A LOOK AT THE MAYA COLLAPSE • RESOLVING A HOPEWELL DEBATE • DIGGING A LEGENDARY SITE american archaeologyFALL 2006 a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy Vol. 10 No. 3

THETHE STUDSTUDYY OFOF AncientAncient RemainsRemains $3.95

american archaeology a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy Vol. 10 No. 3 fall 2006

COVER FEATURE 12 WHAT ANCIENT BONES REVEAL BY ANDREW LAWLER We are learning more about some of the New World’s earliest inhabitants through the study of ancient human remains.

19 EXCAVATING A LEGENDARY SITE BY TONY REICHHARDT Archaeologists are investigating Werocomoco, the site of the famous encounter between Captain John Smith and Pocahontas.

26 A PICTURE OF THE MAYA COLLAPSE BY MICHAEL BAWAYA Cancuen, in Guatemala, could provide clear evidence of the Maya’s decline. CLARK

12 CHIP 33 PUTTING DOWN ROOTS? BY KELLI WHITLOCK BURTON Little is known about Hopewell domestic life. Were they sedentary or mobile hunter-gatherers? An investigation of the Brown’s Bottom site could help answer this question.

38 AN UNLIKELY ALLIANCE BY ELIZABETH LUNDAY

A collaboration among archaeologists, collectors, and Native RABINOWITZ Americans resulted in a huge collection of artifacts being Y

26 JERR returned to the Chickasaw Nation.

44 new acquisition 2 Lay of the Land A PREHISTORIC MOUND IS SAVED 3 Letters The Conservancy obtains a Coles Creek mound in Louisiana. 5 Events 45 new acquisition SHEDDING LIGHT ON THE CADDO 7 In the News Pine Tree Mound could tell us much about this fascinating culture. Maui Temples Older Than Thought • Nevada Rock Art Theft Conviction 46 new acquisition Overturned • Basque Tree Carvings CONSERVANCY PURCHASES SIGNIFICANT MESA VERDE COBBLE PUEBLO 50 Field Notes Seller takes advantage of conservation law. 52 Reviews 47 point acquisition 54 Expeditions THE VESTIGES OF THE MISSISSIPPIANS The Conservancy acquires part of a mound group related to COVER: Forensic anthropologist Douglas Owsley Cahokia. (right) led a team of scientists that recently examined Kennewick Man. In order to conduct their 48 point acquisition research, Owsley’s team assembled the nearly A PICTURE OF THE SENECA 400 pieces of bone that make up the skeleton. Bosley’s Mill is rich in Seneca culture. Photograph by Chip Clark american archaeology 1 Lay of the Land

The Value of Studying Ancient Human Remains espite years of research, ar- modern science is making dramatic chaeologists still know little of discoveries every day. Ancient DNA the earliest Americans—those is beginning to be coaxed from an-

D POORE people who migrated to the Americas cient skeletons in order to identify from Siberia (or Europe?) some their ancestors and descendants. This

13,000 (or was it 30,000?) years ago. DNA can be matched with popula- D A R R E N We have lots of Clovis points, a few tions around the world to trace the MARK MICHEL, President other stone tools, and little else. We migration patterns of modern humans. have only seven or eight largely in- Sadly, some Native Americans there is much to learn from the scien- tact skeletons that are more than have joined the anti-science move- tific study of ancient skeletons. There 9,000 years old and perhaps another ment in our country and they are is no reason why ancient skeletons dozen partials. Not much to go on, pressing to rebury ancient skeletons cannot be treated with respect, stud- but that has not stopped modern ar- without first obtaining data that would ied, and then reburied. This is an chaeologists from applying sophisti- illuminate their origins and lifestyles. issue that calls out for compromise cated new techniques to understand- Irresponsible federal officials actively between science and tradition. Failing ing these early Americans (see “What support this movement because it is to do so makes us all the losers. Ancient Bones Reveal,” page 12). the course of least resistance. Old bones have much to say, and Kennewick Man has proved that

2 fall • 2006 Letters

Overstating The Case I enjoy the Editor’s Corner magazine and Some archaeologists working in the developing world have come value the infor- to the conclusion that to practice their profession they have to do mation you pro- much more than practice their profession. As nonsensical as that vide. But I was may sound, it is nonetheless true for a group of researchers irritated by the who has embraced the philosophy of community archaeology. subhead of the Arthur Demarest is one of those people. Demarest, the feature article “A director of Vanderbilt University’s Institute of Mesoamerican Controversy on the Anthropology and Development, codirects the Cancuen Great Plains” in the Summer 2006 issue. “Is it archaeological project (see “A Picture of the Maya Collapse, (the Hudson-Meng Bone Bed site) one of the page 26) in the Petén rainforest in Guatemala. He says that many most important archaeological discoveries in archaeologists in the Maya region spend a few years excavating a the world?” The world? How could that possi- site with the help of the local people, many of whom are bly be the case? Even if this site is everything descendants of the ancient Maya, and when the project concludes it is claimed to be, it is still of little more than the locals suddenly have no income. Out of desperation, they local significance. often resort to looting and slash and burn agriculture to survive. It is generally accepted that people have “I think archaeology transforms a region,” Demarest observes. probably been in the Americas longer than the “It can make everybody rich, or it can destroy the area.” Clovis-First adherents have traditionally al- Demarest and a number of his colleagues working in the lowed. The Hudson-Meng site may add to that Maya world are using archaeology as a tool to transform it for the evidence, but it adds little else. If the site is better. His Cancuen project has received extensive media coverage what remains of a man-made buffalo jump, for its discoveries, but its noteworthy non-archaeological then it is still only one of several of these sites. accomplishments get far less attention. A booklet describing the Please use restraint when composing scope of the project mentions the “parallel programs of headlines. excavation, restoration, and indigenous community development C. P. Henson and involving ourselves with interactive participation and Wilton, Connecticut decision-making by the local Q’eqchi’ village committees. Only through such socially responsible archaeology and community development can we assure that the ruins and parks will be Sending Letters to preserved and protected.” These are ambitious goals, and Demarest and his crew aim American Archaeology to accomplish them by helping the living Maya help themselves. The local people manage the Cancuen Archaeological Park and American Archaeology welcomes Demarest says the money they earn pays for such critical things your letters. Write to us at 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, as medical supplies, school expansions, and systems that provide Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, or potable water. In the process they also become stakeholders in send us e-mail at [email protected]. We reserve the project. the right to edit and publish letters Consequently, to Demarest and others who share his in the magazine’s Letters department as space philosophy, the notion that there’s much more to archaeology permits. Please include your name, address, and than archaeology makes perfect sense. telephone number with all correspondence, including e-mail messages.

american archaeology 3 WELCOME TO ®

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 CONSERVANCY! Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517 • (505) 266-1540 www.americanarchaeology.org

he Archaeological Conservancy Board of Directors is the only national nonprofit Vincas Steponaitis, North Carolina, CHAIRMAN organization that identifies, Cecil F. Antone, Arizona • Carol Condie, New Mexico acquires, and preserves the most Donald Craib, Virginia • Janet Creighton, Washington • Janet EtsHokin, Illinois significant archaeological sites in the Jerry EtsHokin, Illinois • Jerry Golden, Colorado • W. James Judge, Colorado t • United States. Since its beginning in Jay T. Last, California Dorinda Oliver, New York 1980, the Conservancy has preserved Rosamond Stanton, Montana • Dee Ann Story, Texas more than 330 sites across the nation, Stewart L. Udall, New Mexico • Gordon Wilson, New Mexico ranging in age from the earliest Conservancy Staff habitation sites in North America to Mark Michel, President • Tione Joseph, Business Manager a 19th-century frontier army post. Lorna Wolf, Membership Director • Sarah Tiberi, Special Projects Director We are building a national system of Shelley Smith, Membership Assistant • Valerie Gonzales, Administrative Assistant Yvonne Waters, Administrative Assistant archaeological preserves to ensure the survival of our irreplaceable Regional Offices and Directors cultural heritage. Jim Walker, Vice President, Southwest Region (505) 266-1540 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 • Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108 Why Save Archaeological Sites? Tamara Stewart, Projects Coordinator • Steve Koczan, Site-Management Coordinator The ancient people of North America Amy Espinoza-Ar, Field Representative left virtually no written records of their Paul Gardner, Vice President, Midwest Region (614) 267-1100 cultures. Clues that might someday solve 3620 N. High St. #307 • Columbus, Ohio 43214 the mysteries of prehistoric America are Terry McQuown, Field Representative still missing, and when a ruin is destroyed by looters, or leveled for a Jessica Crawford, Southeast Region (770) 975-4344 shopping center, precious information is 225 Crawford Rd. • Lambert, Mississippi 38643 lost. By permanently preserving Gene Hurych, Western Region (916) 399-1193 endangered ruins, we make sure they 1 Shoal Court #67 • Sacramento, California 95831 will be here for future generations to study and enjoy. Andy Stout, Eastern Region, (301) 682-6359 8 E. 2nd. St. #200 • Frederick, Maryland 21701 How We Raise Funds: Funds for the Conservancy come from ® membership dues, individual contributions, corporations, and american archaeology foundations. Gifts and bequests of PUBLISHER: Mark Michel money, land, and securities are fully tax EDITOR: Michael Bawaya (505) 266-9668, [email protected] deductible under section 501(c)(3) of the ASSISTANT EDITOR: Tamara Stewart Internal Revenue Code. Planned giving ART DIRECTOR: Vicki Marie Singer, [email protected] provides donors with substantial tax deductions and a variety of beneficiary Editorial Advisory Board possibilities. For more information, call Scott Anfinson, Minnesota Historic Preservation • Jan Biella, New Mexico Deputy SHPO Mark Michel at (505) 266-1540. Todd Bostwick, Phoenix City Archaeologist • Linda Derry, Alabama Historical Commission Mark Esarey, Cahokia Mounds State Park • Barbara Heath, University of Kentucky The Role of the Magazine: Trinkle Jones, National Park Service • Peggy McGuckian, Bureau of Land Management American Archaeology is the only Sarah Neusius, Indiana University of Penn. • Claudine Payne, Arkansas Archaeological Survey popular magazine devoted to Douglas Perrelli, SUNY-Buffalo • Judyth Reed, Bureau of Land Management presenting the rich diversity of Joe Saunders, University of Louisiana-Monroe • Kevin Smith, Middle Tennessee State University archaeology in the Americas. The Fern Swensen, North Dakota Deputy SHPO • Ruth Van Dyke, Colorado College purpose of the magazine is to help Robert Wall, Towson University • Rob Whitlam, Washington State Archaeologist readers appreciate and understand the Richard Woodbury, University of Massachusetts • Don Wyckoff, University of Oklahoma archaeological wonders available to them, and to raise their awareness of National Advertising Office the destruction of our cultural heritage. Marcia Ulibarri, Advertising Representative By sharing new discoveries, research, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108; and activities in an enjoyable and (505) 344-6018; Fax (505) 345-3430; [email protected] informative way, we hope we can make learning about ancient America American Archaeology (ISSN 1093-8400) is published quarterly by The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. Title registered U.S. Pat. and TM Office, © 2006 by TAC. Printed in the United as exciting as it is essential. States. Periodicals postage paid Albuquerque, NM, and additional mailing offices. Single copies are $3.95. A one-year mem- bership to the Conservancy is $25 and includes receipt of American Archaeology. Of the member’s dues, $6 is designated for How to Say Hello: By mail: a one-year magazine subscription. READERS: For new memberships, renewals, or change of address, write to The Archaeo- The Archaeological Conservancy, logical Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, or call (505) 266-1540. For changes 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, of address, include old and new addresses. Articles are published for educational purposes and do not necessarily reflect the Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; views of the Conservancy, its editorial board, or American Archaeology. Article proposals and artwork should be addressed to the editor. No responsibility assumed for unsolicited material. All articles receive expert review. POSTMASTER: Send address by phone: (505) 266-1540; changes to American Archaeology, The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM by e-mail: [email protected]; or visit our 87108-1517; (505) 266-1540. All rights reserved. Web site: www.americanarchaeology.org American Archaeology does not accept advertising from dealers in archaeological artifacts or antiquities.

4 fall • 2006 Museum exhibits • Tours • Festivals Meetings • Education • Conferences Events

 NEW EXHIBITS woven and ornamented dance blankets,

T Interior Museum fishing hooks, finely carved and painted

AR Washington, D.C.—The centennial masks of supernatural creatures, and O F of the Antiquities Act, which pro- spoons carved from the horns of moun- tects natural and cultural treasures tain goats. (202) 633-1000, www.ameri- U S E U M M on public lands, is celebrated in the canindian.si.edu (Through May 2007) new exhibit “The Antiquities Act of 1906 and the National Park Service: Ohio Historical Center P H I L B R O O K A Century of Archeology, Conserva- Columbus, Ohio—The ambitious traveling ex- tion and Preservation.” Including hibit “EarthWorks: Virtual Explorations of the materials and artifacts from Fort Jef- Ancient Ohio Valley” includes virtual recon- Mint Museum ferson in the Florida Keys to Zion structions of earthworks from 39 sites of the National Park in Utah, the exhibi- Adena, Hopewell, and Fort Ancient cultures. of Craft + Design tion is a sampling of the various re- From as early as 600 B.C., native cultures that Charlotte, N.C.—Showcasing more sources the National Park Service is once flourished in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, than 100 baskets dating from the late 19th to the mid-20th century, charged with safeguarding. (202) and West Virginia built massive geometric and the new exhibit “Woven Worlds: 208-4743, www.doi.gov/interiormu- animal-shaped earthworks that often rivaled Basketry from the Clark Field seum (New long-term exhibit) Stonehenge in their astronomical accuracy. Most Collection” honors tribes from the of this ancient architecture has been destroyed United States, Canada, and northern National Museum of through development and agricultural prac- Mexico. Masterpieces from nearly the American Indian tices, but it is brought back to life in these 80 culturally and geographically Smithsonian Institution, Washing- amazing electronic re-creations. (614) 297-2300, diverse groups are represented, ranging from the Southeastern U.S. ton, D.C.—The new exhibit “Listen- www.ohiohistory.org (October 4–January 14) to the Artic. Historical photographs ing to Our Ancestors: The Art of and textiles help tell the story of Native Life along the North Pacific  CONFERENCES, Field’s passion for American Indian Coast” explores the art and culture LECTURES & FESTIVALS basketry, which took him on a of native peoples along the coast Archaeological Sciences 125,000-mile journey to at least of Washington State, British Colum- of the Americas Symposium 142 different tribes between 1915 bia, and Alaska. More than 400 cer- September 13–16, University of Arizona, and 1966. The exhibition, one of the most comprehensive and well- emonial and everyday objects will Tucson. The Biennial Symposium will focus documented collections of Native be on display, including intricately on studies, techniques, and approaches that em- American basketry, is drawn from phasize the analysis and interpretation of prehis- the permanent collection of Tulsa, toric and historic materials, human cultures, and Oklahoma’s Philbrook Museum of Art. (704) 337-2000, www.mintmuseum.org (September 9–December 31) San Bernardino County Museum Redlands, Calif.—The latest exhibit in the museum’s Native

MUSEUM American Tradition series, “Pottery from the Pueblos” showcases 200 pieces of pottery from the pueblos of New Mexico and the

COUNTY Four Corners region of the American Southwest, many of which have never before been on public display. Ceramic pieces date from the 1880s to the mid-20th century and reflect the ancient ceramic traditions of Anasazi, Hohokam, Mogollon, Mimbres,

BERNARDINO and other prehistoric cultures. (909) 307-2669,

S A N www.co.san-bernardino.ca.us/museum/ (Through November 5) american archaeology 5 Abbe Museum Bar Harbor, Maine—The major new exhibit “Native American Beadwork of the Northeast” introduces visitors to the delicate, intricate beadwork created in the 1880s by native women of New England and eastern Canada. The exhibit features many Events outstanding examples of 19th-century beaded apparel of the Wabanaki and the Iroquois. In addition to exploring the historical development of

bead working as an art and a subsistence practice MUSEUM for native women, the exhibit shows its contribution to late 19th-century art and fashion. (207) 288- A B B E 3519, www.abbemuseum.org (Through December 30)

ecology. Researchers at all levels of expe- rience and training are invited to partici- Antiquities Centennial Festival pate. Contact R. Emerson Howell at October 21, Horseshoe Ranch in Agua TURE CUL

[email protected] or Fria National Monument, north of & http://asas06.ltc.arizona.edu/ Phoenix, Ariz. Join the Bureau of Land T S AR Management and friends to celebrate the

52nd Annual Midwest 100th anniversary of the Antiquities Act I N D I A N F

Archaeological Conference through a series of projects, exhibits, and O October 12–15, Holiday Inn Hotel and events. Contact Kathy Pedrick at (602) USEUM

Conference Center, Champaign-Urbana, Ill. 417-9235, Christine Tincher at (623) 580- M The conference features papers, posters, 5509, or www.blm.gov/az. Museum of Indian and symposia covering Midwest archaeo- logical topics. A reception will be held at Annual Meeting of the Arts & Culture the conference hotel celebrating the 50th Texas Archeological Society Santa Fe, N.M.—“The anniversary of the Illinois Archaeological October 20–22, San Angelo Inn and Con- Secrets of Casas Survey. The featured speaker at the Illinois vention Center, San Angelo, Tex. Archaeol- Grande” focuses on the Archaeology Banquet Dinner will be ogists from around the state present papers, archaeology and ceramics of Casas Grandes, a little- Stephen Lekson. Contact Eve Hargrave posters, and exhibits. A free public forum known pre-Hispanic at (217) 244-8883, [email protected], or will be held Friday evening, featuring culture that lived in www.midwestarchaeology.org archaeologist Doug Boyd’s talk “Tales of northern Mexico. The city the Dead: The Archeology of Forgotten of Casas Grandes was a Peabody Museum’s Historic Cemeteries.” Field trips will be major center of trade and Weekend of the Americas held on Sunday. Contact Pam Wheet at interaction that blended October 13–15, Peabody Museum, Har- (800) 377-7240, Claude Hudspeth at (325) elements of Southwestern and Mesoamerican vard University, Cambridge, Mass. This 949-9077, [email protected], cultures. Its artisans fall, leading Maya archaeologists and epig- or www.txarch.org made striking, intricately raphers from around the country will painted vessels that gather to discuss the spectacular inscribed Southeastern Archaeological Conference feature elaborate monumental stairways of the Maya world November 8–11, DoubleTree Hotel, Little symbolic imagery and during the “Stairways to Immortality: An- Rock, Ark. The conference features sym- appear to tell stories of cestors, Heroes, and Warriors” weekend. posia, paper, and poster presentations humans as well as supernatural beings, and The Hieroglyphic Stairway of Copán, Hon- about Southeastern archaeology, with a other fantastic creatures. duras bears the lengthiest hieroglyphic Thursday evening reception at the Old (505) 476-1250, text of the pre-Columbian Americas. Join State House Museum. Tour the Toltec www.miaclab.org Maya scholars for a discussion of the de- Mounds site on Saturday, followed by a (Opens November 5) tective and decipherment work involved barbecue and catfish dinner at Toltec in reconstructing this famous monument Mounds Archeological Park. A new ex- and learn what it reveals about ancient hibit on the archaeology of Arkansas will Maya history, religion, and the iconogra- be on display at the Old State House Mu- phy of power. Contact Pamela Gerardi at seum. Contact Claudine Payne at (870) (617) 496-1027, [email protected], 532-9104, [email protected], or www.peabody.harvard.edu/ or www.southeasternarchaeology.org

6 fall • 2006 Hawaiian Temples Centuries in the Older Than Previously Thought NEWS Construction phases paralleled political shifts in the kingdom of Maui.

he ancient temple system on the island of Maui is Tabout 400 years older than previously thought, according to a recent investigation. The study also found that the network of temples was constructed over a period of 500 years, and not within a few decades around A.D. 1600, as previously thought. Michael Kolb of Northern Illinois University, who has been locating and excavating temple sites on Maui since 1989, con- ducted radiocarbon dating on charcoal samples from 40 temple

L ruins. According to the results, the earliest temples were built in COLWEL the 13th century. The oldest is NEIL Pihana temple, located in The huge temple Pi'ilanihale dates to the late 13th century. This illustration shows what it is thought Halekii-Pihana State Park, which to have looked like in the 1600s. The temple covered an area larger than a football field. dates to A.D. 1214. Hawaii’s largest temple, Pi’ilanihale in east tury period shows an expansion of the sacrificial worship and reward of the Maui, dates to A.D. 1294. The political hierarchy into separate, com- chief’s loyal attendants and warriors. massive complex is larger in area peting kingdoms in east and west Maui. “Temples become more exclusive, more than a football field. The 16th- and 17th-century data reflect focused on the chief,” Kolb explained. Kolb’s study identifies four an emphasis on island unification, when “What we know from oral tradition is major periods of construction, leaders vied for the position of high that the high chief becomes the most expansion, and renovation that chief. The latest construction period, primary religious person, representing correlate with important social from the 18th and early 19th centuries, the gods on earth.” and political trends that are shows interisland competition among Of the 250 temples that once stood known from oral traditions. “It’s chiefs attempting to expand their power on Maui, about 120 ruins remain. After clear that the temples progressed and secure food and resources for Christianity was introduced to the island with Hawaiian society as it de- growing populations. in 1820, most were destroyed or aban- veloped,” he explained. The ear- Temple architecture reflects this so- doned. Many native Hawaiians still con- liest construction period reflects ciopolitical trajectory, Kolb said, as early sider the ancient temples, or heiau, as the emergence of a proto-state in open-air temples used for community sacred. Before excavating them, Kolb which distinct districts form and ancestral worship gave way in the mid- said his team observed environmental individual chiefs begin to consol- 1400s to elaborate, enclosed structures and religious protocols set by the local idate their power. The 14th-cen- accessible only to the elite and used for communities.—Elizabeth Wolf american archaeology 7 in the NEWS Nevada Rock Art Theft Conviction Overturned Ruling seen as a setback for ARPA convictions.

U.S. appeals court recently re- fused a petition by the Justice A Department to rehear a case against two men who admitted to stealing rock art panels from the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest near Reno, Nevada, in August 2003. Ninth Circuit Court Judge William Fletcher stated that the government OREST failed to prove the rock art panels F had a market value of $1,000 under TIONAL

the theft of government property NA statute. A B E

The defendants were convicted OIY by a jury of theft of government -T property in a lower court; but the

jury also acquitted the defendants of HUMBOLDT charges under the Archaeological Re- This is one of the three boulders with rock art panels that were stolen from the Humboldt-Toiyabe sources Protection Act (ARPA), National Forest. The defendant’s used a winch to remove the boulders. which has been interpreted by courts to require that the defendants sources here in the West,” said things, but apparently not fast knew they were removing an ar- Alanah Woody, an anthropologist at enough,” said Woody. “In the long chaeological resource of scientific the Nevada State Museum and execu- run, education is the only hope to value from federal or Indian land. tive director of the Nevada Rock Art protect cultural resources—education The defendants subsequently ap- Foundation. “In a case like this, and the involvement by local people pealed their theft conviction to the where everyone knows the men took in site protection.” The Nevada Rock Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. the boulders and yet the ruling Art Foundation works to record and The two defendants, John Ligon against them is overturned, it cer- monitor rock art sites across the state of Reno and Carroll Mizell of Van tainly must discourage federal agen- and undertakes a lot of public educa- Nuys, California, used a winch to re- cies from going to the expense of tion. “If people understand that these move three boulders that contained prosecution in less obvious cases.” sites matter, to themselves as well as ancient images of an archer and a big The Forest Service is required to everyone else, there is hope.” horn sheep from posted Forest Ser- by federal regulations to keep the lo- Elise Foster, attorney for the For- vice land. The boulders were taken to cations of archaeological sites on its est Service, is reviewing the case for Ligon’s home. While the theft is not lands confidential. Consequently, the a potential administrative civil action in dispute, the defendants claimed rock art site was not posted, and the against the defendants for damages they did not know the rock art panels Forest Service had closed the nearest to the rock art panels under ARPA. If were of archaeological value, and access road, moved a trailhead to successful, civil penalties of more therefore they were acquitted of the lead people away from the site, and than $21,000 could be levied against ARPA charge in district court. begun discussions with two local the two men, monies that would be “I think the repercussions of this tribes about how best to protect the directly applied to the restoration ruling are pretty important to the fu- petroglyphs when the theft occurred. and conservation of the site. ture protection of all cultural re- “They were doing all the right —Tamara Stewart

8 fall • 2006 in the Archaeologists NEWS Discover Ancient Use of Lava Tubes People used cave-like features as long as 5,000 years ago.

esearchers exploring cave-like formations known as lava Rtubes in central Oregon have discovered various artifacts that indi- cate they were used by humans as long as 5,000 years ago. A University of Oregon field school, working in collaboration with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the City of Redmond, recently completed a five- year project investigating five lava tubes located on the city’s outskirts. These tubes resulted from the flow of ancient lava. The exterior of flowing lava hardens as it’s cooled by the air. When the flow stops, the hot- ter interior lava drains, creating a for- mation resembling a cave. “There’s somewhere in the neighborhood of GRADY ’

O 450 of them in central Oregon,” said

RICK Patrick O’Grady, a University of Ore-

PAT gon archaeologist who directed the investigation. The five Redmond lava The archaeologists found undisturbed cultural deposits under chunks of lava that had fallen from the tubes vary in size and shape, the roof of the largest lava tube. Only two of the five lava tubes had undisturbed deposits. largest being 15 feet high and 600 feet long, the smallest a narrow found about 25 of them this year. The area that had been covered by chunks opening about 15 feet long. points suggest that native peoples of lava that had fallen from the roof. The intent of the investigation used the lava tubes from about 5,000 Residents of the area have told him was to find out who used the lava years ago until the beginning of the that the looting dates to at least the tubes and for what purpose. Based 1800s, when Euro-Americans made late 1920s and that it continued for on the style of the projectile points their way to this area. He believes decades. “It was a well-known loca- they’ve recovered, O’Grady said the people used them for short periods tion for kids to go have parties,” O’- lava tubes were used by the Great of time due to the relatively thin Grady said of the largest tube. They Basin and Columbia Plateau peoples. cultural deposits and the lack of vari- found undisturbed deposits in only They’ve also recovered marine shell ety in the artifact assemblage. one of the other four tubes. beads, stone beads, and bone tools, The lava tubes “have been exten- The 40-acre site is on BLM prop- including a beautiful elk antler dig- sively looted,” O’Grady said, and that erty, and the agency is working with ging stick handle. has hindered the investigation. The ar- the City of Redmond to make it a O’Grady said the projectile chaeologists didn’t find any intact de- park that would serve both educa- points “are the most telling of the ar- posits in the largest of the tubes until tional and recreational purposes. tifacts,” and he added that they’ve this season, when they excavated an —Michael Bawaya american archaeology 9 in the Basque Tree Carvings NEWS Documented in Southern Idaho Arborglyphs offer a glimpse of these little-known immigrants.

n interdisciplinary team of re- searchers has documented over A 500 arborglyphs—tree carv- ings—by Basque sheepherders in southern Idaho. The team, led by John Bieter, executive director of the Cenarrusa Center for Basque Studies at Boise State University, and Forest Service archaeologist Susie Osgood, finished its third field season in July. The Bureau of Land Management and Boise State students also partici- pated in the study. Basques hail from a semiau- tonomous region in the Pyrenees that straddles northern Spain and south- ern France. Of mysterious origin,

Basques speak a language, Euskara, STUDIES unlike any in the world and are

believed to be among the oldest in- B A S Q U E

habitants of Europe. The Basque F O R Country sits in the center of the fa-

mous Paleolithic cave-painting region C E N T E R that includes the Lascaux cave. During the Gold Rush in the 1850s, Basques

who had previously settled in South CENARRUSA America migrated to the American It’s estimated that there may be as many as a half million arborglyphs in a number of Western states. West. There they gained a foothold in the sheep industry that lasted until They provide a glimpse of the lives nods to the herders’ hometowns. the 1970s. of a solitary, nomadic group that left Each carving is documented by “Leisure time, loneliness, and few written records. photography and videotape, and the trees” account for the unusual phe- Mallea-Olaetxe, of the University latter often includes commentary by nomenon of arborglyphs, Basque his- of Nevada, Reno, has identified tens a Euskara-speaking researcher, such torian Joxe Mallea-Olaetxe once said. of thousands of marked trees since as Bieter, who can detect nuances of Early western sheepherders, many of he began researching his ancestors’ meaning that would be lost on an them Basque, produced an estimated carvings in California and Nevada in outsider. “Having Basque participants half million etchings in aspen groves 1989. In 2004, he helped launch the has added a depth of understanding throughout the high country of Cali- study of arborglyphs in southern we otherwise would not have had,” fornia, Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, and Idaho, where a large and active Osgood remarked. Eventually, a other states. The carvings, many of Basque American community resides. database of the carvings will be avail- which were done in the latter half of The majority of them are names and able through the website of the Boise the 19th century, range from crude dates—the common “I was here” of Basque Museum and Cultural Center scratches to artful sketches in bark. the graffitist. Others are nostalgic said Bieter.—Elizabeth Wolf

10 fall • 2006 Archaeologists in the Find Tlingit Fort Russian forces took the fort in an important 19th-century battle. NEWS ational Park Service archaeologists working in Alaska’s Sitka National Historical Park believe they have located Na fort used by the Tlingit tribe to defend against an attack by Russian forces in 1804. The archaeologists, led by William Hunt, were conducting a survey of the park’s archaeological sites. “We’ve established pretty well where this old fort was,” said Hunt. “We found the battlefield.” Employing metal detectors, remote sensing, and limited excavating, the archaeologists found Russian musket balls and cannon shot. They also detected remote sensing anomalies that suggest aspects of the fort known from histori- cal documents. It’s believed that the Tlingit (pronounced CLING’-kit) held off the Russians for six days before retreating to safety. “It was a major event for the Russians because it allowed them to es- tablish the capital of the Russian colonies,” Hunt said. Sitka became the capital of Russian territories that extended from Alaska down the Pacific coast to northern California. The Tlingit returned to Sitka the next year and they’ve remained there ever since. Hunt’s crew has also discovered several prehistoric sites and some mid-to late 19th-century Russian and American sites that speak to Alaska’s transition from Russian to American NPS control. The Unites States acquired Alaska in 1867. A member of the National Park Service’s research team uses a metal —Michael Bawaya detector to search for underground objects. Ancient Site Affected by Katrina The hurricane destroyed part of the site and an adjacent road on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. rchaeologists working in ad- partment of Transportation. also severely damaged the road and vance of a construction project The site was discovered in 1995 ripped out all the utility works that Ato restore a coastal road and when archaeologists with the U.S. were beneath it. Underwood called bridge damaged by Hurricane Kat- Army Corps of Engineers took core the destruction “mind boggling.” As rina have identified a prehistoric samples prior to the planned con- a result, the city of Bay St. Louis is midden that was partially destroyed struction of a sea wall. But the core faced with the choice of repairing the by the hurricane. The intact portion samples revealed very little informa- utilities and leaving them beneath the of the site could be affected by the tion about the site. “They found sig- reconstructed road, which wouldn’t imminent road construction work. nificantly more information about the disturb the midden, or placing them In addition to determining the site,” Underwood said5 of the recent next to the road, which would dis- site’s boundaries, the archaeologists work. “It’s definitely a midden.” The turb the site and require mitigation. recovered ceramic sherds that suggest midden suggests a substantial occu- The advantage of the latter option is the site was inhabited by the pation, but the archaeologists won’t that the city wouldn’t have to close Marksville people between 200 B.C. know if the site was occupied year- the road every time the utility lines and A.D. 400. Marksville artifacts are round or seasonally until pollen and needed repair. “The city is still de- found throughout much of Mississippi other analyses are completed. bating how it will deal with the ar- according to John Underwood, an ar- The hurricane destroyed the chaeology,” Underwood said. chaeologist with the Mississippi De- southern half of the midden. Katrina —Tamara Stewart

american archaeology 11 WHAWHATT AncientAncient BonesBones REVEALREVEAL

Kennewick MaMann is just one of a number of ancient human remains that have been examined by researchers. Due to technological advances we are learning more about a few of the New World’s earliest

inhabitants. A plastic replica of Kennewick By Andrew Lawler Man’s skull.

hen two young men wading in the Columbia nine millennia ago. The rancorous legal fight instead was River on a lazy summer day stumbled on a over whether scientists could study his bones or whether skull and bones a decade ago, the remains they should be reburied as sacred ancestral remains of looked so fresh that police taped off the area today’s native peoples. as a possible crime scene. The human skele- Dubbed Kennewick Man, the skeleton quickly be- tWon—a scattering of 380 pieces—sparked a highly publi- came the central figure in the ongoing debate over how to cized court case that made national headlines for years. A handle ancient human skeletons. After recently winning a

projectile point injury hinted at foul play, but the crime nine-year-long legal struggle, scientists are busy analyzing CLARK

wasn’t murder—this dead man passed away more than data gleaned from two intensive rounds of laboratory tests. CHIP

12 fall • 2006 Smithsonian Institution researchers gently brush the approximately 11,000-year-old remains of an individual found at

CLARK the Arch Lake site

CHIP in New Mexico.

The researchers now believe that Kennewick Man was Kennewick Man was an able paddler and atlatl thrower. carefully and respectfully buried on his back after surviv- Kennewick Man, who is housed in the Burke ing a broken rib, mild arthritis, and a projectile point Museum at the University of Washington in Seattle, is the lodged in his hip before he died of unknown causes most famous of seven or eight sets of largely intact remains roughly around the age of 40. “He led a hard life, but he and another 12 or so partial sets that are roughly 9,000 was very robust,” says Douglas Owsley, a forensic an- to 11,000 years old and are located across the country. thropologist with the Smithsonian Institution, who over- These remains provide Owsley and other scientists the saw the tests. A strong right arm suggests that the 5’9” tall opportunity to apply their increasingly sophisticated american archaeology 13 hands at his side, palms down, and feet relaxed. His head was raised slightly, looking toward his feet. “It is a burial,” says Owsley. His bones had abrasions caused by flowing water. The abrasions were recent, indicating that the water exposed the skeleton not long before it was found. Researchers still don’t know how he died. They do know that it wasn’t due to the projectile point wound, which healed prior to death. It’s likely that Kennewick Man will undergo further testing, according to Nola Leyde, a spokesperson at the COE’s Seattle office, but no new research proposals have been submitted. She thinks the scientific community is wait-

ing for the reports on the earlier research to be published. WDY In order to be accepted, research proposals have to meet BRA O B

the COE’s requirements. “Our biggest concern is protecting B / the remains from destruction,” Leyde says. Some tests are

more destructive than others. Examining bone or probing HERALD teeth for DNA, for example, would require using—and in part destroying—the samples being tested; therefore the TRI-CITY Thomas Stafford collects sediment samples immediately above and below COE might refuse such proposals. “At the same time we the area where Kennewick Man was found. These sediment samples, as have a responsibility to assist the scientists,” says Leyde. well as samples of Kennewick Man’s bones, were radiocarbon dated to Coaxing data from old bones is a complex and chal- determine his age. lenging task. Bone is a living tissue made up partly of protein collagen within a strong calcium phosphate frame- techniques to understand how these people lived and work. But variations in temperature and moisture leach where they came from. out collagen, making a perfectly nice-looking ancient bone The controversy over scientific access to ancient remains worthless to a researcher who wants to extract organic started in the 1980s, when Native Americans began to material for radiocarbon dating or DNA testing. The best- speak out about the callous treatment of the remains of preserved burials typically are in tundra environments, dense their ancestors in museums and universities, some of clay, dry caves, or bogs—places with little variation in which store large quantities of human skeletons. The 1990 temperature or moisture—which can slow collagen leaching. Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Techniques for extracting and processing collagen for (NAGPRA) required that skeletons and artifacts be radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis are notori- returned to culturally affiliated descendants. But in the case ously varied and susceptible to error. Scientists must con- of skeletons as ancient as Kennewick Man, it is far from sider factors such as possible contamination by modern clear who the descendants are. The courts eventually deter- humans who have handled the material as well as the mined that no link could be made between Kennewick Man various collagen purification methods that can produce and the Umatilla, Yakama, Nez Perce, and Colville tribes widely differing results. “Different labs have different pro- who claimed him under NAGPRA. That legal decision gave cedures to purify collagen,” explains Thomas Stafford, Owsley and other scientists the opportunity to examine the director of Stafford Research Laboratories in Lafayette, Col- skeleton in detail in July 2005 and February 2006. orado. “It’s amazing—if you submit a bone to 10 different labs, they will use 10 different chemical procedures.” For ONE OF THE SCIENTISTS’ FIRST GOALS WAS to find out whether Stafford, this chaotic situation is “egregious” because the in fact Kennewick Man was buried intentionally or whether data can’t be systematically compared for accuracy. he drowned or died in the wilderness and was later covered So dating bones remains as much art as science. If an by sediments. He was found on Army Corps of Engineers ancient human such as Kennewick Man ate a lot of salmon, (COE) land, and therefore they have custody of his remains. for example, then researchers must take into account what’s OThe site of his interment can no longer be studied because known as the “marine reservoir effect.” Coastal fish eat detri- the COE covered it with rocks to prevent bank erosion. But tus that could be significantly older than the fish themselves. by examining evidence such as fractures and weathering, as The older carbon is carried from the detritus to the fish to the well as indications of the remains being scavenged, forensic human eating the fish. Consequently, this marine carbon scientists can determine if a body was buried by humans or problem could skew radiocarbon dating of the human remains, exposed to the elements. making them seem older than they are. This is not an issue By taking into account these and other factors, the for most skeletons found in the North American interior. In team determined that Kennewick Man was laid to rest the case of Kennewick, researchers estimate the age—ad- some distance from the riverbank, on his back, with his justed for the marine effect—at approximately 9,400 years.

14 fall • 2006 CLARK CHIP Researchers found a projectile point embedded in the right side of Kennewick Man’s pelvis bone. Stab wounds, depression fractures to the crania, and various other types of bone fractures have been seen in other ancient remains.

BY COMBINING PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL data with radio- ogy catch up with us,” Stafford says. carbon and DNA results, scientists hope to trace the ori- Smith knows of only three successful DNA extractions gins and movements of early peoples with a high degree from remains roughly as old as Kennewick Man: Hour- of accuracy. In the 1990s technologies emerged that allow glass Cave, in Colorado; Wizards Beach, in Nevada; and researchers to track mitochondrial DNA, which is passed On-Your-Knees-Cave in Alaska. Smith succeeded at isolat- Bfrom mothers to their young, and the Y chromosome that ing DNA from remains found at Horn Shelter, in Texas, fathers pass to their sons. These genetic changes occur that are approximately as old as Kennewick Man, but he slowly, by mutation, so scientists can tell how much time couldn’t replicate the results and therefore considered has elapsed and how closely different populations share them invalid. “We’ve learned some new tricks to access particular genetic markers. the DNA when it gets wrapped up in proteins,” he says. But extracting DNA from living people is one thing; That is an improvement over old methods such as diluting finding intact DNA in old bones is quite another. Corpses a sample to get rid of other material—an approach that it- less than a century old may lack intact DNA. So far self could destroy the delicate strands of DNA. researchers have had little success extracting DNA from The 10,000-year-old remains of a man were found in ancient human remains. In 2000 scientists at three dif- On-Your-Knees Cave, in Alaska. The DNA, taken from the ferent laboratories tried and failed to extract DNA from Y-chromosome, was identified as Q-M3, which is found in Kennewick Man. This effort was part of a battery of tests people living on Siberia’s Chukotka peninsula. This type conducted between 1998 and 2000 by a team of scientists of DNA is just one mutation away from groups in Central hired by the government to examine Kennewick Man. Asia. That particular group has echoes in Europe as well David Glenn Smith, a DNA expert at the University of as the Americas. “That may account for the misimpression California at Davis, headed one of the teams that tested of European features” among some of the early American bone fragments. He wanted to test the teeth, which he bones, says Smith. thought would yield better results, but that would likely Kennewick Man initially made headlines when a cur- have required slicing open the tooth. Consequently, based sory examination speculated that his facial features were on the recommendations of other experts, the COE denied more akin to Europeans’ than Native Americans.’ The Smith’s request. Researchers were loath to chance destroy- explosive implication—that Europeans, rather than the an- ing evidence. “The problem wasn’t the Corps, it was my cestors of today’s Native Americans, settled the New own profession,” Smith says. “The best method may be to World—set the stage for the bitter clash between the tribes let this skeleton sit for 10 years and let the DNA technol- and scientists, most of whom are of European origin. american archaeology 15 SOUTHON J O H N Thomas Stafford recently radiocarbon dated several Kennewick Man samples using this accelerator mass spectrometer at the University of California at Irvine. The previous radiocarbon dating of Kennewick Man, which was done at three different laboratories, concluded that the remains were between about 5,800 to 9,400 years old. Stafford believes the recent round of tests will corroborate the latter age.

Owsley’s team used advanced industrial CT scanning WHILE RADIOCARBON AND DNA TESTING are central to unrav- to create three-dimensional computerized models from eling the secrets of the early Americans, an understanding which plastic reproductions of the 11 pieces that make up of their diets also provides useful information. By analyz- Kennewick Man’s cranium were created. This was done, ing the wear and tear on teeth, for example, the University at a cost of about $25,000, to create a precise replica of of New Mexico’s Joseph Powell determined that Wilson- the skull, the formation of which can reveal clues about WLeonard Woman—who predates Kennewick Man by 1,000 Kennewick Man’s genetic makeup. years—had a gritty diet of nuts, wild vegetables and very Though researchers examining early American remains small animals such as lizards. Before she died around the insist they do not dispute the old idea that humans moved age of 30, she suffered from an abscessed tooth. “That from Asia to the Americas, they say that the morphological kind of infection can be deadly,” he adds. data point to a more varied origin for the likes of Ken- That finding matches that of other bones from the era, newick Man, perhaps from along the east Asian coastline including the Horn Shelter remains and a Brazilian skele- stretching from Japan to Indonesia. Stafford and Owsley ton from the same era dubbed Luzia. Powell believes that back one increasingly popular hypothesis in which small the early Americans were both hunters and foragers. “In groups trickle along the Pacific Rim coastline, using boats some areas (the Southeast U.S.), they may have done and subsisting in a largely marine environment, over sev- more foraging and hunting of smaller game, while in the eral thousand years. Great Plains we have good evidence for large kill/process- But DNA results linking the early Americans to living ing sites for megafauna,” Powell says. “The proportions of populations will not necessarily help in the quest to pin- each must have differed by the environment in which point origins. Populations in Asia continued to move after these ancient people lived.” some split off to head—by boat or by foot—to the Ameri- New technologies may provide a much richer under- cas. “Peoples who live in eastern Siberia now may have standing of the lives of ancient humans, though they have lived in western Siberia 10,000 years ago,” says Smith. yet to be systematically applied. By examining the ratios Owsley acknowledges that scientists need to gather multi- of two isotopes of strontium found in teeth, 87Sr/86Sr, for ple lines of evidence of all different kinds in order to paint example, scientists can surmise the general area, or areas, a more accurate picture of New World settlement. where an individual resided. The technique is based on

16 fall • 2006 CLARK CHIP KENNEWICK MAN CONCLUSIONS Prior to the recent examinations of Kennewick Man, the National Park Service recruited a different team of scientists to study the remains. This table briefly describes some of the different conclusions the two teams reached.

National Park Service’s Douglas Owsley’s presentation to the American Kennewick Man Reports 1999, 2000 Academy of Forensic Sciences, February 23, 2006 BURIAL Quickly buried at death, natural fluvial processes or cultural interment Intentionally buried flat on his back, arms at his sides, palms down, with cannot be determined. ..the skeleton originally rested on its side in head elevated about five degrees, parallel to the river, with left side erod- a flexed position… ing out first. Clearly patterned post-mortem fracture patterns and ancient calcium carbonate concretion patterns on down side of bones. EROSION FROM TERRACE Initial episode of erosion…may have been followed within a period Bones eroded from the terrace during an identifiable high water period of several weeks or months by a second riverbank collapse. in late June/July. SUN BLEACHING Light areas described as sun bleached from several weeks Areas of sun bleaching largely assessed as corrosion of exposure to the sun. (abrasion from sandy water repeatedly lapping against the bone). RODENT GNAWING A few bones have tooth marks produced by rodent gnawing… No evidence of rodent tooth marks. Marks were likely made by debris …gnawed areas are clearly of considerable antiquity since the color… (e.g., a branch or other material) abrading against the bones as waves in most cases clearly approximates the rest of the bone surface. lapped against them after eroding onto the bank. STRATA WHERE BURIED From a vertical strata location of about 80 centimeters in the river terrace. Narrowed the vertical strata location to less than 30 centimeters.

AGE AT DEATH 45-50 Under discussion. The scientists participating in the Phase 3 studies repre- sent a wide range of specialties. Variables used to establish age give con- flicting answers. Preliminary assessment: age at death likely late 30s. ENTRY WOUND The point came from the rear and slightly below horizontal entering Projectile point entered from the front and slightly to the side. The point the iliac blade through the posterior edge. entered at an angle of approximately 77 degrees, shearing off a portion of the auricular surface of the iliac crest. The force was great enough to sug- gest his attacker may have used an atlatl, from a significant distance away. AGE AT TIME OF PROJECTILE INJURY 15-20 Under discussion. POINT TYPE Cascade Under discussion.

american archaeology 17 18 vidual unique when from versus the partial did some remainsthat are9,000to11,000yearsold. Theremains buried. and ancient health, ex using and ion beamdislodgesamolecularfragmentfromthesample of other remains.Dietaryevidencepointstoavariedlifestyle tures detailed probes, Nevada’s complicated set ofancientbonesshowsthattheearlyAmericanshad F point deal withviolence,asindicatedbyKennewickMan’sspear bear orensic amine foraging. s difference under Mass Owsley isconcer Owsley lifestyles analyzes no the to even his traveled skeleton ar wound, resemblance metamorphic strontium eating on remains, Native tist data the isotopesinbonetoprovidecluesaperson’s the sea Grimes or go spectrometers Sharon smaller-scale human But says her history using inland crania its remains s of ome habits, can of Americans t elemental per he w to Long these Point the that isotope a ithout remains. modern only be scientific manent towards woman and of stab r ned thatgooddataareliterally being wor picture ocks, frustratingly data and seen Shelter Sr multiple ks minute techniques, various populations. the signatures ratios and on composition. wounds age. gleaned have and in teeth These discovered a mountains systematic , of tests cranial his as lasers samples, in B if origins. early ut became bone succeeded well or vague. an marine instruments Nev p reconstr so in of rior r known her esearchers ada individual are Americans’ as far the in a during fractures analysis And teeth. says tribes to depression established, uction 1989 versus used skeleton from areas r as eburial. in they Stafford. hav can the ion of who the today e migrated interring now the Spirit volcanic of seen tak origins had period micro- gather small more en lived from indi frac- The Cav ar the An leg to to in e a e - al Man. action appear and ANDREW scesses more Man punishing life.MorphologicaldataindicatethatSpiritCave Minnesota approximately 8,500and10,000yearsoldwerereburiedin tur Buhl, ably dating, of alegalbattle, aboriginal peopleofJapan.Thebonesarenowthesubject however skeleton lab—but That maygettheearlyAmericans outofcourtandintothe 40 to50years,wemaynothave todestroyanythingatall.” using ducting detailedanalyses.”AddsPowell:“W “W out oftheseskeletonsandnotdestroythem,”saysStafford. between scientistsandNativeAmericans.“W wrapped ods Researcher in e canshowthatitispossibletoberespectfulwhilecon n other hopes such Others But a bears intact. ed nd Idaho, huge than LA teeth in publications. and , hedoesbearsomeresemblancetotheAinu, there s of with WLER reb the in as discovered hav rebur after no skeletons a amounts He matting e Spring i urial, a on was casts, thousand concluded all is writes close ying severe a s a microprobes w till the brief r 2006 the and chance ith Nevadatribeslobbyingfortheirre H eburied and for is r and has respect of remains. esemblance lie ar that in cranial Science, issue DNA examination. ticle “The bone years isotopic in a a a this that ll of in legal rabbit-fur testing Nevada due his roughly American to National fracture may 1991 before in Remarkable tiny limbo. t analyses. to coming eeth, to provide 1 following is our 0,500-year-old moder Archaeolog Geographic, samples—in cave r now Kennewick obe hint Spirit t elders. hough years P ipes e’ve gonefrom and T prohibited. at n a in e cangetalot wo populations; Cave compromise y. radiocarbon a of 1940, new Smithsonian, fall is individual physically three skeletons Pro r another Man emark Man, vidence” • meth- 2006 was ab- in a - - -

CHIP CLARK ExcavatingExcavating aa LegendarLegendaryy SiteSite

AmericanAmerican historyhistory textbookstextbooks speakspeak ofof thethe encounterencounter betweenbetween CaptainCaptain JohnJohn SmithSmith andand thethe EnglishEnglish colonistscolonists andand PocahontasPocahontas andand herher people.people. TheseThese eventsevents tooktook placeplace atat WWerowerowocomoco,ocomoco, thethe recentlyrecently discodiscoveredvered sitesite that’that’ss revealingrevealing informationinformation aboutabout thethe PowhatanPowhatan Indians.Indians.

ByBy ToTonyny ReichharReichhardtdt Nadejda Golenichtcheva, a graduate student at the College of William and Mary, excavates a pit feature on the exterior of a large native structure dating to the early 17th century.

ooking back toward land from the end of Bob to realize—quite an important one. Poet and Pocahontas and Lynn Ripley’s dock, 100 yards out over Vir- biographer Paula Gunn Allen calls the Powhatan village ginia’s York River, you can see why the chief of that once stood here “the sacred center of the United the Powhatans might have chosen to live here. States,” one of the places where Native Americans first en- Today the property sits on a grassy, tree-lined gaged the English colonists. Lbluff overlooking Purtan Bay, with creeks on either side. The excavation of Werowocomoco (“the place of the Back in 1607 the oysters and crabs would have been plen- Werowance,” or chief) is also one of the more exciting RICHARDSON tiful here, and the corn would have grown high in the rich digs in Virginia archaeology. Some legendary events took YNDA L soil. It’s a beautiful spot and—archaeologists are coming place here, including John Smith’s “rescue” by Chief american archaeology 19 20 document L These ynn Riple Nativ y that holds e American this one land of stone man had y been tools projectile occupied recov points ered f or from discov thousands the ered site on of her year proper s. ty . Small triangular points scholars other Indianrituals,wasprobablyakindofadoptio ceremony Powhatan’s W prospect never creating beyond work a landscape, the standable. Atthesametime,hesays,“Therearediffer of have kicking “an fieldwork dirt. ent in thatourartifactdensitiesarequitelow. landscape, who the Powhatan their tion ofanation,”whichGallivanthinksis illiam small such advancing Most archaeology English-centered excavation The As “Soil narratives written in u brick houses as and and sed simply now along spaces, r this of this rather of ecently archaeology stain at and culture uncovering subtle.” Mary m sometimes one daughter foundations. We part We down. think, aterials left beyond for building date feeding archaeology,” rowocomoco’s than here. rowocomoco enacting at archaeologist there as of 400 only to to historic Martin based Vi an six the , lear like narrative years isn’t r W a some

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LYNDA RICHARDSON C O L L E G E O F W I L L I A M A N D MAR Y LIBRAR Y O F C O N G R E S S , P R I N T S A N D PHOT O G R A P H S D I V I S I O N LC-USZC4-3368 american miles weren’t This ans was Chief time a long beforetheEnglisharrived,consolidatinghisruleover the moco’s exactlocationformostofhiscareer whose Resources, since survey ley’s, village. Tur fields artifacts of over totheRipleys’houseimmediately toseethecollection Dave few pottery ner painting Tidewater w Randolph Then from W had “That Brown and hoping the ho . Thenumber andvariety ofobjectsalone—including Powhatan’s ahunsonacawh) dozen total of He even Lynn J ar amesto studied , pinpointed 1970s. shoreline chaeology the in titled fragments, collection he’s was population and 2001 chiefdoms certain to had office property wn,

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put D digging ner’s Purtan of M . r a that Capt. per owocomoco of 900 that experience and ary hot dessert them whose Powhatan’s W fectly. department J ero ohn c up Powhatan mapping anthropologist village onfir and Bay in evidence, wo Smith all to comoco, 2003. plates The style “Any would med m the together working uggy had there. Research team postmolds, 17th people where w and lived of in rn single it hich once be er day was decoration the wanted , Harpole, century— Gallivan’s is suspect,” and Danielle ith initial 13 with 15 or Group, existed line in in almost 1990s. ganic miles you any late cir- the of to 21 GROUP R E S E A R C H EROWOCOMOCO W

An aerial photograph of the site. The landscape closely matches early colonial descriptions of Werowocomoco.

material has turned the soil darker than the surrounding much longer and more complicated than the seven- clay. They’re all that remains of the Native American teenth-century Jamestown narratives would lead us to be- house, or yihakan, that once stood here, which was con- lieve,” Gallivan says. structed of a frame of cut saplings covered with woven In this residential area near the river the archaeolo- mats. Earlier, back in his office, Gallivan had lowered his gists found intact, stratified middens a foot or more below voice to an almost conspiratorial tone when he told me, “It the surface where the artifacts haven’t been disturbed by could be Powhatan’s house.” He’s not ready to jump to subsequent farming. The archaeologists found fewer hard- such a bold conclusion, not yet. But in their fourth field wood and nut seeds in the stratigraphic levels of the midden season, the team has zeroed in on this area and another that they dated to the centuries leading up to Contact. This about 100 yards to the south, near the edge of the woods, indicates a steady decline in hardwood and nut seeds dur- where they’re studying intriguing ditch-like features that ing this period, suggesting that the Powhatans were ex- date from about A.D. 1300, long before Powhatan’s time. hausting the supply of these trees. The prevalence of pine Brown and Harpole’s initial shovel testing of the 50- seeds at the site indicates a cleared area on the edge of a acre site in 2002 had revealed the general layout of deciduous forest, since pines typically don’t thrive in the Werowocomoco. The highest concentration of Native midst of mature hardwood trees. And, based on the American artifacts and postmolds—indicating “houses amount of corn found in the residential area over the upon houses upon houses” erected and abandoned over centuries, corn agriculture appears to have taken off here centuries, says Gallivan—are along the riverfront. Based around 1200, a bit later than in other parts of the eastern on the dates of the artifacts, he believes that intensive United States. In a trend that surprised the archaeologists, settlement began about A.D. 1200 and continued through the amount of corn found at the site declined slightly during the time of European contact. He estimates about 200 the Contact period, possibly due to droughts that impacted people lived here. “The artifacts reflect a settlement history the Virginia Tidewater environment.

22 fall • 2006 None of this would necessarily distinguish Werowoco- archaeologists still don’t know their full extent. Today, in moco from the few other Powhatan sites archaeologists the steamy heat, Thane Harpole and another member of have studied. But away from the river, in the two areas the crew are “chasing ditches” where the line has turned where Gallivan’s team is digging today, things have turned east toward the south end of the pasture. The trace is be- out to be more interesting. In one of the first five-by-five- coming harder to follow as it descends to lower ground, foot test units excavated during the 2003 field season, the where some of the evidence has eroded away. archaeologists found two parallel stripes of dark soil run- Meanwhile, Brown and his crew are opening up more ning north to south—all that remains of ditches that had test units in a nearby part of the pasture, uncovering post- long ago been filled in and covered over. Gallivan thought molds in an attempt to find the walls and corners of what at first they must be colonial boundary ditches built by Eng- may or may not be Powhatan’s house. They’re using “Mr. lish settlers. “When we first identified these things, I didn’t Hot,” a lawnmower engine rigged to shake a sieve-like believe that they were native,” he recalls. But the artifacts screen, which speeds up the tedious job of straining arti- from the fill were all Native American, and it appears they facts from the excavated dirt. By the time this field season were constructed about A.D. 1300, based on radiocarbon ends, the crew will have excavated nearly a hundred five- dating of corn and other organic material from the ditches. by-five-foot squares. These ditches, though, are very different from others They’ve been struggling to figure out the pattern of found at Powhatan sites, which are typically associated the postmolds. Mapped out on paper, the dozens of circu- with circular fences, or palisades. There are no signs of lar marks seem at first to be distributed randomly. But in palisades at Werowocomoco and these ditches are huge. several places the holes line up, suggesting that the wall After the first field season, when it was clear that the of a yihakan once stood there. Brown has recently been parallel lines ran for some distance, the archaeologists following such a line, excavating new test units wherever conducted an electromagnetic survey of the area, which the postmolds lead him, like a Wheel of Fortune player can distinguish different soil types based on their electrical opening new squares to decipher the hidden word. conductivity. The electromagnetic data indicated that the In the last week before closing down the site for the ditches extended hundreds of feet. “We were a little in- summer, Brown’s crew makes a key find: the other, western credulous about that at first,” says Gallivan. But excavations wall of the house, in the form of a neat line of postmolds. revealed the ditches extended for more than 600 feet. The The structure looks to be about 12 feet wide, similar to RICHARDSON YNDA L

The archaeologists have recently focused on uncovering a yihakan,a Powhatan residential structure that dates to the early 17th century, that is at a remove from the community's residential core along the York River. american archaeology 23 24 ery. vessels very G was “thirtyscore” fromthewater John if of claypipesinthispartthe site—whatyoumightexpect Brown, ers. chief’s housesweremuchlar Vi those Even thepotteryfragmentsareslightlydifferentinstylefrom to 70 long. Brown’steamhastracedthewallstoadistanceof other simi lar from themainvillagebyditches,thereisnoevidenceof on beads, ceramic cookingpotsandmoretradegoodslikemetal,glass ports Powhatan allivan andhis team walkedoffthedistance. They stoppe Ov Powhatan rginia.” ThecontemporaryEnglishchroniclersnoted A archaeological rivers construction events, sake, new seasons, the Virginia’ significance the While afewsiteslike water News. Thetribesopposetheproject,claimingthatitwilldramaticallyalter interest. reser are in part ge about feet, to several lar And That, Other near site. Potomac tr Smith’s trash reser of voir that found ways ying yihakans more where An Brown This working difference. t something used the first and to s such It and We “this begins and the Pamunkey voir initial A legal where is to is on and erlooking interpretation. . year rowocomoco, lived often pits the glance, to evidence D projects. the one Creek how make has as . dignitaries will which now in own copper in interest. archaeologists they Virginia’ at challenges, 1600, sur in reser as of is the the indicating the kind His the be feasting most become the 2010. vey or Jeff a site he several sure Brown built many tribe, We o shad voir created account. Native mandator ancestors haven’t significant, s Powhatan ne carbon conducted may residential of Brown This in rowocomoco, Kiskiackjustacrossthe Native , gives tribes: valuable he brought from will Stafford the which fisherman—make including of they local a by says, of year American received apply to their than go is skilled seems land y an American a In are used supply tribes the the t still turned digging. four found is he researchers village dating He histor cultural residential have inventor members—including County “basically that this between now like of owns to by field team area, Powhatans. archaeology following longest wrote ger thanthoseofcom ceremonies. perhaps water y up seasons . Assuminghe meant paces, consulting live everyday any knowledge guests isn’t of archaeology copper part found the a the have resources y more of archaeologist We small the other of here. to our hired their more confidence lost that one rowocomoco, archeological the the end been Jamestown of area. than Pamunkey old here. when reser member [native on results living. an Brown by of excavation a nearby the to sur land.” Powhatan’s that’s studied of household 100 typical mitigation yet. happens the structur vation unusual excavation another But veys There construction Brown, during site, But the from Finally, is sites City of city Nati Yo and In a but sites for the that having houses] upriver rk Rive this that chemically with postmolds of member of some in of of who separated plans, colonists. fact, project are Mattaponi their field ew two there’ potential Newpor Newpor Virginia. where number precede intense serving they’r one of there’s works r, crock failed house other from fewer crew mon and field own and s her sup- the says that of of a a t t in is d e e - - ve looking News, recover secular worlds. It’sthese kindsofquestions thearchaeolo- Powhatan’s chiefly power area—sacred ground, per t Vi turies spiritually fact, he was village sumed the Nonetheless, among We other ever sum of show been although ditches issomethingnewfor excavating, the archaeologistshopetolear here’s nodocumentaryrecord.Historianshadlong rginia history,”particularlyfortheerabefore1607,whe which a rowocomoco, whatever’ out

excavation mer There’s Assuming an ceremonial found identified Amer than the structure’sinteriorlayout.Butveryexistence for before manages that to the important . “W may havemovedtherebecause itwasimportant his m the s utilitarian as people’ there. Chief ound-building people e’ve barelyscratchedthesur they evidence the he much west well he this done Brown project, in s Powhatan area interests. was hope says place other really and partly as over plans here, reasons. will more separated bor of p the to ican olitically. —T begin even excavation to parts which , whichbridged thereligiousand is haps, n, Powhatans to be uncover Native it ony moved project Powhatan’s excavating appear right locate appears r Vi before Reichhardt esearch n aboutit?Astheycontinue of and rg there he from inia archaeology.Infact, the American to The “is ruled. himself postmolds a to alongside those this Powhatan w that country, building clue the helping fence d ill house, to face,” saysTur sites itches, Sites spot We main Now, to c the J more to ontinue eff be cultures rowocomoco the off document from archeologists, no Bro what that ditches fall arrived. to built village based done nature a wn centrally one rewrite another special • would could and have n cen- 2006 ner has ext for as- on by In of at n , .

LYNDA RICHARDSON C O L L E G E O F W I L L I A M A N D MAR Y american what We gists chiefly teeth 1607, sonacawh colony r that person Y advisors totheproject,haveconsulted onotherkeydecisions. us site tory,” the colonialencounterandmoreabouttheirdeeperhis- are reallyinterestedintheantiquityofsite—lessabout the that influence colonialism, their m Mar emains ears oder refocus r tin William owocomoco had The They had the hope ancestors. of Gallivan Galliv before as n she by on power a been ar were Vi Powhatan been moder has an very on are chaeology centuries. did our says. rg to the and and this inia Gallivan’s t explore been also, occupied he calls found present young not gaze.” ground Danielle n and Powhatan’s Mary “And is excavations project, I tribes, ndians a create not “the chiefdom

ar ceremony dramatic Gallivan at child, anthropologist. gued, Moretti-Langholtz in they for who team coincidentally, for We ideological through more according the are centuries. a r who proved owocomoco—the descendants embodied but arrived very notes, world demonstrate new is most detail preceded was a that a long r insight.” small to esponse examine eager power to on “W the For to buried “Our he be the e Moretti-Langholtz, time. the better the English those see group w have correct the kinds to potter native of as that chiefly scene, 400 to They that lear place.” understand simply Jamestown bones who had y European places of years sher of found n partners that W human helped power Indian things about a ahun ds ar The real and gue ago from the the of in - L ynn Riple friends. walked moco. say Tur challenges who TONY looking forw easy some Indian owners t impact archaeologythroughout,tryingtokeepthescaleof spoon, with a analysis oftheremains,theyultimatelywerere-interredin what ence of high status.It’shardnottospeculatethatthiswasarelative he quiet W ner y's spe in project The Although ahunsonacawh, and culture,theproperone,Gallivanthinks.“It’s REICHHARDT thousands needed to surface sense . archaeology, cializes advisory “I’m and But sofaritallseemstobeworkingat onto ceremony as We navigate r esearch well

of collection. other small quite all “own” in the ard ton to scientists s excavating cience still board. happen,” as of property i s prestige the group out pleased attended a for glass We believe the h freelance ext year’sfieldseason.That’s alotto a ave nd p of rowocomoco, It the man olitical, were histor has was beads, he in consideration our objects native at moder me.” by 2001,” y. the says. aimed writer allowed a where s members anity, compromise English logistical, bits n suggesting sites in he Indian for Fr we too. of says. a to edericksb nd this in called for copper are conduct of It’s and we’re Vi t “W ribes the kind the between since r a We not ginia, e’re Powhatan. urg person , scientific property project’s rowoco a of , who all limited always all Virginia I metal low- says first still still sci- of in - 25 A Picture of the Maya

A monumental stone panel showing Cancuen’s greatest king, RABINOWITZ

Taj Chan Ahk, and two of his nobles. Y Collapse JERR For decades Mayanists largely ignored Cancuen. But a recent investigation is making major discoveries, one of which presents a wealth of evidence TINEZ

about the Maya’s downfall. AR M

Excavations by the forensic team of the By Michael Bawaya ORACIO massacre in the royal cistern of Cancuen. H

The royal ballcourt of Cancuen. RABINOWITZ Y JERR

26 fall • 2006 everal metal buckets with burning termites’ nests are strategically placed around Arthur Demarest’s small, Spartan office, filling it with smoke that keeps the dreaded mosquitoes away. A large plate S of shredded cabbage with onions (breakfast) sits on a table. A Q’eqchi” Maya boy comes and goes, doing chores. Pictures of pop singer Paulina Rubio astride a horse and a head shot of the philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkagard are strangely juxtaposed on the wall. Demarest is expounding on various topics such as the Maya collapse, the destruction of the Petén rainforest, his recent marriage, Rubio, Kierkegaard, and whatever else crosses his mind. He likes to talk, one of his employees notes. One thing that’s very much on his mind is the remark- able evidence of the Maya collapse at Cancuen. One day in A.D. 800 invaders sacked Cancuen, a medium-sized but very wealthy city superbly located at the center of the great trade route that ran predominantly north to south via water and land through the Maya world. The invaders, as Demarest is fond of saying, “nuked” the city. It appears that they massacred Cancuen’s entire royal family. This was one of the signal events in the early stages of the collapse of Maya civilization. RABINOWITZ Y Demarest, the Ingram Professor of Anthropology at Arthur Demarest

JERR Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, is an articu- late and animated man who is in the midst of his 26th field Human bones recovered season, which is to say he’s used to bugs, snakes, cold during the massacre showers, and the intimidating roar of howler monkeys. He excavation undergo forensic analysis. describes his interest in archaeology as “a fanaticism that even shocks my students.” He codirects the Cancuen proj- ect, which is now in its seventh season, with Guatemalan archaeologist Tomás Barrientos. In April of 2005 they found the remains of 34 individuals in a cistern adjacent to a huge, magnificent palace. The individuals had been thrown into the listern dressed in full regalia. The archae- ologists also found the remains of 16 more individuals at two other locations. “We don’t know how many we’ll find OS in the future,” Demarest says. One of the individuals was adorned with an ostentatious necklace containing 36 jaguar

BARRIENT canines. By deciphering the hieroglyphic monuments Á S

M found at the site, they know that another of the individ- TO uals was Kan Maax, the king of Cancuen, and that the event occurred in A.D. 800. The remains were buried in mud that preserved them through the centuries. “They look like a burial you would have dug up 10 years ago,” says Demarest. “This is prob- ably the best osteological sample ever found in the Maya region.” The bones were examined by a forensics team that determined the 34 individuals were killed by blows to the head or by spear thrusts to the spine, which made for a quick, and according to Demarest, relatively “hu- mane” death. DNA testing is also being done to identify if the individuals were in fact all related. It’s very difficult to

RABINOWITZ extract DNA from ancient bones, but the archaeologists Y think they may succeed. The osteological evidence is un- A Cancuen stela with its front face, JERR usual because of its excellent preservation and also sculpture, and inscriptions cut off by looters. american archaeology 27 28 men, dynastic line.Andtodothatyouwouldhavekillallthe been but he from thebonestogetherwithhieroglyphicinscriptions, studied “destructive,” from A also from because other states than the started But the conquest the T . wo D of in A . r Maya west, they first emarks,

Though The 761 t a the killed. jade expansion,” of he the young women, Cancuen’s sites in cache in for them, ro r and the have conflicts deity it Maya egions DNA world y as 750,” a al nd with years is He during are “Archaeologists west to palace. he about pendant a and no according Dos t tests, warf Demarest THE FALLOFWE of great traderoute.“Thecollapseinthewest he had old. Demarest believes is cross evidence several extended can’t of he to captions. the that the Balkanizing children.” t in Pilas aking t are 810, a come. he Therefore says. Demarest excav that t history be are section M he was Maya other aya and the r to w espectively. states. certain of ation of really W r and as Referring We oyal Demarest. a est invaders usually cities tribute collapse-related Aguateca, f world ound of sites major

of and Demarest have thinks Barrientos The focused family. at war until t he in where breaking this to from the factor to find fare west ST “wanted “I population the the he He fall. the were Commoners time captions.” think more thinks the for the dead he and w has in has wealth Cancuen est believe up destroyed photograph, has war purposes the were conquered. at south on the to worked along may into it this fare, worked. collapse end r survival will of anging r esults more smal wer wer have is time data that but the the be of in in at e e l motive focused king suspects, tribute, flow where Machaquilá. politics the understand that nate the monuments. Demarestdescribesthisas“aritualkillingof their But identify been Demarest souther none t environment for that,hesays,isthatit’seasier toreconstructanancient believes River system, he economic site.” flow the The archaeologistswillbetterunderstandtheinvaders’ Demarest He thinkstheMaya citiesusedthetraderoute tocontro flourished of a of , victory. the with the rival had n once prized w invaders and Cancuen themselves a on that portion primary of one He hich Pasión system also evidence understanding the become that, goods r Siebal, they than suspects eligion They a being a goods after is says nd vassal emphasizes Maya. didn’t of atypical and causes by River identify to that ecological t trashed the Cancuen which by hat Machaquilá, as that virtue reconstruct because along a the the state This w take carving becomes clear trade conquest were of as for of father the invaders’ the is the historical of its meant also of control ideological M and fell. also route years factors. he essential invaders. its Maya’s aya Cancuen’s buildings river monuments ancient of navigable, a considers the abundant T location north state. aj warf lar could that Kan . of archaeologists motive change. Chan foundation ge One ecology Cancuen are. to There they along Maax, human city factors and have Demarest located near their of Ahk, controlled these as was that Nor to emphasized the defaced in are Cancuen’s. t fall done also he the the to behavior r the declared to did order such eligious of to r several easons on Pasión • collect elimi- north point ruled have great have it. their they also 2006 the the its as to . l

A N D R E W DEMAREST E V O L U T I O N G RAPHICS american east But the overseen were such precious lifestyles. tion according toDemarest,andtheirnumbersgrewinpropor rulers’ When “And warf modities lapse and the world, direct trade these It “The city are to Guatemala, as transported that everywhere kings appears but the political jade, begins ar after goods t As by r collapse here cause just chaeology agreements oute the commoners, the downriver lar city pyrite, accelerates conflicts ge, were there increased would to elite of power and along is else,” power spiral the in

slowly population obsidian, r Calakmul, had epercussions. the began collapse r . were the created whose emain Demarest The ful out accordingly. till previously w abandoned.” route. est cities the denied to of elites labors operative shell, refugees in helps increased, in unravel control,” whole other such states. souther practiced “I access and supported been to Prized think as west parts who around explain despite Wa quetzal Demarest the Tikal, n an to rf Mexico, commodities at disintegrates fled of are demand these polygamy, agreement this the the in A war the was feathers . to D north . elite’s point Maya com says. safer fare. 750. that col- not for - - - two w been to and Cancuen,leadinghimto sur marest exploring of note ofaroyalpalace.Thesite,whichwasconsidered ologists remappedthesiteanddidlimitedexcavating, ported more already thousands areas, anted Cancuen minor great trouble.” designated and seeing found to got MA represented great w Cancuen the (Abov the (Left) importance, it and orld. that of get than map P trouble,” in asion people e) w Goods altars The evidence YA the noted in 1905byarchaeologistT Cancuen AN UNUSUALSITE a estern in dissimilar This 1996. sho benefited better previously Cancuen an itself Riv ws by map w site

and er Maya ere TRADE archaeological the moving the Mayanist While w became says sho created mov in grasp as from rectangle (“Serpents’ riv region, of stelai. trade ws regions, er ed 1915. ignored an Demarest. the its routes thought. ov investigating navig route. into sho of er location problems. major alliance In Slyvanus in mise theremightbemor land able. wn the Both and the ROUTE 1967, The your the on Nest”) until trade and center park. the near interaction green It the h “Then archaeologists w area between orang a has ighlands eobert Maler routes ater map Demarest the Morley “Y of team por was Dos Demarest ou e, the point on subsequently when to tion of land you’ve the the discovered map. S get Pilas, the of of w between that mapped routes. here and left, ar May tens you’ve began taking chae- to be .T is also De- a city got the re he of e - 29 30 city’s he found fragments patio. more was shops amajorfind.“Whatwe wereabletofind,andwha jade, covered struction fine says Cancuen flourished.Becauseitwasatradecenter of linked these change wereofequalimportancetoCancuen.“Thewaythat city’s wars, andartisanstohelpbuilditspalace.T lized pyrite The goods an independentpower A lowlands—“It’s observes— massacre palaces palace This . D Maya . says. illustration 656 architecture, Barrientos Demarest Calakmul totally goods it pyrite, residents by greatest three He mirrors, werethetrappingsofpowerandreligionuti jade of more for to was in to royal power Cancuen, by remains Cancuen’s the of the the says services to control and than “rich unknown, Cancuen sources a than and a Maya great boulders, kings sho small thatched that king, established walks who, the calls w obsidian like any ws stucco, one 3,600 in ere w such the most trade orld. two of the Maya precious ,” rulers thereby of of f through in the exported, the other ound, , Cancuen’skingsexchangedfinished Demarest river other is pieces the power w at as The roof. assembly of regions and route estern how discoveriess workshops Andes a house Cancuen political larg . the were is cistern, single site A for monuments.” seen cities. goods, Behind a est of gives century city’s were entrance the med historically such says. meet in providing jade, made and versus in line w workshop. artisans alliances, the as Religion, here the us households fused a most rich and Prior the as at later order ranging a of a patronage of of f Maya oreground. man military Cancuen. new the finished the that in house impressiv the thin , aj ChanAhk,the at to accurate got the , having y health, ar ro fashioned Amazon,” Cancuen of war, the exciting many Cancuen world. mies ya in wood their jade the doubled , Demarest l outpost is massacre, size

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L.F. LUIN JERR Y RABINOWITZ american discoveries lar fundraiser tributions trate the Cancuen, he knowledges thesespectacularfindsinfor collapse, answers. idence led totheexcavationofcister ties. projects other ing ologists data, rientos 15 uncover then Maya he’s great traderoute fromDosPilassouthtoCobán. Asaresult, Bar the ge rientos altar years advocates surrounding what They Demarest, But For able on regions,” and questions spectacular world. of made explains place the (right), nearly tend the ar H Demarest of , for that the he also from to then e’s convincedthatthewaytounderstand theMaya chaeology thinks also digging. international central palace, calls fashion example, massacre So examining means to too Demarest explored to institutions assume 20 who that attract workshops, Maya be he that’s obtain much discoveries. the years areas is under and instead

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J A R R O D BURKS C H A R L O T E HILL-COBB the male was 35 to 45 years old at death and the woman about 45. Both date to the Hopewell period. The skeletons offered no clues about the causes of death, but the female’s left wrist had severe arthritis and her lower spine was covered with small bony protrusions called osteophytes. Those signs of deterioration weren’t found on the male. It’s possible, Pacheco says, that the female’s bone damage may have been caused by heavy labor. Although more analysis is needed, these findings could offer infor- mation about the division of labor between Hopewell men and women. The remains are undergoing DNA analysis to determine if they are related to each other as well as to other Hopewell remains that have undergone DNA analysis. Plants, firewood, seeds, and nuts are also being ana- lyzed. In her laboratory at Bloomsburg, Wymer and her students are examining the organic materials, dating them, and comparing them to other ancient plant specimens or, in some cases, to modern-day plant relatives. She says this work will yield “a wealth of information on the use of their environment.” For example, the type of nuts found at the site offers information on forest composition. They also hope to learn more about the residents’ diet by deter- mining what crops they cultivated. Wymer can distinguish cultivated from wild crops by their morphological proper- ties and by the fact they’re not native to the area. Pacheco says she’s already identified three cultivated crops: chenopodium, may grass, and squash. In the case of the grain chenopodium, for example, morphological analysis

TY shows that the domestic version is larger and has a thinner seed coat, and this is the type found at Brown’s Bottom. MCCUL

J O Neither may grass nor squash are native plants, which sug- gests the Hopewell cultivated them. DeeAnne Wymer and Paul Pacheco discuss how the Hopewell might have used earth ovens. The partially excavated feature below them is believed A House or a Structure? to be an earth oven. Although their work is still preliminary, there’s enough there to lead Pacheco to believe that what they’ve found is storage, and have seeds from plants harvested in spring, a residential site. “Based on all the evidence we’ve found, summer, and fall. They also found mandibles in one of the we do seem to have a good case here of an extended fam- cooking pits that they suspect are the remains of a young ily settlement which has a large house and a very struc- deer. Deer are born in late May and can be identified by tured, maintained use of space,” Pacheco says. The layout their tooth eruption sequence during their first winter. If of the dwelling and the organization of the site “suggests these bones are the remains of a young deer, it may have that they lived here all year long,” Pacheco says. been killed and eaten by the Hopewell during winter. But the evidence so far may not be enough to con- Should that be the case, Pacheco says it would be evidence vince those archaeologists who believe the Hopewell were of winter, and therefore year-round, occupation. mobile hunter-gatherers. “Why would the Hopewell want to “It’s not impossible that it’s some kind of big family stay in one place for the whole year?” asks Richard Yerkes, dwelling,” Yerkes maintains, “but you can’t rule out that it another Ohio State archaeologist who has published exten- might have been some kind of ceremonial structure.” Because sively on Hopewell culture and considers them hunter-gath- the Brown’s Bottom project is still in progress, Pacheco’s team erers. To prove year-round habitation, Yerkes says, there has had time to present only one paper on their findings, must be evidence of large domestic dwellings, many storage which they did in October 2005 at the Midwest Archaeologi- pits, tools that were used over long and short periods of cal Conference. Once further analysis is complete, the re- time, and a variety of plant and animal remains that could searchers plan to publish their findings—something Yerkes only have been obtained during each of the four seasons. says he and others look forward to with great interest. Pacheco maintains that they have this evidence. They’ve found what he believes to be a large residential KELLI WHITLOCK BURTON is a freelance writer based near Columbus, Ohio, dwelling, tools, a multitude of pits that likely were used for who has written for publications such as Science and the Boston Globe. american archaeology 37 AN UNLIKELY ALLIANCE Archaeologists, collectors, and Native Americans have often been at odds with each other. But recently a huge collection of artifacts was returned to the Chickasaw Nation as a result of the three parties working together.

By Elizabeth Lunday Photographs by Kristen Dorsey, Chickasaw Cultural Center, the Chickasaw Nation

he artifacts were spread out for view on a dozen or more tables. Hoe blades, crusted orange with rust, were piled alongside gun barrels. Sil- T ver bracelets glinted. One box con- tained stirrups; another, lead shot. Beads were everywhere: blue beads, red beads, black beads, tiny beads the color of bone, and large beads thicker than a man’s thumb. The guests at the home outside of Tupelo, Mis- sissippi, moved silently between the tables, picking up and turning over items. Three men—Julian Riley, Steve Cook, and Buddy Palmer—watched. They had collected these objects more than 25 years earlier, rescuing them from destruction by bulldozers and backhoes. Archaeologists and representatives of the Chickasaw Nation, who considered the three men to be looters, examined the objects. These disparate parties—archaeologists, collectors, and Native Americans—had come together because Cook, Palmer, A sample of beads and Riley offered to donate their collection to the Chickasaw from the collection. Nation, and the tribe wanted the archaeologists to study the materials.

38 fall • 2006 That December day in 2003, remembered by Riley, tribal it’s clear that by the late 1600s, the majority of the tribe historian Richard Green, and archaeologist Brad Lieb of lived in compact villages centered around today’s Tupelo. the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at Mississippi State In the 1830s the Chickasaw were forced by the U.S. gov- University, was the culmination of years of effort. ernment to leave their home in Mississippi and move to Today the Cook-Palmer-Riley collection is housed Indian Territory in Oklahoma. in Ada, in south-central Oklahoma, the headquarters of the Chickasaw Nation, awaiting its final move to the “I’VE BEEN INTERESTED IN INDIAN ARTIFACTS since I was Chickasaw Cultural Center under construction in nearby five years old,” says Riley, whose vocations include auditor, Sulphur. It’s known that Lee County, in northeast Missis- Civil War historian, and watercolor artist. “My aunt came in sippi, had been home to the Chickasaws since at least from the cotton field, and she had an arrowhead she 1682, when French explorer La Salle met them at what is showed me. It was like a light bulb coming on in my head.” now Memphis, Tennessee, on his canoe trip down the In 1965 Riley found a glass trade bead in the woods. Mississippi. It was the second encounter between the tribe About the same time, Buddy Palmer moved with his fam- and Europeans; in 1541, the chronicles of Hernando de ily into a new subdivision in Tupelo. Palmer, who ran a Soto record how the “Chicacas,” enraged by the explorer’s family-owned supermarket, remembers walking along demand of 200 men for porters, attacked and routed his newly bulldozed roads and finding beads scattered across army. Though it’s uncertain where this battle took place, the ground. He and Riley, friends from the Army Reserves,

Archaeologists John W. O’Hear of Mississippi State University’s Cobb Institute and Timothy Baugh of the Chickasaw Cultural Center examine a late 18th-century copper kettle from the Buddy Palmer collection. american archaeology 39 cases the Chickasaw village sites were not eas- ily identified by surface evidence, and there was pressure from authorities to move the highway project along. Nevertheless, says O’Hear, the archaeological community bears some responsibility for not finding a way to preserve Chickasaw sites. “There is blame to go all the way around, from the university archaeolo- gists to various state and federal agencies,” he says. “During the ’70s, people just dropped the ball.” “We did everything we could to save these sites,” says Palmer, “but there didn’t appear to be any interest, so I proceeded to preserve what I could.” Cook, Palmer, and Riley developed a sophisticated understanding of their finds. Having identified village sites, they A small reconstructed thought it would be easy to name the villages by refer- Chickasaw pottery vessel. encing historical maps and records such as James Adair’s 1775 Most Chickasaw pottery was History of the American Indians. “Then we started to run into tempered with crushed fragments of fossil oyster shells. problems,” says Riley. “One map would show a village at one place, another map at another place.” They concluded that started spending weekends and evenings looking for arti- was because village names moved with village inhabitants. facts; a few years later they met Cook, a civil engineer. Early in the 18th century, the French and English They were horrified by the destruction of Chickasaw struggled to establish supremacy around the Mississippi sites by projects like the construction of State Highway 78. River by establishing alliances with local tribes. The Chick- They contacted the archaeological community and state asaw allied with the British while the French partnered and local authorities to try to stop the devastation, but no with traditional Chickasaw enemies such as the Choctaw. one could—or would—help. The majority of sites were on Between 1720 and 1740, as conflict with their enemies private property, where they had limited legal protection. intensified, the tribe consolidated into defensible positions. Archaeologist John O’Hear, who is also with the Cobb The conflict continued over several decades. At the conclusion Institute, describes that time in the 1970s as a “mess.” Uni- of the French and Indian War of 1754 to 1763, the French versity archaeologists were spread thin working on federally relinquished their claim to the area, and the Chickasaw funded projects and didn’t have the time or funding to gradually returned to previously abandoned villages. attend to Chickasaw sites, nor did they have the authority to Cook, Palmer, and Riley thought they could trace the stop private development. In the case of Highway 78, O’Hear movement of these populations over time by consulting believes cultural resources were destroyed because in some the historical and archaeological records.

The front and back of a shell gorget. These gorgets have been found in contexts dating from about A.D. 1700 to the 1830s.

40 fall • 2006 The three men made another effort to interest ar- says. He soon stumbled on the paper by Cook, Palmer, chaeologists, this time contacting Ian W. Brown and Jeffrey and Riley. One name stood out. “I knew the name Julian P. Brain at Harvard. Brown and Brain were at that time Riley, because he had been identified to me as a collector,” excavating Natchez sites in the Mississippi Valley, and the says Green. He called Riley, and the conversation, to put collectors hoped to interest them in a collaborative project it mildly, did not go well. “He wanted nothing to do with studying the artifacts and excavating the remaining sites. me or the tribe or any archaeologists,” Green says. “I was- Despite some initial interest, the project didn’t occur. n’t very nice to him,” Riley admits. The collectors were bitter and angry. “Some of the aca- Green persisted and eventually Riley agreed to get to- demics gave me the impression they’d rather see the artifacts gether. He came to trust Green, who obtained a written destroyed than found by an amateur,” Palmer says. Without statement from Governor Bill Anoatubby promising not to their work, says Cook, precious materials would have been prosecute the collectors. (Although the collection of Indian lost forever. “But how are you going to preserve the stuff,” he artifacts was never prosecuted in the 1960s and ’70s and says, “if subdivisions are going to be built on top of it?” legal codes were confused and self-contradictory, particu- By 1981 they stopped collecting. They co-authored a larly regarding private property, Mississippi state law could paper about Chickasaw village locations and gave a copy have been read to prohibit the collectors’ actions. By the to the Lee County Library. The artifacts were squirreled early 1980s, the antiquities law had been amended and clar- away in attics, under beds, and in safe-deposit boxes. ified to ban disturbance of Native American graves or re- That, it seemed, was the end of that. mains on private as well as public property.) Not long after, Green attempted to meet Cook. His first call to Cook resem- MORE THAN 20 YEARS LATER in the sticky heat of a Tu- bled his first to Riley, but again Green’s patience paid off pelo summer, Richard Green took refuge in the air-condi- and the two began to meet. Green felt like he was making tioned Lee County Library. It was 2002, and Green was progress—but nothing prepared him for what came next. researching a book. His trip to Tupelo had so far been “We’re sitting out on his porch one night, and Cook a dead end. “I thought, man, I’m wasting my time—but it says, ‘What do you think about the Chickasaws; would they was a hot day and I wanted to get out of the sun,” Green want to own all three collections?’” Green says. He was

Portions of a Natchez Indian bowl from the Steve Cook collection. In 1731, after their defeat by French forces, many surviving Natchez took up residence among the Chickasaw.

An iron pipe tomahawk from the Buddy Palmer collection. Only two pipe tomahawks have been The golden patina on this English spirits bottle resulted from its long contact with the alkaline recovered from soils found at some Chickasaw sites. Chickasaw sites. american archaeology 41 This silver tube, which may have been used as a hair ornament, was fash- ioned from a wristband from the Julian Riley collection. At least half of the O’HEAR HAD KNOWN ABOUT the Cook, Palmer, and Riley silver items in the collections are finished European items that the collections since the 1970s, but archaeological ethics pro- Chickasaw refashioned for their own purposes. hibited him from studying them. It was an impossible sit- uation, O’Hear says. Even if they had the resources, mu- floored. Cook picked up the phone and consulted with Riley seums or universities couldn’t buy the collection and Palmer. By the end of the evening, an offer was on the because that would be seen as adding value to items that table. Cook’s telling gives more credit to Green. “The real had been looted. While O’Hear acknowledges the caveats of person who made this happen was Richard Green,” he says. the case, including the lack of response from archaeologists “He persuaded me from a historical standpoint that I owed in the 1970s, his hands were tied. When he got the news what I knew to the Chickasaw and the public in general.” of the donation he was stunned. The next step was the meeting on December 18, 2003. The donation gives archaeologists the opportunity to Along with Green, numerous representatives of the Chicka- make up for their past omissions, according to archaeologist saw Nation attended, including Governor Anoatubby, Lieu- Brad Lieb. “The professional community missed their tenant Governor Jefferson Keel, and Heritage Preservation chance 25 years ago to do what the Chickasaw Nation is Administrator Kirk Perry. A final agreement was signed not making possible for us to do now,” he says. long after. The collectors agreed to donate the artifacts, O’Hear was also glad the tribe would be using archaeol- while the tribe agreed to pay for the time Cook, Palmer, ogists to study and preserve the artifacts. In many cases, tribes and Riley spent working with the tribe and archaeologists. receiving materials returned under the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act of 1990 have reburied human remains and cultural artifacts or otherwise removed them from professional scrutiny, according to David Hurst Thomas’ book Skull Wars: Kennewick Man, Archaeology, and the Battle for Native American Identity. Archaeologists are often viewed as little better than grave robbers them- selves, a conviction that is the legacy of the troubled history between Native Americans and those who study them, Thomas writes. The Chickasaw Nation is an exception, generally wel- coming archaeologists into their midst. The tribe’s rationale is that these people can help tribal members understand their heritage and pass it down to future generations. “To be able to educate our own people, we’re learning more from archaeologists,” says Perry. The Chickasaw hired the Cobb Institute to conduct a provenience study to learn where and how the artifacts were found. The study, based on field notes, photographs, and the collectors’ memories, identified 319 features including middens, houses, forts, and palisades in which artifacts were found. However, the majority of the features are burials, says Lieb. Chickasaw custom was to bury family members under the dirt floors of houses, surrounded by items that were ei- ther prized possessions or gifts from relatives. This brings up a sensitive issue for the Chickasaw Nation. Their tribal code prohibits the display of funerary items, considering them part of the burial, and tribal members are concerned that A silver wristband from the Julian Riley collection. these goods be treated with respect. The Chickasaw Nation

42 fall • 2006 will allow scholars and interested Chickasaw to study burial when they bought it in 1963. They often spotted potsherds goods, but no destructive testing will be permitted. and glass beads scattered on the ground and sometimes “Everything we do with regard to the study or repatria- found human bones. The Beasleys refrained from digging tion of artifacts is motivated by respect and reverence for our for artifacts for fear of disturbing graves. ancestors, our heritage, and our culture. We are working to The Nation intends to develop an interpretive center balance a genuine desire to preserve knowledge of the past that will be open to the public. Classes in Chickasaw culture, for future generations with our heartfelt duty to treat these arts, and language will be offered. “Think of that, the Chick- objects in a way which shows the proper respect for our an- asaw language spoken by our people on that ridge top once cestors and the beliefs of our people,” says Anoatubby. again,” said Governor Anoatubby to the Chickasaw Times. The most common items in the collection are trade beads. Cook has spent years studying beads and develop- HOW DID THREE MUTUALLY SUSPICIOUS groups overcome ing a chronology tying the dates different beads were their biases to work together? One factor is economics. Ac- manufactured and traded with the historical and archaeo- cording to the Chickasaw Nation, in 1987, the tribe had logical record of village sites, extending the work of the 250 employees and an $11 million budget, mostly from 1980 paper into three papers available online at federal government programs; in 2006, the tribe’s budget www.thechickasawvillages.com. Other decorative items in- reached nearly $350 million, with income coming from en- clude round ornaments worn on necklaces known as gor- terprises ranging from casinos to a chocolate factory. The gets, bracelets, and ear pins. The collection also contains money has given the tribe the opportunity to explore and kettles, bottles, pots, hoes, and axes. preserve its heritage. Some items point directly to historical moments. A pair Another factor, according to the collectors and archae- of armbands with an eagle motif was commissioned by ologists, is the patience and persistence of Richard Green. George Washington to give to Indian leaders. A French Green takes little credit, but he “was instrumental,” says grenade survives from a French-led attack on the village Lieb. “Green would be the principal catalyst,” Cook says. Ogoula Tchetoka in March 1736. While the majority of the The most important factor was the willingness of the artifacts are European trade goods, some earlier items sur- Chickasaw Nation to work with collectors and archaeologists. vive, including hand-axes, shell gorgets, carved pipes, and “I can’t laud Governor Anoatubby and the Chickasaw projectile points. Lieb says the collection will shed light on enough for taking this progressive step,” says Lieb. Cook, the Chickasaws’ cultural chronology, settlement patterns, Palmer, and Riley agree. “They bit the bullet,” Palmer says. and trade with other Native American groups. Once the The Chickasaw put the past behind them in their decision to provenience report is complete, the next step will be to pri- “get the collectors and the archaeologists together and come oritize materials for conservation and study. Conservation to a meeting ground. It took a lot of guts on their part.” won’t begin until the artifacts are moved to the new Chick- Anoatubby told the tribal newspaper the Chickasaw asaw Cultural Center, due to open in the summer of 2007. Times that he felt obligated to obtain the artifacts for the Contact with the Tupelo collectors has had another tribe. “By acquiring the collection, the material is now unexpected result: the preservation of a Chickasaw village consolidated under our control,” the governor says. “We site. The Beasley family, neighbors of Steve Cook, sold intend to learn all we can from these materials about how their 35-acre farm, known as Cedarscape, to The Archaeo- our ancestors lived and adapted to the changing circum- logical Conservancy in the summer of 2005. The Conser- stances in tribal life.” vancy purchased the site with a grant from the Chickasaw Nation, and then leased the land to the Chickasaw. The ELIZABETH LUNDAY is a writer based in Fort Worth, Texas. Her articles Beasleys knew the farm contained the Chickasaw village appear in publications including Mental Floss.

These pieces of a segmented head band were made from arm and wristbands. The piece second from left bears the British sterling mark. american archaeology 43 new acquisition A Prehistoric Mound Is Saved The Conservancy obtains a Coles Creek mound in Louisiana. he Conservancy’s latest South- east acquisition is Mound A at Tthe Insley site near the town of Delhi, in northeastern Louisiana. Insley was first visited in 1913 by C. B. Moore, the noted archaeologist who traveled the waterways of the Southeast visiting some of the re- gion’s best-known mound sites. Lo- cated on the bank of Bayou Macon, Insley has been disturbed by years of cultivation; consequently, it’s uncer- tain how many mounds were built there. But there are three confirmed mounds, the largest of which is

Mound A. At some point a bulldozer WFORD

was used to remove about five feet CRA of soil from this mound, reducing its

height to approximately 18 feet. JESSICA Surface artifacts taken from dif- Though it has been damaged by erosion and heavy equipment, Mound A’s 20-foot summit still provides ferent areas at Insley indicate several an excellent view of the surrounding cotton fields and Bayou Macon. occupations dating from the Middle Archaic Period (ca. 5000–3000 B.C.), by soil scientists Thurman Allen, The age of the other mounds to the Coles Creek Period (ca. A.D. John Norris, and Susan Hollis, took remains to be determined and there 700–1200); but those artifacts didn’t core samples from Mound A to de- is still plenty to be learned about reveal when the mounds were built. termine its age. An accelerator mass Mound A. The Conservancy’s acquisi- So recently Joe Saunders and Reca spectrometry date obtained from tion of this portion of the site assures Bamberg-Jones of the Louisiana Re- charcoal from the interior of the that there will be no more bulldozers gional Archaeology Program, assisted mound dates to about A.D. 900. Many approaching the summit of Mound A of the area’s mound sites date to the and the data it contains will be pre- Conservancy Coles Creek period, and they adhere served.—Jessica Crawford Plan of Action to its characteristic arrangement of platform mounds surrounding SITE: Insley Mound A a plaza area. CULTURE & TIME PERIOD: Middle The appearance and texture Archaic Period to Coles Creek Period of Mound A’s soil suggest it had (5000 B.C.–A.D. 1200). STATUS: The mound has been been constructed in a single damaged by erosion and heavy episode by basket loading. This equipment and is threatened by means that a basket (or some possible waterfront development. type of container) was filled ACQUISITION: The Conservancy with soil, taken to the site, and needs to raise $12,000 to match the dumped onto a pile. The pile, Lower Mississippi Valley challenge grant and purchase the site. after countless basket loads of HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send soil, became a mound. There contributions to The Archaeological were often slight differences in Conservancy, Attn: Insley Site Project, soil colors and textures among 5301 Central Ave., NE, Suite 902, the basket loads, and they are Albuquerque, NM 81708-1517 often visible to the naked eye.

44 fall • 2006 new acquisition Shedding Light on the Caddo Pine Tree Mound could tell us much about this fascinating culture.

he Caddo once occupied an area that today en- compasses southeastern Oklahoma, southwestern T Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, and northeast Texas. They established large civic-ceremonial complexes along the major rivers of the area and smaller hamlet communi- ties were widespread along tributaries and streams. The Pine Tree Mound site is a Late Caddoan civic and ceremonial center containing three mounds, a plaza, and at least eight associated villages. The roughly 38-acre site is the Conservancy’s 10th Caddo preserve and 16th pre- serve in Texas. Atop the largest of the mounds is a modern brick house and carport. It is believed that the top of this mound was leveled off by 1 1/2 feet when the house was built. The ALKER W site was also disturbed by the installation of septic, water, J I M and phone lines, and the construction of a stock pond. The core area around the mounds shows very little disturbance. This trench was part of a test excavation in search of evidence of a village. Dan Scurlock and Parker Nunley of the University of Archaeologists have already identified at least eight villages at the site. Texas at Austin first recorded the site in 1962. The three mounds were noted along with extensive surface scatter of American Electric Power and the Sabine Mining Company, artifacts to the north and east of the mounds. In 2003 the decided to donate the site to the Conservancy. Texas Historical Commission conducted a magnetometer In spite of the construction and various types of archae- survey to identify subsurface cultural deposits. ological testing, the site is in excellent shape. Limited exca- In 2004, prompted by a planned mining project, Prewitt vating has revealed cultural deposits related to domestic, and Associates, Inc., a cultural resources firm, dug test units ceremonial, and ritual activities. This site has the potential to establish a mitigation plan. Prewitt advocated that the site to yield significant information about the prehistoric culture be preserved rather than mitigated, and the landowners, of the Caddo Indians and is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Mining operations will be taking place around the entire preserve for the next 10 to 15 years. During this time the Conservancy will be mon- itoring the site with the help of two or three site stewards. Thanks to the advocacy of Prewitt and Associates, Inc., the generous donation of the landowner, and conscientious monitoring by our site stewards, this site will be perma- nently preserved.—Amy Espinoza-Ar Conservancy Plan of Action SITE: Pine Tree Mound CULTURE TIME AND PERIOD: Late Caddo Mound Complex and associated village areas (A.D. 1300–1700) STATUS: Development, looting, and mining threaten the site. ACQUISITION: The Conservancy has a donation agreement for the site’s acquisition but still needs to raise $10,000 for management expenses and closing costs. HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: Pine Tree Mound Project, 5301 Central Ave. NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517

american archaeology 45 new acquisition Conservancy purchases significant Mesa Verde cobble pueblo Seller takes advantage of conservation law. he Archaeological Conservancy purchased half of the Flora TVista Pueblo, which is located on a bluff above the Animas River in northeast New Mexico between the towns of Farmington and Aztec. Flora Vista Pueblo was built by the Mesa Verde Anasazi around A.D. 1200. It is an extensive site consisting of a series of river cobble roomblocks built around at least one plaza. There is evidence of a Great Kiva almost 60 feet in diameter. The site was first noted in the literature in 1939 by Southwestern archaeologist Earl Morris. ALKER

Although the site has been dis- W

turbed by looters through the years, J I M including some isolated bulldozing The river cobbles scattered across the ground are from the pueblo’s collapsed roomblocks. activity confined to a plaza area, it is generally intact. The Conservancy provides tax credits for the donation protect archaeological sites and also has been negotiating with the site’s of land containing archaeological reap significant financial benefits. two landowners for over 20 years. sites to preservation organizations. The eastern half of Flora Vista The owner of the western half of the The Conservancy made a cash offer Pueblo is located on a four-acre lot site decided to take advantage of a that was significantly less than the in an upscale residential subdivision. recent New Mexico law, the Land land‘s appraised value. The differ- The developer has withdrawn the lot Conservation Incentives Act, that ence between the offer and the ap- from sale and the Conservancy is praisal will be considered a donation working to acquire it.—Jim Walker Conservancy to the Conservancy. In effect since January 2004, the Plan of Action Land Conservation Incentives Act of- fers a New Mexico state tax credit SITE: Flora Vista Pueblo CULTURE AND TIME PERIOD: Pueblo III, equal to 50 percent of the donated Animas Phase, Mesa Verde Anasazi amount up to a maximum credit of A.D. 1200–1300 $100,000. This credit will reduce the STATUS: The site is threatened by donor’s New Mexico state tax liability residential development. on a dollar for dollar basis. If he ACQUISITION: The Conservancy needs can’t use all of the credit in the year $57,000 to survey and acquire the he makes the donation, he can carry western portion of the pueblo. forward any unused tax credit for up HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send contributions to The Archaeological to the 19 years. The donor is also el- Conservancy, Attn: Flora Vista Pueblo igible for federal tax deductions. Sev- Project, 5301 Central Ave. NE, Suite 902, eral preservation-minded landowners Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. have used the act to permanently

46 fall • 2006 NEW POINT-3 S INDIAN THE VESTIGES OF O F T E X A S C T S FA TI

AR THE MISSISSIPPIANS

O N E acquisition ST The Conservancy acquires part of a mound group related to Cahokia.

ast Saint Louis, situated in Illi- nois, just across the Mississippi ERiver from St. Louis, Missouri, has gone through some hard times. It prospered in the 19th century, first with agriculture, then later with the coming of the railroads and stock- yards. It also flourished in the first half of the 20th century with the de- velopment of manufacturing and chemical industries, only to see its fortunes collapse as America moved to a post-industrial economy. Today the town has its share of abandoned

Y buildings and lots overrun by weeds, though community groups are work- KELL ing to make improvements. O H N J Modern East Saint Louis is not the first society to wax and wane in The Kansas City Community College field school crew excavates at the base of a mound in East St. Louis. this area. In traveling from Saint Louis to the Cahokia Mounds site in tended in an arc facing the river for PARC purchased abandoned lots 1810, Henry Brackenridge noted evi- about a mile. Later accounts would within the site confines as they were dence of great prehistoric endeavors document the demise of the archaeo- auctioned for back taxes. The Con- in the vicinity of East Saint Louis. “I logical site as the mounds became servancy has agreed to purchase six found myself in the midst of a fewer and smaller, while the town of these lots from PARC at the price group of mounds, mostly of a circu- and its industries grew larger and the latter paid for them in order to lar shape, and at a distance, resem- more sprawling. Today, only one establish its East Saint Louis Archaeo- bling enormous haystacks scattered mound is visible on the surface, pre- logical Preserve. Limited archaeologi- through a meadow. One of the served fortuitously in a narrow weedy cal testing on the lots indicates that largest which I ascended was about strip between two railroad tracks. they preserve the remnants of at least two hundred paces in circumference Appearances can be deceiving, three mounds. Given that more ex- at the bottom, the form nearly however. Beneath the weedy lots and tensive highway salvage excavations square, though it had evidently un- behind the abandoned buildings, conducted near the lots produced dergone considerable alteration from significant portions of the East Saint evidence of mounds, cemeteries, the washing of the rains. The top Louis Group remain preserved. Ar- houses, and a palisade, the lots’ re- was level, with an area sufficient to chaeologist John Kelly of Washington search potential is quite high. While contain several hundred men.” University and the Powell Archaeolog- it’s too late to preserve the full splen- Thus Brackenridge provided the ical Research Center (PARC) have car- dor of the ruins that impressed first description of the Mississippian ried out an ambitious program of sal- Brackenridge, the long-term research period site known today as the East vage archaeology and test excavations benefits of assembling an archaeo- Saint Louis Mound Group. Bracken- to document the subsurface vestiges logical preserve from a rust-belt ridge further specified that the of the mound center (see American neighborhood will be impressive in mounds numbered about 45 and ex- Archaeology Winter 2002–03). their own right.—Paul Gardner american archaeology 47 NEW POINT-3 A Picture of the Seneca acquisition Bosley’s Mill is rich in Seneca culture.

ocated near Conesus Creek in Livingston County, New York, L the Bosley’s Mill site is named after the gristmill of John Bosley, who purchased the property in 1792. The significance of the site, however, is that it is the location of a Seneca settlement that archaeological re- search indicates dates to the early 17th century. In the 17th century the Seneca tribe of Western New York occupied territory from the Genesee River to Canandaigua Lake and together with the Oneida, Mohawks, Onondaga, and Cayuga tribes, formed the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy, one of the most powerful alliances in A member of the crew records postmolds in a notebook during the 1980s fieldwork. North America at the time. The Seneca, along with the other mem- the Seneca a wealth of European longer exists. While the site has been bers of the Five Nations, were cen- manufactured trade goods. the location of numerous surface col- tral players in the international fur According to historical accounts, lections, it was not seriously investi- trade, which was fueled by Euro- Bosley’s Mill was once surrounded gated until the 20th century, with the pean fashion trends and the desire by an earthen embankment about most recent work taking place in for beaver pelts. This trade brought three feet high. This embankment no 1983 and ’84, under the direction of Chuck Vandrei, then with the Rock Foundation of the Rochester Museum and Science Center. These excavations demonstrated that Bosley’s Mill is exceptionally rich in both Native American and Eu- ropean material culture. More than 62,000 artifacts were recovered, in- cluding chipped stone tools, ceram- ics, bone, shell, and European trade goods. A portion of an undisturbed midden was excavated and a com- plex pattern of postmolds, pits, and hearths was identified in the north- eastern quadrant of the site. Re- searchers believe that these features ANDREI represent the remains of portions of V two overlapping longhouses.

By knowing when glass trade C H A R L E S This trench was dug in 1984. More than 62,000 artifacts were recovered during the excavations. beads recovered from the site were

48 fall • 2006 NEW POINT-3

acquisition

identifies Bosley’s Mill as part of the western sequence. In 1687 the French destroyed the Seneca villages in order to monopolize the fur trade. The Seneca moved east into the ANDREI V Genesee Valley and western Finger Lakes region.

C H A R L E S In recent times the Bosley’s Mill These excavated postmolds are the vestiges of longhouses. site has been owned by John and Eileen Kemp, who have agreed to manufactured, archaeologists were the mid 16th century, the Seneca sell the site to the Conservancy so able to date Bosley’s Mill between began what Wray called an eastern that it can become a permanent ar- A.D. 1610–1635. Other evidence con- and western “sequence” of villages, chaeological research preserve. The firmed this date. The archaeologists with each sequence consisting of two Seneca Nation’s Tribal Historic Preser- were surprised by the number and large villages and several smaller vation Officer, Kathleen Mitchell, was variety of the artifacts they found. camps. consulted during the negotiations for According to Charles Wray’s Series The Seneca moved their villages the site and supported the acquisi- in Seneca Archaeology, beginning in north every 10 to 20 years. Wray tion.—Andy Stout

POINT Acquisitions



 Bosley’s Mill

East St. The Protect Our Irreplaceable National Treasures Louis (POINT) program was designed to save significant sites that are in immediate danger of destruction.

american archaeology 49 CONSERV ANCY FieldNotes OUT ST NDY A

Members of the Western Maryland chapter of the Archaeological Society of Maryland and the Towson University field school assisting in the excavations at the Barton site on the Potomac River near Cumberland, Maryland.

Research Continues lage identified a Keyser-phase house jacent to the deeply buried hearth pattern within the boundaries of the feature that was discovered last year. at the Barton Site village that was more clearly delin- Radiocarbon dating of samples from EAST—Archaeologist Bob Wall of eated during last year’s fieldwork. the same stratigraphic levels as the Towson University directed another The house, which was roughly circu- hearth yielded these dates ranging season of field work at the Conser- lar, featured a central hearth. The from 10,000 to 15,000 B.C. vancy’s Barton site in western Mary- walls of the structure appear to have land last summer. Wall’s crew, which two lines of posts, suggesting inner consisted of a Towson field school and outer walls. The house’s interior Investigations at and the Western Maryland Chapter of contained a variety of tools such as the Archaeology Society of Maryland, drills, triangular points, and flakes, as Creswell Pueblo did test excavations of a broad area well as bone beads, animal bone re- SOUTHWEST—Recent excavations at of the site, focusing on the palisaded fuse, and the distinctive Keyser cord- Creswell Pueblo, a small pueblo lo- Keyser-phase village (ca. A.D. 1400s). marked, shell-tempered pottery. cated on a Conservancy preserve The excavations within the vil- The crew also exposed areas ad- within the Homol’ovi Ruins State

50 fall • 2006 PROGRAM Protect

T U N I T I E S archaeological sites

OPPOR while increasing your income R E S E A R C H T E The Archaeological Conservancy UNDERGRADUA charitable gift annuity can: H O M O L ' O V I

Abby Fisher, one of the field school students, uncovers the wall of a room at Creswell Pueblo. ¥ Increase your financial security by receiving guaranteed fixed Park in northeastern Arizona, are used? What activities occurred in payments for your lifetime. changing archaeologists’ ideas about communal spaces? How did the use ¥ $10,000 minimum donation. the development of prehistoric village of the site change over time? ¥ Reduce your tax burden with savings communities in the middle Little Col- Young and her crew discovered orado River valley. This area is best that Creswell’s large room size, sub- on capital gains and income taxes. known for its large pueblos that were stantial wall construction, and diver- ¥ Help protect America s cultural heritage. first inhabited during the second half sity of ceramics were very different To receive more information and our of the 13th century. Prior to A.D. than those of the later Homol’ovi brochure, mail information requests to: 1250, the preferred homes of people pueblos. In coming years the infor- The Archaeological Conservancy in the Homol’ovi area were semi-sub- mation from Creswell Pueblo will be Attn: Planned Giving terranean pithouses, built by digging compared to a nearby pithouse site 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 into the ground to make the walls to identify variation in the social and Albuquerque,NM 87108-1517 and floor. Creswell Pueblo was con- economic strategies of these roughly For more information call 505-266-1540 structed during the late 1100s or contemporaneous villages. or email [email protected] early 1200s, making it the first The excavations at Creswell pueblo built in the Homol’ovi area Pueblo are part of a three-year program and roughly contemporaneous with sponsored by the National Science Current Annuity nearby pithouse villages. Foundation’s Research Experience for Payout Rates Last summer, University of Michi- Undergraduates (REU) program that gan archaeologist Lisa Young directed emphasizes sharing the results of ar- Age Rates excavations at Creswell Pueblo, a re- chaeological research with the pub- search project comparing Homol’ovi- lic. Last July the undergraduate stu- 65 6.0% area 12th- and early 13th-century pit- dents presented their findings at the house and pueblo communities. Her annual Homol’ovi open house. The 75 7.1% work was inspired by several re- results of their research projects are 80 8.0% search questions: How many house- also being incorporated into dis- holds lived at Creswell Pueblo? How plays at the Homol’ovi Ruins State 85 9.5% were domestic and wild resources Park Visitors Center. american archaeology 51 The Archaeology of Liberty in an American Capital: Reviews Excavations in Annapolis By Mark P. Leone (University of California Press, 2005; 327 pgs., illus.; $40 cloth; www.ucpress.edu)

In the United States, his- torical archaeology, that is, archaeology that draws both on material remains of past cultures and the contemporary written records, is a rel- atively new field of study. Yet it is one that is growing rap- idly in acceptance and importance as traditional prehis- toric archaeology struggles with new challenges. Mark Mountain Spirit: The Sheep Eater Indians of Yellowstone Leone of the Uni- By Lawrence L. Loendorf and Nancy Medaris Stone versity of Maryland, one (University of Utah Press, 2006; 240 pgs., illus.; of the most distinguished historical archae- $50 cloth, $20 paper; www.UofUpress.com) ologists in America, is on the cutting edge of this developing discipline. This is the story of the Indian tribes that lived in the Since 1982, Leone has directed excavations at several Yellowstone area for thousands of years. They were a dozen sites around the city of Annapolis, including such Shoshone group called Tukudika, or Sheep Eaters. diverse places as the U.S. Naval Academy and St. Mary’s Unlike the popular myths that tend to denigrate these Church. So what do archaeologists find in a 300-year-old people, Mountain Spirit shows them to be “intelligent, American town? Lots of things, including a printer’s type, inventive, congenial tenants” of the Rocky Mountain ceramics, slave spirit bundles, and the historical landscape. West. Drawing on the ethnographic record and recent The printer’s type included a skull and crossbones that archaeological investigations, the authors present a served to protest the hated Stamp Act of 1768, and the spirit captivating story of these intriguing people. bundles illuminate the lives and suffering of African Ameri- They were talented artisans who made cans seeking to hold on to their culture. substantial shelters, powerful horn bows, and expertly Leone draws new information from the archaeological tailored clothing that served them well in the harsh record to shed light on the paradox of an American city mountain winters. They traveled in small bands seeking liberty while promoting slavery and racism. Patriots accompanied by large dogs that were indispensable hunting and trekking companions. They prospered preach equality while wealth is concentrated in the hands of until their lifestyle was disrupted by Europeans. a very few who survive the American Revolution to become Mountain Spirit is written for a general audience more powerful than before. and is superbly illustrated by David Joaquín, with Archaeology in Annapolis, as this project is called, is one seven paintings depicting Sheep Eater lifestyles. of the most innovative and successful long-term research These were people who lived off a rich and projects in the country, and this volume reports on its find- sometimes hostile land and flourished for many ings clearly and concisely. In the future we will be seeing centuries. At last, their story is being told. many more historical archaeology projects, and this book will set the standard for years to come.

52 fall • 2006 The Antiquities Act: A Century of Reviews American Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Nature Conservation Edited by David Harmon, Francis P. McManamon, and Dwight T. Pitcaithley (University Press of Arizona, 2006; 264 pgs, illus.; $45 cloth, $20 paper; www.uapress.arizona.edu) The One hundred years ago on Chattahoochee June 8, 1906, President Chiefdoms Theodore Roosevelt signed By John H. Blitz into law “an act for the and Karl G. Lorenz preservation of American antiq- (University of uities.” Consisting of only four short paragraphs, it fit neatly on a Alabama Press, single page of paper. Yet in its hundred-year history, it has had 2006; 304 pgs., an enormous impact on American archaeology and conservation illus.; $67 cloth, and remains a pillar of preservation law. $35 paper; The editors, distinguished scholars in their own right, have www.uapress.ua.edu) compiled 16 essays that examine and illuminate various aspects of the Antiquities Act, its history, and its legacy. Like all important Along the lower Chattahoochee River Valley laws, the Antiquities Act did not arrive overnight. It took years of between Columbus, Georgia, and the Gulf of painstaking work by archaeologists and conservationists to con- Mexico, a number of large villages with mounds vince a reluctant Congress to take action to preserve the nation’s developed between about A.D. 1100 and 1600. cultural and natural treasurers. The key players were Edgar Lee Native Americans thrived here, growing corn and Hewitt of Santa Fe, founder of the Museum of New Mexico and other crops and harvesting abundant wildlife. In the School of American Research, and Congressman John F. the 19th century, travelers and antiquarians Lacey, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the powerful Public explored the mounds and recovered large collections of artifacts. In the 20th century, Lands Committee. In late August of 1902, Lacey and Hewitt spent extensive dam building flooded much of the valley several days visiting ancient pueblo ruins in northern New Mexico, and archaeologists rushed to excavate and which convinced the powerful chairman to support the legislation. recover what they could. Reports of the findings Paragraphs one and three preserved ancient ruins on the were sparse and today little is known of these public lands for the benefit of all the people, provided a method people. for their scientific exploration, and established harsh penalties for This volume summarizes the available data looting. Paragraph two authorized the President to create “na- and creates an archaeological record to describe tional monuments” from public lands by proclamation, and Roo- the history of the development of the sevelt wasted little time in protecting such national treasures as Mississippian chiefdoms that dominated the area. the Grand Canyon and Chaco Canyon. Every president since Authors John Blitz, of the University of Alabama, Roosevelt, with the exceptions of Ronald Reagan and George H. and Karl Lorenz, of Shippensburg University, do an W. Bush, has used the Antiquities Act to protect important outstanding job of putting together the existing places. Every challenge to their actions has failed. data, mostly second-hand data at that, and This testament to a great American law provides the reader fashioning it into a readable history of the region. with insights into all aspects of its history and effectiveness. It is At the same time, they use this as a model for the also a blueprint for the future of a classic piece of legislation that development and spread of the Mississippian has much more work to do.—Mark Michel culture throughout the Southeast. american archaeology 53 54 W first which include ball structures. featuring we’ll tal logical adise region forthousandsofyears.Nestledinatropicalpar Join How FEBRU V Aztec, exciting T Aztecs, eotihuacán THE e’ll alsovisit eracruz occupied courts W At Zempoala,a great us Much: view are e’ll and sites prospered ARY frets, in l ook w lost d Olmec W then as Mexico’s and istinctive Spanish a that $2,695 e’ll once between scrolls, 22 cluster cities, at Tr T a visit es Zapotes,wherethediscoveryof ARCHAEOL tour defy oltecs, t one head he number – after ($295 To cultures MARCH of unique oldest El T and Olmec, current of the eotihuacán-style the tonac A sculpture T . the D ajín, pyramids images great . single i of mmense 500 port architecture, site datingfrom collapse that T cultural the pyramids cities 4, otonac, and and supplement) city, in of famous 2007 UPCOMING have of and 1869 Quetzalcoatl. 1200. the city classification. 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