North America - Midwest (Geographic Keyword)
126-150 (329 Records)
This report presents the results of a large-area magnetic gradient survey at Hopewell Mound Group, a unit of Hopewell Culture National Historical Park in Ross County, Ohio. In 2011, a first survey covered only half of the archaeological monument, but for reconstruction and heritage management of the site a complete survey was sought. This survey was conducted in April 2015 by the German Archaeological Institute. During the survey, several magnetic anomalies of potential archaeological interest...
Finding the Past in the Paste: Variance in Woodland Ceramics at Woodpecker Cave (13JH202) (2017)
Five field seasons of excavations by the University of Iowa field school have recovered hundreds of ceramic pottery sherds from the Woodpecker Cave site. Previous typological analysis of the ceramic assemblage has supported the hypothesis of a multicomponent site that was host to seasonal occupations spanning hundreds of years. Woodpecker Cave provides a unique opportunity to study variation in ceramic technology within Midwestern cooking vessels across the Middle Woodland and Late Woodland...
Fires at axis mundi: macro- and microbotanical investigations of a Hopewell woodhenge (2017)
At Hopewell Mound Group in Ross County Ohio (33RO27), 2013 magnetic gradiometer investigations redefined the long invisible Great Circle, a 120-meter diameter woodhenge. The 2016 excavation of one of four central features within the Great Circle revealed a large thermal feature. Although unusually large for this purpose, the arrangement of fire-cracked rock, clay lining, hot-burning hardwoods and grass seed suggest a classic earth oven common to domestic sites. However, ethnographic analogy...
Foodway Variability in the Oneota Tradition: A Pilot Study of Cooking Pots (2017)
As a tradition, Oneota encompasses a wide geographic area and several groups, each with their own unique developmental histories. It also encapsulates multiple population movements and other complex social interactions that took place in various areas. Living in a dynamic social setting, different Oneota groups likely negotiated their social landscape in diverse ways. Foodways may have been one way that Oneota peoples either adapted to or set themselves apart from those with which they came in...
Fort Ancient (A.D. 1350-1450) Domestic Rituals of the Middle Ohio Valley (2017)
In many parts of the world, the construction and maintenance of a domestic dwelling is often accompanied by rituals intended to bless the house, appease the ancestors, or please the spirit world. Within the Fort Ancient (A.D. 1000-1750) area of the middle Ohio River Valley, as evidenced at Fox Farm, a large Fort Ancient village in north-central Kentucky, such rituals may take the form of objects (pipes, shell or bone pendants, marginella shell beads, drilled deer toe bones [cup and pin game],...
Fortifications in the Eastern Woodlands of Pre-Columbian North America: An Examination of Organized Warfare during the Mississippian Period (2016)
The prevalence and ubiquity of warfare have long been recognized by scholars studying the Mississippian Era in the Eastern Woodlands. These data point to a culture(s) that often found itself in periods of conflict between competing regional polities, which is reflected in skeletal trauma rates, fortified settlements, and conflagrated villages. Our collective understanding of the geopolitical interactions and causes for this strife is subject to substantial interpretation and debate, rendering...
Forward and "Faug a Balac": An Irish Immigrant Family Dugout in Wisconsin (2017)
Much of the historical research on Irish immigrants, particularly women and children, focuses on those who moved to urban areas during the time of the Famine. Less has been written about Irish immigration prior to the famine, particularly to rural areas. The McHugh family immigrated to the United States in 1825, settling in Waupaca County, Wisconsin circa 1849. The McHugh site (47WP0294) was occupied by this family for over a century. Following her husband’s death in 1856, Mary McHugh was left...
Founding Daughters and Wives: Looking For Women in a Male Dominated Artifact Assemblage (2016)
While historical documentation is, for the most part, a deliberate system of record keeping, the archaeological record primarily exists because of the accidental deposition of artifacts. Often these artifacts cannot be coded as representing either male or female use or ownership; however, in certain artifact assemblages where the history of the site is well documented, the researcher can examine the artifacts with an eye toward gendering them and re-creating the story of the people who utilized...
The Future of the Past at Fort St. Joseph, Niles, Michigan (2015)
The Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project was initiated in 1998 as a collaborative partnership between Western Michigan University, the City of Niles, and various community groups. After 10 seasons of site investigations, scholarly publications, and public archaeology at this eighteenth-century French fur trading post, the Fort St. Joseph Archaeology Advisory Committee invited historic preservation professionals, economic development planners, educators, students, and community members to...
Geochemical and Physical Characteristics of Anthropogenic Sediments from Cahokia (2015)
The 110 mounds that characterize Cahokia’s landscape represent the most visible aspect of anthropogenic transformation of landscape. Recent ongoing efforts on the northern edge of the east plaza at Cahokia are uncovering a hidden landscape of earthmoving, illustrating the social complexity of this urban center. Traditionally, mound building has been perceived as a simple process of moving and reshaping earthen material. Because of this simplified model of mound construction, studies of mound...
A GIS approach to stratigraphy in visually homogeneous rockshelter deposits: results from Woodpecker Cave. (2016)
The sediment stack at Woodpecker Cave (13JH202) does not possess an easily discernable stratigraphic sequence. Woodpecker Cave’s deposits are a combination of visually homogeneous colluvium derived from glacial loess mobilized from above the rockshelter and variably-sized tabular roof fall blocks. The lack of visible stratigraphy has necessitated the creation of a digital model from which to analyze the spatial provenience of a variety of mapped objects in order to differentiate between sections...
GIS Let Me See It: Building More Robust Models of Past Movement with Geospatial Modeling (2016)
Geospatial technologies allow archaeologists to study past social processes at a spatial scale previously unimaginable. Here, I ask how we may realize more fully the potential created by this fact, namely that these tools let us ask questions we have never asked, nor could think of asking, before we had access to them. I explore this by focusing on one area of study with a notable amount of untapped potential: movement. Archaeologists recover material items which show people moved themselves,...
Gravemarkers of Infant Burials in Historical Cemeteries in West-Central Minnesota (2017)
Roughly one in eleven individuals buried in historic-period cemeteries in Stevens County, Minnesota died before reaching one year of age. This paper examines the gravemarkers of a subset of the 913 infants buried between 1870 and 1970, looking at both chronological and contemporary variation in style, production, and information recorded. Explanatory factors examined include religion (using the cemetery of burial as a proxy), evidence of associated maternal mortality, and when available,...
Greeting the Dawn: Investigations of Cahokia's East Plaza (2017)
This paper provides an investigation of Cahokia’s East plaza and its associated architectural remains. Defined here as the area bounded by Mounds 31, 36, 38 (Monk’s Mound), and 51, the plaza was initially distinguished by an absence of surface debris, noted during controlled surface collection efforts in the Ramey Tract by Elizabeth D. Benchley and Barbara J. Vander Leest. Based largely on ceramics that were acquired by these investigators, the proposed time of construction has been placed...
Ground truthing Cahokia's Feature X anomaly (2017)
A huge resistivity anomaly discovered several hundred meters NE of Monks Mound was subjected to coring and test excavations in 2012. This testing revealed a series of major prehistoric landscape uses/modifications through time, some quite unexpected. The prehistoric sequence of events at this location, though still in need of further clarification, appear to infer significant shifts in communal priorities through time.
Ground Truthing The Great Circle and other Big Data Anomalies at the Hopewell Mound Group (2016)
The monumental mounds and earthworks at Hopewell Mound Group have attracted attention since the dawn of American archaeology. By the early 20th century, the site’s imposing earthworks, exotic raw materials, and exquisitely crafted artifacts were widely recognized as the most flamboyant expression of a newly defined “Hopewell culture.” Yet attention was focused narrowly on mounds and mortuary contexts, ignoring the vast spaces in between. Agricultural plowing steadily eroded above-grade features....
Ground-penetrating Radar Survey and Excavation of the Golden Eagle (11C120) Embankment (2015)
The Golden Eagle site (11C120), located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, in Calhoun County, Illinois, is the only known Lower Illinois Valley mound site that includes an earthen enclosure. The site is frequently discussed in regional interpretations of moundbuilding traditions, though little is directly known about the site, particularly the embankment. Archaeological investigations have been limited to topographic mapping, pedestrian surveys, and limited inspection of...
Heads that Speak: Dividuals and Trophies from the Eastern Woodlands Archaic (2016)
The removal of human body parts after death is a diverse practice with many cross-cultural nuances. Trophy taking is just one means of body part removal. Among the hunter-gatherers of the late Middle and Late Archaic (6,500 - 2,600 B.P.) of the US Eastern Woodlands, heads were common trophies, though any body part could be taken. A survey of over 20 sites shows that post-cranial trophies were often handled and kept for long periods of time. Trophy heads however, were utilized for a short time...
Here lies.... You know, Weaver, I've forgotten who we just buried: The Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery Project (2015)
The Milwaukee County Poor Farm Cemetery Project was initiated in 2008 and is a collaborative effort of the UW-Milwaukee Archaeological Research Laboratory, UW-Milwaukee Anthropology Department graduate students, UW-Milwaukee Undergraduate Research Opportunity Students, and the staff of Historic Resource Management Services (now UWM-CRM). In 2008 UWM Archaeological Research Laboratory applied for and was granted by the Wisconsin Historical Society final disposition of all human remains, personal...
The Heritage Stewardship Enhancement Program and Research Archaeology on the Dakota Prairie Grasslands, US Forest Service (2016)
The ongoing partnership between the Dakota Prairie Grasslands (DPG) and Southern Methodist University, supported by the US Forest Service Region 1 Heritage Stewardship Enhancement (HSE) program, is an investigation of the Paleoindian archaeological record of the Little Missouri National Grasslands. As hoped, this collaboration produced vital information about local Paleoindian prehistory. It has also been fruitful in other ways, including a few tough lessons learned along the way. Liv Fetterman...
The Hidden Life of Notre Dame: A Study in Library Graffiti (2015)
On the graffiti-covered desks and walls of the eighth through eleventh floors of the University of Notre Dame Hesburgh Library lies a study in duality—highly public expressions of students’ most private thoughts. Studying samples of graffiti left behind by decades’ worth of college students allowed us to examine aspects of life at Notre Dame that were not normally visible. An analysis of 107 pieces of graffiti yielded that 47% were sexual in nature and 53% pertained to non-sexual topics (e.g....
High and Dry: A Look at the Relict Nipissing Shoreline of Isle Royale National Park, Michigan (2016)
Isle Royale, located in northern Lake Superior, is a freshwater archipelago and home to Isle Royale National Park (ISRO). Though the antiquity of Isle Royale’s prehistory is well-established, identification and excavation of sites has historically been difficult due to the remoteness of the island and its rough terrain. Over the past several years, these efforts have been greatly enhanced by the use of GIS predictive modeling, which has allowed ISRO archaeologists to target surveys and manage...
The Hindquarters of God, Seeing the Sacred in a Landscape: (2015)
The Hindquarters of God, Seeing the Sacred in a Landscape: As the needs of our expanding society increasingly refashion our natural environment, we struggle to maintain healthy habitats and our sacred places. Archaeologists, land developers, lawmakers, theologians, and indigenous practioners of traditional spirituality all struggle with conflicting views of what do we mean when we declare that something is sacred and how do we recognize and preserve sacred places. The burning questions at...
Historical and Archaeological Investigation into the "Triangle Land" in South Bend's West Washington District. (2016)
All too often, archaeology illuminates the history of "big men." This paper narrates the history through archaeological investigation of one city corner in South Bend, Indiana, and the contribution of the businesses that occupied it in the city’s most formative years. Manufacturing successes within South Bend such as the Oliver Plow Works, and Studebaker are well known and researched. What is less well known are the supporting businesses and businessmen that made up the representative sample of...
Historical Craniotomy and Autopsy Practices at the Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds Poor Farm Cemetery (2015)
The Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds Poor Farm Cemetery (MCIG) served as the burial ground for county institutions, including the coroner’s office and the Milwaukee County Hospital. This paper describes craniotomy practices in particular, and autopsy practices more generally, evidenced by the population from the MCIG Cemetery. In addition, this research attempts to distinguish between craniotomies and autopsies carried out by the coroner’s office versus the Milwaukee County Hospital to...