Mann site
37°54′44.5″N 87°50′20″W / 37.912361°N 87.83889°W / 37.912361; -87.83889
The Mann site (12 Po 2) is a Crab Orchard culture site located off Indian Mound Road in Mount Vernon, Posey County, Indiana. It was placed on the National Historic Register on October 1, 1974.[1] Exotic ceramics and other artifacts found at the site reflect contact with Ohio Hopewell people, in addition to more distant peoples in the Southeast of the Swift Creek culture of the Georgia Piedmont and Gulf Coastal Plain.
In addition, the scale and complexity of works here suggests that the population was larger than at comparable Ohio sites. It may have been the largest Hopewell site in the Midwest.
Description
The site is a large late Middle Woodland period multicomponent complex of mounds, geometric earthworks, and habitation sites near the confluence of the Wabash and Ohio rivers in extreme southwestern Indiana, dating between about 100 and 500 CE. It is located on a high river terrace.[2]
The scale and complexity of mounds and other earthworks at the Mann site is rivaled in the Midwest only by the Hopewell sites of southern Ohio. Its population size may have been on a scale unparalleled by any of the Ohio centers and perhaps by any other Hopewell site in the Midwest.[2]
Significance
Many artifacts of exotic raw materials and foreign manufacture recovered from the site reflect participation in Hopewell ceremonialism and status differentiation. A unique aspect of the materials found is the large amount of complicated stamped, simple stamped, and tetrapodal vessels. Vessels such as these are commonly found in contemporary sites from the southeastern United States, but are rare in the Ohio Valley. These ceramics are stylistically similar to Early Swift Creek culture ceramics commonly found in the Georgia Piedmont and Gulf Coastal Plain. Some of the design motifs documented at the Mann site are identical to examples found in Georgia.
Microscopic and x-ray diffraction analysis of these artifacts shows the most likely source for these exotic ceramics lies in the Blue Ridge and southern Appalachian Piedmont Provinces. Investigations in the Blue Ridge and southern Appalachian Piedmont Provinces show that sites from the Middle Woodland Connestee phase were in contact with Ohio Hopewell populations between about 200 and 500 CE. Evidence for this contact comes from similarities in vessel form, decoration, surface treatment and tempering agents. These attributes are also shared with stamped sherds from the Mann site. This suggests that the fine simple stamped sherds at the Mann site were manufactured by Connestee phase populations in the Appalachian Summit area.
The rarity of these artifacts suggests that at Ohio Hopewell interactions with populations in the Appalachian Summit area, Georgia Piedmont and Gulf Coastal Plain were uncommon occurrences, characterized by the occasional northern movement of ceramics. Another unusual occurrence at the Mann site is the local production of vessels using Georgian Piedmont designs in significant numbers.[3] Examples of a type of pottery decoration consisting of a diamond-shaped checks found at the Mann site are also known from Hopewell sites in Ohio (such as Seip Earthworks, Rockhold, Harness, and Turner), as well as from Southeastern sites with Hopewellian assemblages, such as the Miner's Creek site, Leake Mounds, 9HY98, and Mandeville site in Georgia, and the Yearwood site in southern Tennessee.[4]
See also
- Mount Vernon Site - Large Hopewell mound located several miles down the Ohio River. Looted and mostly destroyed in 1988.
- Hopewell tradition
- List of Hopewell sites
- List of archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Indiana
References
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ a b "Late Hopewell settlement patterns in southeastern Indiana". Retrieved January 3, 2010.
- ^ "Southeastern stamped ceramics at the Mann site: Identifying local and non-local production". Retrieved January 3, 2010.
- ^ "Excavation and Archaeological Investigation at Bartow County's Leake Site-Evidence for Interaction". Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
External links
- Ancient Artistry
- Hopewell Archeology Newsletter Volume 1, Number 1, May 1995
- v
- t
- e
- Woodland period
- List of Hopewell sites
- Mound Builders
- List of archaeological periods (North America)
- Beam Farm
- Benham Mound
- Cary Village Site
- Cedar-Bank Works
- Dunns Pond Mound
- Ellis Mounds
- Ety Enclosure
- Ety Habitation Site
- Everett Knoll Complex
- Fort Ancient
- Fortified Hill Works
- Great Hopewell Road
- High Banks Works
- Hopeton Earthworks
- Hopewell Culture National Historical Park
- Indian Mound Cemetery
- Keiter Mound
- Marietta Earthworks
- Moorehead Circle
- Mound of Pipes
- Nettle Lake Mound Group
- Newark Earthworks
- Oak Mounds
- Orators
- Perin Village Site
- Pollock Works
- Portsmouth Earthworks
- Rocky Fork Enclosures
- Rocky Fork Mounds
- Seip Earthworks and Dill Mounds District
- Shawnee Lookout
- Shriver Circle Earthworks
- Stubbs Earthworks
- Tremper Mound and Works
- Williamson Mound Archeological District
- Carrier Mills Archaeological District
- Cleiman Mound
- Hubele site
- Mann site
- Mount Vernon Site
- O'byams Fort site
- Wilson site
- Yankeetown site
- Goodall site
- Norton Mound group
- Lewiston Mound
- Serpent Mounds Park
- LeVescounte Mounds
Santa Rosa-Swift Creek culture
- Crystal River Archaeological State Park
- Etowah Indian Mounds
- Leake Mounds
- Kolomoki Mounds
- Miner's Creek site
- Pierce Site
- Swift Creek mound site
- Third Gulf Breeze
- Yearwood site
- Yent Mound
- Armstrong culture
- Copena culture
- Fourche Maline culture
- Laurel complex
- Saugeen complex
- Old Stone Fort (Tennessee)