A Guide to the Archaeology Parks of the Upper Midwest
Mound 24, The Plains, Ohio was initially trenched by E. Andrews well over a century ago. A re-investigation of Mound 24 was conducted in for data recovery and radiocarbon dating. The 1 X 1 m test trench revealed several construction levels which are analyzed utilizing the Harris Matrix stratigraphic profiling technique. Broader socio-political implications of these new data are considered.
Coming Together at The Crossroads: Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine that these tribal populations did not interact on a regular basis as had their Adena and Hopewellian predecessors. This paper offers initial considerations for the development of Early Late Woodland aggregated settlement in an area strategically located at the cross-roads of these three major drainages and is based on a synthesis of geophysical, climatological and distributional data from recent investigations at the Swinehart Village Site in Fairfield County, Ohio.
Excavation of the Allen site 33AT has revealed the remnants of houses dated between A. The housing at this site is described, followed by a description of community structure and demography. Finally, the spacial distribution of these communities within the valley are detailed. Alligator Mound, one of only two animal effigy mounds in Ohio, was partially excavated with a 1x4 m trench and small test pit in Radiocarbon dates of two discrete charcoal fragments, averaged between AD and , link the mound to the Fort Ancient culture circa AD Stratigraphic and texture data indicate the mound was constructed in stages: Ethnohistoric analogies suggest the mound represents an Underwater Panther, a mythical being frequently depicted in the art of this and subsequent eras.
In the last two decades, the archaeology of northern Hopewellian peoples has, with a few exceptions, been rightfully oriented toward basic data recovery, description, and descriptive modeling. This agenda has been necessary to explore the veracity of fundamental culture-historical and ecological reconstructions offered earlier by Caldwell, Struever, Prufer, and others. The four presentations in this symposium provide a sampling of recent attempts to place the study of northern Hopewellian peoples within an anthropological archaeological framework. Basic, shared approaches include intense exploration of local cultural contexts and histories; insight generated by controlled, crosscultural comparison among local traditions; a sensitivity to, if not identification of, cultural actors and motivation; and interpretation informed by crossculturally derived, anthropological theory.
Growing the World in Their Image: This presentation compares the Hopewell farming systems of Ohio and Illinois and the individual evolutionary trajectories in which they were embedded. Although pre- and post-Hopewell plant use systems show significant differences in the two regions, Hopewellian people in both areas seem to have had very similar systems of farming and plant use. These similarities are considered in terms of a widely-shared Hopewellian identity expressed through the food system and the dynamic of the human-land interaction. The organization of Hopewellian communities is explored using a comparative and multiscalar approach.
Comparisons are made between the lower Illinois Valley, the lower Wabash Valley and the central Scioto Valley at several social and spatial scales: The relationship between domestic and ritual spaces primarily mounds and earthworks is examined at each scale. The comparisons reveal important organizational differences between regions, and suggest revisions to existing organizational models within regions. Three self-identifying Middle Woodland dispersed communities within the Scioto-Paint Creek area are well defined with reinforcing mortuary, architectural, and artifact stylistic data from several mound and earthwork centers.
During the middle to late Middle Woodland, the three communities appear to have symbolized and sanctified a formal alliance among themselves in part through burying some of their dead together within each of several charnel houses, as indicated by multiple facets of the mortuary record. Later dissolution of the alliance can also be traced. This culture-historical reconstruction is supported by independent estimates of changes in the sizes and social compositions of mortuary gatherings at mound and earthwork centers over time, based on the numbers and kinds of artifacts found within burials and ceremonial deposits.
The historical reconstruction accords with anthropological theory on sequences of alliance development within societies of middle-range complexity. A strong case can be made for a link between ritual demand and the development of craft specialization in small-scale societies. The organization and scale of the production of items used for ritual performance and participation varies, however, depending on the nature of the item and the degree to which its use is restricted to certain contexts or personnel.
In this presentation, I contrast ornament production at Ohio Hopewell earthworks with decorated ceramic production in the Rio Grande area of New Mexico. The significance of a mastodont find many years ago at Omro, Wisconsin, and nearby fluted point finds, is examined in light of recent revisions to the glacial history of Winnebago County, Wisconsin.
Some of the fluted points are reported here for the first time. Controversy surrounded the age of fluted points found on Valders till thought to be free of ice by B. This same till in the Omro area is now renamed the Kirby Lake Member till and is thought to be free of ice by 10, B. Thus the Winnebago County fluted points can now be assigned to the same age as those fluted points found in southern Wisconsin.
This paper examines the relationship between subsistence, sedentism, and social organization in tribal societies found in two geographically and culturally discrete contexts, the Middle Woodland period in the Ohio Valley and the Neolithic-Copper Age transition on the Great Hungarian Plain. This cross-cultural comparison of egalitarian societies in similar temperate environments focuses on the impact that economic strategies have on social organization and the degree of social integration and interaction.
It is argued that animal domestication led to the development of more sedentary and socially integrated societies during the Copper Age on the great Hungarian Plain, while the mobile Hopewell who were not tied down by domestic animals developed a dispersed settlement system and an elaborate interaction sphere.
Much attention has been given to the astronomical alignment of Hopewell monuments; however, this analysis suggests that a major orientational field was keyed to inter-site directions rather than to celestial azimuths. This pattern implies sequent sets of active centers used in ad seriatim fashion, a finding compatible with available chronological evidence. Although solstice alignments characterize a few sites, claims for the marking of long-term lunar cycles can also be viewed as constructional epiphenomena.
Scioto geomancers, certainly aware of movements across the heavens, were more concerned with the shunting of people across a politically-contested landscape. The Robinson site in north-central Wisconsin is one of the best-kept secrets of northern archaeology. This little known site is gigantic, covering more than 40 acres and containing 34 burial mounds Salzer The site on Lake Nokomis in Oneida County was the focus of Beloit college excavations from to under the direction of Robert J.
My analysis of the Robinson ceramics, using cluster analysis, was an attempt to discover relationships among the vessels, ignoring previous typological distinctions. The study included vessels. Clustering produced 13 groups, 12 of them overlapping from Early Woodland Nokomis material through Heins Creek-like cord impressed and cord-wrapped stick types, to Madison-like cord impressed types, to vessels with rolled incipient collaring, to fully collared cord-impressed and cord-wrapped stick stamped vessels.
They seriate in that some minor attributes of one group become the major attributes of the next group. The study concludes that the ceramic sequence indicates an unbroken local development from Early Woodland all the way through to the Late Woodland collared wares. Currently, there is no consensus about when and where collared wares were first introduced into southern Wisconsin.
A number of researchers believe that intrusive Late Woodland groups from the south introduced such wares into the area. Others propose a model where they developed locally out of the Effigy Mound Tradition. Although this paper does not establish how collared wares were introduced, it examines the temporal and spatial distributions as well as the cultural associations of six collared ware varieties from sites in this region, including a few significant sites that Dr.
Robert Salzer has worked on during his career. During the summers of , 71, and 72 Bob Salzer led a contingent of Beloit College field school students to Cahokia in search of the west palisade wall. Although no wall was identified a sequence of occupations were identified that has a bearing on our understanding on Cahokia's Emergent Mississippian beginnings; its florescence; and the subsequent changes leading up to its abandonment. This paper summarizes the significance of not only this information, but its impact in terms of methods and ideas at this unique Mississippian site. The Bell site is well known for the large Middle Historic Meskwaki occupation dating between and Analysis of artifacts from the lengthy salvage of the site have identified several shell-tempered Ramey Incised and other early Mississippian ceramics associated with the rise of Cahokia in the American Bottom of Illinois.
The majority of these shell-tempered ceramics are from pit features in the southern portion of the Meskwaki village. The extent of Meskwaki intrusion into these older features is not fully known, but preliminary analysis suggests fairly intact features. Excavations at the Crescent Bay Hunt Club site shed new light on Oneota subsistence, settlement, ceramic, lithic, and mortuary patterns. Eight radiocarbon dates place the occupation of the site at A.
Ceramics are Developmental Oneota wares, and assemblages of lithic, copper, and bone tools have been recovered. An interpretation of the site and its place in the Oneota world is presented. Robert Salzer's research program at the Gottschall Rockshelter has produced valuable information for all students of Midwestern archeology and offers data of inestimable value to students of Oneota archeology. The Gottschall work affords us unplumbed opportunities to evaluate and expand our perceptions of Oneota beginnings, evolution, interactions, and belief systems found among a number of tribes at the contact period.
A few ideas about the Oneota tradition and some effects of the Gottschall investigations on future Oneota research are offered. The human bone from the Gottschall Rockshelter continues the "Archaeological Mystery". As should be expected with non-residential activity there are no distinct primary grave sites. However, there is a substantial amount of fragmentary cranial material that has been excavated from within the rockshelter, as well as several dental remains and isolated post cranial members.
The location of this material within the shelter and its placement within existing temporal frameworks raises interesting questions about human behavior at the site. This paper will examine and discuss in brief the implications of the human bone collected from the Gottschall site since Knapping out identity, revisiting the concept of socially conditioned preferences concerning stone tool production in southern Wisconsin. The collections of small triangular points from the Gottschall Rockshelter and those from the Barrett collection housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum display obvious differences.
Yet, the potential of these differences relating to a broader general prehistoric preference ingrained through the processes of socialization is one that likewise needs consideration. With the ability to quickly manipulate vast quantities of information, databases enable the archaeologist to make better-informed decisions in the field and in the lab.
However, their benefit to archaeology is only realized when specific goals and the needs of a particular site are understood. Creation of an artifact database during the field season at the Gottschall Rockshelter 47IA80 provides a supporting example. Use of the database resulted in conclusive evidence supporting the theory of a bird effigy mound existing inside the rockshelter and helped to direct and refine strategy during the following field season.
The preliminary distributional analysis of waste flakes from the Gottschall Rockshelter has yielded significant results in respect to the archaeological understanding of Effigy Mound Culture. Robert Salzer has previously suggested the presence of a bird effigy within the rockshelter and the distributional data supports this theory. The recognition of this bird mound along with the identification of the anatomical placing of artifacts has important implications for the future excavation of Effigy Mound Culture sites.
Iowaville, a principal village of the Ioway people, was founded ca. Louis and Prairie du Chien. Archaeological evidence shows the Ioways focused much effort on deer hunting and hide export, made extensive use of English firearms and other European goods, and used pipes of red pipestone and of grey-green pipestone from near Sterling northern Illinois. Used in ceremonies and to cement alliances, pipes reflect complex social relations among various Indian groups and between Indians and non-Indians. Twenty-five seasons of excavations completely exposed the remains of an 8.
This work revealed the presence of 71 structures, two palisades, numerous middens as well as thousands of artifacts. Evidence confirming the village expansion was not discovered until year 16 of the project. This paper argues for the need of long term commitment with almost total excavation in order to view and interpret the settlement patterns of similar large complex villages. Chronologies based on Jesuit rings depend on an evolutionary sequence tied first to the presence of Jesuit missionaries and subsequently to secular sources.
If rings are uncoupled from Jesuits and their variation sought in causes other than the presence or absence of missionaries, using them for chronological purposes becomes less plausible. Bob Salzer's early years at Beloit College included teaching annual 15 week summer field schools in Northern Wisconsin, and later at the Cahokia Site in west-central Illinois. Many of Salzer's students from those years, including the present author, went on to become professional archaeologists and anthropologists. This paper will review the goals of those field schools, discuss the participants, and evaluate Salzer's impact on the discipline through his student legacies.
A concentrated population of Quakers and free Blacks in 19th century southwest Michigan attracted a settlement of fugitive slaves that came to be known as Ramptown. Oral accounts and documentary evidence provide support for Ramptown, although agricultural activities destroyed its last standing structures more than a century ago. A recent archaeological survey was conducted to identify physical traces of the settlement. The survey located and documented a dozen dispersed scatters of midth century ceramics and other domestic debris.
Only four of these sites appear as documented farmsteads suggesting that the others represent the remains of the fugitive slave settlement. Maxson, and Paul J. The analysis includes use of spatial distributions, stereoscope examination of use-wear patterns, and limited use of the SEM. A case is made for the existence of a specialized camp in which Ohio Hopewell craft specialists both made and used bladelets.
Acceptance of the idea that Hopewellian people conducted formal craft specialized activities is supported by the analysis. A comparison of two very important Amerindian shamanic art pieces. The second mask, is the golden breastplate mask excavated by Professor Alfonso Caso in Oaxaca, Mexico My hope and goal, is to show that there could be a possible link betwen these two masks.
Some Mesoamerican Indian religions, also have a deity of the western spirit world. During Phase II investigations of 19th century historic homesteads, it was found that the landscape of these sites had been altered through military use and training. Possible historic features at some sites proved to be of military origin while at other sites stratigraphy was created by military earth-moving and filling activities. This study examines some of the dilemmas faced in doing historic archaeology on military lands and how such investigations reveal not only the history of settlement and agricultural in Wisconsin but of the US Army as well.
The goal of the educational component of the Next Step Archaeology Project is to provide Indianapolis high school students the experience and skills needed to achieve success in college. Archaeology is used as a means to stimulate students' interest in the sciences. Conducting successful research provides for the student a product, the research paper, that enhances their competitive advantage in college.
A Guide to the Archaeology Parks of the Upper Midwest
In concert with Fort Harrison State Park, the Indiana Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology, and other Indiana research and education institutions, this project contributes to the students' understanding of our shared past. Rivers, Derek; Sasso, Robert F. Research over the past decade has produced data on well over two hundred sites attributable to the Potawatomi across a seven-county area of southeastern Wisconsin.
The archaeological and historical literature indicate a variety of primarily early nineteenth century sites including habitation, ceremonial, agricultural, extractive, mortuary, and other sites. This research also has yielded extensive information regarding trails and associated features such as fords and supposed trail marker trees. The distribution of these sites is presented in a series of maps produced for each category.
Available on
Taken together, these reflect an extensive and diverse pattern of settlement and land use. Bicymbal copper ear spools are widely distributed within the Eastern Woodlands in ceremonial contexts. Since their stylistic norms transcend regional boundaries, a seriation of ear spools allows relative chronological ordering of Hopewell sites within and across drainages and regions. Two ear spools from Bedford Mound 4 in Illinois are among the most spectacular examples. Regional variation is observed in the specific locations of ear spools in ceremonial contexts and the numbers "consumed" during ceremonial activities.
Technical details of fabrication also vary in time and space. A metallographic investigation of an artifact from the Turner site reveals some of these techniques. In the midst of the peaks and ridges of the Great Smoky Mountains, there is a small plain known as Cades Cove. In , white settlers began buying large tracts of land forming the town of Cades Cove. Through historic documentation, much is known about the town and the lives of settlers in Cades Cove. But what is known about the prehistoric inhabitants? The Ohio Historic Preservation Office offers technical assistance and educational programs, maintains the Ohio Archaeological Inventory, and consults with state and federal agencies to consider effects of undertakings on important archaeological sites.
The archaeological programs of the Ohio Historic Preservation Office assist in preserving significant archaeological sites and provide information for ongoing scholarly research on Ohio's rich archaeological record. The site is on a rise to the northwest of Fall Creek in the northwest corner of Fort Harrison State Park, which is located just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. The original intent in was to surface collect all visible artifacts from summer surface-collection areas.
By a large sample that covers percent of the visible site from the surface has been generated. This is to an analytical advantage in that a great deal is known concerning the sample area with very little excavation or damage to the subsurface portion of the site. The NSEAP sample illustrates the utility of surface-collection data with little corresponding subsurface data; for example, site function, chronology, artifact distributions, and other variables are assessed using surface data. To date artifacts from several prehistoric periods have been collected; however, the assemblage extracted from the historic component of the site provides most of the archaeological sample.
Papers in this symposium use data generated from the 12Ma archaeological sample to evaluate local, regional, and methodological research questions. Educators in archaeology have come to recognize the value of an archaeological education as a tool for improving academic skills and leading students into the sciences. This project has demonstrated that students can gain an array of academic skills as they make a contribution to our shared past. The excavation, interpretation, and analysis of a large, unusual pit feature at site 12Ma is discussed.
Comparisons with wells, cisterns, privies, and other know historical pit features are made, and at the function of this pit remains a mystery. Three different abandonment and fill episode appear to have occurred in this feature; preliminary terminus post quem of A.
Other artifacts appear to reinforce this date, and relate the pit to the site as a whole, which is discussed within. Between and in excess of units were surface collected at site 12Ma During the surface collections many architectural artifacts were recovered suggesting that a structure was present in the past. However, written records are sketchy as to what type of structure might have been built in the vicinity of the site, and there is no record of where the structure, if any, was located.
During the field season a feature Feature 1 was discovered and subsequently excavated. At present, the function of the pit is still in question. It was first hypothesized that the pit represented the remains of a privy, which now appears unlikely. However, neither explanation is acceptable because the location of the feature is not suitable for a well, and the stratigraphy of the pit does not indicate the presence of a well or cistern. Further, the relationship between artifacts recovered during surface collection and those recovered from the pit feature is unclear.
In an effort to define this relationship, an exploratory trench Trench 1 was excavated from the pit feature across an area of high-artifact concentration. This was done in an attempt to find other features such as post molds, to identify some relationship between the pit feature and the area of artifact concentration, and to determine the function of the pit. Preliminary analysis of artifacts from the trench suggests that brick density and size increases toward the east, which is in the general direction of the pit feature Feature 1.
The artifact composition of the units within the trench potentially offer insight in to the function of Feature 1; data from the trench sample is used here to relate the subsurface of 12Ma to Feature 1. According to the 12Ma site report, the ceramic assemblage collected from Feature 1 is similar to the ceramic assemblage surface collected during the , , and field seasons. One difference between the samples is that the assemblage from the feature has a higher ratio of refined to unrefined ware than that from the surface assemblage.
Here data generated from the surface-collection sample are added to the extant surface sample; these are compared to the feature ceramic assemblage to further assess the relationship between refined and unrefined ware in both assemblages. Numerous historic and prehistoric artifacts have been found. The distribution of lithic artifacts is scattered; they do not occur in dense concentrations at 12Ma Because the distribution of flakes is scattered and because the majority of the flakes appear to have been the result of retooling an assumption made here because the flakes are small , 12Ma has been called a prehistoric tool manufacture and repair area in past reports.
This report seeks to determine if the position of the lithic artifacts is the result of primary or secondary deposition by comparison to the positions of such historical artifacts as brick and glass. An Evaluation of Site Integrity and Function. The distribution of lithics and ceramics at site 12MA are observed to determine whether or not the distribution of historic and prehistoric artifacts was determined by historic bulldozing.
If dense concentrations of lithics occur with dense concentrations of ceramics it means that prehistoric and historic artifacts were deposited together, probably because of bulldozing. If we find that the site was bulldozed then we must reconsider our interpretations about site prehistoric and historic functions.
The distribution of two types of historic material construction debris and domestic debris are also observed in order to address site function. Previous research states that the distribution of brick at 12Ma is uneven and more concentrated in some areas than others. It is clear that brick collected from the site is too small of an amount to represent substantial architecture; however, perhaps the brick came from a chimney. Chimney brick has a few distinct characteristics because of firing during its use; the surface of the heated brick eventually becomes glazed.
Prior to glazing, the brick is softened from its original texture; after substantial use, chimney brick thus takes on three textures within each brick. The interior facing the fire is glazed, the exterior retains its original hard texture, and the middle of the brick remains softened from the heat; each brick is soft, hard, and glazed. Now, a potentially confusing set of variables is that perhaps three textures of bricks were used at the site; that is, perhaps three types of brick three manufactured textures were used at 12Ma In order to test whether or not three textures can develop in one brick, as postulated, an experiment was framed; a hard-textured brick was experimentally fired and the resulting textures examined.
Why smoke these pipes? A study of the pipes from site 12Ma, Lawrence Township, Indiana. During the and through field investigations, a minimum of 8 pipes have been found at site 12Ma, Lawrence Township, Indiana. These pipes were manufactured at a kiln located in Clermont County, Ohio. During the mid 19th century, this kiln operated amidst a climate of competing potters and pipe makers, particularly from Summit County, Ohio.
However, the settlers at site 12Ma clearly used those from Point Pleasant more than any other. Was their choice based primarily on the fact that they were very inexpensive, or were availability and preference also key factors? Through reviewing records concerning the Point Pleasant kiln and mercantiles in Lawrence Township, Indiana, pipes may be used as a vehicle to better understand the economic situation of the settlers in Lawrence Township, Indiana.
An Evaluation of Phase 1 Methods: Many archaeological methods exist to find the location and the extent of sites. But by surveying only a percentage of the surface area, it is likely that visible artifacts are missed. This paper explains the process of walk-through survey and tests its reliability through quantitative comparative analysis to intense surface collection of a portion of site 12Ma During the surface collection, percent of visible artifacts from a 10 x 30 m grid were collected, and during the walk-through survey, only a portion of the 10 x 30 m was examined during which the presence and frequency of visible artifacts were recorded.
This project attempted to calculate the estimated amount of flat glass present on site 12Ma The calculated mean date of flat glass A. The historic investigations suggested that the first settlers to the area in may have brought enough glass with them for a temporary structure. The objective of this research is to determine if there is sufficient glass present at the site to help confirm the presence of windows in a potential structure at the site.
An integral part of this project is the involvement of local high-school youth in science and education through archaeology. In order to evaluate the effects of NSEAP on local youth this project has been undertaken to provide a critical assessment of the program.
This is accomplished primarily through interview with students, NSEAP staff, volunteers, and local park officials. Vegetation catchment analysis and faunal and floral analysis was conducted on two contemporaneous Upper Mississippian groups located on the edge of the Prairie Peninsula. The analyses provided insight into prehistoric environmental and resource utilization by the two populations, and indicate that distinctly different environmental composition and exploitation strategies were utilized.
This paper summarizes our initial excavations at the Moccasin Bluff site and outlines the larger research goals of better understanding the shifts in subsistence, landscape, and ideology of Native American life in the centuries immediately prior to contact with Europeans. Recent work at the site has focused on areas outside the enclosures, instead of on the enclosures themselves. Rather than serving as a place of occupation, the recent testing program suggests that the earthworks, along with nearby mounds and clusters of cache pits, actually constitute a coherent ritual precinct.
The character of the precinct and its layout are discussed. Excavations at the Late Prehistoric Strawtown and Scranage enclosures in central and northeastern Indiana produced information about the construction, use, and deterioration of the enclosure structures. Deposits associated with the ditch and embankment at Strawtown suggest that erosion and slump have markedly transformed the morphology of these structures, widening and filling the ditch and lowering and " spreading" the embankment.
Similar transformations are apparent at Scranage, a smaller enclosure with an ephemeral single component occupation. An understanding of the natural processes acting on these structures must precede larger considerations of site chronology, function, and cultural dynamics. Dougherty, Indiana University, and Lorena M. Havill, Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research. Mitigative investigations at the Murphy site 12 Po 1 resulted from construction impacts and were required by state laws.
Excavations identified two Mississippian Caborn-Welborn phase cemeteries, the likely locale of one of W. Moorehead's excavated cemeteries, and isolated interments. Two cemeteries show repeated interments over time, burial in parallel rows, individuals of all ages and both sexes, and abundant grave goods. Trauma indicative of interpersonal violence is unusually high and includes lesions similar to those found on survivors of scalping.
Comparison of these results with other data helps to characterize the health and mortuary practices of the Murphy site population. During investigations for a school resulted in the location of a Mississippian site in the uplands southeast of Cahokia. Subsequent testing resulted in the identification of structures and pits indicative of a possible Mississippian.
Although attempts were made to preserve the site, ultimately it was necessary to mitigate the impact. This paper discusses the results of these excavations. In excavations were conducted at the Lehman-Sommers site, an upland village in Eastern Illinois. The over ceramic rims recovered from the Lehman-Sommers site reflects a late Lohman to Sterling Phase association. The assemblage contains a variety of ceramic types ranging from fine wares to vessels of everyday use. The ceramics recovered shows strong affiliation with the assemblage at Cahokia and other contemporary sites. This paper discusses the diversity of the ceramics and examines the spatial patterns of vessel categories.
The Lithic Assemblage from the Lehman-Sommers site and its significance for understanding early Mississippian lithic procurement and use especially the Cahokia Microlithic Industry. Over lithic items were recovered from the Lehman-Sommers site, an early Mississippian village southeast of Cahokia. While some lithic resources were available in the uplands surrounding this site, most of the chert resources were obtained from sources some distance from the site.
This paper examines these resources and the recovery of over microdrills, microblades, and microcores from the Cahokia microlithic industry. Of particular importance is the methods employed in the production of the drills and the experimental work recently conducted. The recent excavations of an early Mississippian site in the uplands southeast of Cahokia has provided new insights into the organizational structure of a village and detached farmstead and their relationship to Cahokia and other nearby communities.
This paper examines the village's configuration, the intrasite distribution of activities, and associated social units. This information has a significant bearing on the debate regarding Cahokia's domination and its interaction with outlying populations. The discussion of these new data will focus on the aforementioned processes and the extent to which this site serves to amplify the complexity of any consideration of Cahokia and its relationship to its neighbors. Occupation at the interior upland Lehmann-Sommers site began early in the Mississippian period, consisting of a village with about 30 dwellings and other types of structures, including a large T-shaped ceremonial structure.
A separate farmstead or small hamlet was located approximately 70 meters away. Archaeobotanical materials from the site yielded abundant remains of maize and other wild and cultivated resources, reflecting the wealth of plants that Lohmann phase people used daily for food, fuel, technology and ceremony. Like the presence of special buildings, and unique ceramic and lithic artifacts, some aspects of the macrobotanical assemblage, such as red cedar wood, indicate participation of this upland community in a Cahokia-centered economic, religious and political network.
Using a transmission electron microscope TEM and energy dispersive spectra EDS , microscopic patches of color found on two Ramey knives buried in a wall trench from the Loyd site, a Mississippian homestead, were recently identified. The pigments were applied as mirror images. In the process of researching pigments and other attributes of these intriguing artifacts, a data base of information has been compiled on Ramey knife finds throughout the American Bottom.
A statistical program is used in an attempt to demonstrate patterns and correlations between context, phase, heat treatment, polish, edge wear, chert type, and pigment. The Sugarloaf Mound on the bluffs of the Mississippi Valley, northeast of Cahokia mounds, is a prominent landmark and one of three mounds so designated in the St. Of particlular interest is this mounds incorporation as part of an earthwork comprising a possible bird effigy.
A Guide to the Archaeology Parks of the Upper Midwest - Deborah Morse-Kahn - Google Livres
Recent efforts to preserve this unique feature have been successful with its purchase by the State of Illinois. This paper summarizes the archaeological investigations of the area surrounding this unique earth monument. The Gerald Parker Collection. Gartner Village and Mound 33Ro19 situated along the eastern bluff margin of the Scioto River, in Ross County, Ohio, is best known from the literature as an early Fort Ancient village site. Upon closer examination of diagnostic lithic artifacts in the Gerald Parker Collection, a Middle Woodland Hopewell component is established. The resurgence of literature on Middle Woodland Hopewell activities focuses on a number of surrounding locations and river valleys within Ohio.
However, information on the Upper Hocking River drainage in Fairfield County has been relatively scarce. This lack of data raises intriguing questions. Did the participants in the Hopewell phenomenon bypass the upper Hocking River or is it a relative lack of contemporary fieldwork that has kept the Hopewell out of the Hocking? Using Ohio Archaeological Inventory information and data recovered during the Lancaster Bypass Project, this presentation examines these questions and suggests possible avenues of further research. Archaeological Investigations at 15Mm Phase II archaeological investigations at site 15Mm in Montgomery County, Kentucky documented a Middle Woodland component marked by a Connestee Series tetrapodal vessel, copper ear spools and a possible circular structure.
The artifact content, site structure and radiometric data from the site are described and compared to contemporaneous sites in the immediate vicinity and region at large. Based on these comparisons, it is argued the site fulfilled a ritual function with probable Hopewellian influence. The project was conducted at the request of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet as part of the US realignment from Camargo to Jeffersonville, Kentucky.
This presentation illustrates the variation in rim, base, and vessel forms, emphasizing affinities to ceramic groups to the east, particularly Adena Plain from the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. Projectile point associations are clarified, and seven radiocarbon dates provide badly needed absolute dating for the Middle Woodland of the Falls of the Ohio area. The sources of origin of flint artifacts and debitage from two nearly totally destroyed Hopewell earthwork complexes in southwestern OhioTurner 33Ha41 and Milford 33Ct5 are compared with respect to each other and to the flint raw material assemblages of other Hopewell sites in the Little Miami, Great Miami, and Scioto River Valleys.
Present in these assemblages is non-local flint from various regions of the Midwest, Midsouth, and Northeast. Also summarized are the cultural and biological contents of a sample of midden soil from near a large earthwork that was part of the Turner complex. Hopewellian art and design are replete with hauntingly natural depictions or Picasso-like abstractions of the wildlife of their times.
One of the most widely occurring motifs is that of avian characters found incised on ceramic vessels. An on-going study of these images in the central Midwest provides new insights into the use of these elements. An examination of art and of ceremonial behaviors at three major Ohio Hopewell ceremonial centers suggests that different political economic strategies were being employed in different areas. Hopewell and Seip, in south-central Ohio, show evidence of exclusionary strategies, in which political prominence is sought by monopolistically controlling potential sources of power.
In contrast, the Turner site in southwestern Ohio seems to exemplify a more corporate strategy, wherein a cognitive code is promoted that restricts the pursuit of exclusionary power.
Bugün Kobo'ya katılın & eOkumaya başlayın+
It is suggested that these sites may represent broader cultural trends in southwestern and south-central Ohio Hopewell. It will be argued that the mortuary and earthwork practices of the groups responsible for the Turner and Hopewell sites constituted the latter as more closely related to former than it was to its near neighbours of Seip, Liberty Works and Mound City, thereby defining what will be termed the Turner-Hopewell axis, a sub-regional ritual sphere that sustained an arm's length relation with the ritual groups making up the central Scioto region, e.
Signature Theory applies archaeological, ethnological, and natural evidence to produce testable models of symbolic systems of belief. We can rediscover these self-evident natural symbols through careful observation of nature and thus reasonably attribute meaning to imagery produced by nature-based religious systems. A tentative Signature Theory analysis of Hopewell icons provides a heuristic model of the Hopewell worldview.
In suggesting directions for future studies, Aveni made note of the need for statistical probability analyses, which have been lacking in such Ohio earthwork research. This paper is presented in response to his directive. In , I analyzed the century-old Bureau of Ethnology survey data of the Hopeton earthworks for calendrical sightlines. Problems concerning the reduction of these data, the framing of the associated probability analysis, and the results, are described and discussed.
This researcher has surveyed and mapped more than prehistoric constructions in Eastern North America. He will show that 5 works, Seip, Baum, Liberty, and High Bank in Ross County and Newark in Licking County, Ohio are of such complexity in their geometrics and layout that Hopewell people had to have had records on paper of each of these and other works. There are more than 18 species of plants in the Midwest from which paper could have been made, some of it transparent. One such species is the cattail. Many textiles recovered from Hopewell sites are black and charred, due to their association with cremations.
In this study, charred and uncharred milkweed fibers dyed with sumac and bedstraw and mordanted with potassium carbonate or iron oxide, were examined. IR absorbance peaks in the spectra of uncharred fibers were absent in the spectra of charred fibers. Dyed fibers, whether charred or uncharred, displayed specific absorbance peaks that can be attributed to the dyes.
You are here
Color was an important component of iconography in Eastern North America. Blue, red, black and white were particularly important. Historical records including reports of early travelers to this continent, and later ethnographers', indicate that dye plants were used as a source for color for body paint and on the textiles, and that this industry was well-established before European contact.
It also gives clues about which plants were likely sources for these colors. Macrophysical Climate models for the Central Ohio valley suggest that the period coincident wi th the Hopewell florescence was characterized by slightly shorter cooler summers and a more diffuse spring freshet relative to the modern period. If the model is correct riparian Hopewell settlements suffered fewer overbank floods on average than those of the preceding Adena and the subsequent Late Woodland.
During the and field seasons, the Midwest Archeological Center continued a long-term study aimed at answering three basic questions about the Hopeton Earthworks: The alternating writing, by a seasoned archaeologist and a perceptive, accomplished artist, provides complementary descriptions and understandings for each site. The archaeologist guides us through the clues to age and identity of sites and images, while the artist shares in words her in—depth visual palette.
Most importantly, both authors display their respectful feelings for the indigenous art. Personal experiences at the rock art sites are mixed with scientific observations to produce a balanced understanding of the art and the often-sacred spaces.
Ancient Native Americans deliberately left this durable art, so filled with spiritual and cultural references, to inform us about the sacred landscape that we now share. What better way is there to appreciate this precious cultural heritage than to use the living voices of Native Americans descended from the shaman—artists who painted the intriguing images?
Each chapter culminates with an extended statement by an insightful Native American. Hidden Thunder provides us with a balanced look at the topic of rock art. Importantly, we gain a sense of place through colour photographs before entering the sacred spaces. Clear photographs of the ancient images also benefit from skilled watercolour paintings of the same images.