Whittlesey culture

rdf:langString Whittlesey culture

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rdf:langString South Park Site

rdf:langString South Park Site

rdf:langString on a promontory above the western bank of the Cuyahoga River near Independence, Cuyahoga County, Ohio

rdf:langString Ohio#USA

rdf:langString Whittlesey culture is an archaeological designation for a Native American people, who lived in northeastern Ohio during the Late Precontact and Early Contact period between A.D. 1000 to 1640. By 1500, they flourished as an agrarian society by 1500 that grew maize, beans, and squash. After European contact, their population decreased due to disease, malnutrition, and warfare. There was a period of long, cold winters that would have impacted their success cultivating food from about 1500. The Whittlesey culture people created a distinctive style of pottery and built defensive villages, set high on promontories with steep cliffs and surrounded by ditches or stockades. Their villages were on the Lake Erie plain or overlooking rivers and streams. About 1640, Whittlesey villages were abandoned and due to the displacement of Native groups during the early contact period with Europeans, it is not known where or how they relocated. South Park Village, a Whittlesey culture site in Cuyahoga County, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A historic marker about the Whittlesey people is located on Seeley Road in LeRoy Township, Lake County, Ohio.