ROI005, Final Report on the 1980-81 Mississinewa Reservoir Survey

William R. Wepler

ROI005, Final Report on the 1980-81 Mississinewa Reservoir Survey

Part of the ROI005, Final Report on the 1980-81 Mississinewa Reservoir Survey project

Year: 1982

Summary

With a few exceptions, the archaeology of the northern two-thirds of the state of Indiana has been ignored or poorly reported. Most of the work that has been carried out in the northern and central portions of the state has been directed toward the more sensational sites, such as mounds and earthworks. However, many more typical sites have been reported over the past several years due to cultural resources management projects.

Most of these sites, many of which have been recorded just ahead of the bulldozer, can provide the archaeologist with only limited data. Analysis of even this limited data has been hampered by a lack of comparative data from research-oriented excavations and surveys in the same region.

Instead, the comparative data currently being used by the archaeologists working in the northern and central portions of Indiana is mainly from other regions of the eastern United States, and the relevance of this data has yet to be substantiated for this area. Of course, a single survey of a substantial area cannot completely alleviate this problem. However, it is hoped that it will provide a significant addition to the presently inadequate database for the region. With this in mind, the primary goals established for the survey were:

1. to locate and evaluate the archaeological resources of the reservoir, and

2. to evaluate the impact of the reservoir and its management on the archaeological record of the area.

As the survey progressed, several questions arose concerning the relationship of the reservoir area to the remainder of the Mississinewa drainage and the Upper Wabash drainage in general. Consideration of these questions led to the establishment of the Lower Mississinewa drainage as a unit for comparison to adjacent areas. Data from other sites within the Lower Mississinewa drainage have therefore been included within this report.

3D models of the artifacts recovered from Report of Investigations 005, Final Report on the 1980-81 Mississinewa Reservoir Survey, can be viewed using the following link: https://skfb.ly/oWC7z