Settlement near Milan was sacred site 2,300 years ago

MILAN — Three centuries before Christ, Native Americans in northern Ohio gathered on a hill next to a bluff over the Huron River near Milan and thrust poles into the ground.They held ceremonies there, and then returned to their day to day lives of hunting, fishing, gathering edible plants and gardening.Archeologists associated with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and the Firelands Archaeological Research Center in Amherst will return this summer to the important site, located on a farm field about two miles away from Milan, hoping to learn more about some of the earliest Ohioans, said Brian Redmond, the Cleveland museum's archaeologist.The Milan site, known as the Heckelman site, is unique among Native American sites in Ohio, Redmond said.Other sites in southern Ohio from about the same time are associated with burial mounds. There's no sign that the Milan site is related to burial customs, he said.And although there are post holes indicating that poles were placed in the ground at the Milan site, there's no sign the poles were part of buildings, he said. That's led to Redmond's theory that the site was used for ceremonies that apparently had a religious significance.The ceremonial poles could have been painted or carved with figures, somewhat like the totem poles found along the northwest U.S. coast, Redmond said."We have evidence of them being put up and taken down," he said.The ceremonies probably marked the seasons of the year, comparable to later historically-documented Native American ceremonies for planting, for harvests and for solstices.The ceremonial area was bounded on some sides by the Huron River bluff. There are ditches on the other sides, suggesting that the area was marked off by earthworks.For years, such enclosures on the top of hills were considered forts, but it's now thought they weren't associated with warfare, Redmond said.Digging was carried out at the site from 2009 to 2013. A survey of the area last spring revealed that the site is bigger than Redmond had realized, prompting plans to return this summer.Redmond is intentionally not being specific about the exact location of the sacred site.That's to protect the privacy of the landowners, who have supported the archeological work, allowing Redmond and his assistants to damage their crops as they pursue their scientific inquiry.The policy also protects the land from looters who might attempt to recover artifacts."Sometimes people come on to these sites and literally dig holes," he said.The location of the museum's archeological sites in Ohio generally are revealed only on a "need to know" basis, he said."It's a problem all over the country," he said. "There's still a private market for antiquities in this country."Redmond said he and his assistants have discovered that the site was settled by Native Americans four different times over the centuries, with the 300 B.C. ceremonial center representing the earliest settlement and a settlement about 600 years ago as the latest group. Objects found at the site include pottery, spear tips, food remains and stone tools.It's hard to relate the settlements to historically-documented Ohio tribes, Redmond said."Our best guess is these folks who were here before Europeans arrived, their descendants left Ohio just before contact," Redmond said.Artifacts suggest some Ohio natives may have gone to places such as Michigan and Illinois, he said.The artifacts found at the Heckelman site near Milan include this spear tip. Archeologist Brian Redmond, left, supervises work by volunteers in 2012 at the Heckelman site. A hilltop site near Milan overlooking the Huron river was a sacred site for Native Americans about 2,300 years ago. A fragment survives from a pot that may have been used for serving ceremonial meals. The Heckelman site is enclosed by creekbanks and man-made ditches.