FEBUARY 2001 V.65, N.2 

      Although most of the societies that developed during the period A.D. 700-1500 fall under the broad archaeological term of Mississippian or Eastern Woodlands, the communities that occupied the central Ohio Valley during that time period are specifically referred to as the Fort Ancient and Monongahela cultures. The Fort Ancient people favored river valleys and heavily wooded forests and occupied an area that extended throughout the Ohio Valley from western West Virginia to southeastern Indiana and from southcentral Ohio to northcentral Kentucky. The Monongahela usually built their villages on high ground and further to the north and east in an area bounded by the Ohio, Allegheny, and Monongahela rivers. Both groups were predominantly farmers, basing their innovative, though short-lived, lifestyle on crops that had worked their way north from earlier South American and Mexican cultures.

      Before the introduction of domesticated plants, agriculture was not a widespread practice among the people of the Ohio Valley. They had arrived in small groups of maybe four or five and the tools they broughtmainly knives, spears, and scrapers were made of stone and used more in procuring and preparing animal skins than in planting or harvesting crops. These nomadic people collected wild plants and hunted small animals, such as squirrel, rabbit, turtle, and turkey, and an occasional deer or elk. They moved from place to place as food sources dictated. As time passed, they established regular routes during the year, camping wherever different plants and animals could be found and trading with whomever crossed their path. In the fall, they picked nuts. During winter, they searched for plants that had edible stems. In spring and summer, they visited warm places where squash and wild corn grew.

      The earliest forms of corn, which were probably the result of a cross between a grass plant known as Tripsacum and some form of wild pod or popcorn, grew well in warm regions, but produced poor results further north. It wasn't until South American corn was crossed with another native grass, Teosinte, that corn became the staff of life for the North American natives.

      At first, the northern plants were weak and fragile. But as they crossed with other native plants, the cobs grew stronger and the seeds became larger. Corn thus became a golden harvest to feed a hungry people. Eventually other crops, such as squash and beans, were grown. As the need for wild game and plants lessened, the people organized into permanent communities where they planted, irrigated, and expanded their new food supply.

      Over the past 100 years, scientists have unearthed and studied many remnants of these ancient communities. In a place called Buffalo Site in Putnam County, West Virginia, they discovered that Fort Ancient people built substantial houses, measuring as much as 50 feet in length and 25 feet in width, that served either as single or multiple family dwellings. These dwellings housed a population of up to 500 people. A courtyard or central plaza was formed in the center of the dwellings. As many as 560 graves were located either around the edges of the plaza or within the derelict houses. The few artifacts found with these burials were mostly ornamental, although projectile points, whet stones, awls, pieces of pottery, and carved pipes also were recovered.

      Monongahela villages were smaller, usually populated by no more than 100 to 150 people. The houses were similar in size and structure to the Fort Ancient dwellings, although some were circular and built with bark-covered sapling walls and thatched roofs.

      In all of the villages, whether Fort Ancient or Monongahela, garbage pits revealed that the people relied heavily upon a constant supply of domesticated plants, possibly structuring their economy and politics on these crops. While the industry of agriculture was initially beneficial, it was a mixed blessing that ultimately presented problems.

      With an abundant food supply, family size increased. Larger families required more food and larger villages. As the demand for land and building supplies grew greater, competition among neighboring peoples escalated.

      It was during this time period that the bow and arrow, perhaps introduced by the warring Iroquois, became a replacement for the old spear thrower. Fearing for their homes, lives, and fields, the people fortified their villages with imposing stockades and barricades. At Buffalo Site, an oval palisade measuring 650 feet in length by 450 feet in width was erected. The once quiet agricultural villages were surrounded and the people were sequestered from all the things that could harm or help them.

      Disease and war took a dreadful toll. Over-crowding, the absence of efficient waste disposal systems, and a limited diet resulted in malnutrition and disease. Bones from sites in these regions indicate the people suffered from anemia, dental disease, arthritis, tuberculosis, and intestinal parasites. Without a steady flow of immigrants to replenish rapidly declining populations, the cultures began to collapse. By the time the first Europeans forged their way through the Appalachians, the Fort Ancient and Monongahela cultures had disappeared.

      The association of Fort Ancient and Monongahela cultures with present day American Indian tribes is, at present, educated guesswork. Some scientists speculate that the Fort Ancients were somehow related to the Kanawha River Moneton and Western Shawnee and that the Monongahela may have evolved into the Arrigahaga or Black Minqua, the Susquehannock or White Minqua, or Tramontane Indians identified as the Honniasontkeronon. These were contemporary Indian tribes that occupied a small portion of the Ohio Valley during the mid- to late 1600s. Further investigation is needed to adequately piece together the social fabric of the Fort Ancient and Monongahela cultures. Thus, access to archeological sites is restricted to scientific researchers.

      Today, in places like Buffalo Site, now listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, research continues. Perhaps, thanks to the dedication and perseverance of archaeologists, anthropologists, and ethnologists, we may someday learn even more about the people who reaped The Golden Harvest of the Fort Ancient.