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CONSERVANCY ACQUIRES 300TH SITE • ON THE IROQUOIS TRAIL • THE OLDEST RITUAL?
american archaeology SUMMER 2005
a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy
Vol. 9 No. 2
$3.95
Pictures of the Mandans and Hidatsas
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Archaeological Tours led by noted scholars
Invites You to Journey Back in Time.
Mali (18 days)
Maya Superpowers (17 days)
Discover the culture and mud architecture of this legendary region along the Niger River. Led by Dr.Trevor Marchand, U. of London (SOAS), we’ll explore Mopti’s picturesque port, the Dogon’s unique cliff-perched villages, Timbuktu’s historical mosques and view unique ceremonial dances.
As we visit the fabulous Maya cities: Tikal, Calakmul, Copán, Lamanai and Caracol, Prof. John Henderson, Cornell U., will tell us of the political struggles between these great superpowers.We will also visit local museums and explore pristine tropical forests.
Jordan (14 days) Retrace the route of Nabataean traders with Dr. Joseph A. Greene, Harvard Semitic Museum.We’ll explore pre-Islamic ruins and desert castles, and spend a week in and around Petra visiting its tombs and sanctuaries carved out of rose-red sandstone.
Maritime Turkey (21 days) Visit three of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World as we explore the ancient Greek cities along Turkey’s turquoise coast and North Cyprus with our lecturer, Dr. Robert S. Bianchi.
Ancient Capitals of China (17 days) Study China’s fabled past with Prof. Robert Thorp, Washington U.,as we journey from Beijing’s Imperial Palace and Suzhou’s exquisite gardens to Shanghai.We’ll visit ancient shrines, world-class museums,Xian’s terra-cotta warriors and the spectacular Longman Buddhist grottos. Optional Yangtze River cruise available.
2005 tours include: Cyprus, Crete & Santorini; Sicily & Southern Italy; Caves & Castles; Central Asia; Peru; Libya: Ancient Cities & Prehistoric Art; Egypt: Oases of the Western Desert; Great Museums: Paris; The Splendors of Ancient Egypt; Guatemala; Ancient Rome; Vietnam; Eritrea & Ethiopia; Khmer Kingdoms; Burma In-Depth; Thailand & Laos; India; Sri Lanka...and more.
Journey back in time with us – Archaeological Tours. We’ve been taking curious travelers on fascinating historical study tours for the past 30 years. Each tour is led by a noted scholar whose knowledge and enthusiasm brings history to life and adds a memorable perspective to your journey. And every one of our 37 tours features superb itineraries, unsurpassed service and our time-tested commitment to excellence. No wonder two-thirds of our clients choose to travel with us again and again. For more information, please visit www.archaeologicaltrs.com, e-mail archtours@aol.com, call 212-986-3054, toll-free 866-740-5130. Or write to Archaeological Tours, 271 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016. And see history our way.
archaeological tours LED BY NOTED SCHOLARS
superb itineraries, unsurpassed service
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american archaeology a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy
Vol. 9 No. 2
summer 2005 COVER FEATURE
R U S S H A N S O N / N P S / U N I V. O F N O R T H D A K O TA
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DISTINCTIONS WITH A DIFFERENCE BY SALLY BELL
The Mandan and Hidatsa tribes were once thought to be indistinguishable. A series of archaeological investigations has revealed a number of differences.
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GRAVING YARD, GRAVEYARD BY DOUGLAS GANTENBEIN
A badly needed construction project resulted in the desecration of a Native American graveyard. How did it happen?
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ON THE TRAIL OF THE IROQUOIS BY RACHEL DICKINSON
33
S T E V E R I N G M A N / T H E S E AT T L E T I M E S
Our summer travel special takes you on a memorable tour of upstate New York and Ontario, Canada.
INVESTIGATING THE PUEBLO REVOLT BY JULIAN SMITH
Native Americans successfully revolted against the Spanish in 17th-century New Mexico. Archaeology is helping researchers understand this event.
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THE OLDEST RITUAL? BY ANDREW LAWLER
Did ritual activity take place in southern Mexico more than 9,000 years ago? Mesoamerican scholars disagree.
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new acquisition THE CONSERVANCY TO ACQUIRE ITS 300TH SITE The Fort Salem earthwork has Hopewell and Adena characteristics.
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new acquisition A PROUD LEGACY The Bobbie Alexander site is donated to the Conservancy.
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new acquisition CORONADO’S CAMPSITE PRESERVED The Conservancy obtains an important addition to the only known Spanish campsite in New Mexico.
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point acquisition PRESERVING MISSISSIPPI PREHISTORY The Apple Street site has yielded remarkable archaeological evidence.
american archaeology
2 Lay of the Land 3 Letters 5 Events 7 In the News Ancient Camp Discovered • Miami Circles Found • Amending NAGPRA?
50 Field Notes 52 Reviews 54 Expeditions
COVER: Artist Karl Bodmer painted this portrait of the Mandan chief Mató-Tópe in the 1830s. Early 19th-century artists like Bodmer and George Catlin produced a vivid ethnographic record of tribes such as the Mandan and Hidatsa. Archaeologists are now producing an archaeological record of these tribes. CREDIT: Karl Bodmer, Mató-Tópe, Mandan Chief, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska, gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.
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Lay of the Land
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n this issue of American Archaeology we celebrate the Conservancy’s 300th acquisition project (see page 44), a major Hopewell complex in southern Ohio. It is fitting that we mark this milestone in the same region where we began. One of our first projects was the nearby Hopewell Mounds, the type-site of the Hopewell culture of moundbuilders and one of the most famous archaeological sites in North America. This massive earthwork and group of mounds had been heavily disturbed by archaeologists and by farming, but the three-milelong perimeter wall was still clearly visible when I drove up in the spring of 1980. Residential development was less than a mile away, but the owners
wanted to see the site preserved, and the Conservancy made a financial commitment it could not afford to buy the land. Some on our Board thought it was foolhardy to commit so much money when we were a young, struggling organization, but preservationists rallied to the cause and it all turned out well. The Ohio Valley was once home to thousands (20,000 by one estimate) of ancient mounds and earthworks when the first Europeans crossed the Appalachians. Today, only a handful remains. Urban development, modern agriculture, and looting have taken their toll. So when we have the opportunity to preserve a tiny fraction of this culture, we act.
DARREN POORE
A Milestone Accomplishment
MARK MICHEL, President
We made a risky decision to save the Hopewell Mounds in 1980, and we are now trying to save Fort Salem, a very well-preserved Hopewell site that stands in the path of sprawling Cincinnati. If we save every one of the mounds and earthworks that remain, it will still only be about one percent of that heritage. We cannot fail to do at least that much.
The Archaeological Conservancy charitable gift annuity can: • Increase your financial security by receiving guaranteed fixed payments for your lifetime. • $10,000 minimum donation. • Reduce your tax burden with savings on capital gains and income taxes. • Help protect America’s cultural heritage. To receive more information and our brochure, mail information requests to: The Archaeological Conservancy Attn: Planned Giving 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517 For more information call 505-266-1540 or email tacstaff@nm.net
Protect archaeological sites while increasing your income 2
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____________________________________ summer • 2005
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Letters Don’t Dismiss All Myths I read Ken Feder’s article “The Peculiar Phenomenon Of Pseudoarchaeology” and your Editor’s Corner in the Spring 2005 issue of American Archaeology with interest. I fully agree with Feder’s premise. I do, however, disagree with your assertion that all myths are fiction and that people who believe them are somehow misguided. I believe it is wrong for scientists to discard all ideas just because they don’t find acceptable evidence to support them. Do we really know the truth sufficiently to state all myths are false? Theories are what make archaeology and science interesting. Louis Deeter Orlando, Florida
on the outer edges of the incisions that indicate greater age than historic, post–Civil War occupation of the region. This data suggest authenticity. The runestone’s linguistic questions were discussed by Cornell professor Robert A. Hall, Jr. Hall argued that the supposed “errors” in rune form and words represent vernacular variations, which more recently have been judged to be medieval Bohuslän (Swedish) dialect. Add the unique historical circumstances in Scandinavia in the early 1360s, and the attested presence of Norse throughout the eastern high Arctic and the weight of probability is that the Kensington Runestone is authentic. Alice Beck Kehoe Adjunct Professor of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Runestone Probably Authentic
Learning Our History
As Kenneth Feder’s article states, it is true that “most archaeologists doubt the Kensington Runestone’s authenticity because no evidence of a Norse encampment was found with it.” However, the inscription does not say there was a camp where the stone was placed, and even if there were a camp, there is little likelihood that its scant imperishable residue would be found. Not finding evidence means that no evidence was discovered, but it doesn’t absolutely disprove occupation. The most important data come from geological examination of the rune incisions: do they show weathering? Both the first geologist to work on the question, Newton Winchell, in 1909, and contemporary forensic petrographer Scott Wolter see weathering
When I am in Europe, I hear various stories of kings and conquerors. There is so much history there. Unfortunately, America doesn’t have that much written history from the original natives of the land, but thankfully the archaeologists are starting to piece the history together. The News article in the Spring issue, “New Dating Technique Applied to Prehistoric Hawaiian Temple System,” told the fascinating story of temple research on Kahikinui. Like detectives, the archaeologists determined that the temple dates back to A.D. 1580 and that two Maui chieftains came together under one conquering divine king. Sharon Diane Roberts Port Orange, Florida
american archaeology
Editor’s Corner When I first read about the construction project in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula that inadvertently uncovered a large Native American graveyard, I wondered how it could have happened. There was reason to believe that a prehistoric village, Tse-whit-zen, once existed in the general area of the construction site. But Tse-whit-zen’s exact location was unknown. An archaeological assessment of the construction site done prior to the start of the project found no significant archaeological deposits. Shortly after construction began, human remains were uncovered. The project stopped and another archaeological assessment followed. This assessment also found no significant evidence of a graveyard. So the construction project—the Washington Department of Transportation was building a dry dock that would be used to repair a floating bridge—began again. As numerous burials were uncovered, the project stopped and has not since resumed. Hundreds of burials were desecrated, millions of dollars were apparently wasted. Our feature “Graving yard, Graveyard” (see page 12) tells this tragic, complicated tale.
Sending Letters to American Archaeology American Archaeology welcomes your letters. Write to us at 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, or send us e-mail at tacmag@nm.net. We reserve the right to edit and publish letters in the magazine’s Letters department as space permits. Please include your name, address and telephone number with all correspondence, including e-mail messages.
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WELCOME TO THE ARCHAEOLOGIC AL CONSERVANC Y!
he Archaeological Conservancy is the only national non-profit organization that identifies, acquires, and preserves the most significant archaeological sites in the United States. Since its beginning in 1980, the Conservancy has preserved more than 300 sites across the nation, ranging in age from the earliest habitation sites in North America to a 19thcentury frontier army post. We are building a national system of archaeological preserves to ensure the survival of our irreplaceable cultural heritage. Why Save Archaeological Sites? The ancient people of North America left virtually no written records of their cultures. Clues that might someday solve the mysteries of prehistoric America are still missing, and when a ruin is destroyed by looters, or leveled for a shopping center, precious information is lost. By permanently preserving endangered ruins, we make sure they will be here for future generations to study and enjoy.
How We Raise Funds: Funds for the Conservancy come from membership dues, individual contributions, corporations, and foundations. Gifts and bequests of money, land, and securities are fully tax deductible under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Planned giving provides donors with substantial tax deductions and a variety of beneficiary possibilities. For more information, call Mark Michel at (505) 266-1540.
The Role of the Magazine: American Archaeology is the only popular magazine devoted to presenting the rich diversity of archaeology in the Americas. The purpose of the magazine is to help readers appreciate and understand the archaeological wonders available to them, and to raise their awareness of the destruction of our cultural heritage. By sharing new discoveries, research, and activities in an enjoyable and informative way, we hope we can make learning about ancient America as exciting as it is essential.
How to Say Hello: By mail: The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; by phone: (505) 266-1540; by e-mail: tacmag@nm.net; or visit our Web site: www.americanarchaeology.org
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5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517 • (505) 266-1540 www.americanarchaeology.org Board of Directors Vincas Steponaitis, North Carolina, CHAIRMAN Cecil F. Antone, Arizona • Carol Condie, New Mexico Janet Creighton, Washington • Janet EtsHokin, Illinois Jerry EtsHokin, Illinois • W. James Judge, Colorado Jay T. Last, California • Dorinda Oliver, New York Rosamond Stanton, Montana • Dee Ann Story, Texas Stewart L. Udall, New Mexico • Gordon Wilson, New Mexico C o n s e r va n c y S t a f f Mark Michel, President • Tione Joseph, Business Manager Lorna Thickett, Membership Director • Sarah Tiberi, Special Projects Director Shelley Smith, Membership Assistant • Valerie Long, Administrative Assistant Yvonne Woolfolk, Administrative Assistant R eg i o n a l O f f i c e s a n d D i r e c t o r s Jim Walker, Vice President, Southwest Region (505) 266-1540 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 • Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108 Tamara Stewart, Projects Coordinator • Steve Koczan, Site-Management Coordinator Amy Espinoza-Ar, Field Representative Paul Gardner, Vice President, Midwest Region (614) 267-1100 3620 N. High St. #207 • Columbus, Ohio 43214 Joe Navari, Field Representative Alan Gruber, Vice President, Southeast Region (770) 975-4344 5997 Cedar Crest Road • Acworth, Georgia 30101 Jessica Crawford, Delta Field Representative Gene Hurych, Western Region (916) 399-1193 1 Shoal Court #67 • Sacramento, California 95831 Andy Stout, Eastern Region, (301) 682-6359 717 N. Market St. • Frederick, Maryland 21701
american archaeology
®
PUBLISHER: Mark Michel EDITOR: Michael Bawaya (505) 266-9668, tacmag@nm.net ASSISTANT EDITOR: Tamara Stewart ART DIRECTOR: Vicki Marie Singer, vsinger3@comcast.net Editorial Advisor y Board Scott Anfinson, Minnesota Historic Preservation • Darrell Creel, University of Texas Linda Derry, Alabama Historical Commission • Mark Esarey, Cahokia Mounds State Park Kristen Gremillion, Ohio State University • Richard Jenkins, California Dept. of Forestry Trinkle Jones, National Park Service • Sarah Neusius, Indiana University of Penn. Claudine Payne, Arkansas Archaeological Survey Douglas Perrelli, SUNY-Buffalo • Judyth Reed, Bureau of Land Management Ann Rogers, Oregon State University • Joe Saunders, University of Louisiana-Monroe Kevin Smith, Middle Tennessee State University Art Spiess, Maine Historic Preservation• Ruth Van Dyke, Colorado College Robert Wall, Towson State University • Rob Whitlam, Washington State Archaeologist Richard Woodbury, University of Massachusetts • Don Wyckoff, University of Oklahoma National Advertising Office Marcia Ulibarri, Advertising Representative 5301 Central Ave. NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108; (505) 344-6018; Fax (505) 345-3430; mulibarri@earthlink.net American Archaeology (ISSN 1093-8400) is published quarterly by The Archaeological Conser vancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. Title register ed U.S. Pat. and TM Office, © 2005 by TAC. Printed in the United States. Periodicals postage paid Albuquerque, NM, and additional mailing offices. Single copies are $3.95. A one-year membership to the Conser vancy is $25 and includes receipt of American Archaeology. Of the member’s dues, $6 is designated for a one-year magazine subscription. READERS: For new memberships, renewals, or change of address, write to The Archaeological Conser vancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, or call (505) 266-1540. For changes of address, include old and new addresses. Articles are published for educational purposes and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conser vancy, its editorial board, or American Archaeology . Article proposals and artwork should be addressed to the editor. No responsibility assumed for unsolicited material. All articles receive exper t review. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to American Archaeology, The Archaeological Conser vancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; (505) 266-1540. All rights reser ved.
American Archaeology does not accept advertising from dealers in archaeological artifacts or antiquities.
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summer • 2005
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Museum exhibits Meetings
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Tours
Education
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Festivals
Conferences
NEW EXHIBITS
FENIMORE ART MUSEUM
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Museum of Indian Arts and Culture Santa Fe, N.M.—“The Pottery of Santa Ana Pueblo” traces the history and development of pottery making at Santa Ana, a small Keres-speaking community just northwest of Albuquerque that for centuries made distinctive pottery for domestic and ritual use. The exhibition traces the history of Santa Ana ceramic art from its origins in several distinctive ancestral styles to the development of a unique Santa Ana style. This is the most complete collection of Santa Ana ceramics assembled for an exhibit. (505) 827-6463, www.miaclab.org (New long-term exhibit) Pueblo Grande Museum and Archaeological Park Phoenix, Ariz.—The museum celebrates its 75th anniversary with a new exhibition, “Journey to the Past,” that documents the museum’s decades-old role in documenting and interpreting the history and culture of the ancient Hohokam people. Using a combination of histori-
Events
cal photographs and objects from the museum’s collections, the exhibit explores the changes at the museum and the 1,500-year-old Hohokam village site located on the museum grounds. (602) 495-0901, www.pueblogrande.com (New longterm exhibit) Heard Museum Phoenix, Ariz.—The exhibit “Home: Native Peoples in the Southwest” features more than 2,000 of the museum’s most outstanding pieces and explores the concept of home. The exhibition is divided into five sections to reflect the different geographic areas: the Pueblos, the Colorado Plateau, the Colorado River, the Central Mountains, and the Sonoran Desert. This completely redesigned state-of-the-art gallery, developed in collaboration with many native people, features a video area and house structures that vividly tell the story of home for many of the Southwest’s native cultures. (602) 252-8840, www.heard.org (New permanent exhibit)
Fenimore Art Museum Cooperstown, N.Y.— The museum is celebrating the 10th anniversary of the "Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art," one of the finest private collections amassed in recent years. The collection, displayed in the museum's Thaw Gallery, is grouped into six major cultural areas. It consists of over 800 exceptional pieces that represent the highest artistic levels of North American Indian culture. (607) 547-1400, www.fenimoreartmuseum.org (Long-term exhibit)
Florida Natural History Museum F L O R I D A N AT U R A L H I S T O R Y M U S E U M
The University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.—“The Pearsall Collection of American Indian Art: 40th Anniversary Selections” consists of more than 300,000 19th- and early 20th-century objects, including 400 baskets, nearly 600 argillite carvings and 19 totem poles from the Northwest Coast, southeastern Middle Mississippian era pipes and pottery, Arctic carvings in ivory and horn, and many other important and unique objects. Selections from this little-known collection will be on exhibit for the first time in 40 years in honor of the collector, Leigh Morgan Pearsall, who spent his life collecting art from nearly every Native American group in North America. (352) 846-2000, www.flmnh.ufl.edu (Long-term exhibit)
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Events CONFERENCES, LECTURES & FESTIVALS
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.— A special new exhibit, “Gifts of the Great River: Arkansas Effigy Pottery from the Edwin Curtiss Collection,” features the pottery of the Mississippian Culture, which thrived in the American Southeast and Midwest from about A.D. 1200 to 1600. Excavating at mound sites along the St. Francis River in Arkansas between 1879 and 1880, Curtiss recovered thousands of artifacts, including more than 1,000 ceramic vessels. Fifteen rare effigy pots, vessels shaped like animate beings resembling animals or humans, are included in the exhibit. (617) 496-1027, www.peabody.harvard.edu (Opens June 2)
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“Explore! The Big Sky” June 1–July 4, Fort Benton and Great Falls, Mont. This national Lewis & Clark Bicentennial signature event commemorates the Lewis & Clark Expedition and honors the Plains Indians they encountered. Immerse yourself in the traditional ways of the Plains Indians by exploring a traditional village and cultural displays presented by Montana tribes. Watch native athletes compete in horse and canoe races, listen to stories from the past, enjoy native music, attend lectures by distinguished authors, and visit the numerous special exhibits held at cultural museums throughout the region. The event culminates in a statewide parade, community picnic, special music, and fireworks on the 4th of July. Contact Peggy Bourne (406) 455-8451, pbourne@ci.greatfalls.mt.us, Val Morger (406) 622-3803, valmark@mcn.net, or www.explorethebigsky.org Indian Fair at the Museum of Man June 10–12, San Diego Museum of Man, San Diego, Calif. Performers and artisans from throughout the West will converge on the museum and its central plaza during the 22ndannual Indian Fair, a tribute to Native American culture and art. Traditional Indian dancers, musicians, storytellers, and award-winning artisans will perform. Traditional foods will be available. (619) 239-2001, www.museumofman.org
Native American Festival July 9, Abbe Museum, Bar Harbor, Maine. This annual festival celebrates Maine Native American cultures with a variety of programs and demonstrations, arts and crafts, and a silent auction of items donated by master craftspeople. Maine’s largest gathering of Native American basketmakers and artisans, this event features more than 50 native craft vendors as well as musicians, storytellers, and traditional dancers. (207) 288-3519, www.abbemuseum.org Native Harvest Festival August 6, Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Collinsville, Ill. This year’s festival includes exhibits and activities relating to the ways in which native peoples farmed, fished, hunted, and gathered. Special displays provide information on the origins and types of corn by-products used to make materials today, from packaging to tires. Other events include hands-on corn grinding, nut cracking, and Indian games. (618) 346-5160, www.cahokiamounds.org 78th Annual Pecos Conference August 11–14, Bandelier National Monument, White Rock, N.M. An opening reception will be held at park headquarters from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday the 11th. Field reports, poster presentations, and symposiums presenting the results of new research on the Pajarito Plateau and the Northern Rio Grande will be held Friday and Saturday. Friday and Saturday nights will feature live music, dancing, and vendors. A wide variety of site tours will take place on Sunday. Contact Mike Bremer (505) 438-7846, mbremer@fs.fed.us, Rory Gauthier (505) 6723861, ext. 543, rory_Gauthier@nps.gov, or www.swanet.org/2005_pecos_conference summer • 2005
PEABODY MUSEUM OF ARCHAEOLOGY & ETHNOLOGY
San Francisco, Calif.—From the ancient rain forests to the supermarket shelf, the new exhibit “Chocolate” takes visitors on a delicious expedition that explores the science, history, culture, and products of the cacao plant and the relationship between human culture and this rain forest treasure. In pre-Hispanic times, Central Mexico was one of many cacao-growing areas of Mesoamerica, and the Aztecs used bitter chocolate drinks in many of their ritual ceremonies. (415) 321-8000, www.calacademy.org (June 11–September 5)
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
California Academy of Sciences
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Study Enlivens Debate on Olmec Primacy Results indicate the Olmec exported ceramics to other groups. ince the 1960s, researchers have engaged in debate, known as mother vs. sister culture, regarding the level of influence the Olmec, a prehistoric culture (1200–850 B.C.) that occupied southern Mexico, exerted on neighboring cultures. A recent study by researchers Jeffrey Blomster, Hector Neff, and Michael Glascock indicates that the Olmec exerted considerable influence among its neighbors. The study summarized several related projects that identified Olmec-style ceramics that were exchanged among cities in Mesoamerica. Over 1,000 ceramic and raw clay samples taken from a number of sites were subjected to instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), a technique that analyzes chemical composition and enables researchers to match the raw materials that artifacts like ceramics are fashioned from to the areas where those raw materials are found. One of the sites was San Lorenzo, a major Olmec site located south of Vera Cruz. INAA linked 725 of the ceramic samples to geographic areas. All of the samples taken from San Lorenzo were, according to the INAA analysis, produced in San Lorenzo. The samples taken from the other sites were produced at San Lorenzo or at the respective site. The results indicated that the San Lorenzo Olmec created and exported both whiteware ceramics and grayware ceramics carved with Olmec-style iconography to other groups. The groups that received these ceramics from San Lorenzo made local imitations.
in the
NEWS
J. BLOMSTER
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This Olmec-style pot was recovered from Etlatongo, Oaxaca. Instrumental neutron activation analysis revealed that it was imported from San Lorenzo, a major Olmec site.
Mother culture proponents credit the Olmec for the development of many features of Mesoamerican civilization. Sister culture exponents view the Olmec as one of many cultures developing a distinctive iconography found on ceramics throughout Mesoamerica. Blomster said the study demonstrated the critical nature the Olmec played in the synthesis and distribution of the first iconographic system in ancient Mexico. He added that the Olmec appear to have influenced rather than created other cultures. Olmec expert Michael Coe of Yale University sees the study as clear support for the mother culture camp. “I believe that these results definitively refute the sister culture hypothesis put forward by Olmec deniers,” Coe said. He sees the export
of carved and incised ceramics as a clear indication that the Olmec were also exporting their religious and political ideas. Archaeologist David Grove of the University of Florida disagreed. “Blomster assumes that the Olmec disseminated social, political, and religious ideas, and thus if his analyses of potsherds shows they were exporting pottery then they must have also been exporting social institutions. No. To me the analyses merely show that some Olmec pottery was being exported,” he stated. Some Olmec researchers, including Blomster, Neff, and Glascock, think the mother vs. sister culture debate is an ineffective way of assessing the developments in Mesoamerican during this period. —Tamara Stewart 7
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NEWS
Ancient Camp Discovered Baja California site yields evidence of the region’s first inhabitants.
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SAN DIEGO ARCHAEOLOGICAL CENTER
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esearchers have found more than 150 stone knives, spearheads, cutting utensils, and other flaked items in Baja California in Mexico. These artifacts are thought to be the handiwork of the little known San Dieguito culture, the earliest known occupants of this region. The artifacts are estimated to be roughly 7,000 to 10,000 years old. The site, called Ignacio Zaragoza, is located on a land collective between Tecate and Ensenada. It appears to have been a hunting and tool-making camp, according to archaeologist Antonio Porcayo Michelini, who investigated the site. All of the tools were found on the surface of a field. For several years local residents have been finding similar artifacts and giving them to the National Institute of Anthropology and History, the federal agency Michelini works for. “The name San Dieguito comes from a river valley in San Diego County” in the United States, said Cindy Stankowski, the director of the San Diego Archaeological Center. Archaeologist Malcolm J. Rogers named the culture. Rogers worked at C.W. Harris, the San Dieguito type-site, in the early and mid-1900s. The culture is defined by its “quite finely crafted” tools, Stankowski said. The tools most often found are large projectile points that were likely used with atlatls. The San Dieguitos also produced scrapers and small, crescentshaped tools called crescenics. These tools were often fashioned from Santiago Peak metavolcanic stone, a felsite predominantly found in the San
A San Dieguito projectile point surrounded by deibtage produced during tool making.
Dieguito River Valley that ranges in color from sage green to nearly black. Michelini thinks that the Ignacio Zaragoza tools were made from this stone, but he added that further analysis is required. San Dieguito sites are “relatively rare,” said Tim Gross, an archaeologist with Affinis, an environmental services company in San Diego. Gross, who is a San Dieguito expert, said clear evidence of the culture has been found in southern California,
Baja California, and western Arizona. He noted that artifacts bearing a resemblance to the San Dieguito’s have been found as far north as British Columbia and as far east as Texas. Michelini said the age of the stone tools found at the Ignacio Zaragoza site are based on dates of tools recovered from other San Dieguito sites. He intends to excavate the site this summer, hoping to find evidence that will date the tools more precisely. —Michael Bawaya summer • 2005
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Miami Circles Found NEWS Feature is apparently related to famous Miami Circle.
A R C H A E O L O G I C A L A N D H I S T O R I C A L C O N S E R VA N C Y
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rchaeologists have discovered two concentric circles made of ancient postholes in downtown Miami, Florida. The circles are very near the famous Miami Circle, and it’s believed that the three circles were made by the same people, the Tequesta. The circles were discovered by archaeologists with the Archaeological and Historical Conservancy who were performing a cultural resources survey in advance of a development project. The result of a radiocarbon date obtained from a charcoal sample associated with an adjacent hole suggests the circles may be about 2,500 years old, an age similar to that of the Miami Circle. More samples associated with the feature are being radiocarbon dated. Bob Carr, the head of the Archaeological and Historical Conser-
It’s believed that the circles, which are seen in the center of this photograph, are the remains of a Tequesta common house.
vancy, said the circles are probably the remnants of a Tequesta house, and the holes likely supported pine posts. Carr also played a major role in the discovery and preservation of the Miami Circle. He described the recently discovered house as “a more modest structure” than the Miami Circle, which was presumably a council or chief ’s house. Pottery sherds, shell refuse, and faunal bones make up the majority of the items his crew has found. These, Carr said, are the type of “common” items that researchers expect to find at a standard residence. When the Miami Circle was discovered there were doubts that it was a genuine prehistoric feature. Carr said the discovery of the concentric circles offers further proof of Tequesta occupation of this area. —Michael Bawaya
Amendment to NAGPRA Proposed If passed, the amendment could affect the Kennewick Man case.
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n the latest development in the Kennewick Man case, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.). the new chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, recently revived an amendment to the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). According to attorney Alan Schneider, the proposed two-word amendment included in Section 108 of the Native American Omnibus Act of 2005 would result in the ability of modern Native Americans to claim the remains of extinct groups that have no relationship to them. Schneider is the lead attorney for a group of
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scientists who sued the federal government for the right to study Kennewick Man. “Currently the bill defines ‘Native American’ as ‘of or relating to the tribe, people, or culture that is indigenous to the U.S.’” explained Schneider. “The proposed change would revise the definition to read: ‘…culture that is or was indigenous to the U.S.’, meaning that anything found in the U.S., if indigenous, is considered Native American and subject to NAGPRA.” The amendment passed the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on March 9. The Society For American
Archaeology, which was involved in the development and passage of NAGPRA, stated that it is “opposed to changes in this important legislation being made without a full and open hearing.” “The proposed amendment is another approach being taken by tribes to overturn the most recent ruling in favor of scientists’ claim for research in the Kennewick Man case,” said Schneider. The amendment will have an effect on the case if the tribes appeal and the case is judged in accordance with this new legislation. —Tamara J. Stewart
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Excavation Linked To Famous Song Archaeologists discover an establishment that could be the infamous House of the Rising Sun.
This plate was found below the building's burned rubble.
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These items were found in the 1822 burn layer (clockwise from top left): A rim sherd from a rouge pot; the bottom of a rouge pot; a fragment of a wine bottle; another rouge pot rim sherd; a partially reconstructed rouge pot.
But University of Chicago archaeologist Shannon Lee Dawdy stated that this evidence doesn’t prove the Rising Sun Hotel was a bordello. The rouge pots could have been used by saloon girls, she said. The hotel also could have been a place where streetwalkers sometimes took their clients. Dawdy said that the origin of the song “The House of the Rising Sun” is unknown and that ethnomusicologists are unlikely to agree about its meaning. She added that “Rising Sun” was also a popular name for taverns and other businesses in 19th-century New Orleans. Prior to its days as a hotel and tavern, the land was used as a French colonial garden, a possible Spanish colonial residence (burned in 1794), a guesthouse or inn run by a widow
from 1796 to 1809, and an early 19thcentury coffeehouse and hotel. The site has also yielded a large number of 18th-century ceramics that will help answer questions about the role of Indian trade and smuggling in the early Colonial economy. The most remarkable discovery is an apparently prehistoric level of Indian pottery. Although there are a few historical references to Native Americans residing in the Bayou St. John area and other prehistoric deposits have been found along the lakeshore in the city, this is the first evidence of an Indian village in the French Quarter. A preliminary interpretation is that the pottery dates to A.D. 1200–1600. Archaeologists are excavating further in hopes of finding organic-rich deposits that may yield a carbon-14 date. —Sarah Tiberi summer • 2005
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here is a house in New Orleans they call the Rising Sun” begins the famous folk song that purportedly laments a life of prostitution and sin. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of the Rising Sun Hotel in New Orlean’s French Quarter, a hotel and tavern that burned down in 1822. Some people are now debating whether the song’s lyrics referred to the hotel. The Historic New Orleans Collection, a local non-profit organization, recently purchased the site and hired archaeologists from the University of Chicago and Earth Search, a New Orleans archaeology firm, to excavate it. Researchers have found an unusually high number of faience rouge pots (French cosmetics jars). This raises the question of the purpose of cosmetics in a male-operated business that apparently served a rowdy waterfront clientele. The researchers have also found an historical advertisement for the hotel that states, “Gentlemen here may rely upon finding attentive Servants” and “the best entertainment.”
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Ohio Shaker Village Investigated
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Union Village was the hub of all western Shaker communities. n one of the largest data recovery projects ever conducted at an Ohio Shaker village site, researchers are investigating a 1.5-acre stretch of land adjacent to State Route 741 in southwest Ohio that was once the site of the North Family Lot at Union Village. This was one of seven family lots at Union Village, a Shaker community occupied from 1805 to 1912 that served as the headquarters of the Shaker bishopric in the west, and was the parent village for the 11 Shaker communities throughout Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana. “Union Village played an important local and regional role in the Shaker organization,” said Bruce Aument of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s (ODOT) Office of Environmental Studies. “As a communal religious-based society, it was distinct from mainstream 19th-century America, but also participated quite successfully in it. Therefore, it is an excellent study in social conflict resolution. It is also possible to trace how well the Shakers actually lived up to the idealized view of them both in the 19th century and as they are perceived today.” Most of the buildings noted on historic maps as well as the well/cistern, privy, flagstone pathways, and fence
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The foundation of a broom shop was discovered through remote sensing and subsequent excavating.
lines were identified by remote sensing. Subsequent excavations exposed sections of various buildings for documentation. Numerous shards of redware ceramics have been recovered, suggesting that the Shakers may have commercially manufactured pottery at this location. american archaeology
Excavators work at the North Family Lot next to State Route 741. This was once the location of a carding shop where the Shakers produced wool clothing.
“The purpose of data recovery is to examine the landscape dynamics at the North Family Lot as its role and function changed,” explained Aument. “Available mapping and histories are incomplete and sometimes contradictory as to the number, types, and functions of the buildings and their spatial organization.” The Shakers, formally known as the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing, are a Christian religious society that originated in Manchester, England. A small group migrated to America in 1774, establishing 18 villages in New England, the Midwest, and the South, with a great presence in the Cincinnati-Dayton, Ohio, area. The Shakers were known for their spiritual goal of simplicity, and for their inventions and mechanization in agriculture and animal husbandry. Union Village reached its peak in the early 1800s, when nearly 700 residents occupied its 4,500 acres. The village site was purchased by the United Brethren in 1912 and was converted to an orphanage and a retirement home. Three Shaker buildings still stand on the property today. One of the buildings, Marble Hall, was built in 1810. The excavation, which ended in May, was necessitated by construction work on State Route 741. The construction project impacted a portion of the North Family Lot. —Tamara Stewart 11
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W The Tse-whit-zen site is dotted with tents that were erected over human remains that were disturbed by construction.
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Native American village sites uncovered in western Washington, encompassing nearly all of the graving yard’s 22.5 acres. And, in a discovery that ultimately proved to be the undoing of the project, scores of human bones, remains of those who once lived in Tse-whit-zen, also were found. As Kitson studied the postmolds found in the ground, other members of his team were packing up to go home. “We all just got laid off,” Kitson said, looking around the site in the flat winter light of early afternoon.
THE SAGA OF TSE-WHIT-ZEN began in 2002, when the WSDOT officials settled on the Port Angeles site for the construction of the graving yard. It was an important project—the floating bridge over Hood Canal was badly in need of work. After looking at several locations for the graving yard, a site in Port Angeles was chosen that is on the water and zoned for industrial use. In 2003, the state bought the land from the Port of Port Angeles. The hope was to finish the project within two years, floating the pontoons into place in the summer of 2006. An archaeological assessment was required prior to construction, so the state hired Western Shore Heritage Services, a contract archaeological firm based in the area, in November of 2002 to evaluate the site. When nothing significant was found, the state moved ahead, breaking summer • 2005
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d Kitson carefully scraped away a layer of dark sand, revealing a black rectangular imprint in the ground. “We’ve turned up what seems to be a number of posts here,” he said, pointing to the imprint with a trowel. “Circular posts, rectangular posts—presumably they were structural, but whether there was a house here or something else, we don’t yet know.” Kitson had spent four months working on this archaeological site along the shores of the Strait of Juan de Fuca in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Here, on a waterfront site in the city of Port Angeles, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) was building a dry dock—called a graving yard—for fabricating huge concrete pontoons. Once completed, the pontoons would be floated to sea, towed 60 miles eastward, and used to support a rebuilt portion of a floating bridge across Hood Canal, a fjord-like body of water that runs north and south along the Olympic Peninsula. But excavation work for the graving yard had revealed the remains of an ancient village called Tse-whit-zen. The village was occupied by ancestors of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, whose 850 members live just a few miles west of the graving yard site. Beginning in the summer of 2003, backhoes and bulldozers brought to light piles of mollusk shells, wood from structural posts, rocks shaped into cutting tools, and charcoal pits. It was one of the biggest
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D AV I D H A N N A
Graving Yard, Graveyard When an archaeological assessment found no significant cultural resources, construction of a urgently needed graving yard began on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Construction stopped when a huge cemetery was discovered beneath the construction site. Hundreds of graves were disturbed, and the State of Washington lost millions of dollars. How did it happen? By Douglas Gantenbein
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Workers pause to pay their respects at a recently discovered burial.
Lower Elwha Klallam chairwoman Frances Charles counts cedar boxes holding the remains of tribal ancestors that were unearthed during the construction project.
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to pose big political problems. The tribe asked WSDOT to temporarily shut down the project in May so that all remains could be removed from the site, including those that would not be disturbed by the construction. State officials balked. To resolve this dispute, MacDonald consulted the Federal Highway Administration, as called for in a memorandum of agreement adopted under Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. The Federal Highway Administration, in turn, consulted the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Both organizations concluded that the state was in compliance with Section 106, which requires federal agencies to review all activities they are involved in that may affect a property that is listed, or is eligible for listing, on the National Register of Historic Places. “By that point, nobody believed that we could predict with any confidence how many remains were there,” said MacDonald. “So while the spiritual and emotional concerns of the tribe were certainly understandable, the course they suggested seemed to create an almost endless program of recovery.” The tribe was greatly dismayed by the state’s response. In November, a reporter and photographer from the Seattle Times newspaper spent several days at Tse-whit-zen. Reporter Lynda Mapes’ subsequent articles, and the ac-
LAAS
ground on August 6, 2003. “That,” said Doug MacDonald, secretary of the WSDOT, “was the last good day we had on this project.” Shortly thereafter, fragments of human remains were uncovered. Work screeched to a halt while the state and the 850member Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe negotiated how to proceed in accordance with the National Historic Preservation Act. The tribe decided to hire its own archaeological firm, Larson Anthropological Archaeological Services (LAAS). A second archaeological assessment that included LAAS, the tribe, Western Shore, and the State Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation, was conducted in September of 2003. This assessment found, among other things, fragmentary remains, but it also failed to locate a graveyard. By early 2004 a site treatment plan was developed and a memorandum of agreement negotiated. One aspect of the memorandum was that the state would pay $3.4 million to rebury the remains at another location, establish a curation facility, and cover other related expenses. Work resumed in March, in accordance with the site treatment plan, with the expectation that a limited number of additional remains would be found. But the number soon passed 30, then 50, then 100. By the summer of 2004, the volume of remains began
This decorative hair ornament was recovered from the site. The birds at the top may be cormorants. The ornament is thought to be made of bone or antler.
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Archaeologists work in the northwest portion of the site. In addition to discovering thousands of artifacts and features, the researchers have obtained detailed geomorphological and stratigraphic data to study sea level rise, effects of tsunamis on landforms and human occupation, and hunter-fisher-gatherer land use.
companying photos of the stacks of cedar boxes holding human remains, created a political firestorm. On December 10, Frances Charles, the tribe’s chairwoman, sent a letter to MacDonald asking the state to stop the project. “We tried to come with a way to devise an economic win-win,” said Charles. “But with bodies being found every day, there was no way. Every day there was like a funeral for us.”
NOT QUITE TWO WEEKS AFTER
that letter was sent, on a cold midwinter afternoon, archaeologist Dennis Lewarch, a principal investigator with LAAS, looked over the site for one of the last times. Lewarch, a stocky, bearded man, walked down a muddy ramp from a parking lot adjacent to the construction site and into an area where workers had removed much of the fill that accumulated during nearly a century of industrial use. Along a dark bank, he pointed to a thick deposit of white-bleached shells. “We had a lot of shellfish processing here,” he said. “And just a huge array of terrestrial and marine mammals— sea lions, seals, porpoises, whales.” Evidence of postholes— fragments of cedar posts jutting out from the ground and dark stains in the light brown sand—were also visible. “We were able to map a huge area because of the postholes, and american archaeology
these dark stains also have linear arrangements for the corners of houses or some sort of structure. We also found hearth features and other cooking features.” According to radiocarbon dates, the area where Lewarch stood was occupied some 800 years ago. This was one of several periods of habitation on this site, the oldest dating back to around 2,700 years ago, when the rising sea level led to the erosion of bluffs 100 yards to the south. Sediment from that erosion created Ediz Hook, a giant finger of sand that arcs from just west of Tse-whit-zen some three miles into the strait. Ediz Hook sheltered this waveswept site, and people quickly settled it. The archaeologists hustled to stay ahead of graders, concrete trucks, and pile drivers that rammed huge steel sheet pilings into the earth. Workers attached flat metal blades to backhoes, scraping off layers of fill to expose surfaces containing archaeological evidence. Once those were revealed, the sites were plotted on a grid and excavated by hand. The LAAS crew recovered over 5,000 artifacts, ranging from fishhooks to antler harpoon tips to jadeite axes to combs carved from bone. The excavation of Tse-whit-zen tells a compelling story of a thriving village that was home to scores or even hun15
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WSDOT
This aerial photograph shows the construction site. Superimposed upon the photograph are the areas where intact burials and fragmentary human remains were found, and the areas where trench and auger samples were taken during the initial archaeological assessment of the site in November of 2002. The orange dotted lines show the first proposed location of the graving yard. This location was later changed to the area bounded by the solid red lines. At WSDOT’s instruction, the assessment, which failed to find evidence of the village or the cemetery, was limited to the area within the orange dotted lines. A large number of the intact burials were discovered in adjacent areas where related construction work took place. WSDOT limited the initial assessment to the graving yard location because it had not completed the process of obtaining all the necessary permits for the graving yard, and therefore it wasn’t certain what other areas beyond that of the graving yard would be affected by related construction work.
dreds of people. “In the state of Washington, this was a unique find,” said David Rice, a senior archaeologist for the Seattle office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Because the shoreline construction work could affect water quality in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the corps, in accordance with federal law, was involved in the project. “There were well-preserved features, lots of recoverable dates, good association for many kinds of artifacts, and evidence of lots of trade and commerce,” Rice said. In April of 2004, WSDOT hired LAAS to excavate artifacts, map the beach, and study the geology of the site. LAAS was hired, MacDonald said, because the tribe was critical of Western Shore, the company WSDOT hired to perform the initial site survey. Meanwhile, Western Shore continued to work on the project. Glenn Hartmann, the company’s founder, chafed at the arrangement. He felt that part of Larson’s work was to second-guess his. Initially there was some collaboration between Hartmann and Lewarch, but before long they quit talking to one another. As the project progressed, more and more human remains were discovered. That made for painstaking work. 16
Construction workers using straight metal blades on backhoes carefully removed overburden (“Those guys could scratch your nose with that thing,” Hartmann said). Tribal members took most of the responsibility for removing the remains, carefully wrapping them in blankets and placing them in cedar boxes. Fragments of wood found around the burials suggest that the bodies were either placed in a cedar box or covered with cedar planks. Few funerary artifacts were found. Recovering the remains was emotionally draining. “Once we came across a couple that had been buried in an embrace,” said Hartmann, a soft-spoken, bearded man. “And one week we took out multiple remains of children. It couldn’t help but have an effect on you.” The sheer number of human remains surprised everyone. The moist, acidic soil that is prevalent in the Pacific Northwest severely decomposes bones after 100 years or so. At Tse-whit-zen, though, the bones had been buried in a sand berm, so they were remarkably well preserved. Ultimately, over 300 intact sets of remains were uncovered, with fragments of many more. summer • 2005
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Once the scope of the Tse-whit-zen site and its cemetery became clear, the Corps of Engineers began having serious doubts about the project. “Any project in the past 20 years with that number of remains would have been shut down—no question,” said David Rice.
THE PROJECT CAME TO A HALT on December 21. The Lower Elwha Klallam’s stand won support from some parts of the Port Angeles community, but it also angered many people. Port Angeles, with a population of about 19,000, has never recovered economically from the collapse of the logging industry in the early 1990s, when concerns over the fate of the spotted owl led the U.S. Forest Service to end most logging in the nearby Olympic National Forest. The graving yard was to bring 100 jobs and $17 million to the community. Moreover, the controversy over the yard threatened to make the entire Port Angeles waterfront,
most of which almost certainly was occupied by Native Americans at one time or another, “archaeo-active,” as one local politician put it, meaning that no further development could take place. Emotions boiled over at a February 2005 meeting in a Port Angeles restaurant ballroom, where MacDonald and other WSDOT officials explained why the yard was shut down. Frances Charles also spoke. With several dozen tribal members in the room, along with perhaps 200 Port Angeles residents, it was the first time that tribal members and town residents talked to each other in a public setting. Charles was defiant. The Tse-whit-zen site would never be developed for future commercial use, she said. And she demanded that the bodies taken from the site be reburied there. “Who will pay for that, who will pay?” several townspeople shouted angrily. A number of interested parties agreed on one thing:
THE IMPORTANCE OF TSE-WHIT-ZEN hough the discover y of the Tse-whit-zen village proved to be a nightmare for the Washington Depar tment of Transpor tation, it is, for archaeologists, an impor tant find. The large scale of the excavation was unusual for a salvage archaeology project, and it allowed resear chers to sample
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Gretchen Kaehler of Larson Anthropological Archaeological Services works at a laboratory where artifacts are processed. She’s holding a tray of animal bones.
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all areas of the village. The site also presents an oppor tunity for archaeologists to track the evolution of a landform and how people adapted to the changes in that landform. For example, 2,700 years ago, the available space for habitation was quite small and the beach was probably used as a campsite. Over time, the beach and Ediz Hook grew, offering a protected spot for larger and longer occupations, eventually becoming a village site. A chronology of landform development and hunter-fisher-gatherer activities has been established from the more than 35 radiocarbon dates the site has yielded. Having discover ed more than 1,200 features distributed across four acres, the resear chers can also analyze what types of activities took place in the various sections of the site during this time period. “We’re particularly interested in status,” said Lynn Larson, the president of Larson Anthropological and Archaeological Ser vices. The resear chers can use this information to determine how these cultures were organized. The site was at a crossr oads of cultures on the Olympic Peninsula, Puget Sound, Vancouver Island, and the Gulf of Georgia, giving archaeologists the oppor tunity to examine the overlap of those cultures, and the distinct Klallam culture that developed. The bone and antler assemblage, which numbers more than 3,000 items and is the largest recovered in Washington State, is providing information about sophisticated fishing methods, sea mammal and land animal hunting, and the fabrication of clothing using bone tools and skins. Hundreds of botanical samples taken from feature and midden contexts and more than 100,000 fish bones of fer impor tant information about diet as well as fishing technology and fish processing activities. The botanical samples also yield a glimpse of the environmental changes that took place. —Michael Bawaya
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Western Shore Heritage Services, the company that failed to find the cemetery when it conducted the initial archaeological assessment, was to blame for these unfortunate events. One newspaper columnist called Glenn Hartmann “The most unpopular man in Port Angeles.” “I categorically reject the idea that the survey was inadequate,” Hartmann retorted, explaining that the procedures and methods his company employed were consistent with standard archaeological practices in western Washington. The site was covered with fill as a consequence of years of industrial use. Parts of the site were also covered with concrete, and others parts were below the water table, making them difficult to survey. Western Shore dug backhoe trenches and took core samples in 26 places on the construction site. The company also reviewed geotechnical information, the site’s history, and documents about Native American habitation, including an 1853 map that showed Tse-whit-zen to be just south of the construction site. In Western Shore’s report to state officials, it concluded that there was no evidence of significant archaeological resources at the site. The re-
Barbed harpoon tips, such as this one, were used for hunting sea mammals. This harpoon tip is probably made of bone or antler.
port also stated the site is a likely spot for past habitation, and it recommended that, when excavating at a depth of greater than four feet, an archaeologist monitor the work closely in the event evidence of the village was uncovered. WSDOT complied with this recommendation. Hartmann noted that, in their official responses to the report, the Washington State Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe agreed with the findings and recommendations, and that the second archaeological assessment done in September, 2003, also failed to find the graveyard. MacDonald, whose department has been fiercely criticized for wasting $58 million, didn’t disguise his displeasure with Western Shore and Hartmann. “Was the cultural resources survey adequate? I believe it was not,” MacDonald said. “Glenn said there is a village called Tse-whit-zen and it 18
These decorative artifacts, believed to be spoon handles, are made of bone.
likely had a cemetery and it probably was on the beach and nobody has found it yet. It’s not clear to me that the fieldwork was designed to engage that background.” But MacDonald doesn’t think Hartmann’s company was solely responsible for this fiasco. He also blamed the Port Angeles community for being so eager to sell the site that it wasn’t forthcoming with the state. “Glenn Hartmann would have had a whole lot easier job if the tribe had made known its available knowledge and the community had made its knowledge available,” he said. By this he meant that the archaeologists and WSDOT weren’t informed of the stories of bones being dug up on the Tsewhit-zen site in 1914 when the first mill was built there. MacDonald cited the “dysfunctional” relationship between Port Angeles and the Lower Elwha Klallam tribe as the reason for this lack of candor. The state of Washington apparently wasted millions of dollars, the City of Port Angeles lost a project that was to boost its economy, and a site sacred to the Lower Elwha Klallam was desecrated. Some people in Port Angeles blame the tribe for the project’s termination. A number of tribal members lost their jobs when construction stopped, even as they were gaining a new appreciation for their own culture. Jami Green, an Elwha Klallam member, recalled the etched stones and other artifacts she found while screening soil samples for artifacts. “This really has given me a sense of respect for how our people lived long ago,” she said. “In those days kids had to learn to hunt and fish. It really was a different way of life.” The various parties continue to discuss matters such as the acquisition of land for reburying the remains, curation of the archaeological collection, and the disposition of this site and its impact on the city’s waterfront development. At press time, WSDOT was still looking for another location for the graving yard. DOUGLAS GANTENBEIN is the Seattle correspondent for The Economist. summer • 2005
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Summer Travel Special On the Trail of the Iroquois By Rachel Dickinson
The interior of the Seneca Bark Longhouse at Ganondagan State Historic Site. The longhouse is 60 feet long by 20 feet wide. Its dimensions are based on a 17th-century longhouse excavated in 1965.
eautiful Upstate New York is the traditional home of the Iroquois. Once a confederation of five Indian nations—the Mohawk, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca (later, six, when the Tuscarora joined)—Iroquois villages and towns stretched from present day Quebec City to Warren, Pennsylvania, and from Albany to Toronto. Today, a significant number of the Iroquois remain in New York State, while others reside in various parts of the United States and Canada. There are prettier ways to cross the state than I-90 (often referred to as “the Thruway”), but it will take you through the traditional home territories of the five nations—Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca—in an expeditious fashion.
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Begin at the New York State Museum in Albany, which has an extensive collection of Iroquois artifacts. A significant portion of the first floor of the museum is given over to an explanation of historic Native American culture in the state. In a series of life-sized dioramas, visitors learn about many aspects of Iroquoian life from hunting to agriculture to social structure. Each diorama has a touch screen that gives you a more in-depth explanation of a particular artifact. For example, I knew about the “three sisters” system of agriculture (planting corn, bean, and squash together) but seeing hills of life-sized stalks of corn with beans growing up around the stalks holding them upright and then squash plants trailing about between the hills made me want to go home and replant my garden. 19
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The Iroquois Longhouse is in the Mohawk Iroquois Village at the New York State Museum. For every hour spent building the longhouse, probably five hours were spent on the collection and preparation of its raw materials.
A very impressive replica of a Mohawk longhouse stands in a back corner of the museum. The Iroquois built longhouses that accommodated extended matrilineal families and served as sites for ceremonial gatherings. The Seneca-Onondaga word for the Iroquois is Haudenosaunee, or “the People building a Longhouse.” As you enter the longhouse, it takes a minute for your eyes to adjust to the dim light and then you begin to notice details— gourds hanging from the sapling frame, built-in sleeping bunks along the sides, the fire pit placed beneath the opening in the roof, the framework lashed together with bark strips, pelts drying—and you’re drawn to the recorded voice of an old woman telling stories. You stand and listen, like generations of Iroquois listened in the past. Heading west on the Thruway, take a detour onto I-88 west, which is lightly traveled and one of the loveliest routes in New York State. As you first get on to I-88, look to your right and you’ll see the rounded peaks of the southern Adirondack Mountains. Get off at exit 22 and head toward Howe Caverns, which you’ll see written in
The Fenimore Art Museum’s Thaw Gallery boasts an impressive North American Indian collection that is arranged into six major cultural areas.
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white on the side of the hill. Follow the signs for the caverns—the Iroquois Indian Museum is on the right near the entrance to the caverns. The museum’s mission is to educate the public about Iroquois art, culture, and history. The design of the building is reminiscent of a longhouse. They offer a wide range of programs and special events including two annual Iroquois festivals, which bookend the summer on Memorial Day and Labor Day. On these days visitors can see Iroquois social dancing and storytelling, as well as eat Iroquois food. Works of many of the Iroquois artists and craftspeople are also on display. The museum sits on a 45-acre nature park with three trails that lead through the woods. Travel further west on I-88 and follow the signs for Cooperstown. The Farmer’s Museum is a collection of mid-19th-century buildings arranged in a village setting complete with costumed interpreters. You can watch artisans make wallpaper or weave a coverlet or throw together a broom. There’s a fabulous collection of heirloom
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The National Shrine of Kateri Tekakwitha and the Mohawk-Caughnawaga Museum are located in Fonda, New York. The shrine and museum are housed in a 200-year-old barn.
breeds of sheep, cattle, and poultry roaming the grounds. Across the street is the Fenimore Art Museum, which boasts the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection (see Events, p. 5). This collection contains more than 800 American Indian objects, including some impressive Iroquois artifacts, dating from pre-contact times. In the middle of town you can get your baseball history fix at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Take scenic Route 80 north, cross the Mohawk River and head east on Route 5 along the river. About 12 miles down the road you’ll come to the National Shrine of Kateri Tekakwitha and the Mohawk–Caughnawaga Museum. Kateri, a Mohawk, was born in the mid-17th century and lived in the Caughnawaga village for the first 25 years of her life during which time she converted to Catholicism. In 1679 she moved to Canada, where she lived her remaining days educating children and ministering to the poor. In 1980, Pope John Paul II named Kateri “blessed,” making her the first Native American on her way to saintsummer • 2005
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hood. She is the blessed patroness of peace and ecology. Excavation of the Caughnawaga village began in the 1930s. Today, visitors can see the outlines of 12 longhouses and remnants of a stockade, which sit on a hill above the Mohawk-Caughnawaga Museum. The museum is housed, along with the shrine chapel, in a converted 200-year-old barn. Franciscan Friars maintain the shrine and the grounds. Get back to the Thruway and travel west. Take the exit for Route 5 west and head toward St. Johnsville and Fort Klock. This fortified stone house was constructed in 1750 as part of a line of fortifications that stretched across the Mohawk Valley and served as protection for settlers during the French and Indian War and the War for Independence. Today, Fort Klock is designated a National Historic Landmark. This is an excellent example of a mid-18th-century fur trading post and fortified stone structure. The house at Fort Klock has been restored and is open to the public, as are numerous outbuildings on the grounds (including an 1825 schoolhouse). The fort hosts various events during the summer months. This year is the 225th anniversary of the battles of Stone Arabia and nearby Klock’s Field, which will be re-enacted on September 24 and 25. Come and watch Loyalists, Indians, and British troops attack the Fort Klock farmhouse on their way to the Klock’s Field battle. Return to the Thruway and travel west toward Syracuse. You’ll pass by Utica and Rome (home of Fort Stanwix), and as you near Syracuse look for exit 38. Take a right onto Route 57 to Liverpool. The museum entrance of Sainte Marie among the Iroquois is off the Onondaga Lake Parkway. This is a re-creation of the 1657 French Mission that once stood here. Onondaga Lake is sacred to the Iroquois, for on its southern shore the five-nation confederacy began when former Onondaga chief Hiawatha persuaded Tadodaho to relinquish control over the Onondagas and allow the formation of the confederacy. Annual gatherings of all the
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Fort Klock was built in 1750 and is now a National Historic Landmark. The house at Fort Klock has been restored and is open to the public.
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This bear effigy comb dates to the late 17th century. It was recovered from the Ganondagan State Historic Site near Victor, New York.
clan chiefs from the five nations were held in the great longhouse of the Onondaga, which was centrally located, and it was here that all important government decisions were made. Located between the French and their Indian allies to the north in Canada and the British-held colonies to the east and south, the Onondaga skillfully played the French and British against each other. The museum at Sainte Marie among the Iroquois is filled with artifacts and interpretations of 17th-century Haudenosaunee culture, and the culture of early French missionaries. Costumed interpreters help bring the 1650s to life. Since you’re so close to Syracuse, if you have the time and inclination to really delve into a particular aspect of native culture, you might want to check out the Onondaga Historical Association, which has extensive files and documents about the Iroquois, particularly the Onondagas, many of whom still live in the area. Some artifacts, such as projectile points, are also on display. Get back on the Thruway and continue westward. As you approach the northern end of the Finger Lakes, you’re within a stone’s throw of the Erie Canal, the early 19thcentury canal system that crossed the state and linked Albany to Buffalo. If you go down along the east side of Cayuga Lake, you’ll come across some historical markers near Aurora, 21
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WHEN YOU GO New York State Museum Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York • (518) 474-5877 www.nysm.nysed.gov Hours: Daily from 9:30 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission: Donations accepted Iroquois Indian Museum 324 Caverns Road, Howes Cave, New York • (518) 296-8949 www.iroquoismuseum.org Hours: April 1–June 30 Tues.–Sat. 10–5, Sun. 12–5 July 1–Labor Day Weekend Mon.–Sat. 10–5, Sun. 12–5 After Labor Day–Dec. 31 Tues.–Sat. 10–5, Sun. 12–5 Admission: Adults $7; senior s $5.50; students (12–17) $5.50; children 5–12 $4; under 5 free The Farmers’ Museum Cooper stown, New York • (888) 547-1450 www.farmersmuseum.org Hours: May 18–October 11 daily, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission: Adults (13–64) $9; senior s (65 and over) $8; juniors (7–12) $4; children free Fenimore Art Museum Cooper stown, New York • (888) 547-1450 www.fenimorear tmuseum.org Hours: May 18–October 11 daily, 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission: Adults (13–64) $9; senior s $8; juniors (7–12) $4; children free
Fort Klock Historic Restoration St. Johnsville, New York • (518) 568-7779 www.threeriver shms.com/for tklockweb.htm Hours: Memorial Day–mid-Oct. 9 a.m.–5 p.m. Tues.–Sun. Admission: Donations accepted Sainte Marie among the Iroquois Onondaga Lake Parkway, Route 370, Liverpool, New York (315) 453-6768 www.onondagacountypar ks.com/sainte_marie Hours: May 7–Oct. 9, Sat.–Sun. 12–5 p.m.; Guided tours available Mon., Wed., Fri. from 12–2 p.m. Admission: Adults $2; senior s (62+) $1.50; children (6–17) $1; under 6 free Onondaga Historical Association 321 Montgomer y St., Syracuse, New York • (315) 428-1864 www.cnyhistor y.org Hours: Wed.–Fri. 12–4; Sat.–Sun. 11 a.m.–4 p.m. Admission: Free Hill Cumorah Visitors’ Center 603 State Route 21, Palmyra, New York • (315) 597-5851 www.hillcumorah.org Hours: Pageant dates are July 8, 9, 12–16 Admission: Free
National Shrine of Kateri Tekakwitha Mohawk—Caughnawaga Museum P. O. Box 627, Fonda, New York (518) 853-3646 www.katerishrine.com Hours: May 1–Nov. 1 daily 9 a.m.–6 p.m. Admission: Free
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National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum 25 Main Street, Cooper stown, New York • (888) 425-5633 www.baseballhalloffame.org Hours: Memorial Day–Labor Day daily, 9 a.m.–9 p.m.; Induction Weekend is July 29–August 1 Admission: Adults $9.50; senior s & members of veterans organizations $8; children (7–12) $4; under 7 free
The New York State Museum offers a large collection of Iroquois artifacts.
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Ganondagan State Historic Site Victor, New York • (585) 924-5848 www.ganondagan.or g Hours: Trails open year-round, 8 a.m. to sunset, weather permitting. Visitor Center: Open Tues.–Sun. 9 a.m.–5 p.m., mid-May through the end of Oct. Admission: Adults $3, children $2. Self-guided walks on trails are free. Rochester Museum & Science Center 657 East Avenue, Rochester, New York • (585) 271-1880 www.rmsc.org Hours: Mon.–Sat., 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sun., 12–5 p.m. Admission: Adults $8; senior s/college students $7; children and teenagers (ages 3–18) $6; under 3 free Strong Museum One Manhattan Square, Rochester, New York • (585) 263-2700 www.strongmuseum.org Hours: Mon.–Thurs. 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Fri. 10 a.m.–8 p.m; Sat. 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sun. 12–5 p.m. Admission: Adults $7; senior s/students $6; children 2–17 $5; under 2 free George Eastman House 900 East Ave., Rochester, New York • (585) 271-3361 www.eastmanhouse.org/ Hours: Tues.–Sat. 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Thurs. 10 a.m.–8 p.m.; Sun. 1 p.m.–5 p.m.; closed Mondays Admission: Adults $8; senior s (60 and over) $6; students $5; children (5–12) $3; under 5 free Seneca-Iroquois National Museum 814 Broad Street, Salamanca, New York • (716) 945-1760 www.senecamuseum.org Hours: April 1–mid-Oct.: Mon.–Sat. 9 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sun. 12–5 p.m. Admission: Adults $5; senior s and college students $3.50; children 7–13 $3; under 7 free Niagara Falls State Park Prospect Street, Niagara Falls, New York • (716) 278-1796 www.nysparks.state.n y.us Hours: Summer 8 a.m.–10 p.m.; Winter 8 a.m.–6 p.m. Admission: Free. $10 parking fee. London Museum of Archeology 1600 Attawandaron Road, London, Ontario • (519) 473-1360 www.uwo.ca/museum Hours: May–Aug. 10 a.m.–4:30 p.m.; Village Site open May–Nov. (weather permitting) Admission: Family $8 Canadian; adults $3.50; senior s and students $2.75; children 5–12 $1.50; under 5 free
This reconstructed 15th-century Iroquoian village is found at the Crawford Lake Conservation Area. It’s one of the most accurately dated pre-contact sites in Canada.
New York, telling of the destruction of Cayuga villages in the area in 1779 when colonial troops burned Iroquois crops and villages. Although the annual council of the Iroquois confederacy had proclaimed neutrality in the Revolutionary War, the colonists didn’t trust the Iroquois, which had sided with the British against the French in the French and Indian War a decade earlier. As you get closer to western New York, you’ll start to notice long, narrow cigar-shaped hills with snub noses on the northern end. These are drumlins—glacial deposits left behind as the last continental glacier retreated from this area over 10,000 years ago. One of these drumlins near Palmyra is where an angel revealed golden tablets to Joseph Smith and is the birthplace of the Mormon religion. If you’re lucky enough to be in the area in mid-July, visit the Hill Cumorah and see the remarkable Hill Cumorah Pageant, a reenactment of the history of Mormonism. Your next stop is the Ganondagan State Historic Site near Victor, New York. Over 300 years ago, Ganondagan
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Crawford Lake Conservation Area Milton, Ontario, Canada • (905) 854-0234, ext. 221 www.conser vationhalton.on.ca Hours: Open at 10 a.m. daily. Closing time varies by season: Nov.–June 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; July and Aug. 10 a.m.–5 p.m.; Sept.–Oct. weekdays 10 a.m.–4 p.m.; weekends 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission: Adults (15–64) $6 Canadian; senior s $5; children (5–14) $3.50; under 5 free Royal Ontario Museum 100 Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario • (416) 586-5549 www.rom.on.ca Hours: Mon.–Thurs. 10 a.m.–6 p.m.; Fri. 10 a.m.–9:30 p.m.; Sat. and Sun. 10 a.m.–6 p.m. Admission: Adults $15 Canadian; senior s and students $12; children $10 Sainte-Marie among the Hurons Highway 12 East, Midland, Ontario • (705) 526-7838 www.saintemarieamongthehurons.on.ca Hours: May 21–Oct. 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Admission: Adults $11 Canadian; senior s (65+) $9.50; students $9.50; children (6–12) $8; under 6 free
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The Royal Ontario Museum exhibits the cultural and natural history of Canada and the world.
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The fortress Sainte-Marie among the Hurons was built in 1639 and burned 10 years later. It was the headquarters for the French Jesuit mission to the Huron Nation and Ontario's first European community.
was capital of the Seneca nation and home to more than 1,000 Seneca Indians. This was also the home of Jikonsasay, the first Iroquois clan mother. In 1687, a large French army led by the Governor of Canada attacked and destroyed Ganondagan. Today, visitors can tour a full-size replica of a 17thcentury Seneca longhouse, an amazing structure with hand-hewn poles lashed together with bark strips. The exterior is also covered with bark. There are self-guided trails with plenty of signage explaining different aspects of Seneca culture including details about a huge palisaded granary that stored hundreds of thousands of bushels of corn that was destroyed by the French army. The visitor center runs a 30-minute video outlining the history of Ganondagan and offers guided tours of the site. There’s also an exhibit about the development and importance of the clan system to Haudenosaunee culture. Find your way back to Route 96 and travel north until it crosses 490. Take Route 490 west until you see an exit for East Avenue. Take East Avenue into the center of Rochester, where you’ll find yourself traveling down a street lined with huge houses, museums, and churches. The Rochester Museum & Science Center, your next stop, will be on the left. This wonderful museum is a goldmine of Iroquois information and artifacts—most of the second floor is dedicated to anthropology and archaeology. An ongoing exhibit, “At the Western Door: The Seneca Indians, Europeans, and Americans in the Genesee Valley,” takes you from the development of the Iroquois Confederacy to the 1780s and the dispersal of the Iroquois nation after the Revolutionary War. There are many combs, pipes, and beads (particularly wampum) on display and the explanatory text is wonderful. Another permanent exhibit displays exquisite arts and crafts produced by the Seneca Indian Arts Project, a WPA project during the Great Depression. Another exhibit, “Face to Face,” displays artifacts from many Native Ameri24
can tribes including Zuni pots, Navajo blankets, Iroquois combs and pipes, Sioux clothing, and masks from Pacific Northwest tribes. While you’re in Rochester you might want to check out the fabulous toy collection at the Strong Museum, or the George Eastman House, the home of Kodak’s founder and repository of a fine photographic collection that spans the history of the medium. The next stop is the Allegheny Indian Reservation in Salamanca. Take the Thruway west to Buffalo then head south on 219 to Salamanca. Routes 219 and 417 merge and follow Route 417 through town to the Seneca-Iroquois National Museum (next to the Seneca Nation Library). The museum displays traditional Iroquois materials such as baskets, corn husk dolls, beadwork, and silver work. There are several Seneca wampum belts on display as well. Of particular interest is an exhibit describing the construction of the Kinzua Dam built in 1964. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built this dam to control flooding on the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, to provide for pollution abatement, and to create recreation facilities. The dam’s reservoir flooded Seneca lands in Pennsylvania and all of New York’s Allegany Indian Reservation—more than 9,000 acres in all—and destroyed the Senecas’s spiritual center, the Cold Spring Longhouse. One hundred and thirty Indian families were forced to relocate. Congress gave the Seneca Nation $15 million for direct and indirect damages. It’s unthinkable to visit this area without seeing spec-
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This work of art, called “Turtle Island,” is made from the antler of a moose. It’s on display at the Iroquois Indian Museum in Howes Cave, New York.
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A model of an Iroquoian village circa A.D. 1600 is on display at the London Museum of Archaeology. The figures and structures were constructed in the 1930s by Amos and Wilfrid Jury, the museum’s founders. In 1985, these
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figures and structures were restored and incorporated into a diorama.
tacular Niagara Falls, so take I-90 and follow the signs to the city of Niagara Falls. Having seen the mesmerizing falls, cross the border into Canada and take Highway 405 to the QEW (Queen Elizabeth Way), and then proceed southwest on Highway 403 to London, where the London Museum of Archeology awaits. This is a must-see for the serious amateur archaeologist. The museum is located next to the Lawson site, a 500year-old Neutral Indian village situated on a flat plateau overlooking the confluence of Medway River and Snake Creek in northwest London. Prehistoric Neutral Indians selected this location for a major village due to its defensible characteristics, access to water, and proximity to a wide variety of animals, fish, and wild plants. This site, one of the few preserved earthworks in Canada, was occupied by about 2,000 people. The museum has a collection of over two million artifacts and its staff serves as consultants to the country’s parks and cultural resources department. A longhouse, palisades, and earthworks are being reconstructed on the Lawson site and the public is welcome to view the ongoing work. From London take Highway 401 north to the Crawford Lake Conservation Area in Milton. The Crawford Lake Conservation Area sits on top of the Niagara Escarpment and offers spectacular views of the Nassagaweya Canyon. But the main reason to visit is the reconstructed 15th-century Iroquoian village that sits on the site of the original village. The park runs many school programs at the site so students can get a good idea of what life in a 15th-century Iroquoian village might have been like. Continue north on 401 to Toronto and the Royal Ontario Museum, the largest museum in Canada. Unfortunately, the museum is undergoing extensive renovations and its Indigenous Peoples and Ontario Archaeology Galleries, along with a number of other displays, are closed. Nonetheless, it’s worth visiting for its many other exhibits. Sainte-Marie among the Hurons, the final destinaamerican archaeology
tion, is in Midland, north of Toronto on Route 400. This fortress, which was built in 1639 and then burned in 1649, was the headquarters for the French Jesuit mission to the Huron nation. The reconstructed village is located on beautiful Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. Huron is a French name for the Wendat people. By 1648, Sainte-Marie was home to 66 Frenchmen, representing one-fifth of the entire population of New France. We know so much about this short-lived wilderness mission from the annual report written by the Superior at Sainte-Marie and then sent via Quebec to Paris. These accounts of day-to-day experiences are meticulous in their detail. The mission was abandoned and burned when nonChristian Iroquois attacked in 1649. Twentieth-century archaeological excavations and research provided data to support the reconstruction of many of the original mission
This horseshoe-shaped beaded bag was made on the Onondaga Indian Reservation between 1860 and 1890.
buildings. During the summer months the staff, attired in historical costumes, engage in various activities of that period. In this tour you’ve traveled the width of New York State and have ended on the shores of beautiful Georgian Bay, deep into the Canadian province of Ontario. This covers a lot of territory both geographically and historically, and by the end of your journey, you should have a pretty fair understanding of Iroquois life and the cultural pressures brought about by European contact during the heyday of the Iroquois Confederacy. RACHEL DICKINSON lives in upstate New York and writes about science, nature, and history. Two books that she’s written, Tools of Navigation and Tools of Ancient Rome, will be published this year. 25
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Distinctions With It was once thought that the Plains tribes the Mandan and the Hidatsa were practically indistinguishable. But a series of investigations has revealed considerable evidence to the contrary. By Sally Bell
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ll that’s visible today of central North Dakota’s long-abandoned Mandan and Hidatsa villages are earthen mounds and depressions marking circular earthlodges and defensive ditches. But in their prime, several hundred years ago, these villages hugged terraces high above narrow swaths of fertile bottomland on the Missouri River and its Knife and Heart river tributaries. These sites are examples of what archaeologists call the Plains Village tradition, typified by permanent settlements supported by a combination of maize horticulture and bison hunting. Along the floodplain, women wielding bone hoes and rakes farmed patchwork fields of corn, squashes, sunflowers, and beans. They also made pottery, cooked, and worked animal hides. When they weren’t hunting, the men crafted sharp stone or bone tools and weapons. According to historical records, the women also built spacious earthlodges, constructed of posts and beams covered with soil, that could span 45 feet. With walls up to three feet thick, their homes were snug during harsh prairie weather, and sturdy enough that This 1832 painting by the renowned artist George Catlin shows Sakakawea Village, a Hidatsa community of the banks of the Knife River. Sakakawea was destroyed in 1834. Catlin, who was known for his paintings of Indians, considered his work to be a documentary record of a vanishing race.
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A Difference
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Despite the similarities, Tom Thiessen, an archaeologist and ethnohistorian with the National Park Service’s Midwest Archeological Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, notes the two people’s religions and ceremonies are different, and their languages—while having common Siouan roots—were not mutually intelligible. And until smallpox wiped out 90 percent of the Mandans in 1837, they lived mostly in separate communities in different parts of the Missouri River valley. Examining the key differences, Ahler says, “My conclusion is that the two peoples can be distinguished, and have a distinct archaeological record.” His periodic excavations over several decades support that statement. Ahler is also working to establish a chronology of the occupation of the region. Archaeologists first recorded some of the traditional Mandan and Hidatsa villages in 1883, with the first scientific excavation in 1905. The National Park Service and Ahler, then at the University of North Dakota, tested several Hidatsa villages near the Knife River in 1976 through 1981, with major reports published by 1993. The archaeology of traditional Mandan sites downstream, near Heart River, was “not well understood at all,” according to Ahler, so when, in the late 1990s, the State Historical Society of North Dakota asked him to conduct research to update interpretive information for state-owned Mandan sites, he jumped at the chance.
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people used the roofs like balconies to relax or get a commanding view of their surroundings. Traders—Native American, and later Spanish, French, British, and American—frequented the villages. Lewis and Clark, leading the Corps of Discovery in search of the Northwest Passage, stayed with the Mandans and Hidatsas during the winter of 1804–05. Despite periodic intertribal warfare, it was a good life until repeated smallpox epidemics decimated villages and white encroachment forced an end to the Mandan and Hidatsa lifeways. Their descendants now eke out a living about 100 miles north of their ancestral homeland at Fort Berthold Reservation near New Town, North Dakota. According to Hidatsa traditions one of the tribe’s three subgroups, the Awatixa, claim creation in the Missouri Valley, while the other two, the Awaxawi and the Hidatsa-Proper, migrated from the east. The five Mandan bands say they came to the Plains from the west, east, and upriver. The creation stories, though, don’t say when they migrated. The two tribes’ villages and lifestyles seemed enough alike that “nearly everyone that had compared their archaeological records before lumped them as indistinguishable,” says archaeologist Stan Ahler of the PaleoCultural Research Group in Flagstaff, Arizona. Ahler has directed a number of investigations at Mandan and Hidatsa sites over the course of nearly 30 years.
Double Ditch Village, a large traditional Mandan settlement, is shown in this aerial photograph taken in 1988. The site’s name comes from its two concentric fortification ditches. Several large earthen mounds covered with darker vegetation are visible near the site’s perimeter.
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Artist Karl Bodmer painted this interior of a Mandan earthlodge. Bodmer, who was born in Switzerland, was the artist for the German Prince Maximilian's expedition across the American West. Bodmer began this watercolor in December of 1833 and completed it over the course of several months. Mandan and Hidatsa earthlodges were quite similar. Each had a large fireplace in the center surrounded by four massive posts that supported horizontal beams and sloping rafters layered with willow samplings, bundled grass, and earth.
Menoken Village, a site Ahler and other archaeologists investigated in the late 1990s at the behest of the Historical Society, demonstrates that the settled, Plains Village lifeway was taking shape in what is now North Dakota in the A.D. 1200s. One of the most important sites Ahler examined, Menoken helped establish a base from which to understand events in the region. Ahler thinks the people of Menoken were ancestral to some subgroups of either the Mandans or the Hidatsas. Work began at Menoken in 1997 with remote-sensing studies by Ken Kvamme, an archaeologist at the University of Arkansas, followed by excavations and more geophysics in 1998 and 1999. Ahler’s company joined the team in 1998 at the invitation of Ray Wood, Ahler’s graduate school mentor at the University of Missouri, who conducted a field school at the site that summer. The findings sparked reappraisal of a previous interpretation that Menoken was the specific Mandan village where Europeans first made face-to-face contact in 1738. Radiocarbon dating of twigs found in its fortification ditch pinned the site to about A.D. 1200, indicating that the village is 500 years older than previously thought. Menoken is a Late Woodland site at the “very cusp of change to the Plains Village lifeway,” Ahler says; its inhabiamerican archaeology
tants were “among the last of the pre-farming peoples.” There’s no evidence of food storage pits or gardening tools, and small bits of charred corn suggest only minor use of maize, perhaps obtained through trade. However, S-rimmed pottery, like that made by early Plains Village people to the south, indicates that transformation to the Plains Village lifeway—as exemplified by the later Mandans and Hidatsas—was underway. Menoken’s defensive ditch and evidence of a palisade with bastions also is a Plains Village, rather than Woodland, characteristic, he explains. Over the next century or so, early Plains Village peoples settled in small, scattered communities extending as far as 50 miles above the Knife River. By the 1400s, villages began consolidating near the Knife and Heart rivers. Huff Village is one such large, fortified ancestral Mandan site, dating to the mid-1400s. The Mandans were heavily concentrated near Heart River by about 1500. Lower Hidatsa Village, home to the local Awatixa Hidatsa subgroup and radiocarbon dated to roughly 1525, was among the first large Hidatsa communities built close to Knife River. Ahler thinks the two eastern Hidatsa subgroups (Awaxawis and Hidatsas-Proper) settled first among the Mandans near Heart River in the 1500s, then began moving upstream to traditional Hidatsa territory around 1600. 29
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Excavations at the Mandan site of Double Ditch Village from 2001 through 2004 yielded evidence of the differences between the two cultures as well as surprises that dramatically altered ar-
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This map shows traditional Mandan settlements (represented by triangles) near the Heart River and some of the traditional Hidatsa settlements (represented by circles) near the Knife River. A landmark called Square Buttes marked the boundary of respective tribal territories before the two groups came together at Knife River after 1790 for purposes of mutual defense. After a major smallpox epidemic in 1837, all of the surviving Mandans and Hidatsas eventually resettled at Like-a-Fishhook Village, where they were joined by the remaining Arikaras, another Plains tribe. Today, they are the Three Affiliated Tribes or the Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara Nation of Fort Berthold Reservation.
The greater number of Mandan villages and the predominance of their pottery styles indicate that the Mandans were the more numerous and dominant people in the 1500s and early 1600s. But as smallpox took its toll, particularly among the Mandans, an increase of Hidatsa pottery styles reflected their growing cultural prominence, Ahler says. After European contact, historical documents tell of repeated village contraction and abandonment, often as a result of smallpox, and establishment of new settlements. It was a sad litany, culminating in a final, devastating smallpox epidemic in 1837. The surviving Mandans and Hidatsas moved to Like-a-Fishhook village in 1845, where they were joined by the remaining Arikaras, another Plains Village tribe from South Dakota, in 1862. CHARLOTTE HILL-COBB
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Excavators work in Mound B at Double Ditch Village. Mound B is one of the large earthen features along the perimeter of the village that’s thought to have been part of the village defense system. It is about six feet high and 60 feet across. Built around 1700, Mound B was one of the last large mounds built in the village.
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chaeologist’s interpretation of the site. Recent studies have shown it’s much larger and older than previously thought, and that it had a very complex history of settlement change. According to Fern Swenson, director of the Historic Preservation Division of the State Historical Society, archaeologists in the 1940s speculated that Double Ditch was founded around 1675. Using a magnetometer, Kvamme identified disturbances in the ground’s magnetic field that marked two previously unknown fortification ditches, well outside the two concentric ditches visible on the surface. The discoveries greatly expanded the size of the village. The archaeologists were even more surprised to find that, according to radiocarbon dates of maize and comparative dates of pottery found within the ditches and in storage pits, the outer ditches may be 200 years older than the two inner ditches—harking back to the late 1400s or early 1500s. Though dating of the ditches isn’t complete, Ahler remarks that “we’ve clearly established that the village was founded in the 1400s.” About 20 oblong mounds from four to 14 feet high ring the site. The oldest mounds are believed to have been built before 1600 because no European trade artifacts, which began to trickle into the region at that time, were found within them. The “jumbled mess of dirt and artifacts” indicates that several mounds were constructed “extremely rapidly. That says they are not trash piles. I think they were defensive features on the village perimeter,” Ahler says. The new picture that emerges is of an early, “giant village” of perhaps 2,000 people at its peak, says Kvamme. Through time, the village began to contract, and mounds rather than ditches served to mark the defensive perimeter. Eventually the village receded inside Ditch 2, which is associated with mounds, and finally, inside Ditch 1, which lacked mounds but had several tiny bastions. Ditch 1, used in the 1700s, protected only 32 houses and a population likely no more than 400. Village contraction at Double Ditch partially reflects epidemics caused by the transmission of European diseases to the Mandans, believes Thiessen, who analyzed European and American historical documents to develop a sharper picture of the two tribes. The final debacle for Double Ditch was a documented smallpox epidemic in 1781 followed by an attack from the Sioux. The site was abandoned by 1785. By contrast, Ahler’s earlier work at Hidatsa sites indicates that mounds there played less of a defensive role. Hidatsa villages simply were “less frequently fortified and less intensively fortified” than Mandan settlements, he says. Big Hidatsa Village has a minor ditch system, but no mounds. Investigations of mounds at other sites, such as Lower Hidatsa, revealed that they were merely “little trash piles.” So who gave the Mandans reason to build their fortifications? The Hidatsas are a logical candidate, but if so, they weren’t outwardly concerned about reciprocal raids. american archaeology
The leader of the Mandan Buffalo Bull Society is shown in this Bodmer painting. The Buffalo Bull Society was a group that honored the most prominent Mandan warriors. The leader’s headdress was made from the head, mane, and horns of a bull bison. It was worn by only the bravest warriors who had never fled from an enemy. Buffalo Bull Society dances were performed in the plazas of Mandan villages.
If the enemy were other Mandans, Ahler wonders why they built their villages as close as one mile apart. He thinks the concentration of Mandan villages was for mutual defense, but he admits there’s no hard evidence of this. Thiessen’s theory is the Mandans’ relative affluence led to hostile nomadic tribes raiding their villages, as the Sioux were known to do in historic times. Yet there is little confirmation of warfare, such as skeletons and numerous burned homes. To which Swenson remarks, “maybe we just haven’t identified it.” Ahler points to other differences between the Mandans and Hidatsas. Mandan villages typically had a central plaza and adjacent lodge that, historical records show, was used for dances and ceremonies. Hidatsa villages had neither plazas nor ceremonial lodges. According to historical records, they conducted village ceremonies at temporary locations outside settlements. In Hidatsa villages occupied over a long period of time, the people built new residential lodges on top of the old, resulting in a great buildup of deposits. Conversely, the Mandans at Double Ditch repeatedly dug up 31
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This watercolor by Karl Bodmer depicts a buffalo robe painted by Máto-Tópe, a prominent Mandan leader. The images on the robe represent several military victories by Máto-Tópe against the Cheyennes and Assiniboines. Warfare, usually involving nomadic tribes east and west of the Missouri River, was a major element of life for Mandan and Hidatsa men. The archaeological evidence of these conflicts is most apparent in the elaborate defensive systems involving ditches, wooden palisades, and mounds that surrounded most of the large communities.
and transported all of the old lodge remains and debris out of the residential area. “The final houses inside Ditch 1 were set on planed-off, sterile soil,” he says. “I’m not sure what this clean sweep means. One speculation is they might have been seeking a community rebirth, following an epidemic.” He adds the caveat that Double Ditch is the only investigated Mandan village that offers this particular contrast. Ahler’s analysis of museum pottery collections from the two tribes, especially pottery made in the period 1300 to 1500, also reveals distinctions. Early Hidatsa wares had quite varied lip shapes and decorative techniques and often bore a check-stamped pattern on the body. Checkstamping was created by use of a wooden paddle for vessel shaping that had a cross-grooved surface, much like a waffle iron. Early Mandan pottery, on the other hand, was more standardized with little use of check-stamping. By the 1500s, S-rimmed pottery featuring a band of diagonal or horizontal lines around the vessel rim, known as cordimpressed decorations, comprised 90 percent of the ceramics in both Mandan and Hidatsa sites. This pottery developed directly out of earlier Mandan wares, attesting to the dominant influence of the Mandans at that time.
Data from Ahler’s Hidatsa work is easier to understand than the Mandan data. The sequence of cultural development is more obvious along the Knife River, for one thing. “There are lots of continuities, and we can watch an ebb and flow of stylistic change in pottery that occurs in several villages. We’ve put together a model that makes sense, especially in regard to Hidatsa oral traditions about migration and change. We don’t see anything so 32
straightforward along the Heart River,” he says. In the Mandan region, “We’re left with these puzzle pieces that tell us how complicated it is, but we can’t yet put all the pieces together. At Heart River, there are many more large, contemporaneous sites that each appear to have a somewhat distinct archaeological story. Many key sites are probably as complicated as Double Ditch, but have not yet been studied in detail.” Pending the approval of funding by the state, more excavations are planned at Menoken Village this summer to examine two very different housing styles that radiocarbon dating shows were contemporary. One, an oval structure built not in a pit but on the surface, is of particular interest to Ahler, who wants to see how it relates to the rectangular houses common in early Plains Village sites, before these, in turn, were replaced by circular earthlodges. He also seeks a grant for minimal testing and a geophysical survey of a Mandan site two miles upriver from Double Ditch, dubbed Larson Village, which visitors 100 years ago wrote may also have more than one ditch. “My hypothesis is that Larson may mimic Double Ditch, so (Double Ditch) may not be unique,” he says. Ahler feels he still only partially understands the Mandan homeland, but he’s pleased with the team’s accomplishments. “Before we started with the Hidatsas, they were seen as kind of secondary to, but indistinguishable from, the Mandans. We’ve shown each can be studied in its own right. I think we’ll see that, though there are some shared features, each has its own distinctive cultural picture.” SALLY BELL is a freelance writer who lives in Boulder, Colorado. summer • 2005
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Investigating the Pueblo Revolt In 17th-century New Mexico the Native Americans launched a successful revolt against the Spanish. Archaeologists are unearthing the details of this unusual event and its consequences. By Julian Smith
This illustration showing Native Americans hanging a Spanish priest is based on a painting by Hopi artist Fred Kabotie that appeared on the cover of the book What Caused the Pueblo Revolt of 1680.
n the late-summer heat of August 1680, the Pueblo Indians on the northern edge of Spain’s New World empire banded together and drove the Spanish colonists out of the province of New Mexico. As monsoon thunderheads gathered over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Pueblo warriors killed roughly 400 colonists, burned churches and homesteads, and laid siege to the Spanish capital of Santa Fe. After nine days, Governor Antonio de Otermín led the survivors to El Paso del Norte (now Ciudad Juárez, Mexico). The Pueblo Revolt lasted for 12 years, making it one of the most successful uprisings in the history of the Americas. Its repercussions are still felt today among the inhabitants of the Southwest. Recent investigations into the archaeology of this turbulent period are revealing how
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it changed the lives of those who lived through it and those who came after. “From 1680 to 1692, archaeology and Pueblo oral history are our only sources of information,” says Robert Preucel of the University of Pennsylvania, editor of Archaeologies of the Pueblo Revolt. Spanish written records are mostly limited to the periods before and after the uprising, and they didn’t record the day-to-day lives of Indians, much less many of the abuses they endured under both the Spanish crown and the Catholic Church. Pueblo oral histories have often been ignored. Preucel’s research has involved combining archaeology and oral history in collaboration with Cochiti Pueblo. “Archaeology can tell us what daily life was like for the Pueblo people and the struggles they faced,” says Preucel. “Did they give up Spanish foods or herding Spanish livestock? How did they build the new villages they took refuge in after the rebellion? How did they restructure their lives?” The causes of the revolt included decades of economic 33
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The Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe de Zuni was burned and destroyed during the Pueblo Revolt. The church was reconstructed after 1700 and used until 1821, at which time the mission was withdrawn and the building fell into ruin. The mission was restored in the 1960s in a cooperative project between the Pueblo of Zuni, the Catholic Church, and the National Park Service.
exploitation, religious repression, and social oppression. Spanish settlers demanded tribute and labors from Puebloans, many of whom lived a marginal existence. Native religions were banned, and nomadic Apaches and Navajos continually raided settlements for slaves. A number of scattered rebellions throughout the 17th century were put down by the Spanish, so when a charismatic leader named Popé emerged to lead them in the 1670s, the Indians were primed to rise up en masse. But the Pueblo Revolt “is more nuanced than just Spanish versus Indians,” says Preucel. “The Spanish were a huge part of Pueblo life—there were strong connections not easily broken.” While their leaders encouraged the Indians to reject everything Spanish and return to their traditions, in 82 years of contact many had intermarried with Europeans and converted to Christianity. Almost all the Puebloans had learned to enjoy the new foods, animals, and products the settlers had brought. Families were torn apart in the struggle. And “the revolt wasn’t just a successful military campaign,” adds Preucel. “It was a broad-based cultural revitalization movement.”
Mixing On The Mesas The architecture of many Pueblo Revolt sites reflects significant changes that occurred when many groups resettled in more defensive locations due to fear of a 34
Spanish reprisal. Archaeologist T.J. Ferguson, an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona, investigated the settlement of Dowa Yalanne near Zuni Pueblo in western New Mexico from 1987 to 1991. Dowa Yalanne (“Corn Mountain”) sits on top of a sheer-walled mesa southwest of the modern pueblo. During the uprising it may have housed as many as 2,500 people, who occupied at least 559 rooms. Ferguson concluded that the Pueblo Revolt brought about a “fundamental reorganization of Zuni society.” He analyzed aerial photographs of the settlement and he also made numerous trips to the top of the 1,000-foot-high mesa in order to map it. He mapped lines of sight, passageways between rooms and buildings, and other quantifiable spatial properties, and then analyzed the results. “If you can see people, there’s a higher chance you’ll interact with them. Seeing is a form of interaction,” Ferguson explains. A site with a high “integration” value, according to Ferguson, has open architecture that results in easy movement; a low integration value indicates constricted movement and, often, a defensive layout. “This approach lets you see whether it’s relatively easy or hard to get around from the perspective of someone coming in from the outside,” says Ferguson. “It tells you how the architecture structures social interactions.” Ferguson found Dowa Yalanne to have a much more open layout than earlier plaza-oriented settlements such as Hawikuh, the first Zuni community encountered by the Spanish in 1549. This makes sense, given that six distinct summer • 2005
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Zuni villages, plus small groups of refugees from other ceremonial ceramics, including miniature pottery vessels pueblos, were thrust together on top of the mesa during associated with rain-making rituals, implied that traditional the revolt. An open layout may have helped these disreligious practices were reinstituted, “or at least practiced parate groups get to known each other. more openly,” during the rebellion, says Preucel. “The real defensive character of Dowa Yalanne comes The very layout of one of the two settlements at Kotyfrom its location, not the construction of the village itself,” iti may have symbolized the Puebloans’ rejection of things says Ferguson. “Once you were inside, there was a lot of Spanish and the revival of the old ways. “The plaza Pueblo space for people to interact. There was a considerable in particular appears to have been built to assert certain elamount of social experimentation going on here.” ements of the Keresan cosmology,” writes Preucel in ExpeAll told, Ferguson looked at 14 sites near Zuni. He dition magazine. (Keresan is a language spoken at a numfound that, in general, villages built earlier in the Pueblo ber of the pueblos.) Open gateways led in the directions Revolt era displayed pattersns oriented around plazas, with low integration values. Sites constructed toward the end of the period, when many people were moving between pueblos to fight or find refuge, show more dispersed plans with high integration values. Most Pueblo villages that exist today fall in the latter category. In 1995, Preucel began investigating Hanat Kotyiti, an ancestral community near Cochiti Pueblo between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Set on Potrero Viejo mesa high above the Rio Grande, Kotyiti was the site of one of the final battles of the Spanish reconquest in 1694. In collaboration with the pueblo of Cochiti, Preucel collected and analyzed surface ceramics from Kotyiti’s two distinct settlements. He also analyzed ceramic samples collected in 1912 by archaeologist Nels Nelson of the American Museum of Natural History. The majority of the ceramics were Kotyiti glazeware and Tewa matte paint polychromes, styles contemporaneous with the Pueblo Revolt, indicating that both settlements were occupied during that period. Bones from cows, sheep, and goats showed that the Puebloans kept using these animals after the uprising, despite Popé’s exhortations to reject everything connected with the colonizers. On the other hand, specially prepared stones for making piki (wafer) bread were found in over 30 An excavator works at Pueblo San Marcos, which is preserved by The Archaeological Conservancy. The rooms, suggesting that traditional pueblo’s Fray Manuel Tinoco was one of 21 priests who died in the revolt in August, 1680. foods made a comeback after the Excavations at San Marcos in 1999 and 2000 by the American Museum of Natural History revealed that Spanish were expelled. Similarly, San Marcos’s church was neither burned nor torn down, but the church’s bell was smashed to pieces. american archaeology
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This Hawikuh glaze ware bowl was typical of the types of ceramics used in the Zuni area prior to the revolt.
in which supernatural beings were believed to reside, as well as to the north, where the Puebloans held that their ancestors had first emerged from the underworld.
Shards Of History Barbara Mills, an archaeologist at the University of Arizona, found more information in the pottery of Zuni area. She examined pottery from before and after the rebellion, including 1,151 whole vessels recovered from Hawikuh and other sites in the early 1900s that are in the collections of the National Museum of the American Indian. “Ceramics are some of best-preserved objects in the archaeological record,” says Mills. “Pottery is used every day, and it changes with different foods and uses. It’s a record of their daily life.” And since Puebloans still make pottery today, she adds, it provides continuity. “You can work back and forth between past and present to understand the role of ceramics in Pueblo life.” Mills found “drastic changes” in ceramics at Zuni before and after the Pueblo Revolt, and interprets this as a subtle form of resistance by those who most likely made the ceramics: the Zuni women. “We know that women were making pots 200 years later, so we inferred women were making them back then,” she explains. In particular, Mills noticed that Zuni potters stopped making certain pre-Revolt styles of ceramic serving bowls. Styles such as Hawikuh glaze ware and Matsaki buff ware, common before the uprising, were completely replaced by matte-paint polychrome. This radical change occurred at every pueblo where glaze paints were used before the revolt. Mills calls it “one of the enigmas of historic Pueblo ceramics.” 36
The designs painted on the bowls also changed. Religious pre-Revolt motifs such as Roman crosses and katsinas (stylized representations of spiritual beings) were out. Instead, stylized feathers were repeated on nearly every vessel, both inside and out. Mills calls these changes an intentional break with the past—both a rejection of Spanish styles during the rebellion and a means of avoiding further religious repression afterward. Stylized feathers may have seemed innocent to missionaries and Spanish soldiers, but they actually had a significant spiritual association with native prayer sticks, altar decorations, ritual costumes, and even shields. Designs on the outside of vessels would have been easily visible at public feasts and other ceremonies, and would have served to unite the groups that found themselves mixed together during and after the revolt. “This was one way women participated in the resistance process,” says Mills. “They weren’t actually fighting, [so] they expressed it in a different way. It’s very clever to do it in the design and materials, things others might think of as just pretty designs. It’s a way of resisting without having too much fear of any kind of Spanish repercussion.” Yet Zuni potters didn’t reject everything Spanish. After the introduction of new domestic animals and foods, Pueblo artisans had adapted “a more open-cauldron, stewpot style,” says Mills, “as opposed to the closed-neck pots you see at Zuni for most of prehistory.” This didn’t change after the revolt, illustrating a selective mix of rejection and preservation of Spanish influences.
After the revolt, Zuni potters changed the style of their ceramics, the images painted on them, and the type of paint, switching from glaze to matte. This Ashiwi polychrome is representative of post-revolt pottery.
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ized reconstructions of each settlement. With over 200 rooms, Astialakwa alone took him six months of work. In an upcoming paper written with Ferguson and Preucel, Liebmann describes findings that mirror Ferguson’s at Zuni. Both along the Rio Grande and out at Zuni, villages built early in the Pueblo Revolt period show “planned communal construction and evidence of strong centralized leadership that resulted in highly structured social interaction.” Later villages exhibit dispersed layouts that made it easier for communities in turmoil to mix informally. The effects linger in the social alliances and layouts of modern Pueblo villages. In his chapter in Archaeologies of the Pueblo Revolt, Liebmann also investigates the persistence of Christian iconography among the Puebloans during the uprising. His conclusions illustrate how complex Pueblo opinions were toward the religion the Spanish had thrust upon them less than a century before. Instead of rejecting the trappings of Catholicism wholesale, the Indians put them to their own uses. According to historic documents, during their reconquest of the pueblos after 1692, the Spanish found not only the more utilitarian elements of European culture still in use—such as herds of sheep, cattle, and horses—but also crosses, altars, chalices, and lamps. They were used in very different ways than what the friars had taught them, however. Pueblo warriors dressed in Catholic vestments to celebrate their victory. Churches and convents that had escaped destruction were used for
The twin threads of ceramics and architecture come together in the work of Matt Liebmann, a Ph.D. candidate in anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania. Liebmann, a student of Preucel’s, has worked with Jemez Pueblo, in the pine-clad mountains northwest of Albuquerque, since 2000. With the help of students from the pueblo and Philips Andover Academy in Massachusetts, Liebmann collected ceramics from historic pueblos near Jemez named Cerro Colorado, Patokwa, and Astialakwa. “There was a battle with the Spanish at Astialakwa in 1694 during the reconquest,” he says, “so there was broken pottery everywhere.” In addition to noting the style of each piece, Liebmann analyzed its temper—materials mixed into the clay to keep it from cracking during firing—by filing an edge and looking at it under a microscope. The results surprised him. “Jemez sites are known for a style called Jemez Black-On-White,” he explains, “which typically makes up a third to one-half of all the pottery. We expected to find a lot of this, especially because the Puebloans were supposed to be going back to older design styles during the revolt.” Instead, it appears that Jemez potters stopped making this style almost completely. “As soon as they moved up to Patokwa and Astialakwa,” he says, “Jemez Black-On-White drops to about five percent of the total.” In the minds of the Indians, the style may Archaeologists have documented changes in settlement during the pre-revolt (pre-1680) to post-revolt (1680-1694) have been tainted. “We periods. Pueblo people vacated their pre-revolt know that before the remission village homes and established new volt, the missionaries villages high on mesas for defensive purposes. were forcing the women Acoma was the one pueblo that was occupied to make lots of things in during both periods. In 1694, and then the Black-On-White again in 1696, Diego De Vargas style, especially religious organized military campaigns items like candlesticks, against the pueblos and chalices, and crucifixes,” resettled most of them he says. “This type of at their original pottery might have been mission villages. associated with the Spanish and the labor they demanded of the Puebloans, so they stopped making it as soon as they could.” Liebmann mapped the three sites and another located nearby called Boletsakwa. Using digital photography and total stations, he was able to create topographic maps and 3D computeramerican archaeology
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power against the Spaniards. It was part of the resistance.” The Indians, it seems, were acknowledging the power of Christianity and its icons while refuting its practitioners. Pueblo oral tradition reflects this appropriation. During the battle with Spanish forces at Astialakwa in 1694, seven defeated Pueblo warriors threw themselves off the edge of a cliff to escape capture. According to Jemez history, an image of San Diego appeared on the cliff side and the men floated safely to the ground “like butterflies.” (The image is still visible today and venerated as a shrine.)
Jemez Pueblo sculptor Cliff Fragua created this statue of Popé, who led the Pueblo people against the Spanish. The statue will be on display in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol.
native ceremonies. A petroglyph in Frijoles Canyon near Los Alamos, New Mexico (now part of Bandelier National Monument), exhibits a traditional rectangular mouth but also European-style facial features and a spiked crown or halo similar to images of the Virgin Mary. “It was curious to me that you were getting this persistence of imagery, when at the time documentary evidence would suggest they were getting rid of it,” says Liebmann. “But just because you find Christian imagery doesn’t mean these people were still practicing Catholics,” he emphasizes. “They were reinterpreting Catholic images to use their 38
In 1692, the new governor of New Mexico, Diego de Vargas, rode north from presentday Mexico on a mission of reconquest. In the past 12 years, fragile alliances among the Pueblo groups had collapsed. Years of fighting followed Vargas’s hasty declaration of victory, but the Pueblo Revolt was over. Its repercussions, however, would resonate for centuries. The Spanish never treated the Puebloans the same again, says Preucel, and they became more accepting of native religious practices. Consolidation, fighting, and resettlement left far fewer pueblos after the revolt. The area became part of the U.S. in 1848 at the end of the MexicanAmerican War. Over 300 years later, the Pueblo Revolt is still a sensitive subject among Hispanics and Puebloans. When a bronze statue of Don Juan de Oñate was erected near Española in 1998, an unknown protestor sawed off its right foot in memory of the conquistador’s decision to punish an uprising at Acoma Pueblo in 1599 by cutting one foot off of every surviving male over the age of 25—a vivid example of the harsh treatment that eventually led to the revolt. “A lot of what we know today is speculation on the part of historians, especially when there’s no real record of what happened,” says Herman Agoyo, former governor of San Juan Pueblo. “There’s an almost total lack of information, even within the pueblos. It was such a terrible thing, they didn’t like to talk about it, like soldiers returning from World War II.” Liebmann draws another parallel. “The Pueblo Revolt was an act of independence, not simply resistance,” he writes. “It was a declaration of liberty and sovereignty, just as Americans view the Revolutionary War.” There are signs that people are coming to terms to the events of the distant past. When each state was allowed to memorialize two famous residents in the National Statuary Hall in the Capitol in Washington, D.C., one of New Mexico’s choices was a seven-foot statue of Popé by Cliff Fragua, a sculptor from Jemez Pueblo. Agoyo, who has been instrumental in the process, says the statue will be installed in September. JULIAN SMITH is a travel and science writer living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. summer • 2005
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The Oldest Ritual? An interpretation of new data suggests that ritual activity took place in southern Mexico more than 9,000 years ago. But the interpretation has sparked a debate among Mesoamerican scholars. By Andrew Lawler
MARCUS WINTER
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This urn was found at San José Mogote, a site in the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico that has yielded evidence of ritual activity.
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n a balmy summer evening more than 9,000 years ago, a couple of dozen people gathered outside their oval huts on a small plaza demarcated by two rows of boulders. There was quiet anticipation in the soft air of ancient Mexico. The modest plaza, a rectangular area 60 feet long and 21 feet wide, had been carefully swept clean during the day in preparation. After a meal of squash and beans, cooked nearby over gathered twigs, the inhabitants began to play music and dance in a ritual that echoes down thousands of years of human habitation in the Oaxaca Valley in Mexico. That compelling picture of what may be the oldest known ritual space in the region comes from new data recently gleaned from a 40-year-old excavation. The husband-wife team of Kent Flannery and Joyce Marcus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor see in that data an early link in the chain of societal development that led to the Zapotec culture that even today dominates the valley. But a host of other archaeologists aren’t convinced that the data supports their vision. They say that the results published in December in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences are an example of using data to fit a preconceived theory. The debate centers on a nondescript agave field just off the highway that runs from Oaxaca City to the town of Mitla. During the mid-1960s, Flannery conducted a survey 39
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Researchers excavate Gheo-Shih in this photo taken in the summer of 1968. The stone alignment can be seen in the center of the picture. Archaeologist Frank Hole (back to the camera) stands in the foreground.
of the region, and noted a scattering of flint tools at the site, called Gheo-Shih by the locals. (The name, in the Zapotec language, means “River of the Gourd Trees.”) Flannery asked Yale University’s Frank Hole if he would oversee an excavation there given his expertise in stone tools. Hole, a lanky and quiet man, agreed, using his vacation time to do the work. After digging several test pits, Hole found a few big stones. “I followed the line of rocks, and the line got longer and longer—and then I found a parallel line of rocks.” On one side, he noted remains of oval-shaped huts, seemingly similar to those used for millennia in the area. On the other side was scattered debris. But the area in between lacked debris or archaeological features; it was as if it had been swept clean. Hole, who has followed modern-day Iranian herders on their migrations in an attempt to understand the movements of nomadic peoples in the past, thought the clean area was a lane between houses or an open plaza that was separate from domestic activities. As to age, he wasn’t sure, given that the area had been plowed over the years and therefore the stones might have been disturbed. “And much of the site was eroded.” But he adds that his “mental image” at the time was of a place in front of houses that had been swept clean. Hole found bits of charcoal on the site, but they were too small to date back in 1967. But with the advent of Accelerator Mass Spectrometer dating in recent years, re40
searchers can glean data from samples as small as a milligram and as old as 100,000 years. So Marcus and Flannery obtained a grant from the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies to do the dating. The results, laid out in the December paper, were that the swept space dates to approximately 7600 B.C., some three millennia before the first substantial villages were established in the region. The era was also a period when Mesoamerican agriculture was first practiced in the form of beans and squash cultivation. The results pleased Marcus. She switched from majoring in English to anthropology when a college professor— the renowned archaeologist J. Desmond Clark—asked her if she wanted to write the one-millionth analysis of Shakespeare, or be the first to dig a site in Africa. She later married Flannery, an archaeologist who has focused on the agricultural development of Mesoamerica. The Gheo-Shih site lies approximately 5,500 feet above sea level on the floor of the temperate Oaxaca Valley, a Y-shaped cleft nearly 60 miles long and 15 miles wide between central Mexico and the Yucatan. To the north rise the majestic Sierra Madre Oriental, to the south are the peaks of the Tlacolula. Large animals thrived in the colder and wetter climate during the last ice age, but around 8000 B.C. the weather grew warmer and drier, and hunter-gatherers turned to smaller game and fish. It was a bountiful environment. White-tailed deer and the collared peccary summer • 2005
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earliest dated ritual feature from ancient Mexico,” say the two archaeologists, referring to the cleared space. The apparent fact that this space was swept clean, was clearly marked by parallel lines of rock, and was bounded by abundant artifacts on both sides—including remains of shelters—provides compelling evidence of ritual, according to the paper. “The implication is that certain rituals, for which part of the camp was formally set aside, were held during times when the maximum number of families could participate,” they write. To bolster their argument, Marcus and Flannery cite evidence for other rituals during the Archaic period. At Coxcatlan Cave (5000 B.C.) in the Tehuacan Valley 96 miles to the northwest, excavators in the 1970s found evidence of baskets of harvested wild plants, along with the grisly remains of individuals who appear to have been beheaded, cooked, and eaten. That important find, they note, showed that the human sacrifice which was so common in later Mesoamerica began long before the formation of large states, and that such sacrifices might be tied to harvest rituals.
A Debatable Interpretation This ceramic figurine, which is believed to be approximately 3,000 years old, was recovered from Hacienda Blanca. Similar figurines have been
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found at nearby San José Mogote.
roamed the highlands among oaks and pines, while the tapir, the jaguar, and the howler and spider monkeys thrived in the lower altitudes. Ducks and wild turkey abounded, as do birds such as the quetzal, which provided feathers for elaborate costumes down the ages. By 7000 B.C., small bands of hunters and gatherers roamed the Oaxaca Valley, dispersing during lean seasons to gather food, and coming together into larger camps during times of abundance. Gheo-Shih appears to be a summer encampment where two dozen or more people assembled during the rainy season to gather mesquite pods, hackberries, and plant squash and gourds. Just 1.5 miles to the north, the Michigan archaeologists found a cave called Guila Naquitz. Located nearly 1,000 feet higher than GheoShih, the cave appears to have been occupied about the same era as Gheo-Shih by a family of four to six people during the dry season between October and December—a time when acorns and pinon nuts are ready to harvest. The two sites, say Marcus and Flannery, provide an unprecedented view into the lives of early Archaic peoples in the New World, and in an area that became a nexus of early Mesoamerican states. “Both sites might have been used by the same group during different seasons,” say the authors. But the uses were quite different. While the family focused on gathering food during the fall, the larger group at GheoShih found time to make holes in flat circular stream pebbles and hang them as ornaments. “They also created the
But some scholars take issue with the assertion that the space at Gheo-Shih was used for rituals. “There is controversy over the dating of these parallel lines of rocks,” says Stephen Houston, an archaeologist at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Much of the archaeological material is 12 to 20 inches below the surface, explains Marcus Winter, an archaeologist with the Mexican National Institute of Anthropology and History in Oaxaca who is familiar with the site. “All those years are compressed into that thin space,” he adds. Such compression can make it difficult to distinguish among artifacts of different eras. “How do they know the rocks weren’t moved?” he asks. Winter notes that the area was settled in the late Post Classic period, and he suggests that what appears to be an Archaic ritual space might be a road built in Spanish colonial times. But Joyce Marcus dismisses such concerns as groundless. “We do have a stratigraphy at Gheo-Shih,” she says.
This red-on-buff ceramic bowl was also found at Hacienda Blanca. It dates to approximately 1300 B.C., which is roughly the same time that Flannery and Marcus theorize that San José Mogote’s men’s houses were in use.
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This 1974 photograph shows excavators at San José Mogote’s ballcourt. The ballcourt dates to about A.D. 200, a time when ritual was formalized and public.
Two layers contain solely Archaic artifacts, Marcus says. The upper level dates to circa 5000 B.C. The lower area included burnt twigs dated to roughly 7600 B.C. “No colonial roads were found, nor were any colonial artifacts,” she adds. The second objection to the thesis put forward by Marcus and Flannery is the function of the swept area. The couple proposed long ago, before the dating results were in, that the space was likely used for dance; in their National Academy of Sciences paper they note that initiations or athletic contests might be other viable explanations. But archaeologists have excavated very few Archaic sites in the region, so drawing conclusions about the use of space is treacherous business, says Arthur Joyce, an archaeologist at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “We don’t really understand the Archaic, since the number of sites excavated is pretty limited.” Adds Winter: “Seeing a ritual space based on two lines of rocks is questionable.” Marcus insists that she and Flannery have always been “open-minded” on what sort of ritual took place. “Who knows?” she says. “The point is that it was swept clean of artifacts while there were lots of artifacts all around that cleared space.” She adds that she wants “many more wellexcavated Archaic sites” in order to have a better picture of life in that period. Arthur Joyce, however, says that dance, athletics, and initiation rites are all plausible explanations, but that it is just as plausible to see a road or passage. Hole agrees that “we don’t have tangible evidence of 42
what they were doing.” And he adds that Flannery has “a good imagination” and likes to see things “in a sequence,” that is, connected to later developments in the area. Nevertheless, Hole says “the idea of people dancing in this street strikes me as plausible” given that dancing probably dates back to Paleolithic times. Charles Spencer, the curator of Mexican and Central American archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, concurs that Flannery and Marcus’s theory is “plausible.” Some archaeologists may agree with some points and disagree with others, he notes, “but overall their work is sound.”
Connecting Dots
In addition to the debate over dates and function, another point of contention is the deeper philosophical dispute that is as pronounced as the line between the Gheo-Shih swept space and the artifact-strewn area. While Marcus and Flannery adhere to a model of cultural evolution, articulated by their late colleague at Michigan, the esteemed anthropologist Roy Rappaport, Winter and Joyce are drawn to a more variable view of how humans organized themselves, a view gaining favor, they say, over the more traditionalist view of cultural evolution. That difference plays out in how Marcus and Flannery relate the finds at Gheo-Shih and Guila Naquitz to the much later sedentary life found in Oaxaca after the Archaic period ends about 2000 B.C. Around that time, maize cultisummer • 2005
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vation allowed people to become more settled. By 1450 B.C., a large village had emerged at San José Mogote less than 60 miles from Gheo-Shih. About five to 10 times the size of an Archaic camp, the village was made up of nuclear families as well as a larger social unit that used a ritual building by about 1350 B.C. “The best ethnographic analog for this building seems to be what scholars call a ‘men’s house,’” according to the Michigan archaeologists. Such houses are the centers of a group descended from a real or mythic ancestor, and typically are accessible only by a small group of men who have been initiated into secret rituals. San José Mogote had a number of so-called “men’s houses,” each with one 12-foot-by-18-foot room, plastered with lime, and set on a platform facing just slightly north of east “which hints that they were aligned with the sun’s path at the equinox,” the authors say. This indicates “that ad hoc ritual had been joined by calendric ritual.” Living in one place year-round would allow solar or astral events to be used in architecture. A pit in the center of the room, filled with lime, may have been used for taking a ritual plant such as tobacco, jimson weed, or morning glory. Later Zapotec are known to have chewed tobacco and lime before a raid or to ward off illness. By 1100 B.C., the village grew into a settlement of 1,000 people, and differences in rank began to appear. The elite lived in multistructure residences, adorned themselves with jade and mother-of-pearl, and deformed their skulls as a sign of nobility. Soon, men’s houses were replaced with temples on pyramidal platforms that may have served an entire region, not just one part of a village. One temple constructed during the 7th century B.C. measured more than 42 feet by 39 feet, and was again oriented slightly to the north of east. An early monument shows ri-
vals with their hearts torn out. Charcoal from one roasting pit dates to 690 B.C. Obsidian stilettos, shaped to resemble stingray spines, were the means for ritual bloodletting, Marcus and Flannery say. The temple was burned sometime around 700 B.C., presumably by a rival group. For Marcus and Flannery, the Archaic sites provide exciting evidence of the early evolution of what eventually became the Zapotec culture. The new dates “provide chronology for a model of the coevolution of ritual and society,” the authors write. Charles Stanish, an archaeologist at the University of California in Los Angeles who studies ancient Peru, finds this evidence compelling. He notes that there are Archaic sites dating to 3000 B.C. in Peru with public spaces in the form of modest ballcourts and pyramids, which eventually evolve into the more complex structures of the first millennium A.D. “You can make a pretty good case [in Peru] for continuity” over that lengthy period. Though beliefs likely change radically over millennia, ritual behavior often does not, he says. “A person in 8th century Homeric Greece transported to 13thcentury England would have a sense of the ritual—they would get the point” though they would not understand the detailed belief system. But other scholars say that connecting these archaeological dots does not provide a clear view of cultural evolution in the region. “There’s a good deal here that is fairly speculative,” says Houston. He believes that the Marcus and Flannery paper “constantly blurs the line between speculative or analogical claims and decisive evidence.” For example, identifying the structures as “men’s houses” is tricky, given that they are “difficult to discern even in far better understood settings.” The orientation of buildings may relate to the rising sun, but nothing more. He is also suspect of using ethnographic analogies over such vast periods of time. Joyce adds that many archaeologists today reject the idea of a universal series of progressions in culture— from band to tribe to state to empire. “I’d say history is more contingent and variable,” he adds. Winter agrees that Marcus and Flannery take ethnographic assumptions too far. Though interpretations of the evidence vary, everyone agrees that the new dates provide insight into the little-understood Archaic period, and that they back up the widely held view that hunter-gatherers in the region began to settle and practice agriculture sometime around 7000 B.C. “We need long dated sequences for other valleys, so we can compare the developmental history in Oaxaca with sequences in other valleys,” Marcus says. “The future is excitExcavators are uncovering the rock alignment at Gheo-Shih. Though Flannery and Marcus theoing.” And it’s sure to be controversial. rize that ritual activity goes back thousands of years here, much of the archaeological evidence was found at a depth of only 12 to 20 inches below the surface.
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ANDREW LAWLER is a staff writer for Science Magazine. 43
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The Conservancy To Acquire Its 300th Site The Fort Salem earthwork has Hopewell and Adena characteristics.
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n 1980 The Archaeological Conservancy made its first purchase of an archaeological site by acquiring one of the most famous sites in American prehistory, the Hopewell Mounds site in southern Ohio. Twenty-five years later, we are still at it, purchasing for our 300th preserve the Fort Salem earthwork, an Ohio moundbuilders culture enclosure east of Cincinnati. The Fort Salem earthwork, also known as the Workman Works, is a circular enclosure about 450 feet in diameter that surrounds a conjoined mound. When described by surveyor J.P. MacLean in 1883, the larger mound of the conjoined pair was about six feet high and 60 feet in diameter, while the smaller one was about four feet high and 40 feet in diameter. The wall was about three feet high and was paralleled for much of its length by an exterior ditch. Today both mounds are about two feet lower and the wall is only about one to two feet high. Usually such deflation of mounds and earthworks is ascribed to plowing. However, within recent memory, the property has been used as a pasture, and the presence of beech trees up to 10 feet in circumference This artist’s rendition of the Fort Salem earthwork is based on the 1883 drawing by surveyor J.P. MacLean that within the circle bespeak a very appeared in the Smithsonian Annual Report. It’s believed to be the first published drawing of the earthwork. long period of growth. The site has not been mechanically plowed, nated the site to the National RegisThe site was part of a farm that and by all accounts it is one of the ter of Historic Places in 1971, but no was to be sold at an auction. Patrick best preserved earthworks remainscientific excavations have taken Welch, a local avocational archaeoloing in private ownership in Ohio. place there. Any past looting apgist, notified the Conservancy of the The Ohio Historical Society nomipears to have been minimal. situation. “The Fort Salem Chapter
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of the Archaeological Society of Ohio was named for the site, and we hated to see the site destroyed by a developer. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the means to save it,” said Welch, explaining his motivation for calling on the Conservancy. Following Welch’s lead, the Conservancy made a last minute effort to obtain the property, but was outbid at the auction. Unfazed, Joe Navari, the associate director of the Conservancy’s Midwest Office, began a six-month dialogue with the new owners to convince them of the archaeological importance of their new building lot. Eventually, Navari was able to persuade them to allow us to buy the 19-acre tract for a fair market price of $100,000. The Fort Salem earthwork was considered a particularly desirable acquisition for a number of reasons. In an area where intensive farming has destroyed most earthworks, the Fort Salem walls and mounds remain prominent. The possibility that the site was never plowed makes it especially desirable as a research preserve. Second, the site’s location in Highland County places it between two great Hopewell population concentrations: those along the Little Miami River northeast of Cincinnati and those along the Scioto River and Paint Creek near Chillicothe. The Fort Salem site may hold clues to how these two populations interacted. Today this location is just at the limit of sprawl from the greater Cincinnati area. Any surviving sites in this area are in grave danger of disappearing under suburban lawns. Finally, the site is not readily assigned to any particular culture, as it has attributes of both Adena and Hopewell constructions. The plan of a circular earthen wall and ditch surrounding a central mound is typically Adena. However, placing the ditch outside the wall would be unusual for an Adena mound-and-circle, and the american archaeology
Researchers surmise that the Fort Salem earthwork was probably built by the Hopewell. In addition to building impressive earthworks, the Hopewell also produced remarkable art, such as this dog effigy.
scale of the earthwork is more typical of the Hopewell. “Beautiful. Quite an accomplishment,” remarked Ohio State University archaeologist William Dancey when informed of the site’s acquisition. Dancey’s long-term research has focused on investigating Hopewell period settlement patterns seeking to determine how the people were distributed across the landscape. This research has drawn Dancey—like many before him—into pondering the relationship of Ohio’s two great mound-
building cultures, the Adena and the Hopewell. “It gets to be a messy semantic issue,” he said. “The circular earthworks seem to be a mixed bag of one or the other. It’s difficult to specify a rule for assigning them.” N’omi Greber, curator of Archaeology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, agreed about the difficulty of classifying circular enclosures particularly in the Hopewell hinterlands. She noted, “It’s the difficult-to-classify sites that fascinate.” —Paul Gardner
Conservancy Plan of Action SITE: Fort Salem Earthwork CULTURE & TIME PERIOD: Hopewell Culture 50 B. C .–A. D. 500 STATUS: The site is under imminent threat of residential development. ACQUISITION: The Conser vancy needs $115,000 for the purchase and maintenance of 19.3 acres. HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conser vancy, Attn: Fort Salem Project, 5301 Central Ave. NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. 45
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A PROUD LEGACY The Bobbie Alexander site is donated to the Conservancy.
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ocated along Colewa Creek in northeastern Louisiana, the Bobbie Alexander site is hard to find. The two mounds—one about four feet and the other about two feet high—and sheet middens that comprise the site are shrouded in thickets of green briar and split cane. The site was first recorded in 1981 by Mitch Hillman, who noted the sheet midden contained potsherds, animal bone, and chert flakes. The pottery Hillman recovered at the site indicated it was occupied during the Late Baytown and/or Early Coles Creek Periods (A.D. 600–900). The floral and faunal remains in the midden were well preserved. Twelve years later, Louisiana’s Northeast Regional Archaeologist Joe Saunders visited the site and cored the mounds. Saunders found no evidence that indicated the mounds grew through accretion of midden materials; nonetheless, he surmised the mounds were purposeful constructions. In his report, Saunders wrote, “The Alexander Site is one of the most pristine sites observed in Northeast Louisiana in the past five years.” The Baytown and Coles Creek peoples were mound-building cultures who inhabited the Lower Mississippi River Valley during the Late Woodland period. During this time, maize cultivation was introduced into the region. Archaeologists believe that the Coles Creek people lived in scattered hamlets where they combined horticulture with hunting and gathering for their subsistence. They also constructed elaborate, monumental mound centers, where only a few elite people lived. The general population would periodi-
Bobbie Alexander meets with Southeast Regional Director Alan Gruber after donating her Indian Mound site to the Conservancy.
cally gather at the mound centers for ceremonial or ritual purposes. Most researchers studying the Coles Creek period have focused on the mound centers. To date, little work has been done on the hamlets, which are often destroyed by the intense agriculture in the region. “This site is truly important for understanding the subsistence culture of the Coles Creek people,” said Saunders. “It has the best preservation of Coles Creek period floral and faunal remains that I’ve seen.” Bobbie Alexander, an educator who, having retired, recently returned home to Louisiana, says she contemplated donating the site for preservation for over a decade. “My mother had given me the idea around 12 years ago,” Alexander said. The site was located on a piece of property that she purchased near the old family farm. “We all knew about the site,” she related. “When Joe came out the first time, he reiterated
that the site was important, and I knew I really wanted to make sure that it was protected. I am very happy that this site will be permanently preserved and that the research conducted there will help both archaeologists learn more about the Indians that built the mounds, and local children to learn more about the cultural heritage that exists in their own backyards.” —Alan Gruber
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Coronado’s Campsite Preserved The Conservancy obtains an important addition to the only known Spanish campsite in New Mexico. n 1986, archaeologist Brad Vierra was monitoring construction work along a highway near Albuquerque. He stopped the earthmoving equipment when he noticed a charcoal-stained area and an associated scatter of pottery. A subsequent archaeological excavation uncovered 15 shallow pits ranging from six to 15 feet in diameter. Further excavations led by Vierra revealed hearths, burned corn kernels and beans, postholes, small bone fragments, and metal artifacts. The evidence from these excavations strongly suggests that this was once a campsite of the Spanish explorer Francisco Vasquez de Coronado, who spent the winter of 1540–41 in this area. Faunal analysis determined that some of the bone fragments were from domesticated sheep, which the Spanish introduced to the New World. An analysis of the site’s pottery yielded dates from A.D. 1525 to 1625. Directly adjacent to Coronado’s campsite is Pueblo Santiago, one of the 12 Tigüex (TEE-wesh) Pueblos that Coronado and his men made contact with. These pueblos were located along the Rio Grande from Bernalillo to Isleta. Coronado State Monument is now located where Kuaua, the northern-most of these pueblos, once was. The remnants of Santiago are now part of Sandia Pueblo. Over 1,000 members of Coronado’s expedition probably camped next to Pueblo Santiago. Pottery found at the pueblo dates to between A.D. 1400 and 1600. Most of Pueblo Santiago was excavated in 1957 prior to the creation of a gravel pit on the property. Six unique pointed metal artifacts were discovered in the south wing of the pueblo during the excavation. One was re-
JIM WALKER
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These pointed metal artifacts were recovered from the site. At first the researchers thought they were pen points, but subsequent analysis determined that they were boltheads from crossbows.
covered from the chest of an individual. At first the 1950s researchers assumed the metal artifacts were pen points. A re-analysis by Vierra determined that these artifacts were boltheads from crossbows, the most sophisticated weapons of the time. Only Spanish soldiers possessed them, and Coronado’s was the only Spanish expedition that listed crossbows in its weapon’s inventory. Conservancy member Dudley Price, who operated Price’s Dairy at this location for decades, sold the land to Intrepid Development on the condition that Intrepid donate the archaeological sites to the Conservancy. The Coronado Campsite is permanently protected within Intrepid’s residential subdivision, which is appropriately named Santiago. The company’s four-acre donation is immediately adjacent to a two-acre preserve that contains the balance of the Coronado site. This preserve, which was donated to the Conservancy in 1992 by AMREP Corporation, is located within one of that company’s subdivisions. This six-acre preserve contains the only Coronado-era campsite ever found in New Mexico. The Conservancy began working
with Price in the late 1980s to find a way to preserve these sites. The old adage “persistence pays” rings true for this project. Last April, Jim Walker, the Conservancy’s Southwest regional director, spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony for the new subdivision. “We are happy to see almost 20 years of preservation efforts pay off. The Santiago subdivision was a great place to live 600 years ago, and it is a great place to live today. Being able to preserve Pueblo Santiago and the Coronado campsite within the modern Santiago Subdivision is an accomplishment we can all be proud of.” —Amy Espinoza-Ar
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The Apple Street site has yielded remarkable archaeological evidence.
The dark midden at the Apple Street site is visible in the ditch cut along the edge of the site. Dense growth obscures and protects the site’s artifacts, as well as other exotics, such as the alligator nests, whose presence slowed research at the site.
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he prehistory of the Mississippi Gulf Coast is largely neglected, despite the work of a few dedicated researchers. This could be the result of its location between the much-researched Lower Mississippi Valley and the coasts of Alabama and Florida. However, throughout prehistory, it was in the Mississippi Gulf 48
Coast that the cultures from those two regions met and influenced each other. This confluence is reflected in the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s unique archaeological evidence. The Apple Street site, which the Conservancy recently acquired, offers some of this evidence. The site is a rich midden located
in an undeveloped subdivision approximately half a mile north of the Mississippi Sound. It was discovered during the construction of Apple Street—hence the site’s name. The owners of one of the several lots that comprise the site are interested in local archaeology. In the early 1990s, they allowed archaeologists John H. Blitz and C. Baxter Mann access to the site and their artifact collection. Preliminary research at the site indicated it was occupied primarily from 800 to 100 B.C., a time archaeologists consider to be part of the Late Gulf Formational Period. The depth of the midden and the density of the artifacts suggested it was used as a base camp or major settlement that was occupied over an extended period of time. The artifact assemblage from Apple Street also includes, surprisingly, diagnostic artifacts from the Poverty Point period (1700–1200 B.C.) such as ball-shaped fired-clay objects that are thought to have been used like cooking stones. These and other Poverty Point–style artifacts recovered from the site, including bowls, beads, and plummets, suggest that some Poverty Point characteristics were in effect as late as Apple Street’s occupation period. Apple Street has also yielded a fairly large sample of early pottery types. Two of these types are more commonly found to the west in the Lower Mississippi Valley region, while the other two types are commonly found around, as well as east of, the Alabama coast. This excites researchers because it is an excellent summer • 2005
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Preserving Mississippi Prehistory
S T O N E A R T I FA C T S O F T E X A S I N D I A N S
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Researchers were surprised to find Poverty Point period artifacts, such as these red jasper beads, at Apple Street. The Poverty Point period was thought to have ended long before Apple Street was occupied.
picture of cultural change in an area that is poorly understood. As coastal development continues unabated, many sites are in danger of being destroyed before archaeologists are able to record, much less study, them. It’s possible the prehistoric record could be erased. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas “Buster” Blades, the owners of part of the Apple Street site, were aware of the importance of their property and kindly agreed to sell their lot to the Conservancy. Their foresight ensures that one piece of the puzzle that is the Gulf Coast’s prehistory will remain safe from development. The Conservancy hopes to eventually acquire the site’s remaining lots. —Jessica Crawford
POINT Acquisitions
The Protect Our Irreplaceable National Treasures (POINT) Program was designed to save significant sites that are in immediate danger of destruction. american archaeology
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Field Notes Las Huertas Creek Riparian Restoration SOUTHWEST—Another stage of The Archaeological Conservancy’s Las Huertas Creek Riparian Restoration Project, funded in part by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, has been completed. In late March, Steve Koczan, the Conservancy’s site management coordinator, and Amy Espinoza-Ar, its Southwest field representative, along with consultant Bill Zeedyk and volunteer Pete Adolph, planted 20 cottonwoods and 20 New Mexico olive trees along the newly reconstructed stream bank of Las Huertas Creek, which runs through the San José de las Huertas preserve in New Mexico. The planting of these trees should help with stream bank stabilization and also attract riparian wildlife back to the area. A series of stone weirs and baffles (deflectors) were constructed in the stream channel last October by Steve Carson of Rangeland Hands under the direction of Zeedyk. These stone features are specially designed to induce meanders in the stream channel, help control the water during flood events, and generally help establish a stable and healthy stream environment. The Conservancy and Zeedyk have planned follow-up inspections during the summer months to evalu50
ate the progress of the project and to determine if any maintenance is needed due to the spring run-off. The final phase of the project is scheduled for Spring 2006 and it includes planting willows along the stream channel to further enhance the riparian habitat. This riparian restoration project follows a similar restoration project completed by Susan Blumenthal next to the San José de las Huertas preserve and coincides with her archaeological easement donation that includes 14 acres of land adjacent to the preserve. Within the easement is Cottonwood Pueblo, a 20-room pueblo built around a small plaza that dates from A.D. 900 to 1000. To honor her parents, Ernst H. and Mary Blumenthal, and their dedication to archaeological preservation, this easement permanently preserves the pueblo, the riparian environment of Las Huertas Creek, and agricultural terrace features of San José de las Huertas.
Geophysical Research Conducted at San Marcos Pueblo SOUTHWEST—Students and faculty with the 2004 Summer of Applied Geophysical Experience (SAGE) group conducted geophysical investi-
gations at San Marcos Pueblo last summer using ground penetrating radar, seismic refraction, magnetometry, and electromagnetic techniques. San Marcos Pueblo, occupied from the mid-13th century until the Pueblo Revolt in 1680, is a massive adobe village located south of Santa Fe in the archaeologically rich Galisteo Basin of northern New Mexico. This Conservancy preserve is thought to have as many as 2,000 surface rooms in 22 roomblocks. These roomblocks enclose from eight to 10 plazas, as well as the remains of a Spanish Franciscan mission church and convento built in the 17th century. The focus of much field research in recent years, San Marcos Pueblo has seen an increased application of geophysical and remotesensing techniques that enable researchers to pinpoint areas where excavation is likely to yield the most information while limiting the damage done to archaeological features and deposits. The SAGE group, in collaboration with local archaeologists familiar with the site, employed these techniques to identify two depressions in the northeastern corner of the site that researchers suspect may be kivas—circular subterranean structures thought to hold religious significance. The dimensions and shape of the two depressions are similar to summer • 2005
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that of known kivas. Ground penetrating radar readings indicate that the depressions, which were dug at some time in the past, have subsequently been filled with fine-grained sediment. It’s thought that the depressions were filled in either by the Spanish in early historic times, or by erosion. An excavation will be required to determine if these depressions are in fact kivas. Meanwhile, the SAGE researchers believe that archaeologist Nels Nelson was mistaken when, during his 1915 exploration of San Marcos, he identified another circular depression as a large kiva.
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Reviews From a Watery Grave: The Discovery and Excavation of La Salle’s Shipwreck, La Belle By James E. Bruseth and Toni S. Turner (Texas A & M University Press, 2005; 176 pgs., illus., $40 cloth; www.tamu.edu/upress)
In June 1995, scientists from the Texas Historical Commission discovered the wreck of La Belle in Matagora Bay near Port O’Connor. It had been the flagship of La Salle’s expedition to the New World and had sunk on a cold, stormy February day in 1686. Over the next two years, archaeologists excavated La Belle and recovered more than a million artifacts, including bronze cannon, muskets, trade beads, axes, rings, bells, dishes, medicines, and everything else needed to start a new colony. From a Watery Grave is the story of this remarkable discovery and excavation as told by the principal investigator, archaeologist Jim Bruseth and his wife, writer Toni Turner. The water of Matagora Bay is extremely murky, offering nearly zero visibility. Removing the fragile wreck from the bay risked losing a significant part of the ship, so it was decided to build a cofferdam around it and do a “dry” excavation. Funds were raised, the cofferdam built, and when the water was pumped out, the wreck was exposed for the first time in more than 300 years. The archaeological team recovered and preserved a fantastic variety of materials, including much of the wooden hull. Burseth and Turner share all the excitement of discovery after discovery as the wreck yielded its many secrets. From a Watery Grave is richly illustrated and written for the general public. It reads like a good detective story with a happy ending. 52
The Peopling of Bandelier: New Insights from the Archaeology of the Pajarito Plateau Edited by Robert P. Powers (School of American Research Press, 2005; 142 pgs., illus., $20 paper, $60 cloth; www.sarweb.org)
Next to Mesa Verde, Bandelier National Monument in northern New Mexico is the most visited archaeological park in America. Yet precious little is known about the ancestral Puebloan people who lived there from about A.D. 1150 to 1600 in a setting that’s as spectacular as it is unforgiving. While a few of the earliest Americans made Bandelier home, its population ballooned dramatically after A.D. 1300, roughly the same time Mesa Verde and the entire Four Corners region was being abandoned. Many of those refugees made their way to the safety of what we now call Bandelier, where they flourished until moving to modern pueblos in the nearby Rio Grande Valley. National Park Service archaeologist Bob Powers has assembled 17 noted archaeologists, historians, ecologists, and Puebloan scholars to tell the story of this isolated plateau in the Jemez Mountains that is also home to Los Alamos National Laboratory and the atomic bomb. This richly illustrated volume is written for lay people, and it informs the public of much of the new research resulting from three recent projects. The Bandelier Archaeological Survey was directed by Powers and recorded nearly 2,000 archaeological sites in the 33,000-acre monument. The eight-year Pajarito Archaeological Research Project was directed by James N. Hill of UCLA, and six sites were tested by Timothy A. Kohler’s Bandelier Archaeological Excavation Project. This wealth of new data shows that Bandelier and the surrounding plateau saw a number of dramatic changes in which Pueblo people moved in and out as conditions allowed. It is an area still used and held sacred by nearby Pueblo people. Every visitor to the dramatic sites of Bandelier National Monument will want this book, as will every student of the American Southwest. summer • 2005
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Reviews Ohio Archaeology: An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio’s Ancient American Indian Cultures By Bradley T. Lepper (Orange Frazer Press, 2005; 304 pgs., illus., $40 cloth; www.orangefrazer.com)
In the 19th century, Ohio was the center of archaeological research in America. Its rich diversity and enigmatic mounds and earthworks attracted scholars from near and far. The first archaeological preserves in America were created here. But by the 20th century, interest was waning as the Moundbuilder mystery appeared to be solved. In the last 15 years or so, Ohio’s archaeology has returned to the national limelight with a new generation of scholars tackling long forgotten problems and coming up with dramatic answers. The non-profit Voyageur Media Group has produced this wonderful book on the 13,000 plus years of human presence in what we call Ohio. Brad Lepper, curator of archaeology at the Ohio Historical Society, is the primary author, but the book also includes 28 articles by top scholars on most every aspect of Ohio prehistory. Illustrated with photos, maps, charts, and artists’ re-creations, the editors have designed a book that is a joy to read. The archaeologist authors describe their latest research, which is daily adding to our knowledge and understanding of Midwestern prehistory. Dates are being determined with fantastic new technology. Astronomical alignments are giving us new insights into octagon shaped earthworks. Computer simulations re-create massive mounds and earthworks that are barely visible on the ground, a technique made necessary by the wide-spread destruction of Ohio’s prehistory by urban sprawl, modern agriculture, and looting Ohio Archaeology reflects the archaeological renaissance of the region, and it sets a high standard for presentation that every publisher should seek in books produced for the general public. It is an important step in rebuilding a grand archaeological tradition in a state where much of American archaeology got its start. —Mark Michel american archaeology
The Calusa and Their Legacy: South Florida People and Their Environments By Darcie A. MacMahon and William H. Marquardt (University Press of Florida, 2004; 240 pgs., illus, $40 cloth; www.upf.com)
The Calusa of southwestern Florida were the last Florida group to succumb to European colonization, resisting the Spanish invaders for some 150 years. But by the mid1700s they had disappeared. The ethnographic and archaeological record they left behind is a rich one that indicates a vibrant people who dominated their homeland as long ago as the first millennium B.C. They were so in tune with their watery environment that they never had to develop agriculture, depending entirely on the rich marine ecosystems for their sustenance. In The Calusa and Their Legacy, noted archaeologists Marcie MacMahon and William Marquardt have produced the first popular study of these fascinating people. This volume in enhanced by outstanding illustrations created by artists at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville for their award winning Hall of South Florida People and Environments. This is a book that makes the Calusa come alive.
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A R C H A E O L O G I C A L
C O N S E R V A N C Y
The Moundbuilders’ Legacy OHIO MOUNDBUILDERS
Serpent Mound is one of the tour’s remarkable attractions.
Rooms with a View
Massive mounds and earthworks, some nearly 70 feet tall and others covering hundreds of acres, are the legacy of the Hopewell and Adena cultures that dominated the eastern United States from 800 B.C. to A.D. 400. Archaeologists have found exotic mica objects, copper ornaments, burials, and the remains of wooden structures at many of the mound sites. The significance of the mounds, which often were built in animal and geometric forms, is still a subject of study. Our tour begins in Columbus, Ohio, with a visit to the Hopewell collections at the Ohio Historical Center. From the Newark Earthworks—a magnificent Hopewell Mound complex that once covered more than seven miles—the tour heads to Chillicothe and Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, a flourishing center of Hopewell research. You’ll also visit Serpent Mound, a massive effigy mound that stretches more than 1,400 feet. Throughout the tour, expert archaeologists give their insights into the world of moundbuilders.
SQUIER AND DAVIS
When: September 21–25, 2005 Where: Ohio How Much: $895 per person ($175 single supplement)
CLIFF DWELLERS
This fall the Conservancy brings back one of its most popular Southwestern tours: an exciting look at the region’s spectacular prehistoric cliff dwellings. Ancient Southwestern groups experimented with building their houses in cliff faces and rockshelters. These structures not only offered protection from the weather, but many of them also served as natural solar collectors during the winter. From Phoenix you’ll travel north through the Verde Valley, Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, and Flagstaff to Monument Valley and Mesa Verde. You’ll see the cliff dwellings of Montezuma Castle, Cliff Palace, and the White House Ruin, just to name a few. The trip includes a visit to Lorenzo Hubbell’s historic trading 54
MARK MICHEL
When: October 5–15, 2005 Where: Arizona, Colorado How Much: $1,695 per person ($230 single supplement)
Cliff Palace is one of Mesa Verde National Park’s most spectacular attractions.
post, a stop at Second Mesa at Hopi, a jeep tour of Canyon de Chelly. There will also be walking tours of some of the Conservancy’s most significant preserves, including Yellowjacket and Atkeson Pueblo at Oak Creek. summer • 2005
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— UPCOMING TOURS — JANUARY 2006
Maya of Palenque and the Yucatán
VICKI MARIE SINGER
From A.D. 300 to 1200, the Maya flourished in southern Mexico. Our tour will visit some of the most spectacular of their splendid cities that still tower over the rainforest and testify to the sophistication of the people who built them.
Chichén Itzá, in southern Mexico, was occupied until the 13th century.
MARCH 2006
JIM WALKER
Guatemala On this tour you’ll experience a complete spectrum of history—from ancient Maya ruins to modern-day Maya cities. Our travels will take us from beautiful Lake Atitlán to the vast Petén rain forest, where we’ll explore the ruins of Tikal, one of the most impressive Maya sites.
Temple I dominates the Great Plaza at Tikal in Guatemala.
APRIL 2006
Peoples of the Mississippi Valley
ALAN GRUBER
Beginning in Memphis and following the Mississippi River south to Natchez, our weeklong journey covers everything from ancient earthen mounds to Civil War battlefields and spans more than 5,000 years of history.
Mound A at the Winterville site in Mississippi is the fifth-largest mound in North America.
american archaeology
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Patrons of Preservation The Archaeological Conservancy would like to thank the following individuals, foundations, and corporations for their generous support during the period of February 2005 through April 2005. Their generosity, along with the generosity of the Conservancy’s other members, makes our work possible. Life Member Gifts of $1,000 or more Anonymous Mrs. Betty J. Annis, New Mexico Ms. Helen Ann Bauer, Illinois Mrs. Dorothy Beatty, California Mr. David Brittenham, New York Cecilia Atkeson Carere, Massachusetts Mrs. Rita Hanslick, New York Mr. David B. Jones, Minnesota Otis and Cary Odell, III, Arizona Ms. Deborah J. Remer, Michigan Hervey S. and Sarah Stockman, New Mexico Dr. Richard Woodbury, Massachusetts Bequests Mrs. Marguerite B. Peterson, Florida Ms. Grace Hartzel, Ohio
Anasazi Circle Gifts of $2,000 or more Ms. Carol M. Baker, Texas Ms. Betty Banks, Washington James B. and Audrey Benedict, Colorado Susan Blumenthal, New Mexico Ms. Helen Chatfield, Ohio John Connaway, Mississippi Dr. William Engelbrecht, New York Ann Pope, Arkansas Ms. Joy Robinson, California Ms. Kathryn C. Wanlass, Utah Foundation/Corporate Gifts of $1,000–$5,000 The Roy A. Hunt Foundation, Pennsylvania The J.M. Kaplan Fund, New York
GIFTS OF DISTINCTION The Anasazi Circle is an elite group of members who contribute $2,000 or more annually to The Archaeological Conservancy’s ongoing efforts to permanently preserve America’s cultural treasures. Since its inception in 1993, Anasazi Circle membership has increased by over 250 percent. The Anasazi Circle plays an important role in the Conservancy’s preservation efforts. It is crucial to preserve information regarding our nation’s past so we can better understand that past. Cultural evidence is often destroyed before proper analysis can be done, and consequently the knowledge is lost forever. The Conservancy uses donations from Anasazi Circle members to prevent this from happening. Benefits of Anasazi Circle membership include discounts on tours, recognition in American Archaeology magazine, and an invitation to an exclusive weekend seminar. Last October, the 2004 Anasazi Circle Weekend explored ancient ruins around Santa Fe, New Mexico. This year members will explore the Effigy Moundbuilding Culture of the Upper Midwest. By sending in your donation of $2,000 or more today, you can ensure your invitation to the Conservancy’s 2005 Anasazi Circle. 56
TO MAKE A DONATION OR BECOME A MEMBER CONTACT:
The Archaeological Conservancy 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 Albuquerque, NM 87108 (505) 266-1540 www.americanarchaeology.org
summer • 2005
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FOR OVER 75 YEARS THE TEXAS ARCHEOLOGICAL SOCIETY (TAS) HAS PROMOTED THE STUDY, PRESERVATION AND AWARENESS OF TEXAS ARCHEOLOGY. TAS is the premier archeological society in the country! Here’s why: SPRING: Weekend Archeology Academies held throughout the state (archeological survey and site recording, ceramic and lithic workshops)
SUMMER: Week-long Field School (excavation, survey and laboratory) for adults and a Youth Program for children 6-13. FALL: Annual Meeting (three-day archeological conference where members, avocational and professionals present papers, attend workshops and take regional fieldtrips)
YEAR-ROUND: Rock Art recording events PUBLICATION: Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society (75th year)
QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER (49th year) WEB SITES: www.txarch.org and www.texasbeyondhistory.net Membership is open to all who have an interest in archeology and who wish to preserve the heritage of Texas. YOU too can participate! Share your interest and experience with others. You’ll discover, there is nothing as exciting as Texas Archeology!
Join TAS for an adventure in archeology – Texas style! Individual Membership $30
Name: ________________________________________________________________ Street Address:__________________________________________________________ City:
__________________________________ State: _______ Zip:______________
Phone: __________________________ Email: _______________________________
Texas Archeological Society 6900 N. Loop 1604 W. Center for Archaeological Research / UTSA San Antonio, TX 78249-0658 (210) 458-4393 (800) 377-7240 www.txarch.org
