Redmond, Brian G. (Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, Indiana University)
A SURVEY OF YANKEETOWN PHASE SITES IN SOUTHWESTERN INDIANA
From May through July of 1986, a reconnaissance survey of Yankeetown phase sites
was conducted in southwestern Indiana. The eight week survey was the core of a
multiphase study of Yankeetown phase settlement patterns in the lower Ohio and
Wabash river valleys. Phase I of the study involved an extensive examination of
site records, collector interviews, ceramic collections, and published and unpublished
survey and excavation reports. The research protect was funded by a 1985 Survey
and Planning Grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division
of Historic Preservation and Archaeology.
The Yankeetown phase was a discrete prehistoric cultural manifestation characterized
archaeologically by distinctive incised, bar-stamped, filleted, plain, and cordmarked
grog-tempered ceramics. Other diagnostic elements include pottery discs, human
female effigy figurines, triangular points, stone discoidals, welts, and bone
awls and needles. Subsistence was based primarily on the hunting of deer, the
gathering of wild plant foods, and, to a lesser extent, maize agriculture. Several
tenth and eleventh century radiocarbon determinations from Yankeetown sites in
the study area and two recently acquired dates of A.D. 750+110 (Beta-17320) and
A.D. 790+120 (Beta-17321) from the Yankeetown type site place the Yankeetown phase
in the time interval between A.D. 700 and A.D. 1100.
The primary objective of the field survey (Phase II) was the identification of
the size of individual Yankeetown phase components through the measurement of
the surface distribution of cultural material. In most cases, site survey consisted
of visual inspection of ground surfaces using pedestrian traverses with an average
interval of 15 feet. Artifacts and other cultural material were marked with colored
survey flags, and the size of the flagged Yankeetown surface scatter was measured.
At the completion of Phases I and II a total of 56 Yankeetown phase components
had been identified in southwestern Indiana. Information on the size ranges and
environmental relationships of these sites has suggested that Yankeetown populations
preferred to occupy alluvial floodplains and terraces. Settlements were situated
on the most fertile and easily tilled silt loams of the region with elevations
over 350 feet. Site types included large sedentary villages (1.0-2.0 ha) located
along main river channels, hamlets (.25-1.0 ha) situated away from the main rivers
near backwater swamps and sloughs, and small, special purpose, extractive camps
(under .25 ha) found in floodplain, terrace, and upland environmental zones of
the region.
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