Background on the Hahn Site

I have been working at the Hahn Site for the past 4 summers, with this summer counting as my internship because I have more knowledge and experience in archaeology to contribute more to the site as a whole.  Every day, I wake up at 7:30 and drive half an hour to Newtown, Ohio to Clear Creek Park.  Here, there is this huge field on a raised area of land that serves as a plateau surrounded by a small stream and a large collection of trees.  In this area is the site that we excavate at, which is a prehistoric Fort Ancient village.  We typically open 2 meter by 2 meter units, which usually evolve into long trenches filled with features like earthen ovens, post holes of houses, and even trash and latrine pits.  However, archaeologist enthusiasts like us in the 21st century are not the only individuals who sought more information about this grassy area scattered with Madisonville points.  In 1885, the Peabody Museum at Harvard began mainly surface excavations that did not entirely penetrate the sediment but allowed for preliminary surface collections like flint, bone, and pottery to gain more knowledge about the site.  These surface surveying techniques allowed for the excavators to learn that the village was circular shaped, almost like a horse shoe, with a central plaza. Our excavations starting in 2008 (the year before I started working at the site) brought us to dig into a wall trench and trash pits filled with charcoal and other debris.  We used these findings to date the site to about 1300-1500 CE, and even more specifically to the Fort Ancient Madisonville Phase of 1500-1650.  I find it extremely exciting to work with the head archaeologists at the Cincinnati Museum Center both there and at the lab because, with them, I get to uncover a little bit of knowledge, layer by layer, about local Native American sites I honestly had no clue about prior to my first field school.  I also felt special my first year as a freshman in college working at my first field school and getting filmed for a local television program (I'm the one in the light pink shirt!) http://www.cetconnect.org/video/hahn-site-field-school.  It really is a privilege to work at this site and gain the knowledge and experience I need to become the archaeologist I aspire to be, and the Hahn Site will always be close to my heart.  Stay tuned - I will be updating you more on the adventures we go on out here!