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Local Archaeologists Uncover Native American Houses
< < Back to local-archaeologists-uncover-native-american-housesOhio University students and local archaeologists are excavating the site of a 2,400 year-old tribal village.
The village was recently discovered west of Athens and the outlines of the four structures found are believed to be Native American houses.
Professor of Anthropology Elliot Abrams said this is a special type of site because it is a domestic site.
Abrams says the site is rare because not a lot of sites have excavated well-recovered remnants of houses.
"These houses were wattle and daub rectangular houses," Abrams said. "They are 15 foot by 9 foot; they're solid, wooden pole-based mud houses that are all-weather houses."
During the excavation, the archaeologists discovered artifacts that were used to clear brush and keep the village clear.
Abrams says the group also found circular houses underneath the rectangular ones.
The design of the excavation was set up so that the group could go through as many sites as possible.
"The research design was to focus on these types of domestic sites and to excavate as many as we could through time so that we could sort of put the broad history of the Algonquin speaking Native Americans together," said Abrams.
Abrams explained that the four houses found meant that the Native American community housed 18 to 20 people.