Present Research Emphases
Research & Collections Facilities
Collection Holdings
Excavated Prehistoric Site Collections
Excavated Historic Site Collections
Regional Survey Collections
Synoptic Collections
Ethnological Collections
Staff
Overview
The Anthropology Department at Cincinnati Museum Center furthers the scientific and historical knowledge of past human societies in the Eastern Woodlands with a focus on the rich archaeological legacy of the central Ohio River valley. The Department acquires and preserves scientifically and historically significant collections of well-documented artifacts and preserves the archaeological record for the benefit of research scholars and the public. The Department conducts original field and laboratory research to develop new knowledge of the archaeological record and of past human societies. The Department disseminates knowledge through scholarly publications, presentations and exhibits that describe and interpret the archaeological record.
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Present Research Emphases
Although concerned with the archaeological evidence for the entire span of human occupation of the central Ohio River valley region, the Museum's present research programs focus on two long-term research projects. These projects are aimed at understanding the dynamic cultural developments of native populations during the Early and Middle Woodland periods (ca. 3,000-1,500 years ago) and the historical development of the Cincinnati area and southwest Ohio during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
Native economies and strategies of social organization underwent radical structural transformations in the central Ohio valley region during the Early and Middle Woodland periods, as relatively simple economies and social systems were replaced by more complex ones. These transformations, marked by the prolific use of "Adena" and "Hopewell" symbols and rituals, were particularly dynamic in the central Ohio River valley. The Museum's research is aimed at documenting and understanding the changing subsistence, settlement, and social strategies of populations living in the central Ohio River valley region 3,000 to 1,500 years ago.
The past 200 years of Euro-American settlement in the Cincinnati region have been a period of rapid and radical social and economic transformation, from wilderness outposts and agrarian settlements to industrialized cities. The well-preserved archaeological record of Cincinnati and southwest Ohio's urban and rural heritage offers important research opportunities for understanding many historical and theoretical processes, especially relating to diet, health, and consumer behaviors.
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Research & Collections Facilities
Laboratory
The 1,560 square foot artifact processing laboratory at the Geier Collections and Research Facility includes basic laboratory equipment, archaeological site files and map collections, photographic collections, drafting facilities, a Leica MZ75 binocular microscope, a Flote-Tech flotation processing tank, an ethnobotanical type collection, a growing chert type comparative collection, and is equipped with an elephant hood and terminals to the Museum's ARGUS cataloging server. The lab also features access to a darkroom, a research library, and the extensive comparative faunal collections of the Vertebrate Zoology and Vertebrate Paleontology departments, and the important regional freshwater molluscan collection of the Malacology Department.
Collections Space
The 3,160 square foot archaeological collections room is equipped with regulated HV/AC, sprinklers, and fire-rated doors. Collections storage includes 3,000 square feet of shelf space, nearly 5,000 square feet of case storage, and nearly 600 square feet of flat storage. It also contains suitable space for expansion of the archaeological collections. A separate 1,840 square foot collections storage room houses the ethnological collections. It is also equipped with regulated HV/AC, sprinklers, and fire-rated doors.
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Collection Holdings
The Museum's collections include prehistoric and historic archaeological materials obtained from the museum's excavations and surveys and by the donation of scientifically and historically significant collections. The collections also include ethnological materials from many culture areas around the world. The Museum accepts and curates significant archaeological and ethnological artifacts and collections under conditions specified in its Archaeological Collections and Curation Policy and Procedures, including collections and documents pertaining to federally funded cultural resource management studies in southwestern Ohio and adjacent regions. Copies of the collections policy may be obtained from the Curator of Archaeology.
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Excavated Prehistoric Site Collections
The greatest strength of the Museum's archaeological collections lies in its extensive suite of excavated late prehistoric Fort Ancient culture (A.D. 1000-1650) artifacts and associated records. Ten excavated site collections cover the entire temporal range of the Fort Ancient culture in the Ohio River valley, from the Turpin and Guard sites, which date to approximately A.D. 1000-1250, to the well-known Madisonville site and the Clear Creek site, which date to about A.D. 1450-1650 and include early 17th century trade goods of European manufacture.
Recently conducted intensive excavations of portions of the Hopewellian Fort Ancient site (in 1996-1997) and the Stubbs Earthworks site (in 1998-2001) yielded strong research collections for the Hopewellian Middle Woodland period. The Stubbs Earthworks field investigations, particularly, were the most extensive archaeological excavations ever conducted at any Ohio Hopewell site. The excavations produced substantial samples of Hopewell material culture, and intensive flotation sampling (approximately 1,500 individual samples) provides a wealth of ethnobotanical remains and microartifacts associated with more than two-dozen wooden Hopewell structures. The wooden structures include approximately 20 "house-like" structures, which appear to have been built as temporary housing accommodations for people visiting the site. Four civic-ceremonial structures include two large sub-mound post structures, and a 73-meter diameter circle of 172 telephone pole sized posts. The latter post circle represents a form of Hopewell ceremonial architecture never before known to archaeologists. These well-documented excavations complement earlier, extensive controlled surface collections from the Stubbs Earthworks complex. Other Hopewell contexts include salvage excavations at the Landen Mound in Warren County, Ohio.
Other periods of Ohio valley prehistory are also represented in the excavated collections. Test excavations of the Edwards site and salvage fieldwork at the Newtown Firehouse site provide diverse samples of Late Woodland materials which complement Late Woodland contexts within the predominantly later Sand Ridge, Clough Creek, and Turpin sites. The Adena Early Woodland period is represented by excavations from Holloway Mound, Sayler Park Mound, and the Early Woodland and Late Woodland Hawkins Ridge Mound group.
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Excavated Historic Site Collections
The 1981-1982 excavations at the Betts Longworth Historic District in downtown Cincinnati produced over 50,000 items from well-dated 19th century contexts. Assembled mostly from privy excavations, the collection features excellent faunal and floral assemblages as well as a wide range of 19th century material culture.
In 1996-1997, historic archaeological fieldwork focused on the detailed identification of privies associated with a mid-19th century neighborhood in downtown Cincinnati. Test excavations at the Findlay Market site yielded a wealth of artifacts and information pertaining to the diet, health, and daily habits of the residents of nineteenth century Cincinnati, as well as invaluable evidence on the construction, use, and abandonment of urban outhouses.
In 1998, preliminary test excavations were conducted at the John P. Parker House in Ripley, Ohio. Parker was a freed slave who became a successful businessman and was a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad. The excavations, undertaken prior to renovation of the house, provide a sample of 19th century industrial and domestic material culture from a small town context. In 2000, more systematic excavations sponsored by the National Park Service, were conducted at the John P. Parker House site revealing extensive fill episodes designed to raise the landform above flood levels. The footprint and associated features of Parker's iron foundry were also located.
The Cincinnati Museum Center also conducted test excavations at Chrisholm, a nineteenth century Amish-Mennonite farmstead in Butler County, Ohio. The 2002 excavations exposed extensive domestic refuse near a mid-nineteenth century summer kitchen, and revealed the foundation of the original 1830 residence of Christian Augspurger.
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Regional Survey Collections
The Museum's holdings include the collections and records of extensive site surveys conducted by regionally-based and federally-funded archaeological preservation offices from the early 1970s until 1981. These collections and records represent twelve counties along the Ohio River in south-central and southwestern Ohio: Adams, Brown, Butler, Clinton, Clermont, Hamilton, Highland, Jackson, Lawrence, Pike, Scioto and Warren counties. The collections include systematic regional surveys, documentation of private collections from archaeological sites, and extensive, gridded surface collections of some major sites, such as the Hopewellian Stubbs Earthwork Complex.
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Synoptic Collections
A large collection of prehistoric and protohistoric artifacts, assembled by the Cincinnati Art Museum during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, was transferred to the Cincinnati Museum Center in 1991. This 50,000-artifact collection, mostly from regional contexts, includes about 25,000 projectile points and thousands of ground stone artifacts. The Museum houses nearly 1,000 complete or nearly complete Late Mississippian pottery vessels from northeastern Arkansas collected in the 19th century by C. W. Riggs. A donated collection from the well-known 19th century Point Pleasant, Ohio pipe factories includes an extensive and well-documented type collection (55+ varieties) of approximately 1,500 clay smoking pipes.
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Ethnological Collections
The Museum's ethnological collections number about 8,000 artifacts and feature a broad range of 19th and early 20th century material culture from several world areas. The collections focus on the material cultures of the North American Plains (especially during the late 19th century), the American Southwest (early 20th century), and of Melanesia (1931-1932). The Melanesian collections contain about 800 objects, including the country's largest and finest collection of 41 painted tapas, and are accompanied by 1,530 annotated photographs made by a National Geographic photographer who accompanied the collecting voyage and documented the acquisition of the artifacts as well as Melanesian cultures before the cultural impacts of World War II. The Museum's collections also contain an extensive assortment of traditional Amazonian feather-work, collected in the 1980s. The Lewis Cotlow collection includes artifacts, photographs, and feature-length films of several African, South American, and South Pacific cultures.
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Staff
Robert A. Genheimer, M.A., George Rieveschl Curator of Archaeology
M.A., University of Cincinnati, 1992
Office: Geier Collections and Research Center
Cincinnati Museum Center
1301 Western Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45203
Phone: (513) 455-7161
E-mail: bgenheimer@cincymuseum.org
Bio and Publications
Adjunct Staff:
Frank Cowan, Ph.D., Adjunct Curator of Archaeology
Phone: (513) 455-7161
E-mail: fcowan9115@aol.com
Lory Greenland, Adjunct Curatorial Assistant in Ethnology
Phone: (513) 455-7184 or 455-7161
Anthony Perzigian, Ph.D., Research Associate
Professor, Department of Anthropology
University of Cincinnati
Phone: (513) 556-3748
E-mail: anthony.perzigian@uc.edu
Kent Vickery, Ph.D., Research Associate
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
University of Cincinnati
Phone: (513) 556-5787
E-mail: kent.vickery@uc.edu
Mark S. Warner, Ph.D., Research Associate
Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Justice Studies
University of Idaho
Phone: (208) 885-5954
E-mail: mwarner@uidaho.edu
Theodore S. Sunderhaus, Research Associate
Phone: (513) 455-7161
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