The Shawnee artifact known as Miami Fort is not a fort at all, but an ancient water works, according to
University of Cincinnati researchers.
Twenty-eight students from UC's Ohio Valley Archaeology Field School project have spent weeks working at the Shawnee Lookout park site, which at nearly six kilometers in length is twice as large as any other Native American earthworks in Ohio and one of the largest in the nation.
What they found were a series of gates and dams, and raceways to carry water from areas containing artesian springs.
The massive engineering feat means that the re-interpretation of the Shawnee and other indigenous cultures may be in order, according to UC assistant professor of anthropology and field school leader Ken Tankersley.
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