Prehistory of Ohio provides an overview of the activities that occurred prior to Ohio's recorded history. The ancient hunters, Paleo-Indians (13000 B.C. to 7000 B.C.), descended from humans that crossed the Bering Strait. There is evidence of Paleo-Indians in Ohio, who were hunter-gatherers that ranged widely over land to hunt large game. For instance, mastodon bones were found at the Burning Tree Mastodon site that showed that it had been butchered. Clovis points have been found that indicate interaction with other groups and hunted large game. The Paleo Crossing site and Nobles Pond site provide evidence that groups interacted with one another. The Paleo-Indian's diet included fish, small game, and nuts and berries that they gathered. They lived in simple shelters made of wood and bark or hides. Canoes were created by digging out trees with granite axes.
The weather warmed and forest grew more dense with next period of the Archaic people (8000 B.C. to 500 B.C.). Although they were also hunter-gatherers, they did not travel as far for food and began to live longer periods of time in one place. They dug pits to store food and built studier lodging. Tools, like spear-throwers, were more sophisticated. Base camps were established for winter lodging. The Glacial Kame culture, a late Archaic group, traded for sea shell and copper with other groups and were used as a sign of prestige within the group, for respected healers and hunters. The objects were buried with their owners. By the Woodland period (800 B.C. to A.D. 1200) of the Post-Archaic Period, people lived in villages, developed a rich ritual and artistic life, began building earthworks and mounds, some of which were used for burial. While they still hunted and gathered food, they cultivated crops. The Adena and Hopewell cultures flourished during the Early and Middle Woodland periods, respectively. The population of Woodland people expanded dramatically and groups lived in larger villages with defensive walls or ditches built for protection. Ritual and artistic endeavors waned during the Late Woodland period, as did trading with other groups. There were not new earthworks or mounds during this later period.
During the late prehistoric period (A.D. 900 to 1650), villages were larger, often built on high ground, near a river, and often surrounded by a wooden stockade. Earthworks returned during this period, but were not built in the frequency that they were during the Woodland period. The Serpent Mound, the country's largest effigy mound, was created by the Fort Ancient culture. Maize became a staple of their diet, while squash and beans were cultivated. The centers of villages were the locations where ceremonial rituals were conducted.
The Early Contact period (1600–1750) began when Ohio tribes met Europeans, but they had begun to acquire European trade items in as much as a hundred years before they met through trade with other Native American groups. They traded for glass beads, brass, and copper items. Direct contact began in the late 17th century when traders, white explorers, and settlers came to Ohio. With them came smallpox which devastated Native American tribes, particularly affecting children and the elderly.
Background
Humans and animals migrated over the Bering Strait to populate the Americas. They then traveled over hundreds of years into what is now the United States. The animals that came from Asia include mastodons, mammoths, elk, bison, caribous, and muskox. Some of the earliest humans may have migrated through Canada to the Great Lakes region and then south from there, according to some archaeologists. During the time of the migration and until about 7,500 years ago, the Great Lakes extended south as far as Allen County, Ohio.
The glaciers left bogs and small lakes and the flat Erie Plain along the Lake Erie shore. The Glaciated Allegheny Plateau southeast of Cleveland included steep Appalachian Mountains foothills that thousands of years ago had a dense Beech-Maple forest. By the time that Europeans made contact with Native Americans, the Erie Plain had wide river estuaries, coastal marshes, small prairies, and a mixed oak forest. The Central Till Plain had areas of native beech-oak-hickory woodland and "rolling terrain of glacial soils".
Paleo-Indian period
The Paleolithic period (13000 B.C. to 7000 B.C.) occurred during the last centuries of the Ice age. The native people of Ohio descended from those who crossed the Bering Strait land bridge from Asia to North America. The Paleo Indians are the earliest hunter-gatherers that ranged across what is now the state of Ohio. Their diet was based upon the food that they hunted—evidenced by distinctive spear points—fished, and gathered. Mammoth and mastodon, now extinct, were the big game animals that they hunted. They also hunted small game and deer. Fish was in their diet, as was fruit and nuts that they gathered seasonally. Bones from the Burning Tree Mastodon indicate that Paleo-Indians hunted and butchered the mastodon. Because evidence of Paleo-Indians is generally limited to the finding of stone tools, this has been considered a "one of the most spectacular Paleoindian finds in Ohio."
Clovis culture
The Clovis culture (9500 to 8000 B.C.) is the earliest known Paleo Indian culture in Ohio. They are named by the type of spear point that they used, the clovis point, which were discovered by archaeologists near Clovis, New Mexico. The points were attached to spears for hunting and are believed to have been used to hunt mastodons and mammoths. They ranged across the land for food and lived in shelters made of wooden pole covered with hides or tree bark. Their diet consisted of small and large game animals that they hunted, fish, berries and nuts. They created tools from flint, particularly Flint Ridge flint from Licking County and Upper Mercer flint from Coshocton County. They used flint because it was hard, durable, easy to flake when heated up, and could be made to have very sharp edges. Their tools included scrapers, knives, and spear points.
Culturally, there was a laissez-faire attitude. People could remain with a group of people, join another group of people, or split off from groups. If they were particularly skilled in a certain area, like healing, hunting, or another important skill, they earned the respect of the tribe. Elders were respected for their knowledge and experience. They usually, though, did not have chiefs. Most Native American people descended from the Clovis people.
Clovis artifacts dated to 13,000 years ago were found at the Paleo Crossing site in Medina County provides evidence of Paleo-Indians in northern Ohio and may be the area's oldest residents and archaeologist Dr. David Brose believes that they may be "some of the oldest certain examples of human activity in the New World." Small bands of hunters used the four acre site as a place to meet up with one another and exchange information, perform ceremonial rituals, and plan hunts for big game. The site contains charcoal recovered from refuse pits. There were also two post holes and tools that were made from flint from the Ohio River Valley in Indiana, 500 miles from Paleo Crossing, which indicates that the hunter-gatherers had a widespread social network and traveled across distances relatively quickly. The 22-acre Nobles Pond site in Stark County was a larger meeting place for bands of hunters, with a large collection of tools made from Ohio flint.
Other early sites are the Sandy Springs Site in Adams County, Sheriden Cave in Wyandot County, and the Welling site in Coshocton County.
Archaic
Archaic people (8000 B.C. to 500 B.C.) lived in a warmer climate after the end of the Ice Age and with thicker forests than their ancestors. The climate was similar to present-day Ohio in that the climate evolved into having four seasons. They used technology in a more sophisticated manner, and the same openness for members to join other groups of people or set out on their own. Over time, they began to live longer periods of time in one place, dug pits to store food and built studier lodging. Traveling for food, they hunted turkeys, deer, waterfowl, and passenger pigeons. They also fished and gathered berries, acorns and hickory nuts. As the climate changed, there were different foods available, resulting in dietary changes.
This period is divided up by archaeologists into Early (10,000-8,000 before present) and Middle Archaic cultures (8,000-5,000 before present) because there are different technological and cultural characteristics between the two groups. Early Archaic groups were smaller, but as the population increased they lived in larger groups. In the Middle Archaic period there was an increased variety of food. Later in the Archaic period, people developed trade routes which introduced new goods and ideas and bands became more culturally diverse.
The Archaic people continued to make their tools from flint, but they made a wider range of tools. The stone tools of the Paleo-Indians disappeared. The Early Archaic group had more spear points. New stone tools were made of the same flint to chert, but included spear points with large corner- and side-notches and large chert knives. Their shapes varied depending upon how they were to be used and some may have been attached to short handles to use like knives or to long spears for hunting. The Middle Archaic group created a wide range of tools, including knives, grinding tools and stones, scraping tools, plummets, and net sinkers. Mortars and pestles were used to grind food, like acorns, hickory nuts, walnuts, seeds, tubers, and rootes.
They made spear-throwers, or atlatls, that could be thrown with greater force and at a farther distance and with more accuracy. Bannerstones made of slate were attached to the shafts of the spear-thrower. They made axes out of granite, which they used to cut down trees and hollow out canoes or build houses. Slate was carved and polished and used as decorations or weights. They made jewelry, weights, and sinkers by grinding stone. They created base camps for the winter. A day in the life of an Archaic family member could include building a fire, fishing, grinding nuts for storage, and carving out a dugout canoe.
The last several thousands of years of the Archaic period saw a dramatic increase in the number of Archaic sites, indicating a rise in the population. There have also been a larger number of stone tools found during this period, including flake tools, drills, knives, scrapers, projectile points, and tools for grinding food. Fishing tackle, such as harpoon heads, net sinkers, and bone hooks, indicated that they were fishing in Lake Erie and in rivers. With climate change, beech-maple forests were well established.
Archaic sites include along the Maumee River or at Dupont Site, Weilnau Site, Raisch-Smith Site, Bowman Site in Montgomery County, and the Stephan Site in Darke County.
Glacial Kame culture The Glacial Kame culture, a late Archaic group, traded for sea shell and copper with other groups and were used as a sign of prestige within the group, such as respected healers and hunters. The objects were buried with their owners.
Post Archaic
Woodland period