MIDCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Taxonomy, Transitions, and Traditions: Introduction to the Papers in Honor of James B. Stoltman
John E. Kelly, Richard W. Yerkes, and William Green
pp. 153-160
The papers in this collection are published in honor of James B. Stoltman on his retirement from teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and we emphasize retirement from teaching, not from archaeology. Jim's career as an archaeologist continues as he pursues his many research interests, especially the use of petrographic methods in the study of ceramics. Jim's contributions even as they continue are innumerable. The following articles by some of Jim's former students are given as a tribute to his contributions to North American archaeology. The papers present new data and interpretations on Archaic, Woodland, and Late Prehistoric groups in the midcontinent. They accentuate Jim's diverse interests in lithic and ceramic technology, raw materials, exchange patterns, and ancient ecosystems. Taxonomic issues, chronology, and cultural change also are reflected in these articles.

James B. Stoltman at the University of Wisconsin
T. Douglas Price
pp. 161-167

Old Copper and Red Ocher Social Complexity
Thomas C. Pleger
pp. 169-190
This article reports on the analysis of mortuary data from the Oconto Cemetery (47OC45), a Middle Archaic Old Copper site in Oconto County, Wisconsin, and the Riverside Cemetery (20ME01), a terminal Late Archaic/Early Woodland Red Ocher site in Menominee County, Michigan. The two sites were compared for evidence of changes in social complexity during the Middle and Late Archaic stages, 4000-400 B.C. Analysis of grave good function and distribution indicates that the Oconto mortuary goods were few, made of local materials, primarily utilitarian, and distributed across age and sex. In contrast, the Riverside mortuary goods were more abundant, frequently made of exotic materials, predominantly prestige related, and associated primarily with young adult females and young children, particularly infants. This pattern suggests that Great Lakes Archaic cultural evolution involved a transformation from egalitarian to nonegalitarian social organization and the beginnings of individual and corporate status gradation.

The Emergence and Demise of the Middle Woodland Small-Tool Tradition in the American Bottom
Andrew Fortier
pp. 191-213
Middle Woodland lithic assemblages were derived from three technological trajectories or traditions: core, flake, and blade industries, each of which produces both formal and informal as well as bifacial and unifacial tool forms. The diachronic significance of these industries, their origin, and their eventual disappearance in the American Bottom of Illinois are subjects of this article. Characteristic of Middle Woodland assemblages in this area are small blade and flake tools, representing a small-tool tradition. This small-tool tradition excludes the better-known large bifacial tools of this period and all core tools. Diversity within the blade and flake small-tool tradition is examined, and blade tool categories are defined. The small-tool assemblage itself is characterized as generalized and having functional multiplicity. Lithic tool diversity is seen as a hallmark of Havana/Hopewell in the American Bottom but paralleled the fate of many other aspects of Hopewellian culture and did not survive into the subsequent Late Woodland stage.

Toward an "Intrinsic Characteristics" Approach to Chert Raw Material Classification: An American Bottom Example
Dale L. McElrath and Thomas E. Emerson
pp. 215-244
Most archaeologists use a geologic source-based system for typing chert raw material from archaeological sites. This method primarily addresses the local vs. nonlocal origin of raw material in lithic assemblages and other questions relevant to the organization of lithic technology. We examine ways to enhance this system by recognizing the "intrinsic characteristics" (e.g., color, quality, and workability) in archaeologically recovered chert raw material that would have been of concern to prehistoric people. We believe study of these characteristics better recognizes elements of "style" within traditions of lithic manipulation. We provide three examples from southwestern Illinois of intersite and intrasite lithic raw material patterning to illustrate how this additional information can provide more nuanced insights into the social aspects of chert acquisition and manipulation.

Middle Woodland and Oneota Contexts for Wild Rice Exploitation in Southwestern Wisconsin
Constance Arzigian
pp. 245-268
Wild rice is traditionally viewed as a staple of subsistence strategies from the Late Woodland period to the present in northern Wisconsin and northern Minnesota, but cultures elsewhere in Wisconsin also exploited the grain. Horticultural Millville phase Middle Woodland cultures at Prairie du Chien and agricultural Oneota populations at La Crosse both harvested wild rice as part of a mixed economy. The evidence and contexts for this intermittent exploitation of wild rice in southwestern Wisconsin are presented.

An Apparent Late Woodland Boundary in Western Wisconsin
Robert F. Boszhardt and Natalie Goetz
pp. 269-287
The Effigy Mound culture of southern Wisconsin has been examined for well over a century. Until recently, differential distributions of mound forms have been largely ignored. Investigations in the Driftless Area of western Wisconsin reveal a quantifiable distinction in selected effigy mound forms, with sharp spatial separation between the adjacent Bad Axe and Coon Creek drainages. This segregation is also reflected in projectile point styles, preferred lithic raw materials, and ceramics, suggesting a distinct boundary between Late Woodland groups of the southern (Eastman phase) and northern (provisional Lewis phase) portions of the Driftless Area. These data have implications for the emergence of nucleated Oneota groups at Red Wing and Apple River.

The End of the Effigy Mound Culture: The Late Woodland to Oneota Transition in Southwestern Wisconsin
James L. Theler and Robert F. Boszhardt
pp. 289-312
Research in the Bad Axe River drainage of southwestern Wisconsin's Driftless Area has produced new data on settlement and subsistence patterns at the end of the Late Woodland "Effigy Mound culture." The inferred changes include a move to year-round occupation of small, interior valleys, corresponding to a regional population increase. Smaller valleys such as the Bad Axe are notable for their effigy-only mound groups that seem to characterize the end of the Effigy Mound culture. It is suggested that, with regional population increases, there were shifts in technology, particularly the adoption of the bow and arrow; an investment in maize horticulture; a transition from bands to tribes; and interaction with the Mississippian culture area to the south. Many small, interior valleys of southwestern Wisconsin, capable of supporting residential groups, were filled and defended. The flexible annual subsistence round of earlier centuries was broken, and within decades, incipient tribes would abandon the Driftless Area and nucleate at agricultural centers at Red Wing and Apple River as the Oneota.

A Summary of the DeCamp and West Des Moines Great Oasis Burial Sites in Central Iowa
Lynn M. Alex and Joseph A. Tiffany
pp. 313-351
The West Des Moines Burial site (13PK38) and the DeCamp site (13DA64), two central Iowa Great Oasis culture sites, were discovered and excavated in the mid-1960s under difficult circumstances and with minimal professional supervision. Despite notoriety and speculation surrounding the discovery of cross-shaped shell artifacts at 13PK38, neither site has been thoroughly reported except for the poorly documented human remains. This article summarizes the history of fieldwork and discoveries at the sites, reviews the osteological analyses of the human remains, and proposes mortuary patterns. We conclude that the two sites represent large cemeteries of predominantly primary interments. Minimal status differentiation can be identified. Purported evidence of interaction with Middle Mississippian communities is not substantiated. External contact is evident only in the presence of nonlocal Leptoxis shell and small amounts of chipped stone raw material.

Exchange and Risk Management in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, A.D. 1000-1200
Fred A. Finney
pp. 353-376
A group of Cahokia-contact sites occurs in the Upper Mississippi River valley and dates to A.D. 1000-1200. This group of sites is referred to as the Upper Mississippi Valley Interaction Sphere (UMVIS) because they were part of a loosely grouped exchange network. Previous interpretations of UMVIS sites emphasized their possible role in a resource procurement network for the benefit of elites at Cahokia. That model does not fit archaeological evidence accumulated over the past two decades. Instead, exchange activities among the UMVIS sites are viewed as a risk management strategy for coping with potential year-to-year variations in local food supply.

On Jim Stoltman
Stephen Williams
pp. 377-378