7/28/98
ATHENS, Ohio -- Elliot Abrams, associate professor of anthropology and sociology at Ohio University, and about 20 students in his summer field school have uncovered in rural Athens County the remnants of an Adena village inhabited from about 500 B.C. to 200 A.D.
Media representatives interested in visiting the site and interviewing Abrams and his students may do so between 9 a.m. and noon Monday, Aug. 3, through Wednesday, Aug. 5, by contacting Dwight Woodward at News Services at (740) 593-1886. Arrangements should be made by Friday, July 31. The class does not go to the site if it is raining.
The 10-week field school, Anthropology 465, is offered every other summer. This year's course began June 15 and includes mostly anthropology majors. Many of the students also are enrolled in one of Abrams' fall-quarter lab classes that will analyze and date items found on this dig using radio carbon dating techniques.
Abrams said this is the first extensive dig in the Hocking River Valley involving a Native American community from this time period. Previous digs have unearthed communities that existed from 1500 to 200 B.C. and 850 to 1250 A.D. People who lived in the village now being excavated contributed to construction of The Plains' Hartman and Connett burial mounds and sacred circles, Abrams said.
Students began work at the site by conducting a surface search of the field. Evidence gathered in that search helped define the approximate location of the village. Students then mapped out seven 2-by-2-meter squares and fourteen 1-by-1-meter squares and dug to a level depth of about 1 foot within each of the squares.
Students have found evidence of structures as well as charred animal bones, charcoal, tools and points (arrowheads). The most significant find is a roasting pit where the Adena people cooked meat and other food. Abrams expects a lab analysis of soil in the pit to turn up bits of seeds, animal bones and identifiable wood that would give students information on the forests of that time.
Once the students gathered an adequate number of samples, Abrams arranged for a bulldozer to skim off the top foot of dirt in a 20-by 30-yard area that is believed to have been the site of the village. The students now are studying the entire surface area and defining the various structures and other features that made up the village. Abrams plans to finish work at the site Aug. 6.
PLEASE NOTE: Abrams asks that the exact location of the site not be disclosed in media reports because of his concern it could be looted or vandalized. University News Services requests that any media reports refer only to a site in "rural Athens County."