- Ohio History in 2000 Words
- Mound Builders
- Native Ohioans
- The Ohio Company
- Ohio's Wood Forts
- Indian Wars
- War of 1812
- Ohio's Canals
- Ohio's Road
- Scenic Railroads / Museums
- Underground Railroad
- Civil War in Ohio
Fort Ancient perimeter wall overlooking the Miami River Valley.
The Mound Builders existed in Ohio for centuries, but by the time the first European explorers plied Ohio's rivers, the Mound Builders were nowhere to be found. Their burial mounds and highly evolved earthworks were all that remained. Like the surrounding areas, the burial mounds and earthworks had large trees growing from them, trees that would later be dated to be about 200 - 300 years old. While this is not necessarily strong evidence, it does suggest that the creators of these mounds had been gone from the area for a long time.
We know from the evidence that the Mound Builders evolved over the centuries. Technologies of the day changed, their mortuary rituals changed, farming practices changed. Archeological evidence suggest that at some point their culture stopped being identified with their historic central locations. Did that mean they no longer existed as a people? Did some internal conflicts or power struggles cause the breakup of the culture? Did changes in the weather force a mass migration from one area to another? No one can say for certain. There is certainly no shortage of theories about the Mound Builders, where they came from or why they disappeared. When a civilization has no preserved written history, the fate of that civilization history is left to speculation. The following are a few of the more plausible speculations.
Native Americans from eastern North America who were mostly hunters, came into the Ohio Territory and waged a war against the primarily agricultural Mound Builders. Later Mound Builder sites that we have identified as the Fort Ancient Culture, were constructed on elevated positions, with walls surrounding increasingly larger villages suggesting that these sites were created as possible defensive positions. Excavations of grave sites, particularly in the northeast, show numerous remains that had arrowheads embedded in the skeletons. Some remains besides having multiple arrowheads, also showed signs of animal teeth marks suggesting that the individual may have been killed outside the compound and left to scavengers before being brought inside for proper burial.
Although the Fort Ancient populations were more dense, they were highly dependent upon their harvest for enough food to last until the next harvest. An enemy looking to overcome them could easily destroy the crops before harvest. This tactic was used extensively in later conflicts with Native Americans. In this situation, the population would be dependent upon storage of previous harvests. It is unlikely that there would be enough wild game to support a large culture. Many years later, Native Americans living Ohio would have problems finding enough wild game to support their smaller family groups at times.
It is highly speculative that these particular earthworks might be considered defensive. However, it should be noted that these enclosures are entirely different from their predecessors. Early earthworks were either highly stylized circular and rectangular structures, or effigy structures such as Serpent Mound. The Fort Ancient culture built extremely large irregular shaped enclosures that also included the traditional burial mounds and some geometric shapes which might suggest the outer perimeter walls were defensive.
As mentioned earlier, large civilizations are highly dependent upon their agricultural efforts and being able to store those harvests for later usage until the next harvest. If anything would happen to season's crop could be devastating to the population as a whole. This is complete speculation, but for a civilization that depends so much on fall harvests, anything that threatens those crops could be a cause for problems. This could be the result of a major climate shift or some sort of pestilence such as the what happened during the Irish Potato Famine in the mid 1800s.
During this period a widespread blight caused potato crop failure with devastating results especially for Ireland since their culture depended heavily on potatoes. The result: millions of people died from starvation, millions more immigrated to the United States for their survival.
Is it possible that a large civilization such as the Mound Builders that depended heavily on agriculture for its survival also had some type of extended crop failure because of plant disease or insect infestations?
Another possibility is that the Mound Builders died from a highly infectious disease. Numerous skeletons show that most Mound Builders died before the age of 50, with the most deaths occurring in their 30s. We know that after Columbus opened up North and South America to land-starved Europeans, they brought with them several highly contagious diseases that had come into existence from the close proximity of domestic animals and humans in Europe. The western hemisphere had no domesticated animals and so these diseases had not developed here and there was no built-in immunity to these diseases.
Although it appears that for the most part, the Mound Builders had left Ohio before Columbus arrived in the Caribbean, there were still a few Native Americans using burial practices similar to what the Mound Builders used. This type of activity disappeared completely some 300 years ago.
It seems that new discoveries are indicating that North America had been visited by Europeans long before the Italian explorer made his historic voyage. Could it be that these early explorers also carried diseases that the ancient Americans had no resistance too? Could it be that these earlier explorations led to the destruction of the American populations long before the early Spanish explorers reached the Ohio valley?
Today we're all familiar with the term "Climate Change." Back in the mid 1200s, the planet experienced an extreme climate change. It was a period of time that became known as the Little Ice Age.
Up to that time Europeans lived in what is known as the European Warm Period. Europe and most likely, North America, experienced a warmer period than normal for a long period of time. In Europe, farmers were able to grow many grain crops on land that had never been able to support these crops. Because of the abundance of food, population numbers increased dramatically.
In North America it is quite possible that the same thing happened. We know that the civilization known today as Mound Builders, had learned to farm. The crops they grew allowed larger civilizations to develop just like Europe on land that had not been able to support anything other than just small hunter - gatherer groups.
In the 13th Century, the climate changed in a dramatic fashion. One summer the temperatures didn't rise. Crops failed and this was just the beginning of a century long shift in climate. Areas that could support large populations, no longer could support these large populations. Starvation and the effects associated with starvation, killed off millions of people in Europe and this climate change lasted for 100s of years.
It is quite possible that what happened in Europe, happened in North America. The land could not support large-scale farming necessary for the numerous population centers existing in Ohio. Populations either died or migrated south. Those that stayed had to rely primarily on hunting. Over the following centuries, these small groups followed the large herds of buffalo and deer as they migrated from region to region. In time they began to establish slightly larger groups sharing common chores like salt gathering, arrowhead making, and leather tanning. In time, these hunting groups became known by their post-contact names: Iroquois and Algonquian, and from these the many various peoples that came to inhabit the land when the first explorers found.
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