Abstract

Excavations at the Petersen Site (330T9), located in north-central Ohio, have been under way for the past four years, yielding a wealth of information pertaining to the cultural manifestation believed to be ancestral to the historic Totontaratonhronon. Among the most illuminating of all the site's wealth has been the ceramic assemblage, which is dominated by over several hundred vessels of the ceramic type Parker Festooned, a hallmark of the Wolf phase. Comparison of this assemblage with those from several sites in the western Lake Erie region has demonstrated a clear seriation for the Parker Festooned type, from its inception to its decline, and to its partial expression in later types of the same cultural tradition. The latter observation have resulted in a hitherto unprecedented understanding of the temporal, spacial, and stylistic dynamics of the Parker Festooned type. From this, a revised type definition is offered, integrating these new understandings and shedding light on seriation problems which have plagued western Great Lakes researchers for decades.