|
Biface Caches, Exchange, and Regulatory Systems in
the Prehistoric Great Lakes Region
James J. Krakker
pp. 1-41
During the Late Archaic and Early Woodland periods Turkey Tail bifaces
were among the specialized artifacts that were exchanged widely in
the Northeast Woodlands. The bifaces from seven Great Lakes region
caches are analyzed to investigate the role of these distinctive artifacts
in regional exchange and regulatory systems. These specialized artifacts,
made of distinctive material and produced using highly standardized
procedures, often appear to have circulated in lots of homogeneous
size and shape. They may have been used in regional ceremonial exchange
systems.
Neutron Activation Analysis of Pottery from Pinson Mounds and Nearby
Sites in Western Kentucky: Local Production vs. Long-Distance Importation
Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., James W. Cogswell, Michael J. O'Brien, Hector
Neff, and Michael D. Glascock
pp. 43-68
Investigations at Pinson Mounds, a large Middle Woodland ceremonial center
in western Tennessee, recovered considerable quantities of stylistically
nonlocal pottery. Neutron activation analysis was conducted at the Missouri
University Research Reactor on 114 pottery samples from the site, using
40 pottery samples from sites near Pinson Mounds as a locally produced
compositional baseline. This study indicates that all analyzed pottery
from Pinson Mounds was produced locally; no evidence was found for long-distance
importation of pottery.
Archaeoethnicity and the Elusive Menominis
Ronald J. Mason
pp. 69-94
That the Menomini Indians have resided on Green Bay and inland along
the Menominee River between Wisconsin and the Upper Michigan Peninsula
has been a truism for generations of scholars and is unquestioned by
the public at large. Missing has been the presence of confirming archaeological
data. Nevertheless, a pseudo-assemblage (the Keshena focus, phase, or
culture) was long ago proposed to represent the prehistoric Menominis.
That entity, still occasionally invoked, has been in its death throes
ever since. Exploring reasons for this state of affairs calls into question
the conventional consensus and examines anew the problems of combining
archaeological and ethnohistoric information. A neglected alternative
version of Menomini origins, together with an overlooked piece of historical
testimony, at least broaden the scope of potentially useful inquiry even
if the crucial pieces of the physical record remain to be found.
Cellars and African-American Slave Sites: New Data from an Upland South
Plantation
Amy Lambeck Young
pp. 95-115
Each of the three slave house sites excavated at Locust Grove plantation
in Kentucky contained a small cellar. The structure and characteristics
of the Locust Grove cellars and their contents are compared, providing
an important line of inquiry into slave lifeways. How the cellars were
constructed, used, then abandoned and filled reflects negotiations between
masters and slaves concerning private property, the organization and
use of personal space, and subsistence strategies on southern plantations.
Origins of the Midwestern Taxonomic Method
Alton K. Fisher
pp. 117-122
When W. C. McKern became head of anthropology at the Milwaukee Public
Museum in 1925 he continued the Museum’s tradition of systematic
research begun by his predecessor, S. A. Barrett, almost a decade earlier.
I joined McKern’s staff in early 1927 and remained with him during
most of the time his taxonomic method was taking form. Our close association
in the laboratory and in the field led to frequent discussions of the
urgent need for a classification system that would permit orderly arrangement
of midwestern archaeological data in a manner indicative of cultural
relationships. In 1929 I suggested utilizing the rationale of the Linnaean
taxonomic system which, like midwestern archaeology of that period, was
quite dependent on form for classification. Although skeptical, McKern
tried my proposal on data he collected and found that it could work.
During the next three years he worked out the details of the system,
using me constantly as his critic. Then came another several years of
more public presentations, criticisms and suggestions by others, and
revisions. His paper on the Midwestern Taxonomic Method was published
in 1939.
SAA/American Antiquity "Current Research" Now Electronic
Susan R. Martin
pp. 122
Midwest Archaeological Conference, 1997
Ontario Archaeological Society
pp. 123-124
| ©2003
Midwest Archaeological Conference • Comments? |
|
