Description: The caption reads, "Multiple Furnace in Picnic Grounds, Fort Ancient State Park, Warren County, Ohio." The Fort Ancient Earthworks are a series of earthen embankments that extend for more than three and one half miles around a high bluff along the Little Miami River in southwestern Ohio. Although it is called a "fort," it probably never served as a defensive work. Ditches are located inside the walls rather than outside as might be expected in a fortification. There are more than 60 gateways in the walls, making it difficult to defend the site against enemies. The Hopewell culture (100 B.C. to 500 A. D.) of prehistoric American Indian people constructed the earthworks. Later native residents built a village and a cemetery within the walls of the already ancient South Fort. Archaeologists mistakenly assumed that these villagers had built the earthen walls. It was called the Fort Ancient culture (1000 A.D. to 1650 A.D.) after the name of the site. This mistake has caused confusion for later students of Ohio archaeology. Iron production during the early nineteenth century usually occurred on "plantations." These were relatively isolated communities established on land owned by an iron company. Usually, all of the items necessary to produce iron -- limestone, timber, and iron ore -- were readily available. Once the workers exhausted their supply of these materials, the furnace would close and move to new ground with an ample supply of resources. Most of these furnaces produced pig iron, which would then be constructed into machinery, building supplies and kitchen items. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: AL07991
Subjects: Fort Ancient (Ohio); Fort Ancient Culture (A.D. 1000–1650); Earthworks (Archaeology); Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1–400); State parks & reserves; Mounds--Ohio--Warren County; Furnaces
Places: Fort Ancient (Ohio); Warren County (Ohio)