ROI004, An Archaeological Assessment of Fox Island County Park

Summary

This is the tDAR Project page that represents Reports of Investigation 004 from the Applied Anthropology Laboratories, Ball State University. 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