Taber Well Site (33HO611): A Middle Woodland Habitation and Surplus Lithic Production Site in the Hocking Valley, Southeastern Ohio, The

Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, Spring 2008 by Peoples, Nicole, Abrams, Elliot M, Freter, AnnCorinne, Jokisch, Brad, Patton, Paul E

The distribution of chipped stone artifacts, represented by count per cubic meter of soil, is presented in Figures 3 and 4, which dearly indicated artifact densities in the site core. In addition, there are several lithic artifacts dusters in the site core, induding eight Upper Mercer cores and one Vanport core in Unit 10; twelve Upper Mercer cores in Unit 3; a � grooved axe, two celts, pottery, a hammerstone, and a nutting stone in Unit 13. These dusters further reflect domestic activities at the site core.

Pottery

Ninety-five potsherds were recovered at Taber Well. Of these, one indeterminate fragment came from Unit 15, and nine body sherds and three small fragments of Plain Ware (totaling 26.7 g in weight and ranging from 6.9 to 8.5 mm in thickness), came from Level 1 of Unit 13 (Figure 6). A deposit of in situ ceramics at the base of postmold Feature 21 in Unit 33, used for chinking, yielded 82 Plain Ware ceramic fragments totaling 150.9 g. These 82 sherds induded two rim sherds, 26 body sherds, and 54 small fragments, ranging from 6.3 to 8.7 mm in thidoiess. Both rim sherds exhibited an out flared, beveled rim with interior and exterior smoothing. The largest rim sherd was gauged to represent a vessel with an aperture approximately 32 cm in diameter. The ceramics from this single feature represent no more than one or two vessels. The Plain Ware sherds were tempered with igneous rock, with no exterior markings.

Ceramic typologies in the valley, especially for the Woodland period, are often of limited value given the low number of sherds at excavated sites, the lack of exterior decoration, and the longevity of use of ceramic types. Thus, ceramic analysis does not provide useful measures of local variability over space and time. However, the ceramics used for chinking a post (Feature 21), radiocarbon dated to 2000 /- 80 B.P., may provide one of the best archaeological contexts for assessing Middle Woodland pottery in future analyses. Minimally, we suggest that the presence of ceramics reflects domestic activity at the site.

Data from the Peripheral Survey

In the lower, peripheral area of the site, 2.58 m^sup 3^ were excavated and screened for artifacts (Table 7, Figure 3). Nearly all artifacts were chipped stone debitage, principally of Upper Mercer chert. FCR was scattered throughout the area and three ground stone fragments were recovered (Units A4, B2, B3). No features were encountered in this lower area. There was a distinct dropoff in the number of artifacts as one moved away from the elevated site core.

Given the absence of working tools, features, and any semblance of an activity area, we infer that the majority of artifacts in this lower area were deposited through intentional discard and run-off from the slope. Some set of activities, such as knapping, may have taken place here, but the data do not point to intensive use of this zone.

Discussion

There are several substantive results from the analysis of data from the Taber Well site. The first involves site function. Since the site was used by indigenous people over a protracted period of time, we respect the possibility that function shifted through time and that multiple and simultaneous functions could have been served. The collective evidence indicates, however, that the primary purpose of the site, especially from the terminal Late Archaic into the Middle Woodland periods, was for habitation. The evidence for domestic use includes (1) abundant chipped stone artifacts representing many reduction stages; (2) numerous hearths and posts indicative of domestic activities and architectural structures; (3) a wide range of ground stone artifacts similarly indicative of household chores; (4) dusters of tool kits; (5) superimposed features reflecting recurrent usage of space; and (6) the presence of pottery. These data compare favorably with other small Middle Woodland residential sites such as the Wade site (Church and Ericksen 1997) and the Murphy site (Dancey 1991).