Fort Ancient Dwelling
The Fort Ancient people who occupied this area between about AD900 and AD1600 lived in larger communities than the Hopewell people did. Their villages of 200 to 500 people were truly agricultural; they cultivated beans, corn, squash, and tobacco. This sort of agriculture was labor intensive. The Fort Ancient people supplemented their diet with wild game and wild plant foods. In this way they were able to support large villages. When resources in an area dwindled and the soil wore out, they moved to another location.
Some Fort Ancient villages may have been surrounded by a stockade. By AD900 populations had grown so much that in times of crop failure groups expanded their hunting territories, increasing the chance of hostilities with neighboring groups. Conflicts became widespread at times, but probably consisted of ambushes and small skirmishes rather than attacks on villages.
Courtesy hmdb.org
