash landforms (Figure
2). Further studies will probably show that there actually were differences
in the utilization of different landforms over time. [return to 1989 abstracts menu][continue to next]