Ritter Public Library is pleased to host the first Northern Ohio Archaeology Symposium, sponsored by Archaeological Society of Ohio (ASO), Sandusky Bay Chapter ASO, Firelands Archaeology, Archaeology of North Central Ohio, Johnny Appleseed Chapter ASO, Firelands Historical Society, Amherst Historical Society, Lorain County Historical Society, Brownhelm Historical Society, Huron Historical Society, and Vermilion Historical Society. Attend all 5 sessions, or just those that interest you. Each presentation will be about 45 minutes with 15 minutes for Q&A. Registration is recommended to guarantee your seat. 

10 AM: Geologic Evolution of the Lake Erie Shore and its Utilization by Native American Peoples
By Charles Herdendorf, PhD, Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University

This presentation will address the complex geologic history of the Lake Erie Region with special attention to how the resulting topographic features and natural resources have been utilized for indigenous peoples and modern society to sustain settlement. Geologic events including plate tectonics, glaciation, and shoreline erosion have all contributed to the favorable setting for human occupation.

11 AM: Identifying Indigenous Ceremonialism in Northern Ohio: Archaeological Discoveries at the Heckelman Site
By Brian G. Redmond, PhD, Curator Emeritus, The Cleveland Museum of Natural History; Director of Archaeology, Firelands Archaeology

For more than a century, Ohio archaeologists have studied the remains of ancient societies which created impressive mounds and earthworks in the middle Ohio Valley. Archaeological research now points to a northern expression of this ceremonialism best known for Adena and Hopewell societies to the south. For ten seasons, Cleveland Museum of Natural History archaeologists and Firelands Archaeology volunteers conducted excavations at the Heckelman site in Erie County. Dr. Redmond describes this four-acre ceremonial complex where geophysical surveys and excavations revealed the construction of ditch and wooden post enclosures dating between 2800 and 1600 years ago and used for complex rituals involving communal feasting and the erection of large ceremonial poles. The utilization of water barriers, both natural and artificial, to enclose the core ritual precinct and the use of colored earths and mineral crystals point to possible cosmological associations of the Heckelman site ritual landscape.

12 PM: Break for lunch (lunch not provided)

1:30 PM: The Dating Evidence for Upper Palaeolithic Ritual and Sled Burial at Lower Blue Lick, Kentucky
By Dr. Michael Gramly, American Society of Amateur Archaeology

After two seasons of archaeological endeavor at the monumental Lower Blue Lick site, Nicholas County, north-central Kentucky, a series of absolute (radiocarbon) dates has been obtained. These dates bear directly upon the nature and significance of ritual behavior at Lower Blue Lick and kindred Upper Palaeolithic sites.

2:30 PM: Buried Sites near the Village of Walhonding, Ohio
By Dr. Nigel Brush, Professor Emeritus, Ashland University and Visiting Professor at The College of Wooster

The Walhonding River is formed by the junction of the Mohican and Kokosing rivers near the small village of Walhonding in western Coshocton County. A series of valley train terraces nearly block the valley just below this river junction, thereby creating a large body of standing water and rapid sediment deposition whenever the rivers are in flood stage. Magnetometer surveys, text excavations, pipeline cuts, and natural erosion channels have thus far revealed the presence of several buried village/camp sites, including: Late Archaic (2400 B.C.), Chesser (A.D. 1000-1300), and Philo-Belmont (A.D. 1300-1500).

3:30 PM: Ohio and the People Without History: Bridging the Divide Between Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology at Fort Miamis in Maumee, Ohio
By Dr. Robert Chidester, The Mannik & Smith Group, Inc.

Fort Miamis, located in present-day Maumee, Ohio, was a British fort established in American territory in 1794. Following the Battle of Fallen Timbers, the British turned the fort over to American forces in 1796; it was abandoned by 1798. Excavations of Fort Miamis by Dr. G. Michael Pratt from 1981-1984 and by The Mannik & Smith Group, Inc. in 2017-2018 documented extensive evidence of the British and American occupations, but also robust evidence of pre-contact Native American occupation of the same location. This presentation will examine the implications of such repeated occupations for archaeological practice and interpretation.