Moving Beyond the Question:“Were the Hopewell Really Farmers?” A view from the Hocking Valley, Southeastern Ohio

Theoretical models aimed at explaining Middle Woodland settlement and subsistence can be divided into two general approaches: 1. The dispersed sedentary (to semi-sedentary) food producers model and 2. The complex foragers model. The construction of both models has relied heavily on data from south and central Ohio, particularly the Scioto and Licking Valleys, often termed the “Home of Ohio Hopewell.” Despite its proximity to these watersheds and its early contributions to establishing the Eastern Woodlands region as an independent center of plant domestication, the neighboring Hocking Valley has received limited attention with respect to answering many of the questions concerning the lifeways of Middle Woodland populations. This paper provides recent archaeobotanical and architectural data from the Hocking Valley which appears to support the dispersed sedentary food producers model, while further challenging the culture history concept of “Ohio Hopewell.”