Eastern Woodlands Household Archaeology Data Project
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Woodland Structures from the Great Neck Site, Virginia Beach, Virginia

3/29/2014

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Excavations at the Great Neck site (44-Vb-7) in Virginia Beach, Virginia, exposed portions of at least seven post structures dating to the Middle and Late Woodland periods.  These structures were described in a 1998 report by Mary Hodges (available here) and were included in the sample used by Martin Gallivan in his dissertation (Gallivan 1999). 

There is quite a bit of variability in the structures.  Structure A, an incompletely exposed Late Woodland
structure, probably encompassed almost 80 square m while Structure G, a Middle Woodland structure, was less than 5 square m (still larger than many Woodland, Mississippian, and Late Prehistoric structures in the database that were interpreted as residential structures). Structure D, shown in the figure to the right (from Hodges 1998:139), was the best preserved structure that was exposed at the site.

The dimensions given by Gallivan and Hodges vary somewhat. I will provide Gallivan's dimensions (Gallivan 1999:Appendix 7) in the entries for the structures (Structures 2244-2250)

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Late Woodland Structures from the Little River site, Goochland County, Virginia

3/29/2014

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Martin Gallivan's (1999) dissertation describes a block excavation at the Little River site (44-Go-30b) in that exposed portions of two Late Woodland structures (figure to right from Gallivan 1999:221).  One of the structures appeared to an elliptical post structure.  The pit feature inside the structure (Feature 1) was radiocarbon dated to around AD 1200-1300 (Gallivan 1999:220).

Goochland County, Virginia, lays claim to, among other things, the early schooling of Thomas Jefferson.  The historical society has a nice collection of photographs by W. Edwin Booth.  I am more than a little jealous that their drive-in theater opens this weekend:  that's a sign of Spring that certainly trumps the four north-going geese I saw this morning.  And if that wasn't enough, there is a Rock & Roll Jubilee Show this evening at the high school. No wonder Justin Verlander lives there.

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Late Woodland Structures from the Wood Site, Nelson County, Virginia

3/29/2014

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Martin Gallivan's (1999) dissertation includes information on several Woodland and Late Prehistoric sites in Virginia with structural remains (see also his later paper in American Antiquity).  The figure to the right (from Gallivan 1999:197) shows the distribution of postmolds and features exposed in excavations at the Wood site (44-Ne-143), Nelson County.  Gallivan used multiple approaches to analyze the distribution of posts, identifying the outlines of five elliptical structures (Structures A, B, C, D, and E) of varying size.  Radiocarbon dates from features at the site suggest the structures were constructed around AD 1000-1050.  The Wood site structures will be Structures 2237-2241 in the database.

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Selkirk Structures from the Spruce Point site, Western Ontario

3/28/2014

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Grace Rajnovich's (1983) thesis describes excavation of two Selkirk (Late Woodland) habitation structures at the Spruce Point site (DjKq-1) in the Kenora District of western Ontario.  The structures were defined by a color and texture contrast between the interior and exterior sediments.  Both had interior features.  Neither structure was completely exposed.  Rajnovich provided inferred outlines of the structures.  She estimated their dimensions to have been about 4m in width x 6 or 7m in length.  The plan view of Structure A is shown to the right.  The plan view of Structure B is here.
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Above: Structure A (from Figure 8 of Rajnovich 1983:98).  This will be Structure 2235 in the database.
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Middle Woodland Structure from the Hardin Bridge Site, Bartow County, Georgia

3/28/2014

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A 2008 report prepared by New South Associates (edited by R. Jeannine Windham, Christopher Espenshade, and Julie Coco) details excavations and analysis of materials associated with the remains of Middle Woodland household at the Hardin Bridge site (9-Br-34) in northwest Georgia.  The report is available on Chris Espenshade's Academia.edu page.

The preserved architectural features at the site did not allow the unambiguous definition of the outlines of a single structure.  Based on artifact analysis, the authors interpret the Middle Woodland remains at the site to be the product of single household that would have occupied a single residential structure.  That structure was likely an oval or rounded rectangular structure measuring about 9m in width and 11m or 20m in length (Windham et al. 2008). The illustration above (Figure 11.1 from Windham et al. 2008:423) shows the outline of a structure with larger dimensions in blue and the most likely candidate for a smaller structure outlined in pink.  The Hardin Bridge structure will be added to the database as Structure 2234.


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Two Archaic Structures from Ontario

3/25/2014

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Continuing the Ontario theme . . .

Ash Rapids East

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1988 paper by C. S. "Paddy" Reid contains illustrations of several prehistoric structures.  One of those is this structure from the Ash Rapids East site (DjKq-4, Kenora District) identified as an Archaic house.  The focus of the paper (Reid 1988) is largely methodological, and few details are provided about the structures.  This structure appears to have been a shallow basin, defined by the contrast between the basin fill and the surrounding matrix.  No information is given on how the structure was dated (the only entry for the Ash Rapids East site I could find in the Canadian Archaeological Radiocarbon Database pertained to a much later Blackduck occupation). A quick search online did not produce any later papers or reports that discuss this structure, but that doesn't mean they don't exist.  If you have more information about this structure, please let me know. I estimate the size of the structure to be about 3.5 x 4m based on the plan map.

Smoothwater Lake

The second Ontario Archaic structure of the day is a possible "tent ring" from the Smoothwater Lake site (CiHd-1) in the Timiskaming District.  The possible structure is described in John Pollock's (1975) M.A. thesis (available online here):

     "Certainly intriguing but hypothetical is a feature of large spaced rocks that may represent a tent ring (Fig. 12).  The large rocks that comprise the ring were plotted on the upper 3-inch level and thence removed, even though several extended into the second 3-inch level.  In hypothesizing this feature, data from all levels were considered and three main criteria were used in reconstructing it.  The rocks are all over 5 inches in diameter, a central hearth is present, and eleven of the seventeen projectile points excavated were concentrated within the rock feature at CiHd-1. These points all pertain to the late Shield Archaic period" (Pollock 1975:51,56).

Pollack (1975:178) estimates the footprint of the structure to have been about 10' x 12' (~ 3.0 x 3.7m).
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Above: Figure 9 from Reid (1988:211).  This will be Structure 2232 in the database.
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Above: Figure 12 from Pollock (1975:55). This will be Structure 2233 in the database.
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Citation of the Database, "Most Wanted" Publications, FAQ

3/24/2014

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Citation

Although the database is still early in its development, the "how do you cite it?" question has already popped up.  I did a little poking around online and found a few examples of database citations.  None seemed to exactly fit the EWHADP situation, however, as they referred to databases of material (i.e, articles) that already had separate citations.  I came up a general format for a "suggested citation" following this example:

White, Andrew A., and Benjamin Steere.  EWHADP Database 2014_03_12.  Eastern Woodlands Household Archaeology Data Project, 12 March 2014.  Web (www.householdarchaeology.org).  Accessed [day] [month] [year].

Ben Steere agreed to be co-author because of the volume of previously-compiled data that he contributed to the database. 

I may change the format of the suggested citation based on advice I get from others.  I like this format, however, because it clearly identifies which "issue" of the database is being cited.  This is useful because the database will continue to grow and the information associated with each listing may change from one version to the next.  It will be important to (1)
be able to specify which version was consulted and (2) keep those older versions available.

"Most Wanted"

I have added a Most Wanted section to list publications that I would like to have a look at because they reportedly contain data on structures that I would like to include in the database.  As you might guess, many of these will be contract reports that may be impossible to get through ILL or other conventional means.  I'm hoping that those of you interested in this project will check this page from time to time to see if you have any of the "most wanted" publications either on your bookshelf or (better yet) in an electronic format on your computer.  Please remember that I'm interested in providing open access to information, not documents, through this site.  Many of the "gray literature" publications that contain primary data on structures also contain information (such as precise site locations) that should not be openly distributed.  Protecting site locations is my main rationale for using the center of a county as a site's "location" for purposes of plotting in GIS.

FAQ

I have added a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.  Currently, this page contains only two questions:
  • How do I cite the database?
  • What if I have information to contribute?
In answer to the second question, I have added a contact form to the site. Email also always works:  aawhite@umich.edu.
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Woodland Structures from the Ballynacree Site, Kenora District, Ontario

3/22/2014

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I stumbled upon a paper by Reid and Rajnovich (1991) that describes three Woodland structures from the Ballynacree site in the Kenora District of western Ontario.  The structures are about 8m x 4m, defined by both postmolds and contrasts between interior and exterior sediments.  At the time the paper was written, the three structures from the site constituted the majority of known, excavated Laurel houses.  I do not know if that is still the case.

Three radiocarbon determinations suggest that House 1 dates to about AD 1250. This is, of course, a relatively late age for something that is called "Middle Woodland."  These houses, like others that strain the Midwest/Southeast-centered cultural-historical framework that I'm currently using, are encouraging me to rethink the organization of the database.  Since the relationships between our temporal and cultural chronologies are not consistent across the eastern woodlands, it may be a good move to separate them in the organization of the database. I'm considering simply dividing "time" into discrete blocks (say 200, 500, or 1000 years in duration) and then several columns to categorize the cultural-historical placement of the site (e.g., Archaic - Late Archaic - Brewerton).  This would allow one to plot groups of contemporaneous structures within thicker or thinner slices of time.  Something to think about.
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Above:  Figure 3 from Reid and Rajnovich 1991:196.  The caption is "The Ballynacree site excavations revealed three houses with their associated features--a complete Laurel village.
The Reid and Rajnovich (1991) paper contains pointers to publications with data on several Woodland and Archaic structures in the region.  I've never been there, but based on its entry in Large Canadian Roadside Attractions it looks like a nice place to visit.
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Late Archaic Post Structure(s) from 33-Mu-29, Muskingum County, Ohio

3/21/2014

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A 1975 paper by James Morton and Jeff Carskadden in Ohio Archaeologist describes the remains of one or more post structures from a site in Muskingum County, Ohio (Morton and Carskadden 1975).  The outlines of the structure(s) represented by the posts are not particularly clear.  The authors suggest that some of the posts may belong to a circular or semi-circular structure with two central posts (see illustrations below from Carskadden and Morton 1975).  The posts could also mark the location of a large, open structure or several smaller arc-shaped structures.

Neither a name or a number is given for the site in the original paper.  I found the site number 33-Mu-29 associated with the radiocarbon date (I-7604) discussed in the paper in the Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia Radiocarbon Database maintained by Cultural Resource Analysts. 
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DINAA Presentation

3/20/2014

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Today I gave a short presentation on the EWHADP to the DINAA (Digital Index of North American Archaeology) workshop that is taking place at the University of Tennessee.  I couldn't go in person, so I missed being able to meet the participants face-to-face. I also missed out on the sandwich and salad bar lunch, which, according to the workshop agenda, included "your choice of a brownie or a cookie + two gallons of extra coffee."  That sounds about right.  Anyway, I think the presentation went well and I hope that we can figure out how to made the EWHADP data accessible through the DINAA database and vice versa.  That could be pretty sweet. The presentation is here (small version without animations).
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    Andrew A. White
    aawhite@mailbox.sc.edu

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