W. Raymond Wood

9 – A Survey of Disturbance Processes in Archaeological Site Formation

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses various processes of soil mixing, and the way mixing may affect archaeological context. The various processes of homogenization are collectively termed as pedoturbation—a synonym for soil mixing. Pedoturbation is the biological, chemical, or physical churning, mixing, and cycling of soil materials. The chapter presents the range and implications of pedoturbation processes in archaeological site formation. A reasonably accurate assessment of the pedoturbatory history of the soils and sediments at every archaeological site is absolutely prerequisite to valid archaeogeological interpretations. Soils are not static bodies—they are dynamic, open systems in which numerous processes operate to pedoturbate profiles, and to move objects vertically and horizontally within them. These processes can operate singly or in combination in additive or subtractive fashion, in all environments, and at all latitudes. Fingerprint topography and linear gilgai, for example, express the combined effects of argilloturbation and graviturbation in subtropical latitudes. At high latitudes and altitudes, gelifluction lobes are produced by graviturbation and cryoturbation and to some extent by aquaturbation. In many well-drained soils, faunalturbation by ants and earthworms might well offset the effects of cryoturbation. Very few archaeologists have the training to interpret soil dynamics subtly. Many of the processes are as yet poorly understood, even by soil scientists.

Late-Pleistocene Boreal Forest in the Western Ozark Highlands?

The recovery of a spruce—dominated pollen spectrum and associated spruce and larch macrofossils offers evidence for late—Pleistocene boreal forest elements in the Ozark Highlands of southwestern Missouri. See full-text article at JSTOR

Northern Plains Village Cultures: Internal Stability and External Relationships

Horticultural groups in the Northern Plains comprised a cultural continuum in stable equilibrium, having undergone only superficial modifications in technology, exploitative activities, and settlement patterning from their first appearance in the area. The positioning of villages along terraces overlooking the Missouri River floodplain placed the zoned resources within equal reach of all communities. Consequently, these politically autonomous villages were also economically self-sufficient. There was little reason for trade between villages, but there was extensive trade with nomads from outside the valley. This trade not only diffused elements between nomads and villagers, but it intensified the village way of life and helped stabilize it, thus reinforcing the division between nomad and villager. There were no village or regional specializations, and only a few social mechanisms to stimulate inter-village integration. These factors combined to help maintain the village groups at a tribal level of organization.

Mississippian Hunting and Butchering Patterns: Bone From the Vista Shelter, 23Sr-20, Missouri

Vista Shelter, on the northwestern margin of the Ozark Highlands in southwestern Missouri, is identified as a hunting station of the prehistoric Mississippian Steed-Kisker focus. This shelter, suitably located for the exploitation of water-dwelling, forest, and prairie-dwelling species, was used by small groups engaged in deer and bison hunts in prairie areas far removed from their riverine settlements near present-day Kansas City. The bone frequencies at the site suggest that animals were killed nearby, cuts of meat were taken to the shelter and processed, and dried meat was returned home. This hunting station helps explain the rarity of refuse bone in the permanent villages, since many animals were butchered and processed far from the home villages. These conclusions are related to prairie and plains hunting and butchering patterns, and the significance of food bone in archaeological sites is thereby emphasized.

Integrating ethnohistory and archaeology at Fort Clark State Historic Site, North Dakota

A two-year mapping project at Fort Clark State Historic Site produced a 15-cm contour map of the Native American (Mandan and Arikara) earthlodge village and a planimetric map of that part of the historic district that lies above the Missouri River flood plain. Aerial photography and ground-level transit mapping detected more than 2,200 surface features at the site, including 86 earthlodges, 2 fur-trading posts, hundreds of storage and grave pits, and Euroamerican and Native American roads and trails. More than 80 percent of the site as mapped lies outside the fortification ditch of the Mandan/Arikara village. When we are trying to determine the potential impact on sites such as this one of such activities as nearby road construction, our recommendations must consider the broader context of the site, not simply the narrow spectrum provided by the settlement core area. A buffer zone as presently exists at Fort Clark is not only necessary to preserve its visual integrity but also to preserve the record of the activities that took place in its immediate vicinity.

An Archaeological Appraisal of Early European Settlements in the Senegambia

The data on early commercial European establishments in Senegal and the Gambia from 1488 to about 1800 are summarized, with particular attention focused on two of them: the French Fort St Joseph on the Senegal River, and the English factory at Yamyamacunda on the Gambia River. These data provide brief but useful histories of their construction and occupation, and each is evaluated for its archaeological potential. The excavation of these and other early settlements discussed should provide trade goods which will be useful in identifying and dating native villages which were contemporaneous with them, thus establishing firm chronological horizons and the identification of native cultural units. It would also provide the basis for permitting more accurate estimates of the rate and nature of the culture change in the historic tribal groups.

Notes on the Crow - Hidatsa Schism

Three lines of evidence bearing on the Crow Hidatsa separation provide different dates for that separation, but dates which are consistent with the following generalizations: (1) The Crow began to diverge linguistically from the various Hidatsa groups no less than five centuries ago, and perhaps even earlier. (2) The Crow movement onto the North western Plains was accomplished gradually, perhaps by band-by-band movement, rather than as one precipitous migration away from the Hidatsa. (3) Archaeological evidence from sites of the Mandan/ Hidatsa continuum in the Missouri Valley suggest that the Hagen site, at least, probably dates at about A.D. 1675 ? although alternative explanations for related sites suggest that the Crow moved into the Northwestern Plains several centuries earlier. (4) Ethnohistorical data suggest that the Crow separation dates from the mid-1700s. Rather than dating the initial separation of the two groups, the ethnohistor ical data probably reflect the final severing of ties with the Hidatsa ? a separation made final by the adoption of the horse.

The Earliest Map of the Mandan Heartland: Notes on the Jarvis and Mackay 1791 Map

Abstract Canadian fur trader Donald Mackay visited and left a description of the Mandans and Hidatsas on the Missouri River in 1781, six years before James MacKay, generally credited with being the first Canadian trader to do so since visits by the La Vérendryes in the mid-1700s. Information from Mackay’s visit was incorporated into the Edward Jarvis and Donald Mackay map of 1791. The details Mackay provided on that manuscript chart reveal new insights into intertribal relations between the Mandans, Hidatsas, and Arikaras and the nomadic groups that surrounded them at the time of his visit. Contemporary documents support the hypothesis that the “Shevitoon” Indians depicted on the map may be identified as the Sutaios.

Archaeological Investigations at the Pomme de Terre Springs

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses archeological investigations done at the Pomme de Terre Springs. Two considerations led to the investigation of spring bogs in the lower Pomme de Terre River valley. First, a vegetational record to correlate with the cultural record contained in the deposits at Rodgers Shelter. Second, Albert Kochs 1840 expedition to the locality raised the possibility, hitherto unresolved, that man and mastodon may have been contemporaneous in the American Midwest. The chapter discusses evidence in the springs to support or reject this possibility. Archeological remains were recovered in three of the five spring bogs investigated: the Trolinger, Boney, and Koch springs.

Woodland Site Near Williston, North Dakota

The purpose of this note is to present full descriptive data on a ceramic site in northwestern North Dakota which has been briefly described by Will and Hecker (l9kh, pp. 116-117). According to these writers, Site 32MZ2 is situated on a flat-topped promontory about 2.5 miles southwest of the town of Williston, on the south side of the Missouri River, in McKenzie County. The legal descrip tion is the NE-l/U SE-l/U Sec. 10, T153N, R10W. The promontory is covered with bone to a depth of l6 or 18 inches from the surface, and deep layers of ash, bone, and flint chips are covered with a layer of clay. The artifacts from the site, in the collections of the State Historical Society of North Dakota, include pot tery, chipped and ground stone and fragmentary bison bones.