A Proto-Historic Site in the Western Great Lakes

Summary

The discovery of several early iconographic/Jesuit rings in 1996 in Marquette County, Michigan led to the subsequent discovery of a proto-historic locus within a larger multi-component site. Professional archaeologists and volunteers spent two summers excavating 34 square meters near this discovery, and eventually identified the area as Location A at the Goose Lake Outlet #3 site. The excavated area is a single component occupation located in an ecologically diverse region that has been used from the Late Paleo Indian period to present. This region is immediately adjacent to the Lake Superior basin, but is located on Goose Lake Outlet which is part of the Lake Michigan drainage system. Preliminary evidence including numerous glass trade beads suggest the area was a winter encampment dating between A.D. 1630-1640. The recovery of abundant large animal remains will aid insights to subsistence and seasonality, and botanical analysis will help establish the habitat and potential plant resources. This locus represents a unique opportunity to investigate the Proto-Historic, a poorly defined occupation in the Western Great Lakes.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Great Lakes Archaeology: Current Research and Perspectives   •
• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage