The Franks Site is a large
archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
in the northeastern part of the
U.S. state of
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. Located atop bluffs overlooking the
Vermilion River in northwestern
Lorain County
Lorain County is a County (United States), county in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 312,964. Its county seat is Elyria, Ohio, Elyria. The county was physicall ...
, it lies in the city of
Vermilion
Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since ancient history, antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its correspondi ...
close to the river's mouth in
Lake Erie
Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has t ...
. The site was once inhabited by people of the
Erie tribe
The Erie people (also Eriechronon, Riquéronon, Erielhonan, Eriez, Nation du Chat) were Indigenous people historically living on the south shore of Lake Erie. An Iroquoian group, they lived in what is now western New York, northwestern Pennsylvani ...
before their destruction, and archaeological investigations have yielded enough information to make it exceptionally valuable for learning about its erstwhile inhabitants.
Location
The Franks Site lies midway between Mill Hollow, where the river makes a very sharp bend, and central Vermilion; it sits by the edge of a bluff overlooking a smaller yet still significant river bend.
A road traverses the site, dividing it into two distinct sections, while a third section is demarcated by its distance from the other two. Much of the area consists simply of campsites, but the community cemetery is massive, occupying the entire third section and nearly half of the other two. The southern portion of the site is marked by curving
earthworks
Earthworks may refer to:
Construction
*Earthworks (archaeology), human-made constructions that modify the land contour
* Earthworks (engineering), civil engineering works created by moving or processing quantities of soil
*Earthworks (military), m ...
atop the bluff's edge.
Had the site been excavated sooner after the coming of civilization, it might have produced yet richer findings; many burials were destroyed on the Franks farm in digging cellars for farm buildings, as well as by crews constructing the present road through the farm.
[Vietzen, Raymond C. ''Ancient Man in Northern Ohio''. Lorain: McCahon, 1941.]
Excavations
Raymond C. Vietzen led an
excavation
Excavation may refer to:
* Excavation (archaeology)
* Excavation (medicine)
* ''Excavation'' (The Haxan Cloak album), 2013
* ''Excavation'' (Ben Monder album), 2000
* ''Excavation'' (novel), a 2000 novel by James Rollins
* '' Excavation: A Memo ...
of the Franks Site in 1941, finding skeletons and
artifacts such as pottery.
[Nahorn, Matthew W. ]
The Franks Site Pot and Bear Effigy Pipe
, ''Ohio Archaeologist'' 60.1 (2010): 35. The burials were of divers forms: Vietzen reported the presence both of extended and flexed burials, for some bodies had been placed lengthwise, while others' legs had been drawn up to the chest in a crouching position. The possibility of the two representing two different
phases was considered, but this was easily disproven as many parts of the cemetery included skeletons of both sorts that had plainly been buried at the same time.
Many adult female skeletons were buried together with exceptionally tiny infant skeletons, suggesting that many women
died in childbirth and that it was customary to bury mother and child together.
Pottery from the site bears many similarities to pottery from other Erie sites. Common features on Franks pottery include lines incised and impressed with
antler
Antlers are extensions of an animal's skull found in members of the Cervidae (deer) family. Antlers are a single structure composed of bone, cartilage, fibrous tissue, skin, nerves, and blood vessels. They are generally found only on male ...
s, narrow lines incised with smaller tools, and rounded and thumbnail-shaped depressions.
The pottery rims were particularly important for decorations; many of the rims were expanded in order to give them collared appearances, as well as serving to reinforce their strength and to facilitate handling. Many of the decorated rims were crimped with impressions of bits of wood or bone, while others bore notches or
scalloped impressions.
Animal bones were common throughout, with numerous fish skeletons from species such as the
sheepshead and the
gar
Gars are members of the family Lepisosteidae, which are the only surviving members of the Ginglymodi, an ancient holosteian group of ray-finned fish, which first appeared during the Triassic, over 240 million years ago. Gars comprise seven livin ...
fish, and excavations also revealed numerous
features
Feature may refer to:
Computing
* Feature (CAD), could be a hole, pocket, or notch
* Feature (computer vision), could be an edge, corner or blob
* Feature (software design) is an intentional distinguishing characteristic of a software item ...
such as
postmolds and
rubbish pits.
The sheer size of the site and apparent number of inhabitants prompted Vietzen to declare that it "may truly be called an Erie City as it is far too vast to be simply classed as a village".
He dated some of the artifacts at the site to circa AD 1650,
just a few years before the date in which ''
The Jesuit Relations
''The Jesuit Relations'', also known as ''Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France'', are chronicles of the Jesuit missions in New France. The works were written annually and printed beginning in 1632 and ending in 1673.
Originally written ...
'' notes the destruction of the Eries by
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
warriors.
Moes Site
Just south of the Franks Site is a smaller site, the Moes Site, which appears to be closely related to the Franks Site. Like Franks, Moes included a cemetery, although its smaller size meant that only ten burials (most of them infants) were found during Vietzen's excavation; hundreds of
potsherds, identical to those of Franks, proved much more valuable. Located at the very edge of a river bluff, the site was named for landowner Isaac Moes;
Vietzen reported that the site also included a
burial mound from which Moes and his family had excavated many skeletons and artifacts, including a fine
birdstone
Birdstone (foaled May 16, 2001, in Kentucky) is an American Thoroughbred racehorse best known for winning the 2004 Belmont Stakes and has become a successful sire.
On August 28, 2020 Birdstone was pensioned from stud duty to Old Friends Retirem ...
.
Preservation
After excavating the Franks Site, Vietzen published multiple books in which the Franks Site was extensively covered,
and he established a museum in
Amherst Amherst may refer to:
People
* Amherst (surname), including a list of people with the name
* Earl Amherst of Arracan in the East Indies, a title in the British Peerage; formerly ''Baron Amherst''
* Baron Amherst of Hackney of the City of London, ...
in which some of the site's artifacts were displayed.
The site itself has experienced the influence of
historic preservation
Historic preservation (US), built heritage preservation or built heritage conservation (UK), is an endeavor that seeks to preserve, conserve and protect buildings, objects, landscapes or other artifacts of historical significance. It is a philos ...
: it was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in late 1975 under the name of "Morris-Franks Site", qualifying because of its archaeological significance. It was the first of four Lorain County archaeological sites to be added to the Register, along with the
Burrell Fort, the
Burrell Orchard Site, and the
Eiden Prehistoric District.
References
{{National Register of Historic Places
Archaeological sites in Ohio
Cemeteries in Ohio
Geography of Lorain County, Ohio
Mounds in Ohio
Native American cemeteries
Cemeteries in Lorain County, Ohio