Clover site (46CB40) | |
 Looking toward the site from the south | |
| Location | Lesage, West Virginia |
|---|---|
| NRHP reference No. | 92001881 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | April 27, 1992[1] |
| Designated NHL | April 27, 1992[2] |
TheClover site (46CB40) is aFort Ancient culturearcheological site located nearLesage inCabell County,West Virginia,United States. It is significant for its well-preserved remains of a late prehistoric/protohistoricNative American village. The site's unique assemblage has made it thetype site for the Clover Phase of the Madisonville horizon of the Fort Ancient culture.
The site was declared aNational Historic Landmark in 1992.[2]
The site is located 20 miles (32 km) north ofHuntington on a high flood terrace of the Ohio River, within theGreen Bottom Wildlife Management Area. At 5 acres, it was a large village with a semi-circular layout. It had a centrally locatedplaza surrounded by habitation areas, very similar to other Fort Ancient sites, although apalisade such as ones found at other sites has yet to be found at Clover. The site once was described as having three raisedmound like areas 5 feet (1.5 m) high and 200 feet (61 m) wide, but they can no longer be located. Investigations at the site have produced Native American producedshell-tempered ceramics, stone tools, bone tools, and ornaments. Items of European manufacture, including brass and copper ornaments and glasstrade beads have definitively dated the upper levels of the site to theprotohistoric period. The artifact assemblages found at the site by avocational archaeologists such as John J. Adams and S.F. Dunett in the 1920s and professional investigations in the 1940s byJames B. Griffin, enabled Griffin to propose the Clover Phase of the Madisonville complex that spanned the years 1550 to 1600, a way of identifying this protohistoric time period at other contemporary sites in the region.[3] Other investigations were undertaken at the site in the 1980s byNicholas Freidin ofMarshall University, who conducted an archaeological field school there from 1984 to 1988. Items excavated from the site are now part of the John Adams Collection of artifacts curated by theHuntington Museum of Art.[4]
Other sites with significant Clover Phase habitations include theLower Shawneetown Site, theBuffalo site, theHardin Village site, theMadisonville site, theRolfe Lee site, Logan site, and Marmet Village site. Pottery excavated from many of these different sites, with types including Madisonville Plain,Cordmarked, or Smoothed Cordmarked wares, have a unique feature (a 2-twist direction to the cordage) which is rarely found in pottery from sites to the west of the Clover site and are relatively common at sites to its east. This suggest that Clover site people maintained closer contact with sites such as Buffalo, Gue Farm, Marmet, and Rolfe Lee than with other sites that were to its west. Other exotic artifacts found at the site, such asshell gorgets associated with theSoutheastern Ceremonial Complex,pottery effigy bowls, and figurines show a connection withMississippian culture villages in what is now easternTennessee.
| Anderson Focus |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Baum Focus | ||
| Feurt Focus | ||
| Madisonville Focus | ||
