Determining the Cultural Affiliation of Terminal Late Woodland-Mississippian Hunting Stations: A Lower Ohio Valley Example

Discriminant analysis, a multivariate statistical technique is used to clarify terminal Late Woodland-Mississippian settlement patterns in the lower Ohio Valley. Initially, the ability of this technique to recognize variation among stylistically similar populations of Yankeetown, Angel, and Caborn-Welborn triangular arrow points is tested with favorable results. These results are then used to determine the cultural affiliation of small hunting stations in the area. The data indicate that hunting station distributions are largely independent of patterns previously documented for local habitation sites and can be used to clarify settlement-subsistence relationships.