Final Report, Patoka Lake Salvage Excavations 1980

An archaeological data recovery project at Patoka Lake, Indiana, was aimed toward the goals of providing a cultural-historical base for a little known area of the hill country of south-central Indiana and relating project findings to broader questions about prehistoric man's subsistence and settlement behaviors. Data for project studies are the result of environmental reconstructions, surface surveys at 192 sites, and salvage excavations at 11 sites. Various studies concern the cultural dimensions of both the excavated sites and the Upper Patoka Valley as a region and are based on the construction of a radiocarbon and artifact chronology, and analyses of tools and debris, features, chert utilization, botanical remains, and site location characteristics. Project findings indicate the bulk of the prehistoric occupation of the Upper Patoka Valley occurred during the Archaic, with major seasonal settlements being made during the Late Archaic, around 3,000 - 1,500 BC. For this period, the French Lick phase is defined, and a model of inter-regional, seasonally shifting settlements is proposed. Other inter-regional comparisons are made with areas which are both similar to and different from the Upper Patoka Valley, identifying cultural and environmental factors which likely influenced several recognized patterns of regional, land use changes between 10,000 BC and AD 1,600.