Models of Fort Ancient settlement are based on assumptions about social organization, adaptation, and site function. Fundamental to testing settlement models is the question of village autonomy among coeval communities, especially the question of economic self-sufficiency. This question is explored by using catchment analysis as a technique for measuring the amount of usable soils around six nucleated Fort Ancient villages in southwestern Ohio. Economically, each of the sites discussed is shown to have sufficient soil for growing the necessary cultigens to support its resident population on a year-round basis. These results are in agreement with Graybill's (1981) thesis that all Fort Ancient communities, regardless of size, shape, complexity, or time, are self-sufficient social aggregates.
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