The Archaeological Identification of Prehistoric Warfare

Speaker of the Month: Marisa Fontana, PhD
Sunday, January 26 • 3:00pm
Meeting Monthly at Evanston Library

Dr. Marisa D. Fontana, North Central College Half-time Associate Professor of Anthropology, enlightens us in the new year on January 26 beginning at 3:30pm at the Evanston Public Library.
Her talk on The Archaeological Identification of Prehistoric Warfare will cover the various types of group violence found in prehistory and the evidence archaeologists use to identify such behaviors in the archaeological record, such as skeletal remains, weapons trauma, intentionally burned sites, and fortifications.

While human remains provide convincing direct evidence for warfare, both past and present, research involving this type of physical evidence is especially controversial for many Native American communities. Often the act of excavating human remains is viewed by indigenous societies as the disturbance and destruction of ancestral graves – a violation of their religious beliefs.  Archaeologists who work with Native American cultures must be sensitive to this reaction and find different evidence to answer their research questions about warfare that do not infringe upon the beliefs of other societies.  This talk will discuss how some of the alternative lines of evidence can be used to inform on warfare related events.

Dr. Fontana is an archaeological anthropologist specializing in indigenous warfare of the precontact period. She has excavated all over the United States, most extensively in the southeastern U.S. Her current research project utilizes laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, which involves shooting lasers at samples of Native American pottery to aid in answering questions about prehistoric trade and migration among indigenous groups in central Alabama.  She earned her MA and PhD (Magna Cum Laude) in Anthropology, at University of Illinois at Chicago/UIC.

Meetings are open to the public and free of charge.
Social period starts at 3:00pm and the talk at 3:30pm.  Join us.
Evanston Public Library  • 1703 Orrington, Evanston
All CAS meetings are free and open to the public.
www.ChicagoArchaeologicalSociety.com

Modern Technologies Used on Illinois Site

Joe Wheeler describes Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie deep exploration

~ report by Bob Stelton ~

Modern Archaeological Technologies 

It would seem that the CAS December guest speaker is a member of a magician’s cult that can conjure up not only visions of the past but the past itself! Such magic was brought to the attention of holiday revelers at the annual holiday party of the Chicago Archaeological Society on Sunday December 8, 2019.

The CAS speaker, Joseph H. Wheeler III, a retired Marine Corps Colonel, shared with a holiday gathering the mystery of state-of-the-art technology presently enhancing the new archaeological  technologies available to the archaeological discipline. Mr. Wheeler’s presentation, Traces on the Land: Using Advanced Technologies to Understand the Prairie Past, fulfilled the program.

Joe Wheeler reminds his audience that no magic is employed.  He employs good science. His talk on traces on the land works with GIS,  remote sensing, geophysical prospection, and other modern technologies at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie Wilmington, Illinois which is open to the public.

Within Midewin are rich human resources and more including Monarch Butterflies, bison and plant ecology.

Fun or Hoax?

LiDAR (Ground Penetrating Radar) has been a near-magical tool for the archaeologist and note that it is as well an expensive one. However, a group of volunteers at Midewin had some fun with the tool

that exposed its versatility when Midewin volunteers took all the available pre-Arsenal imagery and historic land ownership maps showing previous farm structure locations and transferred that information to digital map softer (GIS). The results were then superimposed on LIDAR-derived bare earth models to locate patterned disturbances suggesting extant farmstead features!  (see December Codex).                  

The USDA Forest Service has an archaeological program open to volunteers “Passport in Time” that has attracted approximately 7,000 volunteers.

Join the Board at Member Meeting/Annual Election at 3:30pm January 26

The By-laws of the Chicago Archaeological Society specify that the annual election of officers and one third of the Board of Directors take place during the regular January meeting.

A brief Member meeting will be held for this purpose just before our 3:30 lecture begins on January 26. Come early for the usual social half hour open to the public and members.  All paid-up members are invited to participate in voting.

The CAS Board of Directors consists of (at least) twelve members and is divided into three groups.  Each group stands for re-election every third year. Tasks confronting the Directors are essentially policy decisions.

Terms expiring in 2019 include President, Vice President and Secretary.  Last year, seven members were elected to serve through 2023; other terms expire in 2021 and 2022. Officers are all up for election/re-election every year.

The present CAS leadership will prepare an Officer and Director Ballot for member approval. The slate may contain Directors whose term has expired but are interested in continuing their service. 
If you are interested in joining the Board and helping to assure the success of CAS, please volunteer!  (Time commitment includes a Board of Directors meeting to be held at 2:00pm, before the February 23 lecture.)

Please do contact our President, Ray Young, to get on the ballot before the January 26 meeting, or attend and nominate yourself at the meeting.
https://www.chicagoarchaeologicalsociety.com/p/contac-us.html

We hope to hear from you and see you on January 26 starting with the 3:00pm social period.

Proposed
Officers and Board 2020


President Raymond Young, 2020
Vice President Lucy Kennedy, 2020
Secretary & Newsletter Editor
Robert Stelton, 2020
Treasurer Michael Ruggeri, 2020
Director Judith Greene, 2023
Director Peter Greene, 2023
Director Jeanne Jesernik, 2023
Director Doreen Stelton, 2023
Director Ann Wilson-Dooley, 2023
Director Bryna Gamson, 2023
Director Sally Campbell, 2021
Director Edith Castro-Young, 2021
Director David Zucker, 2021
Director Lynn Miller, 2022
Director Jeanne Zasadil, 2022
Director Mary Ann Bloom, 2022
Director_________________
Director_________________  & perhaps ..... you?

Effective January 31, 2020



Effective January 31, 2020

The Palimpsest

from Bob Stelton

CAS/Saxons & Mississippians

Placement of Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie tenants on a historical timeline extends from pre-Columbian Amerindians to the present – more than 1600 years. Dealing with so broad a time span one can expect many surprises and many discoveries and more disappointments.

Several seasons working at the Orendorf Site salvage dig encouraged me to escort a group of my students to the Mucking Anglo-Saxon UK salvage site.

Both sites fell short on Indiana Jones and long on memories. Assigned to excavate a Saxon grave, I uncovered an empty grave and disappointment.

Joe Wheeler’s description of thermal imaging and applying the technology would have improved usage of the time available for Mucking volunteers.  At a second burial, I found body stains and a shield boss.

Adventuring with the Chicago Archaeological Society

Special thanks to Edith Young who arranged for a joyous holiday buffet. And thanks to Lucy Kennedy and Joe Wheeler.  Come back soon Joe.

For a scintillating afternoon, join the Chicago Archaeological Society as it explores human travels across the globe. There’s no admission charge: just open your mind at ChicagoArchaeologicalSociety.com.

Traces on the Land: Using Advanced Technologies to Understand the Prairie Past

Speaker: Joseph H. Wheeler III - December 8, 2019

Retired Marine Corps Colonel and archaeologist Joseph H. Wheeler III will present at the Evanston Public Library at our last meeting of 2019, at 3:30pm on December 8 (following the Members Holiday Party at 2:00pm).

His talk on Traces on the Land... will look at work with remote sensing, geophysical prospection, GIS, and other modern technologies at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Wilmington, Illinois.

As Wheeler points out, we often think of such technologies as being employed at archaeological sites of monumental architecture in faraway places, but they are equally important, and accessible, for even local archaeological investigations in the Chicago region.

The USDA Forest Service and Midewin are committed to good science, responsible stewardship of cultural resources, and to making that science and stewardship available to the public through student and adult volunteer opportunities.

LiDAR, Ground Penetrating Radar, resistivity, magnetometer, georeferencing of historic imagery and maps, thermal imaging, isotopic analysis have become the tools of the trade even in Will County, Illinois.

Some noteworthy (and fun) examples include when Midewin volunteers took all the available pre-Arsenal imagery and historic land ownership maps showing previous farm structure locations, and transferred that information to digital map software (GIS). The results were then superimposed on LiDAR-derived bare earth models to locate patterned disturbances suggesting extant farmstead features. (See page 3 graphic.) Wheeler and associates continue to follow up the results in the field through ground-truthing the potential sites.

Pre-Contact Huber Phase Site
The University of Notre Dame’s multi-year investigations at a late (c. 1600) Pre-Contact Huber Phase Site on Midewin have yielded significant results in understanding that poorly known period in late pre-history. Throughout, Notre Dame has incorporated the most current methods of remote sensing, geophysical techniques, and geochemistry. This project has also made use of approximately 7,000 volunteer hours through the Forest Service “Passport in Time” program, allowing people from around the country to participate in field work on their public land.

All of this work serves to better understand past land use and environment and in so doing, to guide a more informed approach to prairie restoration and stewardship of cultural resources.

Our speaker, Joseph H. (Joe) Wheeler III grew up in suburban Cicero, and graduated Loyola University of Chicago. He then served as an Intelligence Officer in the US Marine Corps for over 28 years. Throughout that time, he reports, “I maintained a keen interest in archaeology, participating in avocational archaeology groups whenever I was stationed in the US, and assisting local and military base archaeologists. Through my profession, I became intimately familiar with various remote sensing and imaging technologies.”

After retiring from the Marine Corps as a Colonel in 2009, Wheeler attended graduate school, studying Anthropology at the University of Wyoming on the Post 9-11 GI Bill. In 2011, he joined the US Forest Service as a field archaeologist, working throughout the American West and Southwest.

In 2013, he returned to Illinois for the first time in 34 years to serve as the Archaeologist and Tribal Liaison at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie, USDA, Forest Service, in Wilmington, Illinois on the grounds of the old Joliet Arsenal which is being restored to tall grass prairie. https://www.fs.usda.gov/midewin

We look forward to his talk on December 8. Holiday Party first!

Palimpsest Notes - from Bob Stelton

Archaeology Ain’t What It Used To Be

Archaeology used to be an arduous adventure. Alfred Maudsley’s adventuring carried him across the globe and into the jungles of the Yucatan. Brilliant insight brought him into the depths of the Yucatecan jungle with state-of-the-art cameras that would provide clear photos of structures and panels of Maya hieroglyphs that would be deciphered by future generations of scholars.

John Lloyd Stephens cast aside a career before the bar.  In 1836, he met Frederick Catherwood and the two planned their epic exploration of Central America. They recorded the actual adventures in Incidents of Travels in Central America, Chiapas, and Yucatan (1841).  With his paints and pencils, Catherwood added special life to that remarkable achievement.

WWII and the end of an era

Scientific archaeology’s nativity was accompanied by its expansion into the present discipline. If the aspirant expects to achieve a career in the discipline a Ph.D. is now a requisite.

World War II interrupted archaeology’s progress but proffered the miracle of Carbon-14 dating and there were other gifts.  Thermoluminescence along with a raft of new technologies followed by the miracle of LiDAR with its ability to penetrate deep jungles. The uses of DNA analysis on bones has dramatically changed archaeology. Digging has become quite meticulous at some sites where the questions being asked are most significant.  At Old Vero Man site, Florida, archaeologists are checking the dirt for ancient flora and fauna DNA (including human).

Meanwhile, Mexico, along with others, has published LiDAR images of large tracts of land online. Takeshi Inomata, an archaeologist, has discovered 27 Maya sites through examination of these images online, as reported by The New York Times.

 Recent adventures have been in the lab and not in the steamy jungle of the Petén.  Adventure now can be at home with the computer!

Merry Holidays & Meeting

The December 8 meeting is also the date of the CAS Holiday Party, beginning at 2:00pm. Member meeting will be held during this time, with guest speaker at usual 3:30pm start time. This year Holiday Tacos are our feature. The Holiday Taco Party is free for members, but we must know how many guests we will serve.

Please RSVP to debandbob@meximayan.com before December 6.

RIP Gloria Williams

Sept 29, 1927- October 16, 2019

 Longtime member Gloria Williams passed away after a period of attempted recovery from a stroke. Gloria was an active and consistent member contributing recommendations for speakers and archaeology books for door prizes over many years. She traveled to many important sites worldwide and was an avid reader. We will miss her front row presence.

Hopewellian Mound Mysteries Uncovered

Karen Atwell Addresses Illinois Burial Mound

~ report by Michael Ruggeri ~

The Hopewell Interaction Sphere consisted of a great number of culturally related sites stretching from Ontario to Florida, the Appalachians to Missouri. The Hopewell Interaction Sphere lasted from 100 BCE-500 during the Middle Woodland period. Archaeologist Karen Atwell presented us with a very thorough and complete report on the Naples-Russell Hopewell mound complex in Pike County, Illinois in her invited lecture to the CAS on October 27.

She revealed that there are 8 mounds within the complex in the group, with the largest measuring 150 feet long, 90 feet wide, 30 feet tall. 

The largest mound is a platform style construction with ramps. It was built over time in a multi-village effort by hundreds of laborers starting at 100 BCE. The mound constructions at this site were built over a 200 year span.

Among the abundant artifacts found in burials in the mound group: an eagle pipe, a raven headed pipe and conch shells.  Black bear and grey wolf decorated canines were found in a child burial.

The main mound burial was of a male, Middle Woodland era, with a bear canine necklace, feathered staff, beads, ankle and wrist bracelets, adzes, antlers, and a Hopewell style vessel.

Other artifacts uncovered within the mounds: copper tools, mica, decorated bi-valves, a toad pipe, 4 copper celts, flintknapping tools, hammer stones, and materials from the archaic era.

The flooring for the burial complex included limestone paving, and white and yellow clay.

Many of the artifacts came from an extensive trade network stretching far to the north and south.

Karen Atwell was charged with finding out the extent of looting at the site over time and to re-construct the architecture, and to develop a complete layout of the site over time.

The Naples Mound Group is one of the largest Hopewell related sites in the Hopewell Interaction Sphere. Karen and her colleagues have worked for years at the Mound group and have found an extensive amount of trade goods and luxury items in the burials at the site. The largest mound, The Naples Mound 8, contained several burials laid out in a wide fashion within the mound.

Her talk gave us an insight into the importance of the Hopewell Interaction Sphere here in Illinois, and the importance of understanding more about this culturally rich Pre-Columbian society.

Excavations of a Hopewellian Burial Mound in Pike County

Speaker: Karen Atwell

Ms. Karen Atwell, owner of Farmland Archaeological Services, will present observations on the excavations of a Hopewellian burial mound on Sunday, October 27, beginning at our usual start time of 3:00pm at the Evanston Public Library meeting room.

Ms. Atwell’s focus will be on the Naples-Russell Mound 8 (NRM 8), an early Hopewellian burial mound located along the western bluffline of the Illinois River valley in northern Pike County.  In 1990, Center for American Archaeology excavations at the mound were conducted to determine the damage done by decades of curious individuals excavating into the mound, tree clearing, and agriculture in order to provide structural information to reconstruct the mound to its original size and shape.

Hopewellian mounds were first constructed in northern Pike County during the early Mound House phase (ca. 50 B.C.-A.D. 100). The early Mound House phase was an era of far-reaching and diverse interregional exchange in exotic artifacts and raw materials associated with Hopewellian mortuary ritual – an exchange pattern that may largely predate the advent of village-based bluff-top mound cemeteries of the later Mound House phase (ca. A.D. 100-350).

The structure of NRM 8 revealed that the mound was built as a sequence of events that were not located around a single burial feature which is more common to Hopewellian mounds.

Co-author of the Illinois State Archaeological Survey research volume Excavations at Blue Island and Naples-Russell Mounds and Related Hopewellian Sites in the Lower Illinois Valley (Farnsworth and Atwell 2015), Ms. Atwell will present the findings of the excavations  through pictures of the mound structure and the artifacts that were recovered.

Our speaker, Karen Atwell, grew up on a farm in rural Geneseo, Illinois near three archaeological

sites. These nurtured an interest in archaeology that has continued for over 40 years.  While in high school, she was introduced to archaeology by an IAAA member, and through that contact met legendary Northwestern University archaeologist Dr. Stuart Struever. That led to participation in an archaeological field school at Kampsville, Illinois. Following graduation from Northwestern, she worked for the Center for American Archeology as field director for the excavation of the Kuhlman Mound Group (necessary for the construction of Interstate 72), and as field director for Cultural Resource Management (CRM) projects specializing in mortuary projects.

She received her Masters degree from Arizona State in Archaeology with an emphasis on mortuary studies. Archeological projects in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico followed.

In 1989, Mr. Ken Farnsworth, director of the Center for American Archeology Contract Program, started the project at Naples-Russell Mound 8 in the Pike County Conservation Area. Ms. Atwell returned to Illinois to run this project and remained working for the Center for American Archeology following that project for eleven years.

In 2009, she founded her own Cultural Resource Management company, Farmland Archaeological Services. (309-507-1330).

Archaeology In and Of Chicago

The 1893 World’s Fair, the Charnley House, and the Future of Urban Archaeology - Speaker: Dr. Rebecca Graff 

(early start at 2:30pm!) 

On September 29, Dr. Rebecca Graff, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Lake Forest College, opens our 2019-2020 lecture season (at 2:30pm) with an intriguing and fresh look at “what lies beneath” our very local feet.

Drawing from her upcoming book, Disposing of Modernity: The Archaeology of Garbage and Consumerism During Chicago’s 1893 World’s Fair (University Press of Florida and Society for Historical Archaeology/SHA, Fall 2020), Dr. Graff will introduce her research project centered on excavations at Jackson Park, the former site of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, and at the Charnley-Persky House, an 1892 Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home on Chicago’s Gold Coast. Based upon archaeological and archival research on the Fair’s ephemeral Ohio Building and a historic artifact midden at the Charnley-Persky House, this talk will engage with a critical period in the nation’s history to address the ambivalent reactions to the changing world of turn-of-the-twentieth-century urban America. 

Both the Chicago Fair and the Charnley House showed the transformative potential of new forms and technologies for daily life, many of which are still materially present. The talk will cover topics including the history of world’s fairs and expositions, the planning of the Chicago Fair, the Charnley House’s architecture and aesthetics, and how fairs created markets for new products and how the public constituted themselves as modern subjects by consuming them. It will conclude with Jackson Park’s current reappearance on the world stage as the future home of the Obama Presidential Center, and a look toward at-risk archaeological sites and the place of archaeology for Chicagoans today.

Material serving as the basis  of her forthcoming book earned Dr. Graff the 2013 Kathleen Kirk Gilmore Dissertation Award from the Society for Historical Archaeology. 

Dr. Graff received her BA in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her MA and PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago. 

As an historical archaeologist with research interests in the 19th- and 20th-Century urban United States, she explores the relationship between temporality and modernity, memory and material culture, and contemporary heritage and nostalgic consumption through archaeological and archival research. She has excavated at sites in Israel, Honduras, France, the Bahamas, New Orleans, San Francisco, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Chicago. 

Dr. Graff has directed excavations in several sites in Chicago as undergraduate archaeological field schools for the University of Chicago, DePaul University, and Lake Forest College at sites including the Gray-Cloud House and Mecca Flats. She is currently excavating the former site of an African Methodist Episcopal Church in Lake Forest with her undergraduate students.

We look forward to her presentation opening our lecture series on September 29. 

PLEASE NOTE:  Our meeting will begin ONE HOUR EARLIER THAN USUAL, with social hour at 2:00pm, and speaker beginning at 2:30pm.

Summer Safaris 2019

Members went to The Art Institute Exhibit on Peru and Northwestern’s on Africa 

Summer safari participants enjoy viewing Peruvian textiles exhibit
led by Ray Young at The Art Institute of Chicago - photo by Matt Stelton

“Super/Natural: Textiles in the Andes” at The Art Institute 

Up-close examination of textiles from several on display in The Art Institute of Chicago special exhibition Super/Natural: Textiles in the Andes offered a unique opportunity for exploration of Peru’s Pre-Columbian cultures. The exhibition was on display February 23–June 16, 2019. Our group attended on June 13. What made the Safari special was Ray Young’s personal guided tour. Available from Amazon is a dazzling catalog.

“Caravans of Gold” Exhibit at Northwestern University’s Block Museum in Evanston.

The subtitle of the exhibit, Fragments of Time, accurately described the pieces of ceramics, textiles, glass and gold left across the Saharan Desert by caravans of camels during medieval times. CAS members enjoyed viewing the exhibit individually. Let us know what you think of our safaris.

The Morton Site: New Discoveries…..More Questions!

Provided by May Speaker Nicole Marie “Nikki” Klarmann, MA

The Morton site is a sprawling, loosely organized village site two miles upriver from Dickson

Mounds. It was named after its former owner, Joy Morton of Morton Salt, who had a hunting lodge on the property in the 1930s. The site was occupied during the 14th century ACE by Middle Mississippian people with southern affiliations and Oneota people of northwestern origin. Our May speaker addressed Community, Household & Landscape: Examining Spatial Structure for Evidence of Integration at the Morton Village Site, Fulton County, Illinois.

One aspect of the joint Dickson Mounds/ Michigan State University project was to determine the relationship between these two ethnic groups. Speaker Nicole Marie “Nikki” Klarmann’s role in the multi-faceted project was to examine the architectural remains for clues to the nature of the relationships, and degree of coalescence. The site was subjected to a magnetometry survey to locate the buried house floors and storage pits without excavation. In some cases, the indicated building locations were subjected to test excavation or “ground truthing” to test the validity of the magnetometer readings.

Since the Middle Mississippians placed their wall posts in trenches and the Oneota people did not, it was possible to determine who constructed particular structures. When Klarmann’s architectural research is combined with that of others examining different aspects of the archaeological record, such as stone tools and weapons, ceramics and animal and plant remains, it is hoped the research team will be able to determine whether or not the Mississippians and Oneota were occupying the same buildings (cohabiting), were living side by side, or were on the site at different times.

~ report by Deb Stelton ~

Community, Household & Landscape:

Examining Spatial Structure for Evidence of Integration
at the Morton Village Site, Fulton County, Illinois
Speaker: Nicole Marie “Nikki” Klarmann, M.A.

Social Hour/Member Meetings begin at 3:00pm.
Lectures begin at 3:30pm. All are welcome.
Evanston Public Library: Community Meeting Room,
1703 Orrington Ave, Evanston 60201
May 19, 2019 Ms. Nicole Marie Klarmann 
The Fulton Morton Village Site

Ms. Nikki Klarmann asks “What happens when two populations with differing cultural identities interact and cohabitate?”  In our final program in the lecture series this year, she will propose answers to that question based on field work at the Morton Village Site in Fulton County, Illinois.

Klarmann suggests that coalescence, or the cultural reorganization and formation of multiethnic and multilingual communities, is one possible outcome.

In archaeological contexts, material culture can help determine the level of integration or coalescence between distinct groups that interacted or cohabitated. However, it should not be assumed that a one-to-one relationship between cultural materials and people exists. In many contexts of interaction, a mixture of materials attributable to differing groups of people may be found. How then can the mixing of archaeological materials be used to identify the degree of coalescence? Beyond archaeological contexts, understanding prolonged, spatially-based interactions and coalescence has larger implications for understanding today’s cultural groups who find themselves cohabitating with other groups (e.g., post migration or as refugees) and possibly affecting policy and practice that could promote integration of these migrant or refugee groups into the larger society.

Morton Village (11F2), located in Fulton County, Illinois, is the case study for this multiscalar spatial analysis. Dating to a single occupation, ca. AD 1200 to 1400, the site provides clear evidence for the cohabitation of Middle Mississippian and Bold Counselor Phase Oneota groups.  However, the level of cultural integration at the site is under-explored. Ceramic attributes and architectural styles have typically been used to discern Oneota and Mississippian contexts. Material culture provides a valuable line of evidence for examining coalescence, but how people organized themselves spatially allows an innovative and finer contextualization of the distinctions and the merging of material culture. Research adds to the scholarship of coalescence. A multi-scalar spatial approach is employed to detect the level of coalescence within the Morton Village archaeological site, integrating data from the landscape, community, and household spatial scales. Initial findings of the case study and future directions of the research will be presented.

Nikki Klarmann, MA, originally from Texas, earned a BS in Anthropology at Baylor University. While there, she excavated in Belize. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Anthropology at Michigan State University. Ms. Klarmann began working at the Morton Village archaeological site in Fulton County in the summer of 2013 as part of the joint Michigan State University and Dickson Mounds Museum Archaeological Project. For five summers since 2013, she excavated at Morton Village in a variety of roles, as a research assistant, teaching assistant, public programming supervisor, graduate student mentor, and as the coordinator of excavations, also doing archaeology lab work cleaning and cataloging artifacts recovered during excavations. Klarmann’s doctoral dissertation focuses on the spatial organization of Morton Village and whether the migrant Bold Counselor Oneota and local Middle Mississippian populations had an integrated, coalesced community at Morton Village.

Eureka! There Are Two Forts Kaskaskia

Dr. Mark Wagner takes us along on SIUC Field School discovery
~ report by Deb Stelton ~

George Rogers Clark was a frontier military leader in the American Revolution whose dramatic successes were factors in the award of the Old Northwest to the United States. Trained by his grandfather, Clark engaged in surveying along the Ohio River in the mid-1770s. His historical importance leads us to an interest in Fort Kaskaskia.

Dr. Mark Wagner’s presentation on Sunday, April 28 dwelt primarily with the rediscovery of Fort Kaskaskia. Before Mark started working at the suggested site it never had been surveyed. The fort remains were on Garrison Hill on bluffs overlooking the town of Kaskaskia which overlooks the Mississippi. In 1759 it was occupied by the French who began to build the walls of the fort. It was never completed after they lost the French and Indian War in 1763. All possessions east of the Mississippi were given over to Great Britain with the Treaty of Paris. The people of Kaskaskia did not like the idea of the Brits moving into the fort, so they burned it. Consequently, the Brits moved into the town itself, providing an example of unintended consequences.

In 1780s, a “war lord,” John Dodge, occupied the area and terrorized the town, but in 1787 he was forced to flee to Missouri. In 1778 Clark surprised the British and captured the fort. It may have been a front-line century ago, but modern history has eclipsed its earlier importance. Clark captured the final British force. But for Clark, the entire Old Northwest might well be part of Canada.

The U.S. Army came to occupy the area to keep Kaskaskia safe from other foreign incursions. 120 soldiers came from Pittsburg in 1802, and in 1803, William Clark and Meriwether Lewis arrived. Lewis wrote that 120 pounds of gunpowder were stored at the fort. Clark recruited 11 or 12 soldiers from the fort to join the important Lewis and Clark expedition. But documentation is sparse. The fort seemed to be abandoned.

When Mark Wagner began excavating, he found little evidence of U.S. occupation. Then a sink hole was discovered away from the fort. Mark began to think that the American fort was elsewhere. Non-invasive scanning equipment was brought in for investigation. Patterns of green and red showed up, but you must excavate to find out what these colors mean. Available LiDAR was also very useful.

Eventually we learned that there were two forts referred to as Fort Kaskaskia. Uniform buttons, parts of muskets and other artifacts have shown us that the second fort is the one where Lewis and Clark stopped at before their momentous journey.

There is more to be learned in future digs and you can contact Dr. Wagner if you wish to participate. Shawnee teenagers are helpers as well. Archaeology students from the SIUC field school will return to the Ft. Kaskaskia and Miller Grove sites this coming summer (2019).

In doing further research for this summary, I found references to the Treaty of Paris finally having the British signing over this area to the U.S. with the idea of receiving benefits from trading.

Palimpsest Notes from Bob Stelton

Aluxe
Phantoms of the milpas

Long ago I directed a cultural field school for high school students in the Yucatan. The students and I stayed with villagers sleeping in nahs, traditional Maya houses, and taking our meals with the hosts. We learned that life in a Maya community revolves around the milpa, the agricultural field that provides sustenance and life. Making milpa, slash and burn farming a plot, carries with it historic and cultural obligations that are to the ancient Maya.

I asked a friend in the village Tinum for directions to his milpa, explaining that I would like to explore it with my students.

“Oh no,” he protested, “it would be dangerous to go there, very dangerous. There are serpents that kill and other dangers!”
“But,” our host finally relented, “you can come with me and the niño (his son) tomorrow morning.”
I had another request, “Could my students work in the field?”
He shrugged, “What’s the use, it’s too hard, but ok!”

In the field we discovered how excruciating work in the field was. Later we learned about the other danger: we learned about the Aluxe.
In Ireland they are called leprechauns, in Scandinavia trolls – they seem to have populated the globe.

That afternoon I learned something about Maya secrets – other dangers. Concealed within the Yucatan jungles are creatures of the night including the Aluxes  – troll-like creatures that usually remain hidden from human-sight. But ready to dance with a child or spring a prank on a bothersome adult!

Although Aluxes mostly live apart from men, symbiotic relationships have evolved. Ordinarily they are fearful of humans and hide from us by turning themselves into little clay figurines that hide in small mounds on the fringes of cultivated fields. It is believed that they are descended from the ancient Maya.

Like most gnomes, leprechauns – name your favorite will-o-the-wisp  – Aluxes are impish and responsible for many practical jokes and tricks. On the other hand they can be helpful. More than one lost wanderer has been led to safety by an Aluxe. Without revealing themselves and by sighs, they can direct the wanderer to the correct path. In olden times, they would notify an Indian family of a member who had been hanged (other misfortune?) by allowing them to be seen in a house and then fleeing.

There is much more to the lore of the Aluxe, one of the Yucatan’s special attraction that is seldom – if ever – seen by adults.

“Bound to the Western Waters”: The Discovery of Lewis and Clark’s Long-Lost Outpost of Fort Kaskaskia

Speaker of the Month: Dr. Mark Wagner
Sunday, April 28, 2019 at 3:00pm

Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark recruited 11 men from the garrison of Fort Kaskaskia (1803-1807) in Randolph County, Illinois, in 1803, to join their famous expedition to explore the American West. This fort has always been assumed to have been in the same location as an earlier French fort (1758-1763) of the same name. Archaeological investigations by the Southern Illinois University (SIU) archaeological field school class over the past two years, however, has revealed that in reality there were two separate forts with the same name. Previously unknown remains of the American Fort Kaskaskia visited by Lewis and Clark were discovered about 100 yards north of the grass-covered French Fort Kaskaskia.

The discovery of this new fort site comprises a major addition to the history of the Lewis and Clark Expedition (1803-1806) in that it represents a time capsule of the types of artifacts and remains used by American soldiers in the early 1800s. Through the use of remote sensing investigations and hand excavations over the past two years, the SIU field school is recovering new information regarding the archaeology and history of both fort sites and the people who lived in them. Speaker Dr. Mark Wagner will reveal details about his team’s discovery of the American Fort Kaskaskia, updating this topic published in the September 2018 issue of Illinois Antiquity magazine.

About Our Speaker: Dr. Mark Wagner is Associate Professor in Anthropology and the Director of the Center for Archaeological Investigations at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC), where he also received his PhD in Anthropology.  His current research interests include the Native American rock art of Illinois; late eighteenth/early nineteenth century culture contact between Native American peoples and Euro-American settlers along the Illinois frontier; Diaspora archaeology; the Cherokee Trail of Tears in Illinois; Civil War archaeology and French and American colonial and military archaeology in Illinois.  Dr. Wagner is currently directing the SIUC archaeological field school in the excavation of the two fort sites featured in this talk.

As Director of the Center for Archaeological Investigations/CAI, he supervises a small staff of professional archaeologists, students, and interns in applied archaeology projects for state and federal agencies within Illinois. The CAI is particularly active in giving undergraduate and graduate students experience in applied archaeology projects to prepare them for jobs with state, federal, and private agencies after graduation. Your support of their work would be appreciated! Link to the page at https://salukifunder.siu.edu/project/14083

Meetings are open to the public and free of charge. Social period starts at 3:00pm.  Lectures begin at 3:30pm. Join us!

Evanston Public Library 
1703 Orrington, Evanston 
All CAS meetings are free and open to the public.

Report on “Exploring the Sacred Landscapes of Peru”

Dr. Jo Ellen Burkholder provides new insights at March meeting
~ report by Anne Wilson-Dooley ~

Dr. Jo Ellen Burkholder’s topic on March 31 attracted a good-sized audience and we were treated to an examination of the importance of drawing on local cultural traditions, stories, and architecture in interpretation of archaeological remains. She brings to this work her interests in gender and ethnicity studies and recognition of the sacred.

Dr. Burkholder has been teaching at University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for 14 years and has worked in Bolivia and Peru for 20 years. She was attracted to the area by the extent of preservation of archaeological remains in the dry environment.

The archaeological focus of her talk was on her excavations at the site of Pisanay in the Sihuas Valley in the Arequipa Region. The site is located on a peninsula type formation stretching out into the Sihuas Valley.  To the west is the Pacific coast and to the east the majestic peaks of the Andes.

The broader focus was on recognition of the sacred, gender and ethnicity in archaeological structures, artifacts, and motifs. Archaeological investigation looks for the sacred outside our experience, including music, even smells. From her work in Peru she knows that the traditions give substantial meaning to the landscape, topographic and geologic elements – including stones and rock formations.  The mountains are thought to have personalities; they can have relationships and interact with each other; they are capable of “amazing” things.

As an example of context and knowledge, in looking at the altar in a family home, elements from Christian and local traditions were fairly easily recognized as sacred by their form and location on the altar. Other items like stones had meaning to family members and were placed on the altar because they came from a particular place, perhaps a magical place, or were picked up along a pilgrimage.

Dr. Burkholder’s local knowledge led to increased interpretation of motifs on textiles and pottery. There are two ethnic groups in her area and today they can be recognized at a single location by the differences in the woven clothing they are wearing. Seeking evidence of females in their art, Burkholder pointed out some figures on textiles perhaps representing local traditions of women squatting and holding onto a pole during childbirth.  One of the pan-Andean stories still told today is represented in ancient woven and ceramic art: a woman impregnated by a fox.

At another point she talked about an example from the landscape of a small pile of stones, then a bit further along was another, similar, small pile of stones and then another. It ended up with over a mile of these, roughly in a line, clearly placed intentionally.

At site excavation at Pisanay again the interpretations were informed from local knowledge. In one of the units they recognized a sunken pit that had structural elements of a stairway on one side and four pits on the floor. The pits were assumed to be supports of some type of a roof. Associated with the structural items there were some stones at the top of the stairs and remnants of color on some of them, probably offerings. An important find in the area of the stones was a colored bead of a non-local shell which suggested perhaps a more sacred meaning for the structure.  Also, there was evidence of cuy (guinea pig) and s. molle for a drink in the structure along with shards of cups, as evidence of feasting. The Pachamama goddess traditions of the Andes with her being associated with earth and fertility may help in interpreting the artifacts found within the structure. Based on current structures, the poles probably supported a light weight mat over an open air structure.

Near her second unit of excavation, large stones created an alignment with the mountains to the east perhaps giving them special meaning and perhaps serving as an “observation platform.”

In a third area of the site are circular ground formation of “Nazca-line” essence. These are perhaps more easily interpreted as sacred but of unknown meaning.

We sincerely thank Dr. Burkholder for being our speaker and providing so many examples of the intertwining of local knowledge with archaeological interpretation.

Pisanay and the Endangered Rock Art Traditions of Arequipa, Peru by Jo Burkholder - 2017
https://core.tdar.org/document/431261/pisanay-and-the-endangered-rock-art-traditions-of-arequipa-peru

Ladrones y Huaqueros (Thieves and Grave Robbers)

 Palimpsest Notes from Bob Stelton

Within the political boundaries of Peru exists a vast arrogation of mystery and adventure that beckons adventure travel as demonstrated by Dr. Ellen Burkholder, the CAS March Speaker. Treasures beyond the imagination of human greed or need captured the initiative of many who came to regard the burials as public domain – fit for exploitation!

Primal forces created desert conditions between the sea and the Andean peaks that almost perfectly ended preserved the dead as natural mummies. But almost isn’t good enough. That protection policy ended where the huaqueros (grave robbers) broke earth.

By now the epic adventure of Dr. Walter Alva, and his discovery of the tomb of the Lords of Sipán in 1987, has entered the annals of iconic archaeology, and resides as such, with the immortals like Howard Carter.

Dr. Alva is a worthy recipient of all encomiums tendered. On an uncomfortable January night, he was literally pulled from a hospital bed and driven to a poor peasant’s hut by the police to examine a small hoard of gold the likes of which he never had seen before. He examined treasures that would soon become cultural competitors of Tut’s legendary hoard.

The following day, still very ill, alone, he ascended the tomb, alternatively waving his pistol and warning the angry crowd to back off! When all seemed lost, he trumped the huaqueros’ greed with a plea to work with him to save their patrimony. They worked together, the proof of which is the magnificent Lords of Sipán Museum at Lambayeque.

And that, dear reader, is how the magnificent Lords of Sipán museum at Lambayeque was saved before it was born.

There is more – much more – to this dazzling story of Pre-Inca tombs, archaeology, and crime!

Several years ago a small group from the CAS joined with MexiMayan Academic Travel on a Peru discovery itinerary that included The Tomb of the Lords, The Lambayeque Museum and a memorable meeting with Dr. Walter Alva.

Given the opportunity to explore tomb and museum and perhaps to meet Dr. Alva is truly a bucket item not to be missed. If that can’t be, Amazon can send to you hours of reading pleasure, Lords of Sipán, for about $10.