Between 5,000 and 3,000 years ago, during the Late Archaic, Native groups in the midcontinent began experimenting with growing and encouraging certain plants for food, fiber, and technological materials. While much attention has been focused on the charred and fragmentary remnants of the plants, little attention has been focused on the stone tools used to modify landscapes to facilitate their growth. The authors argue that the wear patterns on the stone tools used by these groups are an important line of largely untapped information regarding methods of plant husbandry. A sample of 30 flaked-stone tools from seven sites in Missouri and Illinois assigned to the Titterington, Sedalia, and Nebo Hill phases was analyzed. Previous researchers have classified some of the tools as "diggers" and "hoes" based on visible use polish. Obversely, this analysis shows that almost all the use polish is not from digging/cultivating but rather from working wood. These woodworking tools, however, played a key role in plant husbandry by undoubtedly having been used to modify landscapes (cut trees and clear brush) and manufacture wooden tools (including digging sticks).
The Moorehead Circle is a unique Hopewellian (ca. AD 100 to AD 400) architectural and ritual activity area within the Fort Ancient earthwork (33WA2). Except for the artifacts and features associated with their mortuary program found in and below earthen mounds, most Hopewell ritual areas are virtually devoid of material remains. The data in this article demonstrate that many ritual activities may leave invisible traces. Measuring soil phosphate (PO4) and magnetic susceptibility (MS) are quick, minimally destructive methods for efficiently studying larger scale ritual landscapes. By mapping PO4 and MS in two anthropogenic strata within and around the Moorehead Circle, the authors identified previously undetected areas of ritual and domestic activity, both within and beyond the excavated areas. The locus of the most intense activity and the type of activity in the Moorehead Circle changed during the site's history, indicating changes in the structure and organization of ritual practices in and about the Moorehead Circle.
French and British garrisons inhabited Fort de Chartres during the pre-Revolutionary period in Illinois. Previous works have focused on analyses ofthe French garrison through the material culture but have neglected to consider British documents or the idea that the assemblage may better serve as a proxy for the British, despite similar sizes of fort populations and temporal periods. Undisturbed drains within the fort contained faunal remains and material culture that may help elucidate upon the British garrison, especially as these relate to matters of food and drink consumption. Analyses of these drain assemblages shed light on British style and cultural preferences and assist in detailing differences between social groups, such as officers and soldiers, within this fort.
Abstract On the floodplains of the Ohio River in southwest Indiana, Indigenous people built a group of 11 earthen mounds and an accompanying town. Ancestors of Tribal Nations with ties to the Midwest visited and lived their lives in this place, with many laid to rest there in the same earth used for building and farming. From 1,000 to 600 years ago, a thriving city stood on this land, built by innovative and diverse people. They founded this monumental fortified city at the center of a regional network of settlements consisting of large villages and towns established along major river valleys of the Midwest between about 1100 CE and 1450 CE. Local people were skilled maize farmers and architects who carefully planned and built settlements; constructed earthen platforms to view lunar, solar, and celestial movements; and shared in extended trading and ceremonial systems. In addition to the mounds, the residents built houses and structures; grew, gathered, and hunted food; and supported skilled craftspeople who manufactured tools and goods to accomplish these goals and for trade with others. Ultimately, the ancestors prepared the site for closure by removing the site's structures and placing a final layer of sediment, or a “cap,” on the mounds. After its closing some 600 years ago, Angel Mounds was revisited periodically by Indigenous people, but the land was not fully inhabited again until the arrival of Euro-American settlers. Today, this significant landscape is known as Angel Mounds State Historic Site and designated a National Historic Landmark. Since the late nineteenth century, the scientific pursuit of understanding the history of the site has caused harm to the original inhabitants and their descendants. The goal of this article is to introduce readers not to the site but to the people who built, lived on, and were buried there, to honor them and their story.
Abstract Aside from the physical return of collections to affiliated Tribal Nations, consultation is perhaps the most important aspect of NAGPRA compliance. Consultation involves the creation of a relationship between an institution and a Tribal Nation that is based on transparency and open lines of communication and may take different forms, depending on Tribal preference. While repatriation is often viewed as the final step in returning NAGPRA collections to descendant communities, the logistics involved with the return of ancestral remains and their subsequent reburial are not often discussed. Both a method for bringing communities together and for providing healing, reburials may involve additional consultation and be more time intensive than other stages of the repatriation process. Although dependent on Tribal wishes, which are unique for each reburial, numerous steps must be addressed prior to returning ancestral remains and belongings to the earth. In 2021, Indiana University and several Tribal Nations completed the Angel Mounds repatriation and reburial, which was, at the time, the largest in midwestern history. From inception to reburial, the Angel Mounds repatriation project took fewer than five years to complete. Like all repatriations, the circumstances of the Angel Mounds repatriation were unique. This article discusses consultations associated with the return and reburial of Angel Mounds NAGPRA collections and outlines how the NAGPRA program at Indiana University coordinated and managed the process.
Abstract Excavations at Angel Mounds (12Vg1) began in the late 1800s but accelerated in 1939 with funding from a United States federal government program, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), which provided job opportunities for unemployed and often unskilled citizens. The WPA project, which ended in 1942 due to World War II, resulted in close to 2.5 million excavated items and thousands of associated paper records and photographic images. These became the foundation for decades of subsequent research and represent the bulk of the Angel Mounds NAGPRA-related collections. This article provides context for the WPA excavations at Angel Mounds, a synopsis of curation challenges associated with an exceptionally large archaeological archive, and the approaches taken to access the NAGPRA-related legacy collection.
Abstract A major issue that American archaeologists have faced since the passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) in 1990 is how to deal with the return/loss of significant portions of museum collections to descendant groups. By “deal with” the authors are not referring to the process of identifying descendant groups or the actual transfer of collections, one case for which is well documented in the essays in the present issue. Rather, this essay focuses on how the repatriation process should be viewed more broadly as helping reform American anthropological archaeology.
Abstract The Indiana State Museum and Historic Sites (ISMHS) is a museum system composed of 12 historic sites throughout the state, including the Indiana State Museum located in Indianapolis. In the spring of 2021, one of the largest repatriations in the United States to date took place at the southernmost of these historic sites, Angel Mounds State Historic Site (AMSHS). The ISMHS served to facilitate the repatriation, ensuring that the ancestral remains and associated funerary objects would be returned to the landscape from which they had been excavated in the early through mid-twentieth century. In this article, we will focus on ISMHS's approach to the repatriation and reburial from the perspective of the landowners or, more precisely, the stewards and managers of property owned by the state in the public trust. Using the example at AMSHS, we outline how we navigated recommendations and requirements from Indiana University (IU), consulting Tribal Nations, state and federal agencies, the ISMHS, and others to assist in moving the repatriation and reburial forward. It is hoped that this account will provide other landholding and managing agencies or organizations with one example of how the process can be navigated.
Abstract In any NAGPRA effort, the perspectives of Tribal Nation and institutional representatives—even when mutually acknowledged and respected—differ. We are each informed by our own histories and guided by our own concerns. Tribal representatives may identify clear cultural echoes in the archaeological evidence of mortuary behavior and feel kinship to the corporal remains of the ancestors themselves. Even in the absence of those associations, Tribal representatives may see NAGPRA work as fulfilling their obligations as indigenous stewards and as active proponents for cultural sovereignty. Some institutional representatives may simply see NAGPRA collections as problematic items to divest the institution of as soon as possible. Some representatives, as well as scholars and museum staff and the like, may see in their institution's NAGPRA collections the hard evidence that has revealed the human past to science and the foundation of research and exhibits, evidence that will now be lost to such pursuits. In NAGPRA collections, as well as in the manner in which they and the information generated by them have been stored and studied, these same professionals also may see the material referents of the very history of American archaeology, anthropology, and museology. Yet, regardless of any divergence of Tribal and institutional perspectives, the Angel Mounds repatriation resulted not only in the return of the ancestors and their belongings to the earth. It is also an exceptional example of consensus building and collaborative NAGPRA work.
Abstract With a legal framework in place for decades, NAGPRA repatriations are becoming more common. Yet because of myriad factors, progress can be slow. No universal repatriation models exist for curatorial institutions and Tribes to employ because each repatriation, descendant community, and stakeholder constituency is unique. In this article, the processes associated with the archaeological preparations and reinterment procedures for a major reburial of repatriated remains at the Angel Mounds archaeological site are described. Navigating the needs, goals, and wishes of a diverse group of partners and other stakeholders is discussed. The article begins with a brief overview of the NAGPRA-related literature pertinent to the issues we faced. Because Angel Mounds is a state historic site, a National Register of Historic Places property, and a National Historic Landmark, we were required to follow both state and federal guidelines for breaking ground at the site. It was important to everyone that the new grave not disturb extant archaeological resources or other burial features and be designed to facilitate reinterments of any NAGPRA items discovered in the future. Careful collaborative planning was required in order to identify a grave location, while the archaeological study was intended to minimize the impact of the reburial on in situ cultural resources.
Abstract Previous documentation and management methods for archaeological collections can have significant impacts on NAGPRA compliance and repatriation efforts. This article describes challenges faced during the 2021 repatriation of the Angel Mounds collection at Indiana University, with an emphasis on complications resulting from its status as a legacy collection. Efforts needed to harness original documentation, improve information management, and redocument ancestral remains are discussed. Recommendations are offered to aid other NAGPRA practitioners with repatriation of similarly large or complicated legacy collections.
The peoples referred to by archaeologists as "Hopewell" were expert artisans and adept engineers who created vast culturally modified landscapes. One of the most intriguing Hopewell sites is the Turner Earthwork Complex in southwest Ohio. This complex included enclosures, embankments, and mounds. Excavations beneath one mound by Harvard University's Peabody Museum in the 1880s revealed a circle of 30 large features originally referred to as "Pits and Tunnels"-deep pits connected by long angled tunnels. Evidence of intense burning in each of these features led to interpretations of them as possible kilns. We re-created one such feature and lit fires in order to examine the thermodynamics of these systems. Our findings reveal ingenious inventions akin to augmented draft kilns, and their design allows forthe relatively easy production of temperatures in excess of 1000 degrees C. While possible functions will be tested in a future study, this initial research provides insights into Hopewell engineering and activities at the Turner site.
In this article,we reportthe results ofa high-resolution lidardrone survey focused on the Rattlesnake Mound Complex at Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site. Using lidar imagery supplemented by aerial photographs, we present new data concerning a series of low mounds that surround Rattlesnake Mound. To date, only two of these mounds have been documented in detail. We also provide an analysis of the effects of erosion caused by unfilled trenches left by Warren K. Moorehead during his 1927excavation of Rattlesnake Mound. Lastly, we offer new findings concerning the bundle burials and "spirit house" structure uncovered within Rattlesnake Mound.
Illinois contains a rich tradition of American Indian rock art dating to the precontact Mississippian and postcontact periods (AD 1000-1835). One long- standing question about this art involves the nature of the paints used to make it. Ethical concerns about the destructive removal of pigment samples, however, have limited compositional investigations. Here, we used portable X- ray fluorescence technology in situ to noninvasively examine the elemental composition of a selection of Illinois pictographs. This was done without any surface preparation or sampling. We analyzed pictographs from seven sites across southern Illinois to (1) determine the paint ingredients and (2) assess variability in the paint recipes. Elemental data revealed that paint recipes predominantly involved a single chromophore with few other additives. This suggests that motif designs and colors may have been more important to the Native creators of the rock art than were material components of paint recipes.
The role of sedentary settlements in precontact North America has been a topic of great interest and debate among archaeologists. Recent studies investigating sedentariness have employed various seasonal and paleoenvironmental data, including from mollusks. Here we focus on terrestrial gastropods recovered, and reported on in 1942, by Morrison from the Bluff Creek site (LuO59), in northwestern Alabama. As many land snails vary in their preferred habitats, changes in species composition by depth within a site can point to environmental impacts (from Native land-use practices) as possible indicators of sedentariness. Though analysis of Morrison's snail data does not clearly show this relationship, it does reemphasize the importance of sampling and recovery methods when dealing with gastropods and the need for further utilization of these types of data, especially in understanding paleoenvironments and formation processes.
Two multicomponent archaeological sites, Indian Camp Run 1 (ICR1) and Indian Camp Run 2 (ICR2), occur at the Indian Camp Run-Allegheny River confluence in the Ohio River headwaters of northwestern Pennsylvania. Here we present the geoarchaeology and occupational history of the confluence area based on soils, sediments, radiocarbon dating, diagnostic artifacts, and regional paleoenvironmental information. The confluence area comprises a fan-terrace complex (FTC) hosting ICR1 and a low-lying alluvial terrace (T1) hosting ICR2. The eastern/central portion of the FTC primarily reflects Late Wisconsin debris flow and colluvial/mass-wasting processes that are capped by a thin veneer of overbank alluvium that hosts the oldest archaeological materials. The western FTC and T1 were constructed by fluvial processes during the late-Middle and Late Holocene. Both landforms stabilized during the Late Holocene, allowing for repeated Late Archaic and younger occupations but also creating a blurred archaeological record.
The Mississippian occupation of the central Illinois River valley (CIRV) represents nearly one-half millennium of negotiating cultural contact between in situ and outside groups. During the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, Bold Counselor Oneota populations immigrated to the CIRV, blending Upper Mississippian Oneota and Middle Mississippian lifeways. Thirty kilometers to the south, a string of Mississippian villages and complexes exists that is seemingly void of any Oneota influence. Though they are part of what is known as the “La Moine River Tradition,” these villages are poorly understood by archaeologists in terms of quantifiable data. This study analyzes domestic and mortuary context ceramics from three Late Mississippian villages in the lower half of the CIRV. The results suggest that the late thirteenth- and fourteenth-century La Moine River area towns represent CIRV Mississippians continuing to navigate a combination of American Bottom influences with ancestral traditions, while maintaining the status quo against an influx of Bold Counselor Oneota immigrants.
The Central Ohio Archaeological Digitization Survey (COADS) documented large samples of precontact artifacts, notably points, held by private collectors in south-central Ohio, in the United States. COADS captured two-dimensional images of several thousand points and several hundred threedimensional images. Subjects were processed for landmark-based geometric morphometric (LGM) analysis as entire points and as stems only. Among other things, analysis can test for resharpening allometry-the possibility that preferential resharpening of blades caused change in shape with change in size of points-and related LGM concepts of modularity and integration. This study reports analysis for allometry in early Holocene COADS Thebes and St. Charles points. A clear allometric signal with fairly high modularity resides in the data; blade shape much more than stem shape varies with size, corroborated by independent reduction measures. Separate analysis of stems alone indicated no allometry, as expected since stems vary little with resharpening. Allometry must be considered before attributing variation in midcontinental whole-point shape to adaptation, drift, or other mechanisms.
Singapore, Michigan, was a small nineteenth-century lumber town situated on the north bank of the Kalamazoo River near its outlet to Lake Michigan. Nestled within a vegetated coastal dune field, Singapore enjoyed strong economic success in the mid-nineteenth century but was entirely abandoned by the turn of the twentieth century. Prevailing historical legend suggests that Singapore's dramatic downfall resulted from excessive clear-cutting of surrounding forest that destabilized bordering coastal dunes that then migrated inland, burying the village. This narrative was further supported by the fact that the precise location of Singapore remained uncertain within the dynamic dune system. In 2017-2018, a new construction project afforded an opportunity to search for Singapore and to determine if intact archaeological remains persisted. Members of the Applied Anthropology Laboratories at Ball State University designed a unique Phase I approach combining traditional survey methods, consideration of coastal dune dynamics and groundwater elevations, and extensive ground-penetrating radar survey to determine the potential presence and depth of associated archaeological deposits. Results yielded a small number of historic artifacts and several features believed to date to the nineteenth-century Singapore occupation. Despite popular myths about the village's location beneath coastal dunes, our work suggests village placement in a relatively flat, interdunal area between coastal dunes. Intact archaeological remains are present and restricted to the upper 0.6 m (2 ft) of eolian deposits. Regional economic factors, not environmental catastrophe, seem to best explain the disappearance and abandonment of Singapore.
