The Myrick Park Mounds (47Lc10), an Effigy Mound Site in Western Wisconsin

The earliest documented excavation of an effigy mound group by a professional archaeologist occurred in 1883 when Frederic Ward Putnam and local acquaintances excavated portions of four mounds at the Myrick Park site (47Lc10) in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Putnam worked on one effigy (similar to the short-tailed turtle form) and three conical mounds. Theodore H. Lewis visited the site in 1885 and mapped one additional conical mound. We examined documentation and collections housed at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University. Artifacts include a portion of a Madison Cord Impressed jar (a common Effigy Mound offering) and a trailed rim sherd similar to terminal Late Woodland types. Human remains represent a minimum of 23 individuals: 18 adults and 5 subadults. Dental and skeletal evidence indicates a relatively healthy population with low levels of nutritional deficiency, early life stress, and trauma, similar to other regional Late Woodland populations.     

Using multi-criteria cost surface analysis to explore past regional landscapes: a case study of ritual activity and social interaction in Michigan,AD 1200–1600

Major advances have occurred in the analytical use of GIS in archaeology, particularly in uses of this tool for furthering understandings of past social landscapes. A major focus of these efforts has been visibility studies and archaeologists have paid less attention to how GIS can facilitate the study of another important socio-spatial component, movement. This paper examines the GIS application of multi-criteria cost surface analysis as a robust technique for modeling past movement and applies this approach to the Late Prehistoric period (ca. AD 1200–1600) in Michigan as a case study. This analysis extends understandings of the role of localized connections and tribal territoriality with the spread of maize agriculture in this period and adds further support to the proposal that earthwork enclosures served as uniquely accessible ritual centers for social, economic and ideological interaction between separate tribal communities within the Late Prehistoric regional organization. By showing this technique can build on and validate models of past social developments, grant real insights into social connections and affiliations, and stimulate new directions for future research, this specific case illustrates the general heuristic value of multi-criteria cost surface analysis for exploring regional landscapes in archaeology.     

High-resolution sclerochronological analysis of the bivalve mollusk Saxidomus gigantea from Alaska and British Columbia: techniques for revealing environmental archives and archaeological seasonality

The butter clam, Saxidomus gigantea, is one of the most commonly recovered bivalves from archaeological shell middens on the Pacific Coast of North America. This study presents the results of the sclerochronology of modern specimens of S. gigantea, collected monthly from Pender Island (British Columbia), and additional modern specimens from the Dundas Islands (BC) and Mink and Little Takli Islands (Alaska). The methods presented can be used as a template to interpret local environmental conditions and increase the precision of seasonality estimates in shellfish using sclerochronology and oxygen isotope analysis. This method can also identify, with a high degree of accuracy, the date of shell collection to the nearest fortnightly cycle, the time of day the shell was collected and the approximate tidal elevation (i.e., approx. water depth and distance from the shoreline) from which the shell was collected.Life-history traits of S. gigantea were analyzed to understand the timing of growth line formation, the duration of the growing season, the growth rate, and the reliability of annual increments. We also examine the influence of the tidal regime and freshwater mixing in estuarine locations and how these variables can affect both incremental structures and oxygen isotope values. The results of the sclerochronological analysis show that there is a latitudinal trend in shell growth that needs to be considered when using shells for seasonality studies.Oxygen isotope analysis reveals clear annual cycles with the most positive values corresponding to the annual winter growth lines, and the most negative values corresponding to high temperatures during the summer. Intra-annual increment widths demonstrate clear seasonal oscillations with broadest increments in summer and very narrow increments or no growth during the winter months. This study provides new insights into the biology, geochemistry and seasonal growth of S. gigantea, which are crucial for paleoclimate reconstructions and interpreting seasonality patterns of past human collection.     

Clam growth-stage profiles as a measure of harvest intensity and resource management on the central coast of British Columbia

Examination of growth-stage profiles of shells from nine Northwest Coast shell midden sites shows a majority of senile-stage shells at longer-term residential sites and a majority of mature-stage shells at shorter-term encampments. This pattern indicates less intensive harvest in the vicinity of residential sites, which is consistent with management and conservation of resources for anticipated future needs. Consideration of environmental and taphonomic factors does not account for the observed inter-site variability. Shellfish conservation in the vicinity of residential sites is evident for the period of the past 7000 years.     

Nation,College, Wartime: Archaeology at a WWI Student Army Training Corps Camp at New Hampshire College

During World War I, the U.S. War Department contracted with 157 universities to form the National Army Training Detachments whose mission was to train college-age draftees in 66 critical army trades (subsequently the Student Army Training Corps). This program is an overlooked part of First World War history and has received little to no archaeological inquiry. This paper investigates the New Hampshire College camp. Working between documentary and archaeological materials, this paper explores how the interrelated duties of educational institutions, businesses, government, and individuals merged with an American wartime imagined community here but also how in their lived experiences of the camp, people materialized the complications of balancing citizenship, difference, duty, and nation. The social lives of the lower-rank men who inhabited these camps, the composite communities formed at them, and the impact of the government’s assertion of control over institutions of higher education all carry material ramifications that deserve further investigation.