The O. C. Voss site: Reassessing what we know about the Fort Ancient occupation of the central Scioto drainage and its tributaries

In this dissertation I present newly acquired data concerning the prehistoric occupation of the O. C. Voss site in Franklin County, Ohio, and provide a contemporary analysis of the results of archaeological investigation conducted at the site more than forty years ago by the Ohio Historical Society. Results of the research suggest Fort Ancient occupation of the central Scioto River drainage and its tributaries was not confined to the early period ca. A.D. 1000-1200 nor is a depopulation of the sub-region ca. A.D. 1350 supported.;The Voss site is located on a second terrace above Big Darby Creek in the Battelle-Darby Metro Park. After excavation of the Voss Mound in 1963, the original investigators placed the Voss site within the Late Woodland Cole Complex, a newly defined taxonomic unit. Within a few years of discovery of the village site associated with the mound, other archaeologists began to question the classification of the Voss site as Late Woodland and suggested attributes of the artifact assemblage indicated a Late Prehistoric Fort Ancient affiliation. Because details of the artifact assemblage, feature type, and village organization existed mostly in the gray literature, the Voss site has retained an incipient Late Prehistoric status in the minds of many researchers in the forty-plus years since discovery of the site. The 1966 village excavations uncovered numerous pit features and two structural patterns in a configuration that suggested a circular settlement. Yet, questions remained concerning the size of the village, its internal structure, subsistence patterns, and timing of occupation.;Recent investigation of the site utilized geophysical survey in the form of magnetic survey as the paramount method of data recovery. Additional data recovery techniques included magnetic anomaly testing through removal of the plowzone, anomaly coring, limited feature excavation, and shovel testing to determine patterns of artifact density within the village site. An analysis of ceramic and lithic attributes on previously and recently excavated materials is presented and discussed in relation to established temporal indicators. Because little information has been compiled on characteristics of mound construction within the Fort Ancient community, a review and analysis of excavated and reasonably well-documented Fort Ancient mounds was undertaken to assess characteristics of the Voss Mound.;The location of the Voss site is unique as it lies at the northern margin of the Fort Ancient Culture area and is located more than 60 km north of any excavated Fort Ancient site within the Scioto River drainage. Despite its location on the northern boundary and within the dissected valleys of the Big Darby Creek, it will be argued that occupation of the site occurred during the Late Prehistoric period by Fort Ancient populations who adhered to a well-established intra-site settlement pattern of a circular village organized around a central, community-oriented plaza. The Voss site does not represent an incipient stage of the Fort Ancient Tradition of the Late Prehistoric period but rather a site utilized by Fort Ancient populations into the early 15th century.