MIDCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Madisonville Metal and Glass Artifacts: Implications for Western Fort Ancient Chronology and Interaction Patterns
Penelope B. Drooker
pp. 145-190
Stylistic, metric, and some trace element analysis of over 450 metal and glass items from the Late Fort Ancient Madisonville site has resulted in a more complete understanding of site chronology and protohistoric exchange relationships. During the late sixteenth century at least three major interaction networks intersected at Madisonville. Through these networks residents of the site obtained, among other items, Basque kettle parts, traded in through the St. Lawrence estuary; a "Clarksdale" bell, derived from Spanish incursions in the interior Southeast; and distinctive spiral and serpent-shaped ornaments made from thin metal tubes, and associated respectively with Iroquoian and Oneota spheres of influence. All European items excavated from the site could have been available by circa 1600. If the settlement was occupied long into the seventeenth century, its residents no longer were obtaining or retaining European-derived artifacts.

Millennarian Archaeology, Double Discourse, and the Unending Quest for de Soto
David Henige
pp. 191-216
Recent attempts to pinpoint de Soto's route more precisely, largely on archaeological grounds, underscore some of the effects of the differing epistemological systems of archaeologists and historians. The argument of this paper is that the archaeological evidence for de Soto's passage, especially when used with problematical written sources, can only be too exiguous to offer competitive plausibility. Only a relentless will to believe, too often expressed in disingenuous discourse, can lend support to most of the proposed site identifications, which are justified largely by circular reasoning and a tendentious reading of the sources. Such an approach constitutes unedifying and unscholarly millennarianism.

The Rebirth and Demise of Ohio's Earliest Blast Furnace: An Archaeological Postmortem
John R. White
pp. 217-246
The Eaton (Hopewell) Furnace built in 1802-03 in northeastern Ohio was the earliest blast furnace west of the Alleghenies. Until archaeological work was undertaken, virtually nothing else was known about this industrial site. Archaeological excavation of the site and the subsequent broad specturm of chemical and metallurgical analyses of various materials recovered lead to a more precise understanding of the operation's strengths and weaknesses, and to the discovery that during the course of its short life, the furnace saw a "rebirth" due to use of an improved blast system and an ultimate "demise" brought about by a shortage of timber and the premature use of charcoal in combination with bituminous raw coal as a reducing agent. The Eaton Furnace's use of raw coal in this manner is the earliest yet documented in the New World.

Seip Hopewell Textile Analysis and Cultural Implications
Cheunsoon A. Song, Kathryn A. Jakes, and Richard W. Yerkes
pp. 247-266
Textiles from the Ohio Hopewell Seip Mound Group were examined with a view to understanding textile production and utilization behaviors. Gross physical characteristics of textile samples were recorded and light and electron microscopic analyses of fiber samples were conducted. The microscopic analyses revealed the use of animal fibers, bast fibers, and a combination of the two in fabric production. Specific fabrication and decorative techniques were found to be correlated with specific fiber compositon. The observed morphological variations suggest different functional contexts for different types of fabrics