As described earlier, the combination of excessive drainage and low pH, the loamy sand matrix at the Clampitt site produced a poor environment for the preservation of organic materials and, consequently the samples of intact bone and shell from the village occupation was quite small. Most of the faunal remains were recovered from pit features and consisted primarily of small, unidentifiable fragments. One complete deer bone beamer (see Plate 10 ), the ground tip of a bone awl, and one tiny bone bead were the only bone artifacts recovered.
Despite the paucity of the faunal remains, Robert McCullough (Southern Illinois University at Carbondale) was able to identify the presence of the following animal species:
COMMON NAME (taxonomic name)
White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) Eastern Fox Squirrel (Sciurus griseus) Grey Fox (Urocyon cinereoargentew) Woodchuck (Marmota morux) Beaver (Castor canadensis) Muskrat (Ondatra zibethicus) Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) Duck (Anas spp.) Freshwater Drum (Apoldinotus grunniens) Redhorse (Moxostoma aureolum) Turtle (unidentified)
Charred seed and nut remains were recovered from flotation samples taken from feature fill. The identification of these samples is currently underway and as of this writing, only the light fraction material from the 1991 excavation season has been examined. Nevertheless, Leslie Bush (Glenn A. Black Laboratory of archaeology) has identified a wide range of wild and domesticated species of plants that were utilized by the inhabitants of the village (Bush 1993). The results of her analysis are presented in Appendix G. A histogram showing the frequency distribution of plant remains in the analyzed sample is presented as Figure 37.
To summarize her results, the tropical cultigen maize (Zea mays) dominated the seed remains and occurred in over seventy percent of the pit features excavated in 1991. Beans were found in reduced numbers but were relatively widespread (Bush 1993). In contrasts potential native cultigens like goosefoot and maygrass were recovered in very low numbers. Charred wood and nut remains were relatively common among the floral materials but have yet to be completely identified as to species and counted.
The content and relative frequencies of floral remains from the Clampitt site compared favorably with other late prehistoric assemblages in the region. The dominance of tropical cultigens like maize and beans at the expense of native seed crops has been reported for Fort Ancient occupations in Kentucky and Ohio (Rossen and Edging 1987, Wagner 1987). In fact, a comparison of the Clampitt site plant remains with those of the Anderson Phase Incinerator site showed a strong correlation in the types and numbers of seed plants utilized (Bush 1993).
The Clampitt site floral assemblage was dominated by species which matured from late spring to late fall (Bush 1993). The cultivation of maize and beans would undoubtedly have required the presence of village inhabitants by the early spring to prepare the fields for planting. The relative scarcity of wild plant remains (excluding nuts and charcoal) may indicate either the exploitation (and consumption) of these species away from the village or else an alternative preference for the tropical cultigens.
TEMPORAL PLACEMENT
As discussed above, the stylistic attributes of pottery remains and triangular projectile points indicated that the village occupation of the Clampitt site was contemporary with Middle Fort Ancient settlement in the Ohio Valley (ca. A.D. 1200 to 1400). In order to arrive at a more precise temporal placement, five carbon samples were submitted to Beta Analytic Inc. for radiocarbon assay.
Wood charcoal samples were selected from four pit features and one segment of the inner stockade trench in Trench 14. Each of these features contained diagnostic rim sherds and other cultural debris which included lithic debitage, animal bone, and fire-cracked rock. The resulting radiocarbon determinations are listed in Figure 38. All dates were calibrated according to the method of Stuiva and Pearson (1986) and revealed a combined date (i.e. intercept) range of AD. 1282 to 1415. With the addition of all sample standard errors, this range was only slightly expanded to A.D. 1276 to 1433. These data point to a fourteenth century occupation of the Clampitt site which closely matched the temporal placement suggested by the artifactual remains.
Figure 39 shows the Clampitt site radiocarbon dates in comparison with those reported for other Oliver phase components in Indiana. The Clampitt site village occupation falls at the most recent end of this sequence. No Oliver phase components have produced dates later than A.D. 1433.
