Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Indians DID build in stone

Norman writes:

There are some who continue to maintain that Native Americans in the eastern half of the U.S. had no stone building technology until they were taught by European settlers in the seventeenth century. Ohio was certainly part of the eastern U.S. the last time I looked, and the following excerpt, sent to me the other day by Robert Riordan, an archaeologist with Wayne State University in Ohio who is now investigating an unusual double circle of wooden posts at Fort Ancient in Ohio, called the Moorehead Circle, should give these naysayers something to think about:

“It incorporates literally tons of limestone as both chinking stones for posts as well as slabs laid as pavers in clay floors. We’re estimating that somewhere between 50-100 tons of stone was brought up 250 vertical feet from the Little Miami River level below the Fort, involving probably a mile of walking or more with each load that was carried. These people were an industrious lot!”

A Google search of “Moorehead Circle” will give more information about the site and dig.

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