ROI004, An Archaeological Assessment of Fox Island County Park, Allen County, Indiana

Author(s): Donald R. Cochran

Year: 1980

Summary

Recent archaeological surveys of portions of Fox Island County Park near Fort Wayne, Indiana, revealed the locations of 16 archaeological sites. This study was undertaken to explore the factors affecting site selection and to analyze the artifacts and investigate lithic procurement and reduction strategies as reflected by them. Further, an attempt was made to understand Fox Island's role in the prehistoric subsistence settlement system. The sites appear to have been selected because of the environmental setting of Fox Island, a wooded sand dune complex surrounded by wet prairie and marsh with upland deciduous forests within a mile. The variety of habitats concentrated a wealth of food resources within an easily exploitable area. Analysis of the artifacts from the sites revealed a primary reliance on lithic raw material from near Huntington and an occupational sequence spanning approximately 8,000 years from the Early Archaic through historic aboriginal occupation of the area. Cultural affiliation of the Late Woodland occupation was with the southeastern Michigan Younge Tradition. Although somewhat contradictory, subsistence-settlement pattern models from surrounding areas suggested that Fox Island should have been primarily occupied during spring and summer in conjunction with the seasons of greatest carrying capacity of the wet prairie and marsh. This was consistent with the few food remains encountered.

3D models of the artifacts recovered from Report of Investigations 004, An Archaeological Assessment of Fox Island County Park, can be viewed using the following link: https://skfb.ly/oWCpy

Cite this Record

ROI004, An Archaeological Assessment of Fox Island County Park, Allen County, Indiana. Donald R. Cochran. 1980 ( tDAR id: 463920) ; doi:10.48512/XCV8463920

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

URL: http://www.bsu.edu/aal


Keywords

Culture
Archaic • Historic • Late Archaic • Late Woodland • Unidentified Prehistoric • Woodland

Material
Ceramic • Chipped Stone • Fauna • Fire Cracked Rock • Ground Stone • Human Remains • Metal • Shell

Site Name
12Al115 • 12Al116 • 12Al117 • 12Al118 • 12Al119 • 12Al120 • 12Al121 • 12Al122 • 12Al123 • 12Al124 • 12Al456 • 12Al467 • 12Al468 • 12Al469 • 12Al532 • 12Al560

Site Type
Artifact Scatter • Isolated Artifact • Isolated Burial

Investigation Types
Collections Research

Geographic Keywords
Allen County • Indiana

Spatial Coverage

min long: -85.337; min lat: 40.917 ; max long: -84.804; max lat: 41.265 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Kevin Nolan; Applied Anthropology Laboratories, Ball State University

Repository(s): Applied Anthropology Laboratories, Ball State University

Record Identifiers

Reports of Investigation(s): 004

File Information

  Name Size Creation Date Date Uploaded Access
ROI004-PDF-OCR---Marked_Redacted.pdf 51.19mb Jul 10, 2024 5:07:36 AM Public
ROI004-PDFA.pdf 49.56mb Jul 10, 2024 5:07:36 AM Confidential