One of the things that can be recovered from light fraction flotation samples is seeds.  Archaeologists spend a lot of time looking at tiny black things (charred plant remains) under a microscope, hoping to be able to identify the kind of seed.  One of the most beautiful seeds that we find, and one of the very tiniest, is from tobacco.  These seeds are often about half a mm across, or even smaller, but their distinctive wavy lines on the surface allow us to identify even the tiniest fragment. (Oneota, La Crosse County)

This stone arched bridge in northern Wisconsin once carried traffic over a natural stream, but it was later inundated by a reservoir, along with the surrounding area. A drawdown of the reservoir in the mid-2000s exposed the bridge and the sediment that had accumulated around it. The bridge is 6 meters (19.7 feet) wide and 2 meters (6.6 feet) across. Based on its stone construction it could date as far back as the late 1800s; however, most of the farmsteads in the area were built later, between about 1910 and 1930.

MVAC is better equipped to identify archaeological bison bones, thanks to a generous donation from long-time MVAC friend Dan Maas, who raises bison. Dan gave us a bison that died unexpectedly, as well as some additional bones. Modern comparative materials are important for accurately identifying archaeological bones. We'll be processing these bison bones and adding them to our comparative collection.  Bones pictured: front, right mandible (lower jaw); center, atlas vertebra; right center, right calcaneus from lower rear leg; background, left humerus from upper front leg.

Video with more information about comparative/reference collections.

Bifaces: Stone Tools Worked on Both Sides

MVAC Senior Research Associate Dr. Connie Arzigian talks about bifaces—stones that have been worked on two broad sides, or faces. She describes what makes an artifact a biface and explains the stages of turning a large flake or block of stone into a tool ranging anywhere from a general-purpose knife to an intricately knapped projectile point.

Bill Gresens’ Archaeology Book Review for April 2024

The Sunbird by Wilbur Smith (4/4 trowels)

Master storyteller Wilbur Smith tells the story of a 20th Century African archaeology dig that has eerie origins more than 2,000 years in the past.

Link to read the entire review at:  https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/book-reviews/?review=294878

This vintage t-shirt dates to the early 1980s, when MVAC and UW-La Crosse undertook extensive excavations in the Sand Lake Coulee area of Onalaska, northeast of La Crosse. This large, late precontact Oneota site had tens of acres of agricultural ridged fields constructed in the dark, rich soils of a trapped floodplain. Some ridges were buried under sediment that washed down from adjacent slopes—with ridges rebuilt in the accumulating sediments. The area now has a golf course and housing developments.  Link to more information about the Sand Lake ridged fields at: https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/past-cultures/specific-sites/site-snippets/?letter=s&term=127408

These beer, wine, and liquor bottles from a late 19th- to early 20th-century logging camp in western Oneida County, Wisconsin, show a little variety in the beverages the occupants of the site consumed. The bottle on the far left has a slightly tapering top with a grooved ring, what is known as a brandy or wine finish. The second from the left has a straight top with a grooved ring, which is a straight brandy or wine finish, also known as a whiskey finish or a tapered collar with ring. These types of finishes were used on liquor bottles of various sizes and shapes in the latter half of the 19th century to the early 20th century (Lindsey 2021). Also among the liquor bottles was a clear base with “FULL PINT” embossed on the lower body (center left, bottom). The third bottle has a blob finish, which looks like a glob of glass had been applied to the top of the bottle. Such finishes were used on beer bottles from the 1870s to the 1910s (Lindsey 2021). The necks of these bottles have stopper closures, meaning a cork or other type of plug would have been inserted in the mouth to close the bottle. On the far right is the body and base of a dark olive green wine bottle.

Lindsey, Bill 2021    Bottle Finishes & Closures Part II: Types or Styles of Finishes. Electronic document, https://sha.org/bottle/finishes.htm, accessed March 21, 2023.

Wild rice can be recovered from light fraction flotation samples.  Wild rice was a popular food with precontact peoples across northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, including the La Crosse region. Harvested by canoe, it provided an excellent source of food, especially in places where maize agriculture was not feasible.  Wild rice has been found starting in the Middle Woodland Period in the Prairie du Chien area and is common at Oneota sites in the La Crosse area, where it complements the use of maize. The grains have a distinctive groove down the middle that allows archaeologists to identify even charred fragments. (left - Oneota, La Crosse County; right – modern) (drawing by Meg Rivers)

UWL Archaeology Alumni Podcast Series – Megan Kasten

Dr. Megan Kasten, who graduated from UW-La Crosse (UWL) in May 2012 with a BS in Archaeological Studies, talks about how a trip to Stonehenge sparked her interest in archaeology and her time at UWL inspired her to specialize in digital applications to the discipline. She also expounds on what took her to Scotland for graduate work in archaeology and the research on ogham stones that she now performs as part of the OG(H)AM project.

Bill Gresens’ Archaeology Book Review for March 2024

Trempealeau by John T. Umhoefer (3/4 trowels)

Mysterious things are happening in Trempealeau County, Wisconsin—in fact, the end of the world may be at hand!  Can a disgraced NASA official and a retired UW-La Crosse professor save the world? Read the entire review at:   https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/book-reviews/?review=291124

These are remains from a fish called the freshwater drum (sheepshead). They were found in a refuse pit at an Oneota site in Onalaska. At the left is a pharyngeal arch—part of two matched pairs of plates in the fish’s throat, used for crushing mussels. The other four are otoliths, or “ear stones.” An otolith in each ear helps the fish with balance and movement. Two of the otoliths are burned. The three otoliths in the center are all lefts, and the one at the right is a right, from smaller fish. These right and left otoliths came from four different fish, and the pharyngeal arch represents another, smaller fish, bringing the total to five. Different sides and sizes of fish bones help us figure out how many fish are represented—the Minimum Number of Individuals, or MNI.

Freshwater drum have the largest otoliths of our freshwater fishes. The shape of drum otoliths makes them easy to identify, and their composition allows for exceptional preservation at archaeological sites. Comparing measurements of archaeological otoliths to modern specimens from fish of known weights provides a way for biologists and archaeologists to estimate size- and the contribution of drum fish to the diet. Otoliths from drum weighing 40 pounds or more have been found at La Crosse area Oneota sites.

In addition to mussels, drum eat snails and a variety of crustaceans.

Today, we commonly see trucks and semis haul loads over local roads and interstate highways, but people used to rely on wagons pulled by draft animals to move raw materials and finished goods. This axle and set of wheels from a historic site in Portage County, Wisconsin, are all that remain of one such wagon. The axle and wheels are encased in iron, which has rusted to a brownish gray to bright orange color. Historical research suggests that the wagon could have been used to haul wood to and from a nearby lumberyard associated with the S. H. Karner sawmill in the mid- to late 1800s. An 1884 Sanborn fire insurance map depicts a lumberyard, as well as other buildings that were part of the mill complex.

References

Nash, G.N., and F. R. Morgan 1876    Map of Portage County, Wisconsin. Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Sanborn Map Company 1884    Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Sanborn Map and Publishing Company, New York.

Stevens Point Daily Journal 1873    Stevens Point and Its Boom. 28 May. Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

Woodland tradition pottery features a variety of designs incorporating stamps. These grit-tempered rims from a site in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, fall into a Middle Woodland type archaeologists call Naples Dentate Stamped. A notched tool, such as a carved stick, was pushed into the clay to create a pattern of shallow impressions. Because the tool had tooth-like notches, the stamp is called “dentate” (think “dental” or “dentist”). The sherd on the left has a row of stamp impressions near the rim made by a tool with one or more columns of notches. Below that is a row of circular punctates (holes from pushing a tool into but not completely through the clay) and then another row of stamps. The smaller sherd on the right shows similar stamping on the rim. This pottery was made about two thousand years ago.

Throwback Thursday – 1985 Coon Valley Survey T-Shirt

This vintage MVAC t-shirt from 1985 highlights a systematic archaeological survey conducted in the Coon Creek drainage in Vernon, La Crosse, and Monroe Counties. Headed by Robert Sasso, the project surveyed almost 2,400 acres and documented 41 private artifact collections. Before the survey, only 28 sites were recorded in the drainage; this ambitious survey added 328 more. Archaeological surveys in MVAC’s early years contributed greatly to our knowledge of the region’s past. Bob Sasso completed his doctoral dissertation based on this research at Northwestern University in 1989, and is now an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

Bill Gresens’ Archaeology Book Review for February 2024

Diablo Mesa by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child (4/4)

Archaeologist Nora Kelly and FBI agent Corrie Swanson face grave danger in the wilderness associated with Area 51, Roswell, New Mexico and alien abductions! Read the entire review at:   https://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/book-reviews/?review=285037

A new feature for 2024 is MVAC’s Video Glossary with short videos explaining archaeological terms.  For our first entries we’ll be looking at -

Flakes - A flake is a piece of stone that was chipped off of a rock. Flakes are the most common artifact we find at archaeological sites in the La Crosse region.

and

Temper - Temper is a material mixed with clay to change its characteristics, usually to prevent vessels from cracking as they dry and are fired.

Limestone might not be the first thing one associates with a kiln. Perhaps clay pots, plates, and mugs come to mind more readily. Yet, lime kilns were important for converting limestone to powdered lime for making mortar and plaster in the 1800s. This kiln, with the interior (top left), entrance (bottom left), and a diagram of its dimensions (right) shown here, was dug into an Iowa hillside. It is a periodic kiln, which would have cycled with a firing time of 72 hours followed by 12 hours of cooling (Mansberger and Straton n.d.). The upper third of the kiln was constructed of cut limestone blocks, and the lower two-thirds were cut out of bedrock (boundary marked by red arrow). The limestone blocks were either dry-laid, or if mortar was used to cement them together, it has decayed. Historical sources point to the kiln’s operation prior to 1870 (Andreas 1873; United States Department of the Interior, Census 1870; United States Department of the Interior, Census 1880).

Andreas, A.T. 1873    Illustrated Historical Atlas of Des Moines County, Iowa. Andreas Publishing Co. Lakeside Building, Chicago, Illinois.

Mansberger, Floyd, and Christopher Straton n.d.      The Griggsville Landing Lime Kiln at Ray Norbut State Fish and Wildlife Area, Pike County, Illinois. Brochure based on a report prepared for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

United States Department of the Interior, Census Office 1870    Ninth Census of the United States. Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office. 1880    Tenth Census of the United States. Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office.