Circular Paired Post Structures

Figure 4: The Essential Paired Post Circular Structure

Definition of the paired post circular structure was Webb's unique contribution to Ohio Valley archaeology. He identified and gave meaning to an archaeological pattern which had been encountered but not recognized by earlier field workers. Circular paired post structures were first encountered by him (Webb 1940) below the Wright mounds,15Mm6 and 15Mm7, followed by examples from the Morgan Stone, 15Btl5, (Webb 1941a), Robbins, 15Bel4, (Webb and Elliot 1942), Riley, 15Bel5, and Landing, 15Bel7, (Webb 1943a), Crigler, l5Be20, (Webb 1943b), and the C and O Mounds, 15Jo2 and lSJo9, (Webb 1942).

However, despite his contribution, Webb never reconciled two quite different interpretations of these structures. With little by way of explanation, he concluded that there were two different categories of structures, identical in shape (circular) and construction (paired posts). These became his Adena traits #42, for large, unroofed non-domestic circular structures, over 97 feet in diameter, and #43, for much smaller roofed circles, domestic dwellings, under 60 feet in diameter (Webb and Snow 194S:52-53). The deciding factor seems to have been the question of the roof; Webb saw two possibilities: no for #42, yes for #43. To quote the essential text of his classification:

(42) Post-mold patterns drcular, diameter 97 feet or more.

The fact that Adena house patterns are circular is now well established by the finding of 23 such patterns on 9 sites in Kentucky. Records of earlier investigators give abundant evidence that such patterns have been previously found elsewhere, but they were not recognized as house patterns. These patterns occur in the hard clay subsoil in the old visages, under mounds, and are clearly discernible and unmistakable. The diameters are easily measured. The structures seem to fall into two classes: those circles having a diameter of 97 feet or more in diameter, a total of four, and those having a diameter of 60 feet or less, a total of nineteen. So far none has been found with diameters between these two dimensions. It is suspected that the significance of this division, if it continues to be verified by future excavations, will be found in the fact that the smaller size circles were houses, each of which had a single roof over it, and the larger circles indicate structures no one of which had a single roof over the entire structure because of its excessive diameter. Scattered post-molds in the interior of some of these large cirles suggest that rooms built against the inside of the circle may have had roofs. This would have led a central area without any roof. This area in the center of large circles of ten shows fire action on the structure floor.

(43) Post-mold patterns circular, diameter 60 feet or less.

The convenient size dwelling house for Adena seems to have been about 37 feet in diameter, although this dimension varies from 21 to 59.5 feet in houses on different sites. The median diameter is 37 feet and the average is 37 feet. Sixty feet seems to have been about the limit in size which would permit the construction of a roof over all, if indeed they were so large. No roof has ever been found, but its existence is predicated on the discovery of interior post-molds arranged in a regular pattern which might indicate roof supports (Webb and Snow 1945:52-53).

 

Webb's Morgan Stone house reconstruction can be questioned on a number of counts; there are other interpretations. First of all, there is evidence for a construction preceding the post circle, perhaps a scaffold; it is situated inside the post circle, and Webb considered it simply as the "center supports" for the roof by selectively ignoring one third of it. Remove these four center posts as roof supports by adding them to two more as supports for a scaffold and, in more ways than one, Webb's domestic house collapses.

Faced by the argument for the possible absence of a roof, one is left with a roofless screened enclosure within which a series of activities occurred. These may have involved sequential structures. The most notable event was the burial of an adult female in the center of the circle. Her remains were later covered with a small mound after which the post circle was burned down leading to her partial cremation. When this first small mound was constructed, it obviated further use of the activity area; thereafter it only could be used as a burial mound. Because of this important and necessary shift in human behavior which it produced, this initial burial was highly significant.

To this structural critique of Webb's Adena house, one must add the fact that neither the Morgan Stone post structure, nor any circular paired post pattern, has evidence for a central hearth or--with exceptions--sub- surface storage or cooking pits. Consequently the case for a non-domestic interpretation of the circles increases. Such interior features are expected in a domestic context, given what we know of Ohio Valley prehistory. Finally, no post circle was repaired or rebuilt in the manner of houses of later archaeological periods.

The possibility that all post circles were specialized open-air meeting centers, entered into Webb's (1943a) interpretation of the paired post structure below the Crigler mound. By this circle's size, even Webb (1943a: 526-527), the Army-trained engineer, admitted that it could not have been reasonably roofed, although he proposed that it may have been partially roofed. In addition, its interior features, including a raised clay platform opposite an entry and possible bench supports along the walls, led Webb to conclude that the structure was a meeting place similar in concept to an Anasazi kiva, albeit unroofed. Furthermore, the lack of "midden" in the mound led him to interpret it as isolated and apart from the village.

I will come back to this interpretation and emphasize it as Webb did not. For the moment I must note that Webb's writings continued his confusion between houses and meeting places. Following careful review of the evidence, Seeman (1986) has perhaps most plausibly characterized all paired post structures as "mortuary camps." The realization that all may have been unroofed is an addition of my own.