Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 22.djvu/175

 SHETRONE] CULTURE PROBLEM IN OHIO ARCHAEOLOGY 163

Taking the situation as a whole, a logical deduction would seem to be that the area along the Ohio river represents a distinct com- munity, possibly a retrograde off-shoot from the Shawnee, or at least an isolated group or tribe which had borrowed the custom of burial in stone graves from the Shawnee. In the case of the Fort Ancient peoples and of those further east and north, the use of stone graves easily may have been due to culture diffusion or bor- rowing; in all instances, it should not be overlooked that the use of stone in burial is a very natural thing, and that its presence and ready accessibility might easily suggest its use.

THE IROQUOIAN AREA

The archaeology of the Iroquoian family in Ohio has received almost no attention, either from writer or explorer; yet it is perhaps as sharply defined as any other of the prehistoric culture varieties of the state, at least in so far as territory occupied, earthworks and habitation sites, and characteristic manufacts, are concerned. Roughly speaking, the Iroquoian tribes may be said to have em- braced the territory comprising the northern one-third or more of the state, bordering Lake Erie, their occupancy being more pro- nounced toward the east, whence it extended eastward into Pennsyl- vania and New York. The tribes occupying this Ohio territory pertained to the Huron-Iroquois stock, and presumably were mainly those of the Erie, or Cat nation, and possibly of the Seneca, the westernmost nation of the Iroquois proper.

What little attention the Iroquoian archaeological area in Ohio has received has been incidental to the study of the area as a whole and, historically, in connection with the story of the Erie nation and the invasion of their country by the Iroquois confederation. The scant knowledge of its archaeology is such as may be obtained through comparison of relics and remains with those depicted in the writings and reports of Beauchamp, Parker, and others. From Parker's thorough studies of Erie and other Iroquoian sites in New York state, 1 we are led to deduce that certain sites in north- eastern Ohio will prove to be those of the Erie ; at the very least, it

1 Parker (i).

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