Robert T. Bray

Times and Seasons: An Archaeological Perspective On Early Latter Day Saints Printing

The Mormon experience in early newspaper printing paralleled the common fortunes of the church and its followers from the founding in 1830 to the fragmentation in 1846. These quasi-official extensions of church doctrine and practice were highly effective in publicizing the new religion.The most influential of several Mormon newspapers—Times and Seasons—was printed in four successive shops at three locations in Nauvoo, Illinois, from June 1839 to May 1846. Their locations and sequence, two of which were in dispute, drew upon historical sources, architectural remains, and patterned artifact distributions.Printing types and line-of-type separators were distributed horizontally in such manner as to indicate strongly that the first two shops were in two successive buildings on the same site.Type sorts excavated, compared to expected frequency sort from standard fonts, suggested a non-random loss-discard situation for some letters related to subject matter of Times and Seasons.

COMMENTS ON THE PRECERAMIC IN MISSOURI

Inthe Plains periphery of the Central Area, Missouri, extensive preceramic remains are found. Well recognized com plexes with Paleo-Indian connections are NeboHill, Sedalia, Graham Cave Levels 6-4, and Arnold Research Cave. Radio carbon dates range from 7738 B. C. to 43Z2 B.C. Other preceramic complexe s described from excavations include the Hatten Mound component and the Lincoln County burial site, in the Northwest Prairie; Blackwell Component A in the Ozark Highland; and the Jakie L2 and L3 components dated at 5112 B.C. to 4422 B. C. in the Southwest Drainage. Sur face collections from all areas indicate preceramic occupations.