Nobles Pond site is a 25-acre archaeological site near
Canton in
Stark County, Ohio
Stark County is a county located in the northeastern part of U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 374,853. Its county seat is Canton. The county was created in 1808 and organized the next year. It is named for John S ...
, and is a historical site with The Ohio Historical Society. It is one of the largest
Clovis culture
The Clovis culture is an archaeological culture from the Paleoindian period of North America, spanning around 13,050 to 12,750 years Before Present (BP). The type site is Blackwater Draw locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, where stone too ...
sites in North America. At the end of the
Ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...
, about 10,500 to 11,500 years ago, a large number of
Paleo-Indian
Paleo-Indians were the first peoples who entered and subsequently inhabited the Americas towards the end of the Late Pleistocene period. The prefix ''paleo-'' comes from . The term ''Paleo-Indians'' applies specifically to the lithic period in ...
s, the first people to live in Ohio, camped at the site. Artifacts on the site, primarily excavated by volunteers, provide insight into how they made and used tools, obtained materials, and how they lived.
It is an important site because it is one of the early Paleo-Indian sites in the Midwest.
There is a historical marker at the site by
The Ohio Historical Society. since 1992. Nobles Pond is now in a park for a residential area in
North Canton, Ohio
North Canton is a city in Stark County, Ohio, United States. The population was 17,842 at the 2020 census. It is a suburb in the Canton–Massillon metropolitan area.
History
North Canton was established as the village of New Berlin in 1831. R ...
.
Excavation
An emergency excavation on the site began in 1988 and was estimated to be completed in 1990. Dr. Mark Seeman led an investigation of the site with students and volunteers before a housing development was built on the site.
In nine places near Nobles Pond, they found stone tools grouped in clusters and an area that indicated either areas for specific activities or house floors of a structure. Artifacts found at the site were analyzed and curated.
Analysis
A study of the ways in which the stone tools were made was published by Michael J. Shott and Mark F. Seeman. The source and variety of the stone for tools can tell a lot about a group, whether it is sedentary with base camps or travels from place-to-place to find food. It could also identify whether a group of people engages with other groups of people.
Brian Patrick Kooyman states that “The Noble Pond occupants were undoubtedly mobile foragers and the lithic material is wholly dominated by non-local lithic material, conforming to the expected pattern of use of non-local material by mobile groups.
People of the Clovis culture are generally thought to be big game hunters, but analysis of eight Clovis points stained with blood have down that the Paleo-Indians of the Nobles Pond site hunted a wide range of animals. They were found to have hunted
elk
The elk (: ''elk'' or ''elks''; ''Cervus canadensis'') or wapiti, is the second largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. ...
,
caribou
The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...
,
deer
A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...
,
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 ...
,
bear
Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...
, and
rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...
.
Some points had more blood stains from multiple animals. While there is some surprise that Paleo-Indians ate rabbit, the
Cree
The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...
First Nations
First nations are indigenous settlers or bands.
First Nations, first nations, or first peoples may also refer to:
Indigenous groups
*List of Indigenous peoples
*First Nations in Canada, Indigenous peoples of Canada who are neither Inuit nor Mé ...
people from northern Ontario who have a diet that relies to a great extent on rabbit, as noted by anthropologist Bruce Winterhalder.
Large congregation sites
Another Paleo-Indian site in northern Ohio,
Paleo Crossing site, had evidence of a congregation site for groups of people. The Nobles Pond site had a larger congregation site for nomadic groups. Other sites with large-scale Paleo-Indian occupation include the
Vail site in Maine,
DEDIC/Sugarloaf Site in Massachusetts, and in Ontario—
Udora site,
Parkhill site, and Fisher.
References
Further reading
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External links
Nobles Pond site
{{Prehistoric technology
Archaeological sites in Ohio
Stark County, Ohio
Pre-statehood history of Ohio
Paleo-Indian period
Ohio History Connection