An Introduction to the Prehistory of Indiana

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There is in Posey County in extreme southwest Indiana one of the largest Middle Woodland settlements to be found in eastern North America (Keller 1979). This village/ceremonial complex extends for more than a mile along a high terrace bordering the floodplain of the Ohio River. Though a century and a half of cultivation has altered the surface configuration of the site, several burial mounds are still visible, and aerial reconnaissance has revealed other earthworks features. Sixteen such features have been identified. The largest of these, a partial rectangular enclosure defined by a low earth wall, is about 2,000 feet in length; a similarly constructed square enclosure is symmetrically placed to the north of the above and measures about 1,000 feet on each of its

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sides. Other enclosures are present, including a small C-shaped one. The largest of the ten mounds is nearly 300 feet in length and over 12 feet in height.

Excavation in several of the mounds in the late 1800s produced several burials and artifacts, though the sketchy notes do not provide detailed information. Copper, marine shells, beads, and bracelets were apparently recovered. Excavation records by another investigator report a log tomb in one of the mounds and burial associations in the form of split and drilled bear canines, copper ear spools, freshwater pearl beads, a marine shell container, cut mica, a boatstone, and stone spools, all of which may be duplicated in other mounds of the Middle Woodland period.

The village site is of particular interest, not only because of its unusually large size, but also due to the extremely rich material culture present there. Excavation by the Indiana Historical Society and Indiana University has as yet produced no evidence for housing, but the raw material/artifact compIement is impressive. In addition to the use of locally available flint, bone and shell, Ohio flint, marine shells, jasper, mica, and obsidian from more distant places are encountered. There is a well-developed flint industry, including the manufacture of great numbers of thin flake knives or bladelets from prepared cores. Pottery is typically cord marked or plain, but a great variety of stamped and incised wares occur, and some painted pottery is present. Particularly striking is the occurrence of a distinctive decorated pottery made by pressing a carved paddle on the surface to produce aesthetically pleasing curvilinear and rectilinear designs. Such pottery is common in the southeast but extremely rare in our area.

While the subsistence remains from the site indicate the major reliance was upon naturally occurring plants and animals, cultivated squash is also present.

A series of radiocarbon dates from this extremely interesting and important site suggest an occupation at about A.D. 300.

In the Kankakee River Valley in northwestern Indiana eastward to at least Kosciusko County, there are numbers of habitation sites and there were at one time many burial mounds (Quimby 1941). These have an affinity with the Havana Tradition, whose primary center was in the Illinois River Valley. The camps and villages tended to be small in size and were not intensively occupied. These in all probability were seasonally occupied, which reflected the cyclical availability of food resources in the northern lake and moraine region.

The mounds, most of which have been destroyed by cultivation and indiscriminate digging, often occurred in groups. The early records suggest that burials placed in subfloor pits beneath the mounds were a common feature. Artifacts in association with the human interments included the definitive Middle Woodland zoned-stamped pottery vessels, cut animal mandibles, broad cornernotched projectile points (Snyders), plain and effigy platform pipes, marine shell containers, a great variety of ground stone artifacts (cells, gorgets, and spheres), shell and copper beads, mica, drilled animal canines, and additional artifacts made from copper and other raw materials.

There are in east-central Indiana a number of unusual sites. Recent work in these contexts by Ball State University archaeologists have succeeded in clarifying their sign)ficance (Swartz 1976). The two best preserved of these are located on state property in Mounds State Park and the former New Castle State Hospital grounds.

The Mounds State Park complex (Keller 1969) at one time was comprised of more than a dozen earthworks, but road construction, a housing development, and an early recreational facility destroyed some of these and obscured others. The largest of the surviving earth structures is circular in plan and about 360 feet in diameter. It was formed by first excavating a trench to a depth of 9 feet' and the removed earth was then cast to the outside of the arc. This circular[see "The Great Mound," Mounds State Park]

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embankment was approximately 6 feet in height. The central enclosed platform measured 140 feet in diameter. A narrow "causeway" to the southwest permitted access to the central platform through a ground-level opening. A small burial mound was constructed near the center of this feature.

The same construction pattern is exhibited by one large rectangular and two other circular enclosures.

Excavation of the mound in the largest circular enclosure indicated it had been constructed in two phases. The first was composed of three superimposed heavily burned clay floors raised in platform fashion on the original ground surface. A thick mantle of earth subsequently covered these burned areas. The major feature associated with this second building phase was a log tomb in which there were a disarticulated human burial and a cremation. Also two flexed burials were encountered at different points in the upper portion of this earth mantle. Artifacts recovered from burial association included drilled effigy bear canines carved from bone, mica, a plain platform pipe, and sherds of a plain and distinctively incised pottery.

Two radiocarbon dates from the site, though they are not entirely consistent, are 60 B.C. and A.D. 230.

The New Castle State Hospital site (Swartz 1976) is located about 20 miles southeast of Mounds State Park, and the two are similar in many respects. Of the dozen mounds making up this group, at least six, possibly eight, were circular enclosures with ditches and external embankments.

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meets. The largest of these mounds was comparable in size to the "great circle" at Mounds State Park and may have had a central mound on the enclosed platform as well. Unfortunately, this tumulus and four others were destroyed by hospital and road construction.

One of the more prominent prehistoric features at the site was a large mound about 215 feet in length and with a maximum width of 100 feet. A shallow trench, somewhat constricted near the center, circumscribed this large structure. This last and the two mound peaks provided good evidence that two major mound masses were represented which had been joined at their margins to form a single structure. Excavation succeeded in locating a number of burials which were interred in a variety of ways: extended, secondary, and cremation. Among the associated artifacts were a broken platform pipe, copper effigy bear canines, cut Iynx jaws, a marine shell container. mica, and a pottery vessel.

Both Mounds State Park and the New Castle Hospital sites have produced a pottery complex defined by tastefully incised fine line designs in the form of chevrons and nested diamonds. A notable exception was the single mortuary vessel at New Castle which had rocker stamped elements arranged in zoned areas. This is a typical Middle Woodland motif and its nearest counterpart is in the Kankakee Valley. However, the distinctiveness of the other ceramics and the earthwork features distinguishes the complex from other Middle Woodland manifestations in Indiana. It has been referred to as the New Castle Phase (Swartz 1976:61). However, it is obvious that there is some sharing of burial ceremonialism with other manifestations in adjacent states.

The New Castle Hospital site has been dated to A.D. 40 by radiocarbon.

Middle Woodland in southeastern Indiana is poorly known, but the Oberding Site (12D25), Dearborn County, undoubtedly dates to that interval (Black 1934: 196-99). Comparable in some ways to Fort Ancient and Miami Fort nearby in Ohio, it is located on a high bluff overlooking a major river valley and has a walled structure constructed of earth and limestone slabs. A number of seeming burial mounds are associated with it along with abundant habitation debris.

In many ways the Indiana microcosm is typical for Middle Woodland throughout the eastern United States in that there are a number of locally identifiable cultures that share a limited number of distinctive characteristics, particularly those that are associated with interment practices. Undoubtedly temporal differences play a part in accounting for this variation, but local resource availability and ties with nearby groups are also factors.

The definition of Late Woodland is partially based on negative characteristics. That is, the special features of culture that accentuate Middle Woodland and give it its distinctive quality are either markedly attenuated or disappear in their entirety. The large earthwork complexes were no longer constructed. Burial mounds, though they continue to be built in some areas, are much less elaborate and often appear to serve as general cemeteries. The exotic raw materials imported from distant places are absent indicating that the trade relationships are terminated, and the craft specialization implied by the artifacts made from these materials also diminishes. The Latc Woodland material culture in specific instances is utilitarian in nature in large measure. At the same time, plant cultivation begins to make a more sign)ficant contribution to subsistence.

Archaeologists, puzzled by this profound change in Woodland culture at about A.D. 400, have offered a number of explanations to account for it. Though most of these are unsatisfactory because they are incapable of being directly tested in the archaeological context, a brief summary of some of the proposals is of interest.

One recurrent idea is that the technological/subsistence base was ultimately insufficiently [see Stone Mound Secondary Burials, Dearborn County]

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productive to support the native institutions responsible for maintaining the trade and social sratification inferred from the burial situations. Another related proposal suggests that the system itself became so complex that further elaboration was impossible. A third hypothesis is that Middle Woodland populations were displaced by intruders into the area; the hilltop forts, such as the Oberding Site, are cited as evidence for the struggle that must have ensued. This proposal is obviously allied with the earlier explanation of the "mound builder" demise, but this assumes that American Indians are both the intruder and the ones displaced. The evidence for this is unimpressive, particularly when it is recognized that these so-called "forts" were not well-suited to serve as defensive structures. Another suggestion is that adverse climatic conditions affected agricultural productivity resulting in the society's inability to maintain itself. A contrasting view, given that agriculture seems to have an increased importance during Late Woodland, is that cultivation and its productivity ultimately eliminated the control of food resources which was at the base of the Middle Woodland social status system. Whatever the causes may have been, and there is no question that profound cultural changes did occur, archaeologists have yet to explain them.

In southeastern Indiana, the many small mounds largely composed of limestone slabs and located on the crests of bluffs overlooking the Whitewater River and lesser streams are probably Late Woodland in affiliation (Black 1934:171-260; Kellar 1960). These tumult commonly contain well-defined central cists outlined with stone in which there may be a number of disarticulated

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human skeletons. Though the contexts are reminiscent of the more complex Middle Woodland inhumation pattern, the associated artifacts are few in number and not very distinctive in form. These mounds appear to be associated with the Newtown Phase (Reidhead and Limp 1974). The settlements associated with this Late Woodland phase arc agriculturally based, and the small villages are intensively occupied. In addition to a rich material complex, the ceramics are extremely well made, cord marked, and have distinctive sharp angular shoulders.

Allison-LaMotte (Winters 1963) is a cultural expression encountered in the middle Wabash Valley that may be Late Woodland, also. Indiana State University, Terre Haute, has spent several seasons investigating the Daughtery-Monroe Site in Sullivan County, an Allison-LaMotte village (Clouse et al. 1971). A number of radiocarbon dates have been obtained and an average occupation date of about A.D. 400 has been determined. While this date may be a bit early for Late Woodland, the material complement and the increasing importance of plant cultivation suggest such a placement. The larger settlements often have a number of oval-shaped dwellings which are sometimes arrayed in a circular pattern around an open plaza. The typical Lowe Flared Base projectile point is well made, thin, and has a flared stem. The dominant ceramic decorations are southeastern in origin and are simple stamped and check stamped. The former is defined by the presence of broad, flat, closely spaced grooves applied using a wooden paddle wrapped with thong-like material. The latter are reminiscent of designs made by the common waffle iron: a series of precisely placed square depressions.

Yet another Late Woodland culture in the Wabash Valley is the Albee Complex (MacLean 1931). Named for the Albee Mound in Sullivan County, the excavation of which was one of the first excavations in Indiana during the modern era of archaeological research, the site was actually a high sandy natural knoll utilized as a prehistoric cemetery. Artifacts recovered include bone harpoons, shell beads, bone awls, antler flaking tools, rectangular slate gorgets, and a variety of flint tools. The typical pottery is grit tempered and cord marked and has a distinctive wedgeshaped or cambered rim. Fabric impressed pottery is associated with Albee, also. The ceramic complex is found on numbers of village sites in the region.

Late Woodland is not well defined in other portions of the state. However, the widespread occurrence of pottery vessels with heavy corded design elements and well-defined collared rims in the northern sectors suggests the presence of these populations.

Summarizing, the Woodland Tradition is a development out of the Archaic Tradition which is defined by the first appearance of pottery. However, there also is some change in the subsistenc~ practices at this time. While its most visible trend relates to the development of a specialized ceremonialism involving but not confined to funerary ritual, there are occurrences of a more fundamental kind in technology and in the nature of society. Among the former, in addition to pottery, the bow and arrow is introduced, and plant cultivation gradually increases in importance. These in varying degrees contributed to the possibility of an increased population size and, in some areas, larger local concentrations. Though the specifics of societal organization are not readily perceived through archaeology alone, the large mounds and earthwork complexes, trade, and craft specialization are all indicative of an ability to organize co-operative activities on a significant scale. This and the motivations for the long-term use and accretion of the ceremonial complexes certainly must reside in a form of institutional control that transcends the small kin group. Woodland reached its apogee in cultural complexity in the first centuries following the beginning of the Christian Era and then declined. The factors contributing to the ultimate breakdown of the system cannot be identified at present.