research shows that this process is often correlated with advancing age. Not all of the bones were present as complete skeletons; some bodies had plainly been beheaded, and one of the burial pits yielded a pile of twenty-seven skulls. Moreover, the bodies did not appear to have been buried soon after death; the positions in which the bones were found convinced Matson that they had been buried after the flesh was no longer present. Besides human bodies, findings in the kame included the bodies of dogs next to human skeletons, plus beads of copper and shells, other copper tools, various stone tools, and sandal-sole-shaped shell gorgets. The most important of these artifacts included a bird stone, awls made from the bones of deer, a string of shell beads long that had been wrapped multiple times around a group of bodies, and groups of rattlesnake rattles that were not included in Matson's report. Results Throughout the excavation, Matson was careful to record the findings at the site, and he published his conclusions after the excavation was concluded. Because little was known in the mid-19th century about Ohio's prehistoric inhabitants, he was unable to identify the cultural affinity of the people buried at the Ridgeway Site: they were plainly not part of any people that had previously been recorded. As a result, his conclusions were limited to the observation that the Ridgeway people were able to trade with peoples who lived around sources of shells and copper. In the 1880s, the site was seen as an extreme example of a site of the Mound Builders, but since that time, the Ridgeway Site has been identified as the type site of the Glacial Kame culture, which was prominent throughout the Great Lakes region during the later portion of the Archaic period. Today, Hardin County and the adjacent Logan County are regarded as the heartland of the Glacial Kame people, and the Ridgeway and Zimmerman sites in southern Hardin County are among the most significant sites ever found of that people. Many known Glacial Kame sites are of relatively little archaeological value, as they are frequently discovered only after modern excavation machinery has destroyed many of the ancient artifacts; as a result, well-recorded sites like Ridgeway and Zimmerman are of immense value. References Archaeological sites in Ohio Archaic period in North America Cemeteries in Ohio Hardin County, Ohio Kames Quarries in the United States