Feurt Mounds and Village Site - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Feurt Mounds and Village Site is an Fort Ancient culture archaeological site

Archaeological site

An archaeological site is a place in which evidence of past activity is preserved , and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology and represents a part of the archaeological record.Beyond this, the definition and geographical extent of a 'site' can vary widely,...

with three burial mounds and an associated village, located in Clay Township in Scioto County

Scioto County, Ohio

As of the census of 2000, there were 79,195 people, 30,871 households, and 21,362 families residing in the county. The population density was 129 people per square mile . There were 34,054 housing units at an average density of 56 per square mile...

, Ohio

Ohio

Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...

History

The prehistoric indigenous peoples who constructed the Feurt Mounds lived in the nearby village. They were people belonging to a unique phase in the Fort Ancient

Fort Ancient

Fort Ancient is a name for a Native American culture that flourished from 1000-1750 CE among a people who predominantly inhabited land along the Ohio River in areas of modern-day Southern Ohio, Northern Kentucky, Southeastern Indiana and Western West Virginia. They were a maize based agricultural...

Tradition. The Feurt Phase is a longer durational period than some other components of the Fort Ancient Tradition. There are several of these sites located in Southern Ohio and western West Virginia

West Virginia

West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Southeastern regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, Pennsylvania to the northeast and Maryland to the east...

counties scattered along the tributaries of and Ohio River

Ohio River

The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...

banks.

Site

The three mounds are on the Scioto River

Scioto River

The Scioto River is a river in central and southern Ohio more than 231 miles in length. It rises in Auglaize County in west central Ohio, flows through Columbus, Ohio, where it collects its largest tributary, the Olentangy River, and meets the Ohio River at Portsmouth...

, near the Ohio River

Ohio River

confluence.

William C. Mills in 1917 described the topograghy, "The immediate location of the mound

Mound

A mound is a general term for an artificial heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. The most common use is in reference to natural earthen formation such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. The term may also be applied to any rounded area of topographically...

s and village site is a level plateau

Plateau

In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...

of less than five acres in extent, elevated a little more than forty feet above the bottom land into which it projects, promontory like, with steep and very abrupt banks." This first found Feurt Phase location became the test site, otherwise the basis site, for following discoveries.

Mounds

The smallest of the three mounds, according to Mr. Moorehead, was seventy-five feet by sixty feet and two and three-fourths feet high. A total of 107 skeletons were buried in this small mound (Mills 1917:310).

The second mound was the highest mound about eight feet high (Mills 1917:319). About half of it was fallen over the hill. One hundred and thirty seven burials were found. A triangular arrow point was found embedded in the head of adult No. 43 (Mills 1917:320). A curious comment of Mills, "'fireplace of a tepee site on the base line or floor.'"

The third mound was six feet high and 90 feet (27.4 m) by 112 feet (34.1 m) at the base. It contained 101 burials (Mills 1917:322 ). These were adolescent and adults alike in a flex position. Among the adornment were beads.

Material tradition

As with other phases within the contemporaneous Fort Ancient culture, local stream mussel shell was used for tools and jewelry. Animal bone and Shell attached to prepared tree limbs were also used for hoes in their gardens. Animal bone was shaped for use as tools. These included awls, punches, fish hooks, bone needles, and hide scrapers (Griffin 1943). Their jewelry included beads, hair pins, pendants, tinklers, and shell. These were also made of both bone and shell. Gourds from their garden and turtle shell were used for ceremonial rattles.

Archaeology

This first site recognized as such is the Feurt Phase type site of which following discovered sites in this Ohio Valley sub-region are compared. The site was excavated in 1916 by archaeologists who found 345 burials, all but one being in the flexed position. The artifacts of flint, stone, bone, shell and pottery were typical of the Fort Ancient Tradition. The majority of flint arrowheads were elongated and triangular shaped with needle-like points.

Before the site was excavated, cannel coal effigy canines of the carnivora were found by a Mr. Wertz (Mills 1917:307). Fewer were found later according to Mills. The Freut Mound copper found was considered to Mills' opinion acquired by barter. He relates some shell and beads were similar to the corresponding type found nearby at Tremper Mound. The mounds were visited and opened by Prof. Moorehead in the year 1896 (Mills 1917:308).

Location