The Origins of Early Fort Ancient Villages in the Ohio Valley

Marcus Schulenburg, PhD Candidate, Anthropology, UW-Milwaukee
 

Abstract:
Agricultural villages first appeared in the Middle Ohio Valley between AD 1000 and 1200. This development transformed the local mobile low density population into the sedentary concentrated populations we know as Fort Ancient. Often viewed as a hinterland or peripheral region, Fort Ancient groups had connections to both American Bottom and Tennessee Valley Mississippians. Two early Fort Ancient sites in the greater Cincinnati area have been the subject of recent investigation aimed at understanding the development of Fort Ancient Villages: Guard (12D29) and Turpin (33HA19). These sites demonstrate some of the ways in which local traditions were combined with new, likely foreign, traditions to create the new lifeways and identities associated with village life.