SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park is the recreation of a 12th-century Fort Ancient village in Dayton, Ohio. The houses were rebuilt in their original locations using native materials.
Examining the Fort Ancient By excavating and recreating, arc haeologists are learning about Ohio’s last prehistoric culture.
JIM CALLAWAY
By Rob Daumeyer
T
he thermometer reached 95 degrees on a fiery August afternoon in Dayton, Ohio.The city seemed deserted, except for a small excavation site in a tree-ringed public park just outside of downtown near the narrow Stillwater River. A group of archaeologists and volunteers from the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery was excavating at one of the northernmost sites of a prehistoric people known as the Fort Ancient.
american archaeology
About six miles away from this excavation, more backbreaking work was taking place at a 27-acre plot of land just out of sight of the city’s compact skyline. Here, in a field by the banks of the Great Miami River, five women and two men at SunWatch Indian Village/Archaeological Park were building a Fort Ancient house, framed with wood, plastered with clay, and thatched with prairie grass. This house is in the same location the Fort Ancient people
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