The South Park village site and the late prehistoric Whittlesey Traditon of northeast Ohio /

Brose's comprehensive report on the South Park site (33Cu8) fills a significant void in the history of the late prehistoric period in the south-central Lake Erie Basin. This four-acre site, situated on a rectangular plateau at the western edge of the Cuyahoga River Valley seven miles south of the lake shore, was studied from the 1930s to 1981. Brose documents relic hunting and local professional investigations that established two seasonal occupations (1050-1250 and 1350-1550 CE), and year-round occupation lasting 15 to 20 years within the South Park Phase (1550-1650 CE), when 100-220 tribal-level maize horticulturists lived in c.15 rectangular dwellings. Brose describes prehistoric cultural features, ceramics, lithic tools and manufacturing debris, mollusks, faunal and botanical remains, and human interments. Notable is a compelling discussion of external social and environmental factors that affected the local population. Although there is no certain historic connection to the prehistoric population, Browse reviews possibilities that Mascoutin, Neutral, Wenro, or Erie peoples were potential occupants. This fresh analysis allows readers to reconsider Lake Erie Basin sociocultural dynamics and demonstrates how professional archaeologists assemble and decipher complex, diverse site data. Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduates, and above. C. C. Kolb; National Endowment for the Humanities