The Cox's Woods site is a late prehistoric (Upper Mississippian) Indian village site that 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. The presence of suspected "Indian mounds" has brought the site considerable notoriety over the years and, unfortunately, has resulted in illicit digging as well. The cultural group that inhabited the Cox's Woods site has been identified as the Oliver Phase of central and southern Indiana. The label "Oliver Phase" is the archaeological designation for a prehistoric farming culture that inhabited the West Fork and the East Fork White River valleys of Indiana between A.D. 1000 and 1500 (Dorwin 1971; McCullough 1991; Redmond 1991).
This cultural manifestation was initially defined as a ceramic complex that was centered in the valley of the West Fork of the White River in Hamilton and Marion counties Indiana (Griffin 1966; Helman 1950; Dorwin 1971). Oliver pottery consists of globular-shaped, grit-tempered jars that exhibit a mixture of Great Lakes Late Woodland and Fort Ancient stylistic attributes. Salvage excavations at the Bowen site in Marion County produced a large sample of Oliver vessels which was used to define the material cultural aspects of the phase (Dorwin 1971; McCullough 1991, 1992). The Bowen site excavation also produced evidence of a subsistence system that combined the hunting and gathering of wild animal and plant foods with maize horticulture. Non-systematic, areal surveys of the upper West Fork White River valley (Householder 1941; 1945) identified numerous Oliver Phase village sites and, based on the model of the Bowen site, these settlements were assumed to be circular to oval in shape and about one to two acres in size.
From 1990 to 1991 an archaeological survey of the East Fork White River Valley in Martin, Lawrence, and Jackson counties was carried out by the senior author for the purpose of examining the "Late Woodland" (i.e., Oliver Phase) occupation in south-central Indiana (Redmond 1991). The results of this project determined that the Oliver settlement system in the East Fork White River Valley was composed of nucleated villages, small habitation sites, and seasonal extractive camps. The analysis of site distributions and environmental data indicated that Oliver Phase villages were intentionally located on alluvial floodplain ridges and elevated terraces consisting of well-drained sandy loam soils. These settlements were situated within one kilometer of tributary streams and served as central places for most domestic and food production activities (Redmond 1991). In terms of both material culture and patterns of settlement-subsistence behavior, the Oliver Phase most closely resembled contemporary Fort Ancient Tradition cultures in the middle Ohio Valley (see Griffin 1966; Essenpreis 1978, 1982; Graybill 1981).
The 1990 survey was followed by a more intensive investigation of Oliver Phase culture in the central East Fork White River Valley in Martin, Lawrence, and Orange counties (Redmond and McCullough 1993). This project involved controlled surface collections and test excavations of several Oliver Phase components located in a variety of topographic and environmental situations for the purpose of examining both continuity and change in late prehistoric culture within the study area. Although little insight into the cultural dynamics of Oliver Phase lifeways was gained from this work, a significant amount of information dealing with structural and functional variations in the types of settlement that were inhabited during the Phase was acquired. Furthermore, the Cox's Woods site, which was first excavated as a part of this project, provided the best evidence for the existence of formal village life at a location outside the main river valley (Redmond and McCullough 1993:106).
A detailed discussion of the preliminary investigations at the Cox's Woods site in the spring of 1993 is contained in a report of survey and testing by Redmond and McCullough (1993). The results of this work will be summarized below to provide an adequate foundation for the treatment of the most recent work. The success of these initial investigations greatly influenced the decision to return to the site in the summer of 1993.
The first full season of extensive excavations at the Cox's Woods site took
place from May 19 to June 17, 1993 in conjunction with the Indiana University
Field School in Archaeology. "Part I" is a comprehensive account of
that work and includes the results of laboratory processing, artifact analysis,
and interpretation. A second season of excavation took place from May 13 to
June 16, 1994 and the results of that project are included under "Part
II" of this report. In the concluding section of the report, an assessment
of the eligibility of the site for nomination to the National Register of Historic
Places is presented along with recommendations for its preservation and future
interpretation. All cultural materials recovered from the 1993 and 1994 field
school excavations have been catalogued and are presently curated at the Glenn
A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology under accession numbers 8687 and 8964. Part
III describes the material remains recovered from both the 1993 and 1994 summer
excavations.