Examining Ritualism in Late Archaic Domestic Contexts: Clay-floored Shrines at the Burrell Orchard Site, Ohio

Summary

Much past research on the development of Archaic ideological complexity in eastern North America has focused primarily on ritualism and ceremony related to mortuary behaviors. Less attention has been given to ritualism within what is commonly thought of as domestic contexts and without overt mortuary ceremonialism or monumental architecture. The recent discovery of puddled clay architecture (floors) and associated features at the Burrell Orchard site (33LN15) in northeast Ohio provides new evidence for the development of significant, non-mortuary ritualism within Late Archaic basecamp contexts. That such activity took place alongside normal seasonal subsistence tasks is revealed by thick midden deposits containing abundant burned rock, nutshell and deer bone. The several bone and stone tool deposits associated with the floors, along with the labor-intensive nature of the clay construction for what appears to have been individually short-term usage, support the interpretation of these features as shrines possibly associated with hunting ritualism.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20867