State Line Archeological District | |
Location | On the Indiana/Ohio line, 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the Ohio River [1] : 113–114 |
---|---|
Nearest city | Elizabethtown, Ohio |
Coordinates | 39°8′15″N84°49′12″W / 39.13750°N 84.82000°W |
Area | 8 acres (3.2 ha) |
NRHP reference No. | 75001423 [2] |
Added to NRHP | July 24, 1975 |
The State Line Archeological District (also known as the State Line site [2] ) is a complex of archaeological sites and national historic district located west of Elizabethtown, Ohio, United States. Located on both sides of the Indiana/Ohio border, [1] the historic district is composed of five contributing properties spread out across 8 acres (3.2 ha) of land. [2] It is believed to have been the site of a village of the Fort Ancient culture of prehistoric Native Americans.
Radiocarbon dating has revealed that State Line was occupied at approximately the same time as the SunWatch site near Dayton, Ohio and the Turpin site at Newtown, Ohio, while post-excavation analysis has shown that the inhabitants of the three sites were all members of the same culture. [1] : 113–114 Occupation of these sites is believed to date from the Middle Fort Ancient period of the thirteenth century AD. [1] : 91
A leading part of the district is a village site, also known as the "Henry Bechtel Village"; it includes a wide midden and a cemetery. Plowing of the fields at the village site has frequently turned up a wide range of artifacts, including burial pits, hearths, and trash pits. [3] Ceramics found during excavation at the site have typically been tempered with shells. [4] This pottery shares many characteristics with that produced by Middle Mississippian cultures, such as distinctive styles of painting and the presence of pottery modelled after owls and the heads of humans. [5]
Because the midden is wide but quite shallow, it has been proposed that the village's population was significant but its period of occupation was short. [3]
Among the district's contributing properties are three small burial mounds, which appear to be the work of earlier mound building peoples. At one time, the site comprised five mounds, but only three remain within the district's boundaries. [3]
In 1975, State Line was listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its archaeological significance. [2]
The Great Serpent Mound is a 1,348-foot-long (411 m), three-foot-high prehistoric effigy mound located in Peebles, Ohio. It was built on what is known as the Serpent Mound crater plateau, running along the Ohio Brush Creek in Adams County, Ohio. The mound is the largest serpent effigy in the world.
Fort Ancient is a name for a Native American culture that flourished from c. 1000–1750 CE and predominantly inhabited land near the Ohio River valley in the areas of modern-day southern Ohio, northern Kentucky, southeastern Indiana and western West Virginia. Although a contemporary of the Mississippian culture, they are often considered a "sister culture" and distinguished from the Mississippian culture. While far from agreed upon, there is evidence to suggest that the Fort Ancient Culture were not the direct descendants of the Hopewellian Culture. It is suspected that the Fort Ancient Culture introduced maize agriculture to Ohio. The Fort Ancient Culture were most likely the builders of the Great Serpent Mound. Recent archeological study and carbon dating suggests that Alligator Mound in Granville also dates to the Fort Ancient era, rather than the assumed Hopewell era. It is believed that neither the Serpent or Alligator Mounds are burial locations, but rather served as ceremonial effigy sites.
Angel Mounds State Historic Site, an expression of the Mississippian culture, is an archaeological site managed by the Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites that includes more than 600 acres of land about 8 miles (13 km) southeast of present-day Evansville, in Vanderburgh and Warrick counties in Indiana. The large residential and agricultural community was constructed and inhabited from AD 1100 to AD 1450, and served as the political, cultural, and economic center of the Angel chiefdom. It extended within 120 miles (190 km) of the Ohio River valley to the Green River in present-day Kentucky. The town had as many as 1,000 inhabitants inside the walls at its peak, and included a complex of thirteen earthen mounds, hundreds of home sites, a palisade (stockade), and other structures.
Wickliffe Mounds is a prehistoric, Mississippian culture archaeological site located in Ballard County, Kentucky, just outside the town of Wickliffe, about 3 miles (4.8 km) from the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Archaeological investigations have linked the site with others along the Ohio River in Illinois and Kentucky as part of the Angel phase of Mississippian culture. Wickliffe Mounds is controlled by the State Parks Service, which operates a museum at the site for interpretation of the ancient community. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is also a Kentucky Archeological Landmark and State Historic Site.
SunWatch Indian Village / Archaeological Park, previously known as the Incinerator Site, and designated by the Smithsonian trinomial 33-MY-57, is a reconstructed Fort Ancient Native American village next to the Great Miami River. The dwellings and site plan of the 3-acre (1.2 ha) site are based on lengthy archeological excavations sponsored by the Dayton Society of Natural History, which owns and operates the site as an open-air museum. Because of its archaeological value, the site was listed in 1974 on the National Register of Historic Places. Since that time, as the many years of archaeological research at the site have led to important findings about the Fort Ancient culture, SunWatch Indian Village was designated in 1990 as a National Historic Landmark.
The Grand Village of the Illinois, also called Old Kaskaskia Village, is a site significant for being the best documented historic Native American village in the Illinois River valley. It was a large agricultural and trading village of Native Americans of the Illinois confederacy, located on the north bank of the Illinois River near the present town of Utica, Illinois. French explorers Louis Joliet and Father Jacques Marquette came across it in 1673. The Kaskaskia, a tribe of the Illiniwek people lived in the village. It grew rapidly after a French mission and fur trading post were established there in 1675, to a population of about 6,000 people in about 460 houses. Around 1691 the Kaskaskia and other Illiniwek moved further south, abandoning the site due to pressure from an Iroquois invasion from the northeast.
The Stoner Site is a substantial archaeological site in the far eastern portion of the U.S. state of Illinois. Discovered during the Great Depression, the site has produced large numbers of artifacts from a prehistoric village that was once located there, and archaeological investigations have shown it to be one of the area's most important archaeological sites for the Allison-Lamotte culture. After more than a decade of fruitful research and predictions of potentially rich results from future work, it has been designated a historic site.
The Clough Creek and Sand Ridge Archaeological District is a historic district composed of two archaeological sites in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. Its name is derived from those of the two sites included in the district: one that lies along Clough Creek, and one that occupies part of the Sand Ridge near the creek.
The Turpin site (33Ha19) is an archaeological site in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. Located near Newtown in Hamilton County, the site includes the remains of a village of the Fort Ancient culture and of multiple burial mounds. Numerous bodies have been found in and around the mounds as a result of thorough site investigations. The archaeological value of the site has resulted in its use in the study of similar locations and in its designation as a historic site.
The Kincaid Mounds Historic Site c. 1050–1400 CE, is a Mississippian culture archaeological site located at the southern tip of present-day U.S. state of Illinois, along the Ohio River. Kincaid Mounds has been notable for both its significant role in native North American prehistory and for the central role the site has played in the development of modern archaeological techniques. The site had at least 11 substructure platform mounds, and 8 other monuments.
The Upper Mississippian cultures were located in the Upper Mississippi basin and Great Lakes region of the American Midwest. They were in existence from approximately A.D. 1000 until the Protohistoric and early Historic periods.
The Buffalo Indian Village Site is an archaeological site located near Buffalo, Putnam County, West Virginia, along the Kanawha River in the United States. This site sits atop a high terrace on the eastern bank of the Kanawha River and was once home to a variety of Native American villages including the Archaic, Middle Woodland and Fort Ancient cultures of this region. Buffalo Village was the site of one of the first systematic archaeological projects performed in West Virginia and it was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.
The Cary Village Site is an archaeological site in the west-central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. Located southeast of the village of Plain City in Madison County, the site occupies a group of grassy terraces located amid two farm fields. In this grassy area, archaeologists have discovered a wide range of artifacts, including stone tools, materials made of flint, and various types of pottery.
The Plum Island Eagle Sanctuary is a 52-acre island in the Illinois River owned by the Illinois Audubon Society. It was purchased March 24, 2004 to act as a wildlife sanctuary, to protect foraging habitat for wintering bald eagles. It is close to Matthiessen State Park and adjacent to Starved Rock State Park.
The Moccasin Bluff site is an archaeological site located along the Red Bud Trail and the St. Joseph River north of Buchanan, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and has been classified as a multi-component prehistoric site with the major component dating to the Late Woodland/Upper Mississippian period.
The Oak Forest Site (11Ck-53) is located in Oak Forest, Cook County, Illinois, near the city of Chicago. It is classified as a late prehistoric to Protohistoric/Early Historic site with Upper Mississippian Huber affiliation.
The Hotel Plaza site (Ls-36) is located near Starved Rock, on the Illinois River across from the Zimmerman site (aka Grand Village of the Illinois. It is a multi-component site representing prehistoric, protohistoric and early historic periods, with the main occupation being an early Historic component associated with the French Fort St. Louis.
The Gentleman Farm site is located in LaSalle County, Illinois, on the Illinois River. It is a multi-component site with the main occupation being a Langford tradition component of Upper Mississippian affiliation.
The Fisher Mound Group is a group of burial mounds with an associated village site located on the DesPlaines River near its convergence with the Kankakee River where they combine to form the Illinois River, in Will County, Illinois, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago. It is a multi-component stratified site representing several Prehistoric Upper Mississippian occupations as well as minor Late Woodland and Early Historic components.
The Carcajou Point site is located in Jefferson County, Wisconsin, on Lake Koshkonong. It is a multi-component site with prehistoric Upper Mississippian Oneota and Historic components.