Editing Fort Ancient (section)

===Chronology===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Periods || Phase || Dates
|-
| Early Fort Ancient
| Croghan
| 1000 to 1200
|-
| Middle Fort Ancient
| Manion
| 1200 to 1400
|-
| rowspan="2"| Late Fort Ancient
| Gist
| 1400 to 1550
|-
| Montour
| 1550 to 1750
|}<ref name=CARMEAN>{{citation|last=Carmean|first=Kelli|title=Points in time: Assessing a Fort Ancient triangular projectile point typology|publisher=Southeastern Archaeology|date=Winter 2009|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7737/is_200912/ai_n52375623/?tag=content;col1|page=2}}</ref>
In about 1000 CE, terminal [[Woodland period#Late Woodland period (500–1000 CE)|Late Woodland]] groups in the Middle Ohio Valley adopted [[maize]] agriculture. They settled in small, year-round, [[nuclear family]] households and settlements of up to 40-50 individuals. These scattered settlements, located along terraces that overlooked rivers and occasionally on flood plains, would be occupied only briefly before the groups would migrate elsewhere.

By 1200 CE, the small villages had grown into settlements of up to 300 people. These settlements were occupied for up to 25 years. The houses were designed as single-family dwellings during the Early and Middle Fort Ancient periods. Later, Fort Ancient buildings became more extensive and could house multiple families. Settlements were rarely more permanent than one or two generations, as inhabitants generally migrated once natural resources surrounding the village had been exhausted. Villages were arranged around an open oval central plaza, surrounded by circular and rectangular domestic structures facing this plaza.

The arrangement of buildings in Fort Ancient settlements is believed to have served as a [[Solar calendar#:~:text=A solar calendar is an example of a solar calendar.|solar calendar]], marking the positions of the [[solstice]]s and other significant dates.<ref>{{cite web|date=September 12, 2007|title=Ohio Archaeoloy Blog|url=http://ohio-archaeology.blogspot.com/2007/09/ohio-archaeology-month-october-2007.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823144615/http://ohio-archaeology.blogspot.com/2007/09/ohio-archaeology-month-october-2007.html|archive-date=August 23, 2011|access-date=2008-09-11}}</ref> The occupants also built low [[platform mound]]s for ceremonial purposes, and many villages added defensive [[palisade]]s to their boundaries.<ref name="CARMEAN" /> The plaza served as the focal point of village life, hosting communal activities such as ceremonies, games (such as the hoop and stick game [[Chunkey]]),<ref name="NKU.EDU">{{cite web|url =http://anthropologymuseum.nku.edu/FAweb/NeatStuffFinal.htm|title =Middle to Late Fort Ancient Society|access-date =2011-02-23|url-status =dead|archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20100621141735/http://anthropologymuseum.nku.edu/FAweb/NeatStuffFinal.htm|archive-date =2010-06-21}}</ref> and other significant social events.

The Late Fort Ancient period from 1400 to 1750 CE was the [[Protohistory|protohistoric era]] of the Middle [[Ohio Valley]]. During this era, the formerly dispersed populations began to coalesce. The Gist-phase villages (1400 to 1550 CE) became more significant than during the preceding period, with populations as high as 500. Archaeologists have speculated that the larger villages and palisades are evidence that after 1450, warfare and inter-group strife increased, leading the people to consolidate their villages for better protection.

Increased contact with [[Mississippian culture|Mississippian]] people also likely occurred in this era, some of them may even have migrated to and been integrated into Fort Ancient villages. The [[Madisonville site|Madisonville]] [[Archaeological horizon|horizon]] of artifacts after 1400 CE include relatively high proportions of bowls, salt pans, triangular strap handles, colanders, [[Angel phase|negative painted pottery]], notched and beaded rims, and some [[effigies]]. These items and styles are usually associated with the Mississippian cultures of the Lower Ohio Valley, at sites such as [[Angel Mounds]] and [[Kincaid Mounds State Historic Site|Kincaid Mounds]]. These sites were abandoned during this time.<ref name=CARMEAN/>

During the Montour phase (1550 to 1700), villages were occupied year-round, although less densely in the winter than in the summer months. This may indicate that during the winter, family groups and hunting parties may have returned to the regions previously occupied by their ancestors. Such a pattern was observed during historic times, for example, among the [[Miami people|Miami]] and [[Potawatomi]].<ref name=CARMEAN/> Through trading activities, the Fort Ancient people gained access to European trade items such as glass, iron, brass, and copper. These materials have all been found as grave goods at sites such as [[Lower Shawneetown]] and [[Hardin Village site|Hardin Village]]. Such artifacts appeared and were used in the area before the arrival of European explorers or settlers.<ref name=KENTARCH>{{Cite book|title=Kentucky Archaeology|chapter= Chapter 6:Fort Ancient Farmers|last=Sharp|first=William E.|editor=Lewis, R. Barry|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-1907-6|year=1996|pages=162–176}}</ref>

Although the inhabitants of Fort Ancient did not encounter [[Ethnic groups in Europe|European settlers]] at this time, they, like other groups in the interior of the continent, may have suffered high fatalities from [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas#Depopulation from disease|their diseases]], transmitted among [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] by trade contacts. The next-known inhabitants of the area, who were encountered by French and English explorers, were the historic [[Shawnee]] tribe.<ref name=ENCYCTENN/> Scholars believe that the Fort Ancient society, like the Mississippian cultures to the south and west, may have been severely disrupted by waves of [[infectious disease]] epidemics from the first Spanish explorers in the [[16th century|mid-16th century]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor1-first=Peter N.| editor1-last=Peregrine|editor1-link=Peter N. Peregrine| editor2-first=Melvin |editor2-last=Ember |editor2-link=Melvin Ember | encyclopedia = Encyclopedia of Prehistory | title= Volume 6 : North America | publisher = Springer | year = 2001|page =175|isbn = 978-0-306-46260-3 }}</ref>

After 1525, at the [[Madisonville site]], the [[type site]] for the Madisonville phase, dwellings were built on a smaller scale and in fewer numbers. This change indicated the culture was less attached to agriculture and a sedentary life. Scholars generally believe that similarities in material culture, art, mythology, and Shawnee oral history link the historic tribe to the Fort Ancient people.<ref name=ENCYCTENN>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=1197|first=Jerry E.|last=Clark| title=Shawnees|encyclopedia=The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture|access-date = 2011-02-23}}</ref> However, there is also evidence that the Algonquian Shawnee culture may have been more of an admixture or intrusion to the site, which may have previously been [[Siouan languages|Siouan]] occupied.<ref>{{Cite journal|doi = 10.1525/aa.1943.45.1.02a00050|title = Siouan Tribes and the Ohio Valley|year = 1943|last1 = Swanton|first1 = John R.|journal = American Anthropologist|volume = 45|pages = 49–66| s2cid=163083465 |doi-access = free}}</ref>