Redmond, Brian G. (Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University,
Bloomington)
THE 1993 INVESTIGATIONS OF THE COX'S WOODS SITE (12 Or 1), A FORTIFIED OLIVER PHASE VILLAGE
IN ORANGE COUNTY, INDIANA
During the spring and summer of 1993, personnel from the Glenn A. Black Laboratory
of Archaeology, Indiana University undertook archaeological excavations at the
Cox's Woods site (12 Or 1). The spring 1993 test excavations were funded in part
by a Department of the Interior grant administered by the Division of Historic
Preservation and Archaeology, Indiana Department of Natural Resources. More extensive
excavations were carried out in the summer of 1993 in conjunction with the Indiana
University Field School in Archaeology and were supported in part by a Challenge
Cost-Share agreement with the Hoosier National Forest-U.S.D.A. Forest Service.
Twenty-two students from Indiana University, Bloomington took part in this excavation
which was directed by the author. Additional support was provided by the Glenn
A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology and the Department of Anthropology, Indiana
University.
The Cox's Woods site is located along the south bank of Lick Creek, about one
mile southeast of the town of Paoli, in Orange County, Indiana. The area formerly
known as "Cox's Woods" is now incorporated within the Pioneer Mothers Memorial
Forest and Recreation Area of the Hoosier National Forest. The site is the former
location of a late prehistoric, Oliver phase (Dorwin 1971, McCullough 1991, Redmond
1991) Indian village which has been dated to the fourteenth century A.D. In addition
to the archaeological remains preserved below ground, the Cox's Woods site includes
the remnants of two concentric earthen embankments which are preserved in the
uncultivated portion of the site (Goodspeed 1884).
The primary goal of the investigations at Cox's Woods was to assess the remaining
archaeological deposits and to evaluate past impacts from illegal digging or other
human disturbances. An important focus of this research was the delineation of
the village limits and the recovery of culturally diagnostic artifacts from buried
deposits and from the earthen embankments in order to document the nature and
cultural significance of the prehistoric occupations of the site.
The delineation of the village area was initiated during the spring of 1993 and
involved the excavation of forty, 50.0 cm by 50.0 cm test units. These small units
were positioned to the west of the preserved earthen walls in an attempt to identify
the southern, western, and northern limits of the settlement. All excavated soils
were passed through one-quarter inch mesh screen, and the materials that were
recovered were sorted into four artifact classes: chert, limestone, fire-cracked
rock, and pottery. These artifacts were counted and recorded in the field, and
the tabulations were then used to construct spatial distribution maps of cultural
material across the site. The distribution maps revealed a crescent-shaped band
which represented an area of subsurface artifact concentrations (Figure12).
This anomaly was interpreted as the remains of the western and southern sides
of the original embankments which have been plowed away.
In addition to the use of test units, the spring 1993 project opened a 1.0 meter
by 9.0 meter test trench (designated as "Trench 1") across one relatively undisturbed
(although slightly eroded) section of the earthen walls. Trench 1 revealed two
lines of stockade post molds within the inner embankment wall as well as an abundance
of Oliver phase pottery sherds, chert debris, and large fragments of limestone
rock. In contrast, almost no cultural material was found in the outer embankment;
however, chert debris and pottery were recovered from a shallow depression located
between the earthworks. A charcoal sample taken from the cultural deposits of
the inner embankment produced a radiocarbon determination of 650 +/-110 BP (AD
1300, uncorrected). A second radiocarbon date of 570 +/-70 BP (AD 1380, uncorrected)
resulted from a sample taken from one of the small test units within the village
interior.
During the summer excavations, four extensions of Trench 1 were completed, and
18 units of varying dimensions were excavated to the west and southwest of Trench
1. These last units were placed over locations at which high densities of subsurface
artifacts were revealed by the 50 cm by 50 cm test units. The overall excavation
plan is illustrated in Figure 13 (units
are designated "A" through "T").
As part of the archaeological investigations, Stephen Ball of the Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology carried out a magnetic survey over 1,500 square meters
of the Cox's Woods site using a Fluxgate Gradiometer. It was anticipated that
the application of magnetic survey techniques to the Cox's Woods site would identify
areas of buried cultural deposits and possibly detect portions of the, now invisible,
stockade line on the western fringe of the settlement (cf. Ball 1993a, 1993b).
Some excavation units were deliberately situated to test high-intensity anomalies
that were detected during the magnetic survey.
A total of fifteen cultural features were identified during the summer field school
excavation of the Cox's Woods site. Two of these features (Features 1, Unit B,G
and Feature 2, Unit A) took the form of wide, linear stains which contained multiple
lines of post molds. These features are believed to represent the remains of the
defensive stockade (and plowed-away earthen walls) located on the southern and
western edges of the village (Figures 14
and 15). Feature 2 was found to be the
source of a high intensity, magnetic anomaly which was located on the western
perimeter of the site. The fill of both Features 1 and 2 contained an abundance
of cultural material (i.e. refuse) from the village occupation. Pottery and chert
debitage were predominant, but preserved animal bone, shell, charred nutshell
and maize kernels were identified as well. A fairly well-preserved deer bone beamer
(hide-working tool) was recovered from Feature 2.
A complex series of midden lenses and post mold lines were identified in Units
E, K, and D (Figure 16). The most distinctive
cultural horizon was a two meter wide depression which contained abundant artifactual
remains in a sealed context. This feature has been interpreted as a midden-filled
ditch that was located between the two earthen walls of the village defenses.
It appears that, over time, this swale was filled with refuse from the village
as well as soil that had eroded from the embankments themselves. As such, this
feature corresponded with the swale that was identified in Trench 1 on the eastern
edge of the settlement (see above).
Feature 3 was a deeply buried (ca. 70 cm below surface) linear stain that transected
Unit C and N (east-west alignment). This trench contained large quantities of
fire-cracked rock (sandstone and limestone), Oliver phase pottery, and chert debitage
as well as significant amounts of animal bone, charred plant remains (including
maize) and a little mollusk shell. Feature 3 provided the first evidence to suggest
that the village fortifications were not open to the creek (as indicated by the
historic descriptions of "U-shaped" walls (Goodspeed 1884:374-375)), but instead
were "closed" by at least one stockade trench (Feature 3) which paralleled Lick
Creek.
Features 13 and 14 were uncovered in the western extension of Trench 1, known
as Unit P (Figure 17). These features
consisted of interconnected segments of a structural trench which contained intermittently
occurring post molds, two of which were lined with limestone fragments. The unusual
alignment of this linear feature (west-northwest) suggested that it was something
other than one of a series of defensive stockade lines located beneath the earthen
embankments and may, instead, represent part of a habitation structure which was
situated just "inside" the stockade defenses.
Over 60,000 pieces of material culture were retrieved from the 1993 excavations
at the Cox's Woods site. The vast majority of these artifacts originated with
the Oliver phase occupation of the site. The most common classes of artifact were
fired clay ceramics (including many decorated sherds), chert debitage (made almost
exclusively from locally available lithic raw materials), limestone fragments,
and sandstone fire cracked rock. Most of the diagnostic projectile points were
of the late prehistoric, triangular form (Madison point type); however, points
dating from the Early Archaic through Late Woodland time periods (ca. 8000 B.C.
to A.D. 900) were also recovered.
The sample of faunal remains consisted primarily of small, unidentifiable bone
fragments and, generally, the degree of preservation of most organic remains was
disappointingly poor. As expected, deer were well represented as were a range
of small mammals; however, a detailed faunal analysis has not yet been carried
out. Several fragments of what may be American bison (Bison bison) were found
as well. The recovery of charred plant remains from flotation samples was good,
and maize is known to have been among the foods consumed by the village inhabitants;
also collected were the remains of hickory nuts, black walnuts, and acorns. Future
analyses of the sizable samples of botanical remains will shed much needed light
on the relative amounts and kinds of foods gathered and cultivated.
In summary, the 1993 excavations revealed the remains of a 1.1 hectares (2.72
acres) village site which dated to the fourteenth century A.D. The settlement
was circular to ovoid in plan and fortified by a surprisingly complex system of
wooden post stockade lines, earthen embankments, and intervening ditches. The
stockade enclosed an area of about 7000 sq. meters (1.72 acres) and included an
open (feature-less) central plaza or community area. The form of dwellings and
the intensity of village habitation is as yet unknown; however, it appears that
the heaviest occupation occurred within a ca. 20.0 to 40.0 meter wide ring which
was situated between the encircling fortifications and the central plaza. It was
within this "habitation zone" that most of the preserved post molds and pit features
have been identified.
The recovery of dense concentrations of cultural material within the stockade
trenches and to the inside of the inner embankment walls suggested that refuse
was disposed of, in systematic fashion, at the outer fringe of the living areas.
The earthen embankments did indeed encircle the village on at least three sides
(as described in the historic accounts); however, the northern (creek side) perimeter
of the village was also defended by at least one stockade wall which was set in
a trench. Because, much remains to be learned about the spatial patterning within
the habitation area and the domestic activities which were carried out by village
inhabitants, additional investigations have been recommended.
References Cited
Ball, Stephen J.
1993a The Practical Application of Magnetic Surveys to
Excavation Strategy: An Example from the Clampitt Site.
In Current Research in Indiana Archaeology and Prehistory:
1991 & 1992, edited by B.G. Redmond, pp. 8-9. Indiana -
University, Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology,
Research Reports 14, Bloomington, Indiana.
1993b Effectiveness of Geophysical Techniques in Detecting
Certain Classes of Archaeological Material. In Current
Research in Indiana Archaeology and Prehistory: 1991 & 1992,
edited by B.G. Redmond, pp. 63-66. Indiana University,
Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Research Reports 14,
Bloomington, Indiana.
Dorwin, John T.
1971 The Bowen Site an Archaeological Study of Culture Process
in the Late Prehistory of Central Indiana. Indiana
Historical Society, Prehistory Research Series 4(4).
Goodspeed, Weston A.
1884 History of Lawrence, Orange, and Washington, Counties.
Goodspeed Brothers and Co., Chicago.
McCullough, Robert G.
1991 A Reanalysis of Ceramics from the Bowen Site Implications
for Defining the Oliver Phase of Central Indiana.
Unpublished Master's thesis, Department of Anthropology,
Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana.
Redmond, Brian G.
1991 An Archaeological Investigation of Late Woodland Period
Settlement in the East Fork White River Valley: Martin,
Lawrence, and Jackson Counties, Indiana. Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology, Report of Investigations 91-15,
Bloomington, Indiana.
Redmond, Brian G. and Robert G. McCullough
1993 Survey and Test Excavation of Late Prehistoric, Oliver
Phase Components in Martin, Lawrence, and Orange Counties,
Indiana. Indiana University, Glenn A. Black Laboratory of
Archaeology, Indiana University, Reports of Investigations
93-13.
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