Williams, John M. and Noel D. Justice (Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology,
Indiana University, Bloomington)
PREHISTORIC HUNTERS AND GATHERERS IN BROWN COUNTY, INDIANA
Figure: Selected diagnostic artifacts from
Brown County, Indiana.
An archaeological survey was undertaken from June 1990 through July 1991 to investigate
the prehistoric and early historic occupation of the Norman Uplands Physiographic
Region in Brown County, Indiana. Previously, only 46 archaeological sites had
been recorded in this county.
A total of 913 acres were surveyed. Because of poor surface visibility, slightly
more than 400 acres of wooded and grass covered uplands were surveyed by casual
and somewhat rapid surface reconnaissance. In contrast, more than 500 acres of
lowland and cultivated fields with high visibility were surveyed by careful and
thorough pedestrian traverse.
The 111 sites recorded with prehistoric components were classified as either base
camp/ village or hunting and collecting camps. Each of the 39 sites with historic
components were classified into one of the following catagories: artifact scatters,
homestead cabins, towns, rock shelters, or industries.
The vast majority of the prehistoric sites documented were classified as hunting
and gathering camps. The physical remains that characterized these sites included
chipped stone tools, flakes, and other debris from tool manufacture and maintenance.
Various ground stone tools such as axes and celts were also characteristic along
with pitted "nutting" stones, and hammerstones. A scattering of fire- cracked
rock was often found, and small amounts of ceramics occurred at Woodland period
sites. The unique aspects of hunting and collecting camps is that very few of
the above artifact catagories occur at any one particular sites. The sites are
quite small and ephemeral. There were 104 sites classified as hunting and collecting
camps; of these 53% did not produce any diagnostic artifacts. These sites are
recommended for future surveys in hopes that diagnostic material might be found
in order to assign them to a temporal period.
Sites classified as base camps or villages present the same basic material culture
as hunting and collecting camps; but base camps have larger occupations with a
higher density and greater variety of artifacts. Fire cracked rock extends across
large areas and may appear on the surface as multiple concentrations. The location
of a base camp was probably strategic for staging hunting expeditions and conducting
a host of plant collecting activities during specific seasons of the year. In
general, the base camp would have been the major gathering place for a prehistoric
group where domestic as well as ceremonial activities would have been conducted.
Sites 12 Br 28, 12 Br 42, 12 Br 120, and 12 Br 121 are examples of base camps
recorded by the survey. These sites also show signs of multiple occupations over
time. Five other sites were identified that may warrant a base camp classification,
but further investigation is needed to determine the exact nature of these sites.
Thirteen sites were recorded that had Early Archaic components which are thought
to date between 8000 to 6000 B.C. A private collection from the only base camp
site of this period, 12 Br 42, exhibited Lost Lake points of Wyandotte chert,
St.Charles points, and Early Archaic preforms.
Nine sites were identified with Middle Archaic components considered to date ca.
5000 to 4000 B.C. All were classified as hunting and collecting camps.
Twenty-eight sites were recorded that had Late Archaic and Terminal Archaic occupations
dating between 3000 to 1000 B.C. This is the largest number of sites identified
by the survey which relate to a single prehistoric period. None of the 26 sites
classified as hunting and collecting camps were particularly outstanding. The
majority of these produced only a single diagnostic artifact. A private collection
from 12 Br 42 which is recorded as a base camp exhibited Matanzas, Table Rock,
Karnak, and Terminal Archaic Barbed diagnostic projectile points. Site 12 Br 121
was also recorded as a base camp because there were reports of multiple artifact
finds and a variety of stone processing and fabricating tools collected by the
survey team.
Twelve sites contained Early Woodland components considered to date from ca. 1200
to 500 B.C. All these sites were classified as hunting and collecting camps. Each
of the sites identified as Early Woodland requires further verification in the
field.
Eleven sites with Middle Woodland components were recorded in Brown County. These
sites probably have an age of 150 B.C. to A.D. 200. All of these are classified
as hunting and collecting camps, and appear to have been ephemeral occupations.
Two sites were assigned to this period based on the report of a single occurrence
of a celt at each site. Another site produced a corner notched projectile point
manufactured from fossiliferous chert, comparable to heavily resharpened examples
within the Snyders cluster. None of these sites recorded by the survey produced
Middle Woodland period ceramics.
Thirteen sites with Late Woodland components have been recorded. Late woodland
period sites generally have an age of ca. A.D. 600 to 1400. Two important sites
(12 Br 28 and 12 Br 37) Are located near the junction of Gnaw Bone and Mt. Liberty
Creeks. Site 12 Br 28 has been classified as a Late Woodland base camp. The survey
team inspected this large occupation, recovered grit tempered ceramics, and observed
the presence of chipped stone, ceramic, and fire- cracked rock concentrations
across the surface of the site. Site 12 Br 37 is much smaller in size and has
produced a low density of cultural debris. However, this site may relate to 12
Br 28, since it is situated approximately 1000 feet south and is located upon
the same terrace as 12 Br 28. Previous site records for 12 Br 37 indicate that
this site produced a single Late Woodland cordmarked rimsherd that exhibits diagonal
cord-wrapped stick impressions along the rim. Site 12 Br 37 as well as 12 Br 28
may be affiliated with the Oliver phase of central and south-central Indiana.
Careful consideration was given to the identification of chert types used during
various prehistoric periods. Artifacts were frequently made from local glacial
and residual cherts. Chipped stone artifacts made from Harrodsburg and other fossiliferous
cherts that are typical of outcrops within Monroe and nearby counties are often
found in Brown County, A high frequency of non-local Jeffersonville chert was
utilized over most of the county. This material outcrops about 35 miles to the
southeast. Considering the raw material types recovered by the survey, as well
as artifacts observed in the private colections, a high frequency of tools made
from Jeffersonville chert are diagnostic of the Late Archaic period. Only a few
diagnostic tools recovered were made of Wyandotte chert. Projectile points identified
in private collections indicate that Wyandotte chert was used for tool manufacture
mainly during the Early Archaic and Early Woodland periods.
The survey recorded a total of 39 sites with Historic period components in Brown
County. These consisted of 25 with scatters of surface debris, 6 homestead cabins,
1 stage coach stop, 1 rockshelter, 1 salt processing site, 1 tannery, 1 gristmill,
1 factory, 1 quarry, and 1 town (Kelp Village).
In summary, a total of 129 new sites were recorded and 3 previously recorded sites
were visited and surveyed. A total of 39 sites were determined to have historic
components. Of the 90 prehistoric sites recorded, there were 154 components identified
by diagnostic artifacts.
Site location analyses indicates that both historic and prehistoric sites are
evenly distributed between the uplands and the lowlands in Brown County. A total
of 193 cultural components, including sites with indeterminate prehistoric occupations,
were tabulated by landform. These results also indicate an even distribution of
components between the uplands and lowlands.
Every effort was made during the survey to plan surface reconnaissance at times
of optimal visibility for careful and thorough site inspection. Many of the sites
are not large and contain minimal artifact scatters. A significant number of these
would have gone undetected under less than optimal survey conditions. Unfortunately,
several repeat surveys could be necessary to obtain temporally diagnostic artifacts
from small hunting camps and manufacturing sites. It is thought that low diagnostic
artifact recovery is not due to collector bias. Considering the primary functions
of sites generally, sites occupied solely for processing collected plant foods
may be expected to produce few diagnostic artifacts such as projectile points,
preforms, and hide- scraping tools. On the other hand, processing tools such as
manos, grinding slabs, hammerstones, pitted stones, pestles, and fire- cracked
rock, etc. should be more common at these sites. Temporal placement of these latter
site types may only be possible through testing to obtain clean charcoal samples
from feature context.
A wealth of new prehistoric site information has been obtained by this survey.
Although, the relationship of particular hunting and collecting sites to base
camps or village sites is unknown, sufficient information was obtained to define
the characteristics of these types of sites. The site classification dveloped
for Brown County is also applicable over a wide area of central Indiana. The data
necessary to evaluate hypothetical models of prehistoric site settlement and subsistance
for Brown County and surrounding counties has not yet been obtained. A great deal
of additional high- quality surface reconnaissance is necessary especially within
upland areas of the County.
This is the developing perspective of the prehistoric site subsistance pattern
in Brown County, Indiana. A complete discription of this research is discussed
in a report entitled "An Archaeological Assessment and Field Reconnaissance at
the Headwaters of Beanblossom and Salt Creeks in Brown County, Indiana" which
was submitted to the Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology in Indianapolis.
We would like to express our appreciation to Gary Ellis, Rick Jones, Carla North,
and Alan Goebes from that office who provided the seed grant to make this research
possible. [return to 1991 abstracts menu] [return to Glenn A. Black Laboratory List of Publications] [return to Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology Home]