The Oberting Site (12D25): An Ohio Hopewell enclosure in Indiana
Abstract
This dissertation explores the differences among Ohio Hopewell societies in two regions of Ohio. A differentiation is made among corporately oriented societies in the southwestern portion of the state and south-central groups who pursued more exclusionary strategies. In this context, results from the first professional investigations at a Middle Woodland hilltop enclosure in Dearborn County, Indiana, are interpreted and compared to data from other Ohio Hopewell sites. Ceramic and radiocarbon data from the site are combined with data from other sites in Ohio to test Olaf Prufer’s observation that ceramic surface treatment varies through time. The results suggest that the proportion of cordmarked ceramics increased linearly over time in the Scioto River area, but less regularly in southwestern Ohio. Significant differences in lithic raw material acquisition are also found between southwestern and south-central Ohio, and significant temporal trends are identified in both areas. The results are interpreted as suggesting that: (i) a corporate political system was in place in southwestern Ohio from the early in the Middle Woodland period, (ii) that a corporate orientation was maintained even as significant changes took place in the regional system, and (iii) that developments in southwestern Ohio such as the adoption of Hopewell symbolism, the adoption of compound geometric ceremonial architecture, and the initiation of long-distance interaction were undertaken in such a way as to maintain a corporate ideology. These conclusions provide new understandings of variation among Ohio Hopewell societies and of the evolution of the Ohio Hopewell regional system.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Blanton, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Archaeology
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