The Madisonville site is a prehistoric

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

near Mariemont,

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. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

on October 16, 1974 as the "Mariemont Embankment and Village Site". Madisonville is the

type site In archaeology, a type site (American English) or type-site (British English) is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and H ...

for the Madisonville phase of

Fort Ancient The Fort Ancient culture is a Native American archaeological culture that dates back to . Members of the culture lived along the Ohio River valley, in an area running from modern-day Ohio and western West Virginia through to northern Kentucky ...

pottery. The 5-acre site is located on a bluff above the

Little Miami River The Little Miami River () is a Class I tributary of the Ohio River that flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed May 26, 2011 through five counties in southwestern Ohio ...

about 5 miles upstream from the Ohio River. While occupied over hundreds of years, it was settled most intensively in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and is the most excavated Fort Ancient site of this time period.Francis P. McManamon, Linda S. Cordell, Kent G. Lightfoot, George R. Milner, editors. Peneope Drooker, "Madisonville Site, Mariemont, Ohio"
in ''Archaeology in America: Northeast and Southeast,'' ABL-CLIO, 2009, pp. 109-110 Early twentieth-century excavations were carried out by staff of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1990, the Cincinnati Museum of Natural History has done additional studies, with findings increased by the use of current technology and professional practices. The village site was found to have had two or more small plazas, rather than just one central site, as seen at the earlier SunWatch Indian Village. This is believed to be the only Fort Ancient site whose people consumed

bison A bison (: bison) is a large bovine in the genus ''Bison'' (from Greek, meaning 'wild ox') within the tribe Bovini. Two extant taxon, extant and numerous extinction, extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American ...

as part of the game hunted to supplement their diet of maize. They may have hunted the animals in areas to the west of this site. Elk and deer were also valuable for their meat. The people also processed their bones, tendons and hides to make tools, musical instruments, clothing, and ornaments. Researchers found a large amount of goods of non-local materials and design, indicating the villagers were connected to a large exchange network. Items were identified as from the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (, ) is a large international river in the middle latitudes of North America connecting the Great Lakes to the North Atlantic Ocean. Its waters flow in a northeasterly direction from Lake Ontario to the Gulf of St. Lawren ...

region, on the New York and Canadian border, eastern present-day Iowa, and northern Alabama, as well as Tennessee. The size and limited range of European goods indicated they came from an indirect network at this time, rather than in direct trading. People at Madisonville made distinctive snake-shaped ornaments, which have been found at other sites as distant as

Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...

settlements in

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and western present-day

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

Notes

External links

"Madisonville site Information and Picture Gallery"
{{Archaeological NRHP in Hamilton County, Ohio Fort Ancient culture Historic districts in Ohio Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Ohio Archaeological sites in Hamilton County, Ohio National Register of Historic Places in Hamilton County, Ohio

See also

Notes

External links