USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Madisonville > Indian Village Site and Cemetery Near Madisonville, Ohio > Part 3
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INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
point embedded in its dorsal aspect. Mr. Swanton and Mr. Merwin record similar finds.
Pipes of limestone or catlinite were often found with the skele- tons of males. Dr. Metz mentions 47 of these in his field notes, and it is probable that he found many more than that number. Mr. Swanton says that he found 18 complete pipes, and twice as many broken ones. Pipes were usually found clasped in the hand or laid by the neck.
On June 6, 1879, Dr. Metz discovered a burial with which were associated " two inscribed stones," one of which seems to have been incised with double-pointed arrow designs, and the other with checker-board pattern.
Bone objects commonly found with the burials were beads, cylinders, scrapers or gouges, and awls. Miscellaneous unworked animal bones frequently occurred with the human burials.
Aside from unio shells which were commonly found in the pots and loose in the graves, objects of shell were rare in the burials. There occurred, however, shell beads, disks, pendants, perforated box tortoise shells, and at least one ornamented shell spoon. (Metz, skeleton 222, 1879.) Other objects found with the skele- tons include points, cylinders, harpoons, arrow straighteners, combs, and arm-bands.
Ornaments of copper and pieces of hammered copper were found alike in graves and cache-pits, in the kitchen-middens, and among the surface relics. Dr. Metz records the finding of more than 50 flat pieces of copper, 40 copper rolls or beads, 5 strips of copper, also many beads, rings, and one copper cross. Mr. Swanton and Mr. Merwin also found many copper beads and hammered strips with the burials.
Objects of iron in the burials were exceedingly rare. On Decem- ber 17, 1880, Dr. Metz discovered the skeleton of an adult female (Block 12, 597), over the chest of which was placed " a piece of iron resembling a sword hilt" (plate 18, t). Mr. Swanton found a skeleton (I, 40), with which was associated an iron bead or cylinder (plate 18, s) embedded in the deerskin. These seem to be the only cases in which the association of iron with the burials was definite. Several pieces were found in the leaf mould and also in the cache-pits.
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NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
Mr. Swanton states that blue glass beads, apparently of Euro- pean origin, were found about the head of skeleton I, 39. A few small shell beads were found with the glass beads. Fragments of the same kind of glass beads were also found by Mr. Swanton in three of the cache-pits. These glass beads were not found by the other excavators, with the exception of Mr. B. W. Merwin, who found one in a cache-pit.
Lumps of cannel coal were found with comparative frequency in the burials. In some instances the pottery vessels contained red ocher. Dr. Metz records a burial (Block 7, 1) in which a handful of charred corn was found about the cranium. Bird crania used for pendants, and animal teeth pierced for suspension or for stringing, were also found in the graves.
Burials of Special Interest. Certain burials deserve special mention, either because of some anomalous feature, or because of the special interest of the associated objects. Some of these have already been mentioned, and others, which seemed of special im- portance to the investigators, will be described briefly here.
In Trench I of Mr. Swanton's excavations, skeleton 60 was as- sociated with some interesting finds:
These consisted of several copper plates one and a half by two inches square which had been clasped around deer hide still preserved with the hair on it by action of the copper. With these plates were found a number of shell beads made from the inner whorls of univalves, two or three copper beads, etc. A very small sea shell which had been rubbed down in some way and discolored by ocher, was identified as Marginella apicina, a variety of shell from the Gulf Coast and the Carolinas. All these articles were between the thigh bones of the skeleton.
Grave 18 of Mr. R. E. Merwin's Trench D.
This grave, primarily constructed for the burial of an adult skeleton, con- taims portions of at least three skeletons. The only bones not disarticulated were those below the pelvis of one of the skeletons and these were on the bot- ton of the grave. The right femur was slightly burned. Directly above and in contact with this portion of the skeleton was a mass of burnt and unburnt bornes of two other skeletons and the upper bones (burnt and unburnt) of the first skeleton. Many of these bones were broken. The mixed earth in con- tact with these bones and extending to the surface of the hard-pan was burnt, although the bottom of the grave shows but little action of fire. Of the bones in the lower end of the grave some were burnt, while others in contact with them were unburnt. In this grave were found two pieces of worked antler and thirteen pieces of copper.
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INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
Grave 32 of Mr. Merwin's Trench E.
Adult; that portion of the skeleton above the pelvis was in cache-pit 26 and the portion from the distal ends of the femora down was in cache-pit 25. Those portions in the pits had settled to a lower level than the remainder of the skeleton. Along the inside of the right ulna and radius, resting partially on the right pelvic bone, and at the left of the lower jaw, were the skulls of some species of long-billed birds. Between the pelvic bones were two bird bones; on the breast had evidently been placed a bone with a series of per- forations.
Total Number of Burials. The following is a summary of the total number of burials exhumed by the principal excavators and recorded in the field notes deposited in the Peabody Museum.
NUMBER OF BURIALS
C. L. Metz
1879
360
J. R. Swanton
1897
230
1880
239
R. E. Merwin
1907
85
1881
58
"
1908
176
F. W. Putnam
1882
6
B. W. Merwin
1911
82
Total 1236
To the above total should be added a number of burials sufficient to account for those washed out prior to the discovery of the ceme- tery, and for those discovered by Dr. Metz in sporadic excavations subsequent to August 13, 1881, at which date the field entries stop. We know that when Professor Putnam arrived in Madison- ville on May 2, 1882, Dr. Metz was excavating Block 22, whereas his field notes for the preceding year cease during, or at the end of, the excavations of Block 17. Blocks 2-17 inclusive averaged about 18 burials to the block. As the burials were fewer in the portion of the cemetery explored during the latter part of the ex- cavations, it is probable that an allowance of 12 burials to the block, for Blocks 18-22, would be sufficient. This would bring the total up to 1296 and allowing for burials destroyed or undis- covered it is probable that the total number of burials made in the cemetery was not less than 1350.
Death Rate as Indicated by Burials. In order to calculate the population of the village site to which the cemetery belonged we should know the total number of burials, the length of time during which the cemetery was used, and the average death rate per annum.
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NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
There exists very little reliable data concerning the death rate of modern primitive peoples. However, the following method of approximation seems legitimate in this instance. The propor- tions of different ages in the burials of the cemetery will be com- pared with the mortality statistics for different ages in various European countries. If we find the constituent age proportions agreeing closely with those of some European country of which the average annual death rate is known, it may reasonably be concluded that the annual death rates are also approximately the same.
Fortunately, Dr. Metz carefully recorded the approximate age in the case of more than five-sixths of the burials he found.
SEX AND AGE
Year
Adult Sex undeter.
Adult Male
Adult
Adol. Child.
Female Age 18-11 10-3
Infants
1879
-114
21
·10
8
75
3
1880
25
59
53
10
56
30
1881
10
15
12
1
10
9
149
95
75
19
141
42
Total 521
Per cent
28.6
18.2
14.4
3.7
27.1
8.1
100.00
In this connection the following table will be instructive.
AGE AT DEATH
Place
Year
Age 0-10
10-20
20+
Year
Aver. Annual Death Rate
Italy
1872-77
52.37
4.22
43.41
1865-78
2.99
France.
1866-77
32.28
4.25
63.47
1865-77
2.46
England
1860-70
44.23
4.56
51.21
1865-78
2.20
Prussia
1875-77
52.43
3.51
44.06
1865-78
2.72
Bavaria
1871-77
52.61
2.22
45.17
1865-78
3.09
Austria .
1865-77
52.38
4.05
43.57
1865-78
3.18
Spain
1865-70
51.86
4.37
43.77
1865-70
3.12
Russia
1870-74
62.33
4.13
33.54
1865-75
3.67
Switzerland. . .
1873-77
36.94
3.72
59.33
1870-78
2.38
Madisonville. .
35.2
3.7
61.1
In the above table it should be observed that the average an- nual death rate in the various European countries seems to be cor- related closely with the number of deaths per hundred under the age of ten years. Thus, France, with a low percentage of infant and child mortality, has a very low average annual death rate; and Russia, with a very high infant and child mortality, has the
22
INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
highest annual death rate. In this table the average annual death rate seems to vary more or less directly with the child and infant mortality, except in the case of England, which shows a somewhat lower death rate than would be expected from the number of deaths per hundred under the age of 10 years. This may be due to the fact that the average annual death rate given for England includes Wales, whereas the percentage of ages per hundred does not; or that the period, during which the calcula tion of the annual death rate is made, is different from the period of calculation of the ages at death per hundred. On the whole it appears legitimate to infer the approximate annual death rate from the distribution of ages at death per hundred deaths.
Next it appears that the distribution of ages at death in per- centage of entire number of burials recorded in Dr. Metz's sample of the Madisonville cemetery agrees most closely with the dis tribution of ages at death per hundred in Switzerland. The Madi sonville cemetery shows a mortality per hundred under 10 year. of 35.2 against 36.94 in Switzerland; from ages of 10-20 years 3." against 3.72 in Switzerland; over 20 years, 61.1 in Madisonvill- against 59.33 in Switzerland. The average annual death rate i Switzerland was 2.38 per hundred. We might, therefore, conclud that the death rate per annum in the Madisonville cemeter_ would be approximately the same.
On the basis of Dr. Metz's sample of 521 burials - almost on half of the total burials recorded in the cemetery - the child an infant mortality is lower than in any of the European countrie except France during the period recorded. In selecting data from European countries, I have purposely chosen a period some year back, before the recent improvements in sanitation and medics science brought about the modern lowering of the death rat Conditions in Europe at that time more closely approximated từ primitive, and are, therefore, more comparable with the condition of health in an aboriginal American cemetery.
It might be argued that we ought to expect a higher annu. death rate in a village of Indians, presumably engaged from tirx to time in warfare, and living under very primitive condition but primitive warfare is not deadly, and it is probable that th number of deaths due to war in pre-Columbian America north Mexico was proportionately smaller than in Europe at mos
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NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
periods of history. Epidemics also were probably lacking in the New World before the coming of the Europeans.
We may therefore consider 2.3 per hundred as a reasonable ap- proximation for the average annual death rate during the period in which the Madisonville cemetery was used, and if we base our calculations on an average annual death rate of 3 per hundred, we shall be making ample allowance for infant burials overlooked or unrecorded.
Population, and Period of Use of Cemetery. We must next con- sider the question of the length of time during which this cemetery was used by the Indians. This problem may be approached in two ways- through the historical evidence, and through the evi- dence of the burials themselves.
The territory at the mouth of the Little Miami River was first colonized in 1788, by a party of 18 persons led by Major Benjamin Stites, within the limits of a tract of 10,000 acres purchased by Major Stites from Judge Symmes. Major Stites constructed a log fort and laid out the town of Columbia.
At the time that Major Stites first settled here there was in all probability no village on the Madisonville site. Cyrus Thomas states that Ohio was not inhabited at the time when it first became known to Europeans. Colonel M. F. Force says: 3
In the latter half of the Seventeenth Century, after the destruction of the Eries by the Five Nations in 1656, what is now the State of Ohio, was un- inhabited.
The earlier occupants of this region around the mouth of the Little Miami River seem to have been, according to tradition, the Shawnee. The original home and subsequent migrations of this powerful tribe have been a subject that has aroused consider- able controversy, into which we shall not enter at this time. It can only be remarked that if we assume the Madisonville Indian village to have been inhabited in the post-Columbian period (and the archaeological evidence supporting this assumption is irre- futable), the following considerations point toward the Shawnee as its probable occupants.
1 J. R. Dodge, Red Men of the Ohio Valley, Springfield, 1860, p. 372.
' Cyrus Thomas, Indians in Historic Times, History of North America, vol. ii, 1903, p. 261 et seq.
' Cf. Col. M. F. Force, Some Early Notices of the Indians of Ohio, p. 238.
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INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
The water Shawnee of the Cumberland tocin are first men- tirmed in the Jesuit relations of 1645 under the name of Ouch- xxxag, in 167. a Chaquetown, they are described as living was dmarge southeast of their neighbours. the Ilinois. Dodge
As the period of the settlement of Virginia. they were doetciem the occu- pmưa cí what is now the state of Kentucky. from the Ohio River up to the Crmcerinad Basis, to the country of the Cherokees. The main body. by iritacira of the Andsetes sad Minmit, croming the Ohio amisted in conflicts tại the Five Nations
They are supposed to have shared the defeat of the Andastes and about the year 1672 fled to escape destruction.
Early in the Eighteenth Century. the Shawnee, as a result of a war with the Cherokee and Chickasaw in the Cumberland region, again moved into Ohio. According to Dodge. when West Virginia began to be civilized they occupied the Scioto Valley and extended . a far west at the Little Miami and Mad Rivers, having been in- vited thither by the Wyandot, at the instigation of the French.
When the region about the mouth of the Little Miami River was colonized in 1788. the Shawnee were still in the vicinity, ac- cording to a quotation from Judge Burnet's note by Dodge:"
During these transactions the Judge was visited by a number of Indians frown a camp in the neighbourhood of Stite's settlement. One of them, a Shawure chief. had many complaints to make of the frauds practised on them by the white traders.
The archaeological evidence as to contact with Europeans, yielded by the burials in the cemetery. seems to indicate that the inhabitants were influenced by white culture to a very slight de- gree. only at the close of the period during which the site was in- habited. A few glass beads and a few bits of iron and brass in the most recent portion of the cemetery are the only traces of Euro- pean contact.
Traders began to filter through this region about 1750. The inhabitants of the Madisonville site may have been an outlying group of the Shawnee of the Cumberland region who were ex- pelled from Ohio about 1705-15. There is further the possibility that this was a Shawnee village, the occupation of which termi-
1 Op. cit., p. 22 et seq. ' Op. cit .. p. 374.
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NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
nated at the time when the tribe was first driven southward out of Ohio after the defeat by the Five Nations in 1672. It scarcely seems probable that this cemetery could have belonged to a Shawnee village of the subsequent migration northward, which took place about 1750, since the site was apparently occupied un- intermittently for generations, and there is not sufficient time be- tween 1750 and the period of European colonization of the Little Miami Valley to permit the growth of such a necropolis. Further, it seems that a Shawnee settlement subsequent to 1750 ought to show more traces of European contact than are exhibited here. Moreover we are informed that the Shawnee were entirely no- madic bands at the time of the first coming of the traders, but the archaeological evidence points to a sedentary population for this site. Finally, if we are to trust the historical tradition, Ohio was uninhabited in the latter part of the Seventeenth Century.
It should be understood quite clearly that the only reason for connecting this cemetery with the Shawnee tribe lies in the fact that the historical traditions mention no other tribe as occupying this general region during the probable period of the occupation of the Madisonville village and cemetery site. As we know practically nothing of the archaeology and physical anthropology of the Shawnee, it is impossible either to verify this tradition or to refute it. It is equally possible that the site under consideration may have been inhabited by some other tribe concerning which local historical records are silent.
If we assume that Madisonville was a Shawnee site, there are then two possibilities as to the period of its occupation. Either it was occupied up to about the middle of the Eighteenth Century Or for a period anterior to 1672. The latter seems the more prob- able.
A priori it seems unlikely that, considering the movements of tribes in early post-Columbian times, any Indian village in this region would be occupied continuously for more than one hundred Years. But the Madisonville cemetery must have been used for a Very long time, since a considerable change in burial customs took place within the period of its utilization. Contracted burials and burials in the sitting posture were found only in the oldest portion of the cemetery - the extreme southwestern portion. There are a number of mounds in the vicinity of the cemetery and these
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DOLLY TIRAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
in woo icons I will. I de mare wenn portion of the one_
But de strangest evidence of a lang continued use of the come Pay ware i by stried by the way iny number of tanks the_ ture bem sorted in order w make room it later intermetes Now mit were were found Seguem isproces in which one body_ even more menern'y is off gare was chesved out and its con- teun deposited iz a berg in a corner of the new grave or nearbys- Some of trus " brushed " bevisis must be the remains of those win hed way son bort moi whox homes were subsequently imagei = the jon cemetery. im in mos instances they are prin tiy ane to the smesstry of foimy mom in the sacred burs- ing good which trong's shoot the disturbance of the earlier borisis by the inte dwellers on the she.
Now it seems very improbable tus people who buried their dead with the comparatively entrare fter l furniture which is jound iz mary of the encher gaves in this ceuxtery. would be likeiy v deseerste the caves of their sucestors within the time when the identity of the individuals who occupied the various gives could be remembered. In other words a man would be Josthe to disturb the reemsins of his great-grandfather. as long as he knew where what sorestor was buried. Alowing twenty years to a generstic it is probable that the fifth generation would have beer entered upon before all the members of the first were dead wood their boris! pisces forgomen. L' this argument is valid, it would then seem that the minimum period which could be con- sidered to have elspeed between the first burials in the cemetery and the subsequent ones. to make room for which the former were dislodged. must have been between eighty and one hundred years.
But. ss has been sisted shore, it seems improbable that any Indian group during this general period of tribal movements would have occupied the same site continuously for much more than one hundred years. Therefore. we may accept one hundred years as the approximate length of time during which the Madison-
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1
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NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
ville village site was inhabited. This may perhaps be considered a minimum estimate. Assuming the total number of burials in the cemetery to have been about 1350 and the annual death rate to have been about 3 per hundred, a village of 450 to 500 inhab- itants would have been sufficient to fill this cemetery in a century.
We may be able to secure some check on this estimate of the size of the village by considering the house remains on the site ad- joining the cemetery. In 1879 Dr. Metz excavated four hut circles, and in 1882 Professor Putnam excavated four more. Those excavated by Professor Putnam varied in diameter from 40 to 60 feet. It is therefore evident that there were at least eight com- munal houses in the village, although these may not all have been contemporaneous. Each of these communal houses must have been the home of grandparents, parents, and children, averaging forty to fifty individuals to the house. Taking the lower figure, we should have a total of 320 inhabitants for the 8 houses, if they were occupied at the same time. But it is pretty clear that Pro- fessor Putnam and Dr. Metz did not excavate all of the hut circles on the site. There were at least four others in the group north- east of the cemetery. Twelve such houses should contain 450 to 500 inhabitants.
This group of hut circles to the northeast would probably rep- resent the location of the latest village on the site. The sites of the earlier houses are indicated by the hearths found from time to time by the excavators in the various portions of the cemetery. The original settlement probably was on the southwestern corner of the plateau. The dead were buried about the houses, and as rubbish and graves accumulated, the house sites gradually moved northeastward.
It thus appears that this cemetery was probably the burying place of a village from 450 to 500 in population for a period of about a century.
THE CACHE-PITS
Discovery. The cache-pits, called " ash-pits " by Dr. Metz and the other excavators after him, are scarcely inferior in interest and importance to the burials. The first of these was explored by Dr. Metz on April 1, 1879. The first cache-pit to be described fully was dug on April 22 of the same year. Of it Dr. Metz says in his field notes:
. 28
INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
An ach-pit was excavated to a depth of +} feet and a diameter of 34 feet. The sides and bottom showed no evidence of the action of fire. It appears- that the pits had been dug and the aches put in them es askes to a depth of 2) feet .. . In it were numerous bane implements, shels, and animal remains, none of which bare any traces of the action of fire. A few fragments of charred bones that had probably been in the sches previous to their deposition here were also found.
Hereafter. Dr. Metz carefully explored every cache-pit encount- ered, noting. in most cases. the depth, diameter, stratification of contents. and character of associated objects.
Number and Depth of Cache-pits. The following table gives the totals of pits recorded by the excavators in their field notes that are in the possession of the Museum.
NUMBER OF CACHE-PITS
C. L. Metz,
1879-81
429
J. R. Suanton 1897
177
1882
12
R. E. Merwin,
1907-08
247
F . W . Putnam, 1882
7
B. W. Merwin, 1911 118
Total 990
In order to give an accurate idea of the main dimensions of these pits, the data in regard to those excavated by Dr. Metz in 1879 have been tabulated. By far the majority were round or oval in shape. The few oblong ones have been omitted from considera- · tion in the following tables.
DIAMETER OF CACHE-PITS
4 ft. 6 in.
Less than 2 ft.
2 ft. 2 ft 6 in 3 ft. 3 ft. 6 in. 4 ft. and over
Number .. . .
1
6
19
70
36
13 2 Total 147
Per cent .. .7
4.1
13.0
47.6 24.5
S.S
1.4 Mode 3 ft.
DEPTH OF CACHE-PITS
DEPTH OF ASHES
Depth
Number
Per cent
Depth
Number Per cent
2 ft. 6 in .- 2 ft. 11 in.
1
.7
1 ft .- 1 ft. 5 in.
9
7.9
3 ft .- 3 ft. 5 in.
16
10.8
1 ft. 6 in .- 1 ft. 11 in.
20
17.7
3 ft. 6 in .- 3 ft. 11 in.
12
S.1
2 ft .- 2 ft. 5 in.
24
21.1
4 ft .- 4 ft. 5 in.
22
14.9
2 ft. 6 in .- 2 ft. 11 in.
18 15.9
4 ft. 6 in .- 4 ft. 11 in.
14
9.4
3 ft .- 3 ft. 5 in.
22
19.1
5 ft .- 5 ft. 5 in.
32
21.6
3 ft. 6 in .- 3 ft. 11 in.
9
7.9
5 ft. 6 in .- 5 ft. 11 in.
27
18.2
4 ft .- 4 ft. 5 in.
5
4.4
6 ft .- 6 ft. 11 in.
14.9
4 ft. 6 in 4 ft. 11 in.
4 .
3.9
7 ft.
2
1.4
5 ft.
2
1.7
Total
148
Total.
113
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NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
It will be observed from the above table that almost three- fourths of the pits were between 3 feet and 3} feet in diameter; that the depths varied greatly but were in the majority of cases from 4} feet to 6 feet; that the depth of ashes was usually from 1 } feet to 3} feet.
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