USA > Ohio > Hamilton County > Madisonville > Indian Village Site and Cemetery Near Madisonville, Ohio > Part 4
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Contents and Stratification. Some of the pits were stratified and some were not. In order to give a clear idea of the stratifica- tion and contents of typical pits descriptions have been copied from Dr. Metz's notes.
Cache-pit 396
Depth 5 ft. 3 in .; diameter 3 ft. 3 in. 10 inches leaf mould 28 inches sand and gravel 25 inches ashes
Contents: animal remains, shells, sherds, burned limestone, flint and bone relics.
Cache-pit 400
Depth 5 ft. 10 in .; diameter 3 ft. 2 in. 10 inches leaf mould 12 inches sand 48 inches ashes
Contents: burned limestone, animal remains, flints, sherds, shells, one piece of copper.
Cache-pit 401
Depth 6 ft. 8 in .; diameter 3 ft. 3 in. 10 inches leaf mould 24 inches sand 46 inches ashes
Contents: animal remains, burned limestone, shells, perforated unios, a large quantity of deer skulls, awls, cylinders.
Cache-pit 402
Depth 5 ft. 6 in .; diameter 3 ft. 2 in. 10 inches leaf mould
5 inches sand
19 inches yellow sand and ashes
3 inches yellow sand
19 inches sand and ashes
4 inches sand
6 inches ashes 6 inches ashes in depression in middle of bottom
Contents: animal remains, burned limestone, large sherds of pottery, shells, elkhorn implement, awls, flints, record stick.
30 INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
Cache-pit 404 Depth + ft. 1 in .: diameter 4 ft. 10 inches leaf mould 40 inches ashes Contents: two bushels of snail shells.
Cache-pit 109
Depth 3 ft. 2 in .: diameter 3 ft. 10 in. 10 inches leaf mould 30 inches sand 2 inches asbes
Contents: animal remains and fish book.
Cache ph 411
Depth 3 ft. 6 in .: diameter 4 ft. 10 inches kai mould
32 inches sund
3 inches yellow sund
10 inches sand and ashes
11 inches ashes
6 inches of ashes in depressiva in hotscen
Contents: animal remains a stome pipe. and an elkhorn implement.
.
The following cache-pits are less typical but present features of special interest:
Extract from Dr. Metz's notes. Augus 2 .. 1979:
the of the masi semscioshie "fods " since the prosecution of the work on this cemetery was a liste qparty + ce 5 hasheis d' burnt corn, in a pit which was cremei and expired Angas 36 ani 2 .. The shape of the pit was chiang soi contracted kunst the center. a hacimcatal secikn showing some- what She a figure & Ins dimensions were: length 6 ft s in : dismeter 3 feet
Recmning st the harm un ancients were as intims:
1 A lave of howriders porrery seras ashes wni a jew animal bones,
Above the a layer af aominen'y executed races at the och.
+ Thee sives & badets a' shelled are sit ampione's carbonimed. The
I Ahwy the art was a hover a aussiy ways marting composed of
'S Next Frame & love a see W mybes a cbusiness matchingled with
withus sure sos barn syrcher vil my shals of various
31
NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
(7) Fifteen inches of gravelly clay also containing numerous anima re- mains with occasional implements of flint, bone and stone, anl un- finished stone pipe representing a bear sitting on his haunches, and sherds of pottery.
(8) Two feet of black leaf mould.
WOULD
MOULD
MOULD
ASHES
ASNES
ASHES AND SAND?
ASHES
........
FIG. 1. MADISONVILLE SITE
Cross sections of abandoned and filled cache-pits from Dr. Metz's note-books; a, Cache- pit used for burial purposes, opened January 21, 1880; b, Pit opened August 8, 1881; c, Pit opened in May, 1881; d, Pit opened August 26-27, 1879. Aside from the materials shown in the cross-sections, the pits contained potsherds, bones of various animals, im- plements and other objects of stone, bone and antler.
It is quite obvious that this peculiar shaped pit was really two intersecting and independent round pits, one of which had been used for a corn cache; a cross-section of this is given in figure 1, d.
Cache-pit 377
Depth 5 ft. 8 in .; diameter 3 ft.
10 inches leaf mould
36 inches ashes containing animal remains
6 inches charcoal and animal remains
4 inches matting
12 inches corn cobs
Contents: " At a depth of 4 ft. 4 in. a layer of charred animal remains was found and below this a layer of matting 4 inches deep, and below this matting carbonized corn cobs. On the matting a layer of plaited grass rope was found [figure 1, c].
Mr. Swanton found a layer of corn cobs in the bottom of pit I, 33, and small quantities of corn in other pits.
A layer of corn 2 inches thick and 4 feet from the surface was found in cache-pit II, 23. Two feet, 8 inches from the surface of the hard-pan was a concreted mass of gravel discolored by fire and about 9 inches thick. The mass seems to have become solidified under the influence of a hot fire though whether this fire occurred before the concretion was thrown into the cache-pit or subsequently could not be determined.
32
INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
Fauna Represented in the Cache-pits. The following is a quota- tion from Mr. Swanton's report:
By studying the contents of over one hundred cache-pits, twenty-one species of animals were identified, one species of bird, two of turtles, and two of fish. These are deer, bear, dog, elk, buffalo, racoon, opossum, beaver, porcupine, woodchuck, lynx, fox, puma, wolf, otter, squirrel, skunk, mole, rabbit, marten, badger, turkey, leather-back turtle, turtle, catfish and perch (?). Deer bones overbalanced all others in the proportion of at least three to one. Few badger, squirrel, skunk, wolf, puma, and rabbit bones were
BLACK EARTH
DANK
KASTA
CLAY
ANNES CHR KARTA
CLAY ANE ASHES
MIXED EARTH
CLAY
ASHES
CLAY
OLACK EARTH
2
4
C
PEET
₫
FIG. 2. MADISONVILLE SITE
Cross-sections of abandoned and filled cache-pits from Mr. Swanton's note-books; a, Pit 6, Trench IV; b, Pit 54, Trench I; c, Pit 15, Trench II; d, Pit 64, Trench I.
found. In the case of the rabbit this is very remarkable since rabbits are very plentiful in the region.
Of the mole and marten only one skull each was found, the latter asso- ciated with a burial; of the otter only two skulls, also associated with burials, and a fragment of a third were found.
Below is an analysis of two pits showing approximately the proportion of bones belonging to each species which they contained.
Cache-pit III, 6
Cache-pit III, 8
Deer
80
per cent
Deer
75 per cent
Turkey
8
Dog
7.5
Bear.
2.5
Elk
7.5
R
Elk
2.5
Bear
5.0
Dog
2.5
Beaver, racoon, tur-
Turtle (2 species)
2.5
key, turtle, fish
5.0
R
Racoon
0.5
Beaver
0.5
$
Total
100.00
Opossum, puma, fish,
fox, otter, wood-
chuck, badger .
1.0
R
Total
100.00
ASHES AND CLAY
33
NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
The finding of the skulls of the marten and otter with burials without other bones of these animals indicates that they formed portions of medicine bags made of the whole skin of these animals with skull attached.
Similar bags of otter skin were used in the well-known Shell Society and the presence of these skulls seems to indicate that this ceremony was known to these Indians.
.
The shells found belonged principally to the genus Unio. Most of the species having smooth shells could not be identified, but of the following there can be no doubt: Unio rectus (Lamarck), vermi- cosus, tuberculatus, ovatus, undulatus, cornutus (Barnes), alatus (Say), Margitana rugosa (Barnes). One small species of the uni-
b
c
IBLACK EARTH
BLACK EARTH
BLACK EARTH
EARTH ANDASHES
HARD-PAN
CLAY
EARTH AND ASHES
GLAY
CLAY
EARTHAND ASHES
CANTH AND ASHES
CARTH AND ASHES
SAND
....
SAND
BAND
FIG. 3. MADISONVILLE SITE
Cross-sections of abandoned and filled cache-pits in Trench D, from R. E. Merwin's note- books. Mr. Merwin's cross-sections were the first to show that probably most of the pits were dug through a stratum of hard-pan, and into the substratum of sand which afforded excellent drainage and served to keep the contents of the caches dry.
valve (Fulgur carica) was found in addition to a small sea uni- valve Marginella apicina. The latter species is found on the Gulf Coast and the shores of the Carolinas.
Artifacts from the Cache-pits. The following extracts from the notes of Mr. B. W. Merwin give a sufficient idea of the number and character of artifacts found in typical cache-pits.
Cache-pit 51, Trench H Depth of leaf mould, 8 in. Depth to hard-pan, 1 ft. 8 in.
Depth to bottom, 5 ft. 2 in.
Diameter at hard-pan, 3 ft. 8 in.
Specimens: 1 bone scraper, 3 antler cylinders, 1 antler point, 2 worked antlers, 1 fragment bone scraper, 1 notched rib, 1 celt, 1 fragment celt, 1 perforated shell, 1 flint point, 1 flint scraper, 2 worked stones, 100 bones, 75 unworked stones, 40 shells, 25 flint flakes, 40 potsherds.
HARD-PAN BLACK EARTH
. ASHES
CART HAND ASHES
EARTH AND ASHES
HARD-PAN
HARD-PAN
CLAY
BAND
34
INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
Cache-pit 7, Trench K Depth of leaf mould, 5 in. Depth to hard-pan, 1 ft. 1 in. Depth to bottom, 4 ft. 8 in. Diameter at hard-pan, 3 ft. 2 in.
Specimens: 1 worked beaver tooth, 1 bone bead, 1 long bone perforator, 1 fragment bone scraper, 1 perforated shell, 1 small whetstone, 1 per- forated bone, 150 unworked bones, 30 stones, 25 shells, 30 potsherds, 15 flint flakes.
Cache-pit 10, Trench H Depth of leaf mould, 9 in. Depth to hard-pan, 1 ft. 9 in. Depth to bottom, 3 ft. 7 in. Diameter at hard-pan, 2 ft. 8 in.
Specimens: 2 antler cylinders, 2 fragments bone scrapers, 1 bone perfora- tor, 5 flint points, 8 reject flint points, 1 worked bone, 1 fragment pipe, 2 rough hammerstones, 1 grinder, fragments of bones of two kinds of dog, 100 stones, 175 bones, 50 potsherds, 40 flint flakes, 30 shells, 4 quarts charred wood.
Pit filled with black earth and clay with a 5 inch layer of bones and ashes about 2 ft. 9 in. from the surface.
Occasionally pieces of copper or ornaments of copper were found in the pits. These finds were more common in the portion of the cemetery excavated by Dr. Metz. Beads were the commonest objects of copper found by Mr. Swanton in the pits. From pit I, 50, were recovered three copper discs made by clinching thin pieces of copper over bone. In pit I, 55, was a small copper orna- ment 4 inches long, in shape of a serpent.
Iron was of very infrequent occurrence in cache-pits. On Septem- ber 19, 1879, Dr. Metz found a piece of an iron hatchet or toma- hawk, 13 inches below the surface in the leaf mould between two cache-pits. Mr. Swanton found a flat piece 2 inches long by 1} inches wide in the first pit he opened. This was 3 feet 1 inch be- low the surface and at least 1 foot below the level of the hard-pan. In pit I, 66, another piece was encountered at a depth of 3 feet below the level of the hard-pan and 4} feet from the surface.
R. E. Merwin found an iron ring in pit 98, Trench D. The ring was 27 inches below the surface of the ground, the leaf mould being 4 inches in depth. There was no evidence of its intrusive origin as there was no root hole above it. Skeleton 65 was buried with its head in the cache-pit on the level with the ring, but the ring was 21 inches from the skull.
35
NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
B. W. Merwin found a piece of iron in pit 27, Trench I. This was a perforated piece of iron, little oxidized. It came from a depth of one foot eight inches, the soil above it being black earth mixed with potsherds and shells. Merwin thought that it must have worked down a root hole, as there was a root hole 5 inches away, about 3 inches in diameter.
MOULD
Mouy
LOAM
LOAM
BLACK EARTH
ASHES
BLACK EARTH
ASHES AND CLAY
BLACK EARTH
·
CLAY
HARD-PAN
HARD-PAN
BLACK CANTH
CARTA
CLAY
CLAY
ASHES AND EARTH
BLACK EARTH
BAND
SAND
C
FIG. 4. MADISONVILLE SITE
Cross-section of abandoned and filled cache-pits from B. W. Merwin's note-books; a, Pit 3, ' Trench G; b, Pit 24a, Trench H; c, Pit 30a, Trench I; d, Pit 26, Trench I. In common with nearly all pits of this site, potsherds, various implements and the bones of animals were found in the refuse with which they were filled.
Mr. Swanton found fragments of blue glass beads in three cache-pits (I, 44; I, 64; IV, 31). Mr. B. W. Merwin also found a blue glass bead in one of the pits that he excavated.
Form of the Cache-pits. The great majority of the pits were round or oval in shape, but Dr. Metz discovered some that were oblong. He records about ten of these. The first of this shape, opened May 19, 1879, was 3 ft. 2 in. in depth, 7 ft. 3 in. long, and 4 ft. 6 in. wide. It contained 16 inches of ashes. The follow- ing is his description of one of the oblong pits:
October 17, 1879
Large oblong cache-pit. Depth 4 ft. 3 in., length 8 ft., width 6 ft. 5 in. Contents: leaf mould 10 in. Ashes and sand 10 in. Pure ashes 15 in. Sand 6 in.
Ashes, charcoal, and bowlders, 10 in.
Specimens: one grooved stone hammer, one elkhorn implement, one large piece of elkhorn, broken bowlders, potsherds, bear cranium, flints.
36
INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
It will be observed that the contents of the oblong pits are not different in character from the round ones. Apparently the later investigators did not find any of these oblong pits.
The circular and oval cache-pits occasionally had a larger di- ameter at the bottom than at the top and often the reverse. Bot- tle-shaped cache-pits also occurred.
Grouping in Relation to Burials. The cache-pits were often found in groups, as may be seen from the plan of the cemetery (plate 30). Sometimes two or more pits were dug so close together that their sides intersected.
Generally speaking the site was divided into portions rich in cache-pits and with very few burials on the one hand, and parts with many burials and few pits on the other. It seems that for the most part the pits are not connected with the burials except fortuitously. In a few instances, which have been dealt with under the consideration of the burials, bodies were buried in the cache-pits, simply because the empty pit offered a convenient ready-made grave. In other cases bodies were buried over these pits, or cache-pits were dug through burials. Yet there is noth- ing that points to any special relationship between the graves and the pits.
On the other hand there is no doubt at all that the graves and the pits were made by one and the same people during the same period. The identity of artifacts in the pits with those found in the graves establishes this fact beyond question.
Purpose of the Cache-pits. The earlier excavators seem to have considered the existence of this large number of pits, laboriously dug down through the hard-pan, as more or less of a mystery. Yet there is no evidence of their having subserved any obscure esoteric purpose. On the contrary it seems that they were dug for a very practical end.
All of the investigators note that for the most part the bottoms and walls of the pits show no trace of the action of fire, but that the ashes and other charred debris seem to have been dumped into the pits after having been subjected to the action of fire. In a few instances fires seem to have been made in partially filled pits, or burning embers were emptied into the pits.
In the opinion of the present writer the cache-pits were con- structed primarily for the storage of corn and other goods. At
37
NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
the harvest time the maize crop belonging to each family was de- posited in a number of pits grouped together and located con- veniently near the house-site or place of habitation. Indeed these pits may often have been within the houses or huts. In the course of the winter the pits were emptied one after another and the empty pits became successively the receptacles into which were swept the accumulating ashes, food remains, and other debris of the hearth and home. When a pit showed stratification of con- tents it was because it was filled with rubbish gradually, and when the contents were unstratified it was due to the dumping of a large amount of refuse into the pit at one time. Some of the stratified pits were probably left partially filled for a considerable length of time; fires were occasionally made in them, and in a few instances the empty or partially filled pits were utilized as graves.
Ample indication that the pits were used as granaries is afforded by the two pits described above, in which Dr. Metz found charred shelled corn and charred corn on the cob covered with matting (figure 1, c, d).
Historical evidence confirms the conclusion that the pits were granaries. Wood says in speaking of the customs of the New England Indians: 1
Their corne being ripe, they gathered it, and drying it hard in the Sunne, conveighed it to their barnes, which be great holes digged in the ground in the form of a brass pot, seeled with rinds of trees, wherein they put their corne.
Morgan also states the following in regard to the corn pits of the Iroquois:2
The Iroquois were accustomed to bury their surplus corn, and also their charred green corn, in caches in which the former would preserve uninjured throughout the year, and the latter for a much longer period. They excavated a pit, made a bark bottom and sides, and having deposited their corn within it, a bark roof, water-tight, was constructed over it, and the whole covered up with earth. Pits of charred corn are still found near their ancient settle- ments. Cured venison and other meats were buried in the same manner, except that the bark repository was lined with deer-skins.
The above also explains the reason for the carbonized condition of the corn found in the pits by Dr. Metz.
1 William Wood, New England's Prospect, p. 100.
' L. H. Morgan, League of the Iroquois, p. 319.
38
INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
Additional evidence is furnished by Catlin, who, in speaking the Mandan Indians says:1
The green corn season is one of great festivity with them, and one of mu importance. The greater part of their crop is eaten during these festival and the remainder is gathered and dried on the cob, before it has ripene and packed away in "caches" (as the French call them), holes in the groun some six or seven feet deep, the insides of which are somewhat in the form of jug, and tightly closed at the top. The corn, and even dried meat and per mican, are placed in these caches, being packed tight around the sides, wi prairie grass, and effectually preserved through the severest winters.
Alice C. Fletcher, also, in speaking of the expeditions of th Omahas, says: 2
If any were so fortunate as to possess a surplus supply of food or clothin they would store it in a cache, which they might either conceal or leave u disguised. The cache was dug in a dry place, sometimes lined with pole but often left with no wall but the hard soil. The goods were covered wi skins, the earth was thrown over, and the place marked with piles of ston - meat, corn, clothing, and other personal property were kept for months this manner, and no one disturbed the hidden store.
That caches of this character were used by the Indians over very wide area in North America is shown by their existen among the Thompson Indians of British Columbia. In regard : their methods of storing food, James Teit says: 3.
The most common cache is the Indian cellar. This is used solely for t. storing of berries, fish, etc. A circular hole about four feet in depth, and of ti necessary diameter, is dug. In it are carefully laid the articles to be store If these are berries or roots, they are placed in baskets, and wrapped over wi birch bark. The roof is then put on. It consists of small poles laid close side by side across the excavation. Above them are laid in the same mann but at right angles, another row of poles. The structure is then covered wi pine needles and earth.
H. I. Smith states that pits which are supposed to be the r mains of the cellars are found near the ancient undergrour house-sites in the Thompson River region."
In the mound region in general, archaeological confirmation , the identity of the " ash-pits " with caches mentioned by tl historians is not lacking.
1 Geo. Catlin, North American Indians, vol. i, p. 121 et seq.
" Alice C. Fletcher, Tribal Life Among the Omahas, Century Magazine, January, 1896, p. 4!
" James Teit, The Thompson Indians of British Columbia, p. 198 et seq.
. H. I. Smith, Memoirs American Museum Natural History, vol. ii, no. 6, p. 403.
39
NEAR MADISONVILLE, OHIO
Speaking of the enclosures in New York, Squier says: 1
The first feature which attracts notice upon entering them is a number of pits or excavations in the earth, usually at points which are most elevated and dry. These pits are occasionally of considerable size, and are popularly called " wells," although nothing is more obvious than that they could never have been designed for any such purpose. They are usually 3 to 4, but some- times from 6 to 8, feet in depth, and of proportionate size at the top. Their purpose became sufficiently evident upon excavation. They were the caches in which the former occupants of these works deposited their stores. Parched corn, now completely carbonized by long exposure, is to be discovered in Considerable abundance in many of them. Instances fell under my notice where it has been found untouched to the amount of bushels in these primi- tive depositories. Traces of the bark and thin slips of wood, by which the deposits were surrounded, are also frequently to be found.
Thomas in his work on Mound Explorations identifies pits of this character with caches .?
Finally Alice C. Fletcher writes of the caches of the Omaha Indians as follows:3
Each family had outside the lodge a cache, and some of the families would have two. These caches would be used sometimes for two or three years, but after a time the posts would become worm-eaten or the rain get in and if the cache was not repaired, as it occasionally was, a new one would be built close beside it and the old one taken for other uses to be described. In the cache was kept the winter supply of corn, dried meat and other provisions and the gala dresses and ornaments of various kinds. These were kept in parfleche packs; also the sacred articles, such as medicine bags, or sacred bowls, etc. When a village was attacked it was always considered important to try and burn the caches. Fire was put in the cache and the articles consumed in the hole; sometimes they were only charred. A malicious person having a grudge would sometimes take revenge by burning a cache.
The old caches were used. for ash-pits. The accumulations of ashes in the center fireplace (a circular depression in the center of the lodge) would be cleared, and the ashes thrown in the pit. So also the bones and refuse of eat- ing, and of feasts, and the broken implements and weapons, worn-out moccasins, and other articles. When the pit was filled up it was closed over and another one taken. The sites of the old villages are honeycombed with these caches, the Indians say, and I am invited to examine them if I like, the Indians laugh- ing heartily at my queer curiosity.
1 E. G. Squier, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. ii, p. 12 et seq.
1 Cf. Thomas, Twelfth Report Bureau American Ethnology, p. 32 et seq.
' Peabody Museum Reports, vol. iii, pp. 357, 358.
40
INDIAN VILLAGE SITE AND CEMETERY
HEARTHS AND OTHER REMAINS
Hearths and Fire Places. J. R. Swanton says in his report:
Hearths are formed by a few stones laid side by side. They were usually a foot to a foot and a half in depth and two to three feet in diameter, though the outline was by no means always circular.
Mr. Swanton excavated thirteen of these hearths or fire places, R. E. Merwin describes four, and B. W. Merwin two. Dr. Metz apparently did not distinguish the hearths from the shallower cache-pits. From the number of burned stones which he, in con- trast with the other excavators, describes as found in the cache- pits, it seems clear that the earlier inhabitants of the village often dumped their hearth stones with their ashes into the cache- pits at the end of the season, and that they often used the depres- sions in the earth, caused by partially filled cache-pits, as hearths.
The following discovery described by Dr. Metz is certainly a hearth:
Monday, March 31, 1879. Under the leaf mould I discovered a circular layer of ashes 4 inches deep and below it were burnt limestones and bowlders. Below these was a layer of mussel shells (unio) 3 inches thick. Below the shells a large round bowlder upon which rested an elliptical flint instrument, 3 inches long. The bowlder rested upon a layer of sand 8 inches deep, and on the clay partially covered by the sand and at a total depth of 2} feet were two large prongs of elkhorn.
R. E. Merwin describes as follows certain of the hearths explored by him:
Hearth 1, Trench A Depth of top of rocks below surface of ground, 13 in.
Total depth of depression, 25 in.
Depth of depression below surface of hard-pan, 6 in.
The depression or pit was of irregular shape being 5 ft. 2 in. long, and 3 ft. 9 in. at its widest part. Throughout the pit charred wood was found in great abundance. Within the pit and resting on the hard-pan were arranged ir- regular pieces of limestone varying in size from 1 inch in diameter to 10 inches, and also a number of pieces of sandstone. These stones showed action of fire as did the floor and walls of the pit. No charred animal bones were found or any artifacts. One potsherd was found above the pile in the loam 5 inches below the surface.
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