The Rockhouse Cliffs Rockshelters ( 12PE98 and 12PE100) are a pair of rockshelters in the far southern region of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. Located amid broken terrain in the

Hoosier National Forest The Hoosier National Forest is a property managed by the United States Forest Service in the hills of southern Indiana. Composed of four separate sections, it has a total area of . Hoosier National Forest's headquarters are located in Bedford, wi ...

, the shelters may have been inhabited for more than ten thousand years by peoples ranging from the Early Archaic period until the twentieth century. As a result of their extensive occupation and their remote location, they are important and well-preserved

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

s and have been named a

historic site A historic site or heritage site is an official location where pieces of political, military, cultural, or social history have been preserved due to their cultural heritage value. Historic sites are usually protected by law, and many have been rec ...

Geology

The shelters are located in western Union Township just south of the Leopold Township line in central Perry County; their PLSS location is

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24,

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5 South, Range 2 West. This portion of the county is extremely difficult of access: Perry County is the hilliest part of Indiana, and the land surrounding the shelters is isolated even by Perry County standards. The area was once heavily cultivated, but during the 1930s, the

Civilian Conservation Corps The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a voluntary government work relief program that ran from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men ages 18–25 and eventually expanded to ages 17–28. The CCC was a major part of ...

engaged in a

reforestation Reforestation (occasionally, reafforestation) is the natural or intentional restocking of existing forests and woodlands (forestation) that have been depleted, usually through deforestation, but also after clearcutting. Management A debat ...

program on the former farmsteads. Rockshelters are common in the region; a cursory

field survey Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fi ...

found 70 shelters countywide in 1953. Between the two shelters, away from the southern shelter, lies a small

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season) Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...

. A road formerly ran atop the cliff edge, but when the area became a forest preserve, the road was abandoned, and it was inaccessible to all wheeled vehicles by the 1950s.

Archaeological investigations

Some of the earliest digging at the site appears to have occurred during the 1930s: one reforestation team active in the area was led by an avid pothunter, and every new rockshelter that he encountered was subject to "exploration" by his crewmen. The Rockhouse Cliffs Rockshelters were recorded by the first scholarly archaeological survey of Perry County. Conducted by a team led by

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

archaeologist James H. Kellar in mid-1953, the survey operated under the sponsorship of the

Indiana Historical Bureau The Indiana State Library and Historical Bureau is a public library building, located in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is the largest public library in the state of Indiana, housing over 60,000 manuscripts. Established in 1934, the library has gather ...

and the guidance of

Indiana University Indiana University (IU) is a system of public universities in the U.S. state of Indiana. Campuses Indiana University has two core campuses, five regional campuses, and two regional centers under the administration of IUPUI. *Indiana Universi ...

archaeologist Glenn Black.

Conclusions

Rockhouse Cliffs was occasionally inhabited during the Early Archaic period,Looking at Prehistory: Early Archaic Period 8,000 to 6,000 B.C.
Forest Service, 2008-11-21. Accessed 2013-05-02. although neither Rockhouse Cliffs nor other shelters in the Hoosier National Forest has produced signs of house construction. Among the distinctive forms of Archaic points found at the site is the Elk River Stemmed type; Rockhouse Cliffs is one of the most important sites known to have yielded this point, which has been found as far away as

Russell Cave Russell Cave National Monument is a U.S. National Monument in northeastern Alabama, United States, close to the town of Bridgeport, Alabama, Bridgeport. The monument was established on May 11, 1961, when 310 acres (1.3 km2) of land were ...

in northern Alabama as well as in prominent closer sites such as western Kentucky's Indian Knoll.Justice, Noel D. ''Stone Age Spear and Arrow Points of the Midcontinental and Eastern United States : a Modern Survey and Reference''. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1995, 112.

Preservation

Rockhouse Cliffs Rockshelters warning sign

The shelters were listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

in April 1986 because of their archaeological importance; they are two of just three National Register-listed rockshelter sites in Indiana, along with the Potts Creek Rockshelter to the north in

Crawford County Crawford County is the name of eleven counties in the United States: * Crawford County, Arkansas * Crawford County, Georgia * Crawford County, Illinois * Crawford County, Indiana * Crawford County, Iowa * Crawford County, Kansas * Crawford Count ...

References

External links

* {{National Register of Historic Places in Indiana 1953 archaeological discoveries Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana Archaic period in North America Geography of Perry County, Indiana Hoosier National Forest Middle Mississippian culture Rock shelters in the United States Woodland period National Register of Historic Places in Perry County, Indiana