A ROCK ART REVOLUTION • SEARCHING FOR PIRATES • SUMMER TRAVEL SPECIAL american archaeologySUMMER 2007 a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy Vol. 11 No. 2

Tales of the Taino:

ArArchaeologistschaeologists areare searsearchingching land and sea for evidence of the

$3.95 people who first met Columbus.

american archaeology a quarterly publication of The Archaeological Conservancy Vol. 11 No. 2 summer 2007 COVER FEATURE 31 BEFORE AND AFTER COLUMBUS BY MIKE TONER The Taino were the first Native Americans Columbus

encountered in the New World. Who were these Y people and how were they affected by contact?

12 UNCOVERING BASQUES IN CANADA BY DAVID MALAKOFF It was known that the Basques hunted whales in northeast Canada in the early 1500s. But archaeologists are learning that they stayed longer and engaged in more activities than was previously thought. 18 SEARCHING FOR PIRATES 31 FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTOR BY TONY REICHHARDT Investigations at several sites are informing 24 archaeologists about the life of pirates. 24 A ROCK ART REVOLUTION BY TAMARA STEWART Rock art research has existed on the fringe of mainstream archaeology. But due to advances in dating, new interpretations, and other factors,

its value is increasing. T 37 THE HISTORY AND BEAUTY OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST BY DOUGLAS GANTENBEIN

Our summer tour takes you to this fascinating region. GEOFF STEWAR 44 new acquisition 2 Lay of the Land THE LEGACY OF THE KANSA 3 Letters A 19th-century village was home to hundreds of people. 5 Events 45 new acquisition 7 In the News OUT OF HARM’S WAY Evidence of Ancient Farming The Horn Mound is donated to the Conservancy. Found • Rare Paleo-Postmolds 46 new acquisition Identified • Revised Clovis Dates A LOOK AT CHURCH LIFE 50 Field Notes The Conservancy obtains an 18th-century church site in . 52 Reviews 47 new acquisition 54 Expeditions JOINING THE PAST AND PRESENT The Promontory sites will be preserved as open space in subdivision. COVER: Archaeologist Charles Beeker recovers a nearly complete Taino bowl 48 point acquisition from a remote sinkhole in a tropical A MONONGAHELA VILLAGE IS SAVED forest in the Dominican Republic. Photograph by John Foster The Kirshner site is an example of the Youghiogheny Phase. american archaeology 1 Lay of the Land

Learning from Rock Art

ntil recently, archaeologists and thinking of it as old graffiti. But other experts tended to dismiss things are changing fast as Tamara UNative American rock art as Stewart points out in this issue (see having little scientific value, even “A Rock Art Revolution,” page 24). DARREN POORE

MARK MICHEL, President

Innovative scholars like Dave Whit- ley and James Keyser are today ap- plying the latest in archaeological methodology to the study of this medium, yielding insights into the lives of ancient people. Their re- search is multidisciplinary, combin- ing cutting-edge technology with intellectual and methodological breakthroughs. We now know, for example, that much rock art is a record of the shamanic practices of ancient people, while other rock art holds insights into traditional life and belief systems. It is an interna- tional revolution that breaks new ground every year. Scientist are now coaxing carbon dates from pictographs and closing in on ways to date petroglyphs as well by measuring the rate that desert varnish forms on the altered rock. Dates are critical to matching the rock art to the people, and we have already learned that temporal assumptions can be wrong. Archaeologists and preservation- ists are joining forces with more traditional rock art scholars to record and protect this valuable resource. The art is delicate and subject to damage and vandalism, so there is much work to do. The Archaeological Conservancy is also moving forward with projects to preserve rock art in situ, and as the discipline expands efforts to protect it must also.

2 summer • 2007 Letters

Reconsidering appear to be identi- Artifacts of cal in size, shape, Editor’s Corner Questionable and color, for Value “This is a very exciting time in Caribbean example, may ex- archaeology,” Bill Keegan informed me. I enjoyed reading hibit differences Keegan, an archaeologist with the Uni- Tony Reichhardt’s in embossed let- versity of Florida, had recently returned interesting and ters and num- from Puerto Rico, where he was con- balanced article, bers on bodies, ducting research on the Taino. He is also “The Difficulties of bases, and heels, one of the sources for our feature (see Deaccessioning,” in which reflect the different technolo- “Before and After Columbus,” page 31) your Spring 2007 issue. I would like gies used to make them. The bottles on this Caribbean culture who were the to comment on a couple of matters. may also manifest other unique fea- first residents of the New World that The page 34 photograph of artifacts tures that may provide information Columbus encountered. One of the reasons for this excitement, of questionable research value recov- useful to the historical archaeologist. Keegan said, is that many researchers had ered from a Civil War site using a These differences may reflect content, been tethered to the model of Caribbean metal detector shows a common origin, chronology, and other infor- archaeology developed by the late Irving problem. Why anyone would collect mation of value. I would guess that Rouse, one of the preeminent scholars in aluminum pull-tabs from the surface of the bottles shown in this photo- this field. According to Keegan, Rouse, of a site is beyond me, but this graph, the percentage of real redun- who retired from Yale in 1984, hypothe- frequently occurs. If they came dancies is very small. sized that various peoples undertook four from a subsurface excavated context, James E. Ayres migrations to the Caribbean islands, the their presence might indicate that Adjunct Lecturer, first about 4,000 years ago. The third the deposit was disturbed. If so, the Department of Anthropology migration, in about A.D. 1000, resulted archaeologist would be prepared to University of Arizona in the Taino culture; the final migration was the Spaniards, resulting in the deal with that issue. Not all pull- meeting of the Old and New Worlds. tabs are necessarily of questionable Jumping to Pre-Clovis Conclusions Each successive migration possessed tech- value. Context is key. nologies that eclipsed its predecessor’s. Your photograph on page 36 of I was disappointed to see your News Rouse’s model dominated Caribbean early 20th-century bottles from a article in the Spring issue about a research for roughly 50 years. “The dump near Washington, D.C. reflects possible pre-Clovis site in Walker, model became formalized, even fos- another problem. Calling these Minnesota. Recent reports are now silized,” Keegan said. At first he tried to “redundant collections” is mislead- saying that there is no proof of pre- interpret his own research in accords ing at best. I have no problem with Clovis habitation. It is sad when the with this model, but he found that it eliminating certain true redundan- latest craze—pre-Clovis—takes the “was like trying to put a round peg in a cies, if the site report or museum place of good scientific research. square hole.” “I don’t think that’s unusual in records account fully for all artifacts Todd Murphy archaeology” for a model to be elevated collected. However, artifacts that Rochester, Minnesota to dogma, said Keegan. But that can be troublesome, even stifling. Like a num- Sending Letters to American Archaeology ber of his colleagues—though certainly not all of them—Keegan eventually un- American Archaeology welcomes your letters. Write to us at tethered his thinking from Rouse’s, for- 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517, or send us e-mail mulating his own interpretations. Intel- at [email protected]. We reserve the right to edit and publish letters in the magazine’s lectual freedom is indeed exciting. Letters department as space permits. Please include your name, address, and 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, significant archaeological sites Jerry EtsHokin, Illinois • Jerry Golden, • W. James Judge, Colorado t Jay T. Last, California • Dorinda Oliver, New York in the United States. Since its beginning in 1980, the Conservancy has Rosamond Stanton, Montana • Dee Ann Story, Texas preserved more than 345 sites across Stewart L. Udall, New Mexico • Gordon Wilson, New Mexico the nation, ranging in age from the Conservancy Staff earliest habitation sites in North Mark Michel, President • Tione Joseph, Business Manager America to a 19th-century frontier army Lorna Wolf, Membership Director • Sarah Tiberi, Special Projects Director post. We are building a national system Shelley Smith, Membership Assistant • Yvonne Waters, Administrative Assistant of archaeological preserves to ensure Melissa Montoya, Administrative Assistant 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 the 3620 N. High St. #307 • Columbus, 43214 mysteries of prehistoric America are still Jessica Crawford, Southeast Region (662) 326-6465 missing, and when a ruin is destroyed by 315 Locust St. • P.O. Box 270 • Marks, Mississippi 38646 looters, or leveled for a shopping center, George Lowry, Field Representative precious information is lost. By permanently preserving endangered ruins, Gene Hurych, Western Region (916) 399-1193 we make sure they will be here for future 1 Shoal Court #67 • Sacramento, California 95831 generations to study and enjoy. Andy Stout, Eastern Region (301) 682-6359 8 E. 2nd. St. #200 • Frederick, 21701 How We Raise Funds: Sonja Ingram, Field Representative Funds for the Conservancy come from membership dues, individual contributions, corporations, and foundations. Gifts and american archaeology ® bequests of money, land, and securities are fully tax deductible under section 501(c)(3) PUBLISHER: Mark Michel of the Internal Revenue Code. Planned EDITOR: Michael Bawaya (505) 266-9668, [email protected] giving provides donors with substantial tax ASSISTANT EDITOR: Tamara Stewart deductions and a variety of beneficiary ART DIRECTOR: Vicki Marie Singer, [email protected] possibilities. For more information, call Mark Michel at (505) 266-1540. Editorial Advisory Board

David Anderson, University of Tennessee • Jan Biella, New Mexico Deputy SHPO The Role of the Magazine: Todd Bostwick, Phoenix City Archaeologist • Pam Edwards-Lieb, Mississippi Chief Archaeologist American Archaeology is the only popular Bill Engelbrecht, Buffalo State College • Mark Esarey, magazine devoted to presenting the rich Charles Ewen, East Carolina University • Barbara Heath, University of Tennessee diversity of archaeology in the Americas. Robert Hoard, Kansas State Archaeologist • Peggy McGuckian, Bureau of Land Management The purpose of the magazine is to help Rick Minor, Heritage Research Associates • Sarah Neusius, Indiana University of Penn. readers appreciate and understand the Claudine Payne, Arkansas Archaeological Survey • Mark Schurr, University of Notre Dame archaeological wonders available to them, Kevin Smith, Middle Tennessee State University • Fern Swensen, North Dakota Deputy SHPO and to raise their awareness of the Ruth Van Dyke, Colorado College • Robert Wall, Towson University destruction of our cultural heritage. By Rob Whitlam, Washington State Archaeologist • David Whitley, W & S Consultants sharing new discoveries, research, and Richard Woodbury, University of Massachusetts activities in an enjoyable and informative way, we hope we can make learning about National Advertising Office ancient America as exciting as it is essential. Marcia Ulibarri, Advertising Representative 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108; How to Say Hello: By mail: (505) 344-6018; Fax (505) 345-3430; [email protected] The Archaeological Conservancy, American Archaeology (ISSN 1093-8400) is published quarterly by The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. Title registered U.S. Pat. and TM Office, © 2007 by TAC. Printed in the United States. Periodicals postage paid Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; Albuquerque, NM, and additional mailing offices. Single copies are $3.95. A one-year membership to the Conservancy is $25 and includes by phone: (505) 266-1540; receipt of American Archaeology. Of the member’s dues, $6 is designated for a one-year magazine subscription. READERS: For new mem- by e-mail: [email protected]; or visit our berships, renewals, or change of address, write to The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM Web site: www.americanarchaeology.org 87108-1517, or call (505) 266-1540. For changes of address, include old and new addresses. Articles are published for educational pur- poses and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Conservancy, its editorial board, or American Archaeology. Article proposals and art- work should be addressed to the editor. No responsibility assumed for unsolicited material. All articles receive expert review. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to American Archaeology, The Archaeological Conservancy, 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517; (505) 266-1540. All rights reserved. American Archaeology does not accept advertising from dealers in archaeological artifacts or antiquities.

4 summer • 2007 Museum exhibits • Tours • Festivals Events Meetings • Education • Conferences

I NEW EXHIBITS Edge of the Cedars State Park Virginia Historical Society Blanding, —From the Utah Richmond, Va.—The 400th anniversary of Museum of Natural History the founding of Jamestown provides an comes the informative “Range opportunity to look at the larger picture of Creek” exhibit, which explores European colonization through an original the history of human interaction traveling exhibition, “Jamestown, Québec, with the land at Range Creek in Santa Fe: Three North American Begin- eastern Utah. Once a private nings.” The 4,000-square-foot exhibit high- ranch, Range Creek contains an lights the early milestones in European set- abundance of incredibly well pre- tlement, placing Jamestown in the context served 11th-century Fremont cul- of three significant consecutive coloniza- ture habitation sites, granaries, tions: the founding of Jamestown in 1607 and rock art panels. Archaeolo- by the English, the establishing of Québec gists are now working there to by the French in 1608, and the founding of learn more about the Fremont Santa Fe by the Spanish in 1609. The con- people. The Fremont, who were sequences of the historical processes begun contemporaneous with the at Jamestown, Québec, and Santa Fe are Anasazi, shared similar cultural traced through the end of the 17th century. SMITHSONIAN’S NATIONALAMERICAN INDIAN THE MUSEUM OF practices with their neighbors, Fifty lenders provided 150 rare surviving such as farming and pottery mak- European and native artifacts of this early Smithsonian’s National ing. However, the Fremont were period, which illuminate the complexity of Museum of the a distinct culture of small kin- European colonization and interaction with based groups of people, some of the indigenous population. (804) 358-4901, American Indian whom were sedentary while www.vahistorical.org (Through September Washington, D.C.—The new exhibit others were highly mobile. The 3, 2007) The exhibit will then travel to the “Identity by Design: Tradition, Change, exhibit includes artifacts from National Museum of American History on and Celebration in Native Women’s Range Creek. (435) 678-2238, the Mall in Washington, D.C., where it will Dresses” presents a rare look at the wwww.stateparks.utah.gov/park be on display from Oct. 13, 2007, through beauty of native dresses through many generations. The museum’s (Through March 2008) March 28, 2008. unique collection of historical and contemporary attire, dating from the early 1800s to the present, features Fenimore Art Museum 55 exquisitely beaded dresses and more than 200 accessories including Cooperstown, N.Y.— The new exhibit “America’s Ancient belts, leggings, moccasins, and purses. Past” features outstanding examples of ancient American This comprehensive exhibit explores Indian pottery and offers a rare opportunity to view the the cultural origins, artistic traditions, distinctive pottery traditions of female artists from the and contemporary context of dresses Southeast and Southwest regions. Delicately carved from the Plains, Plateau, and Great bowls, intricately carved shell gorgets, Basin regions of the United States incised pottery, and molded effigy vessels with painted and Canada and includes engaging, and incised decorations are just some of the stunning hands-on educational activities

MUSEUM objects featured in this exhibition. Objects are drawn for children. (202) 633-1000, T from the museum’s Thaw Collection of American Indian www.americanindian.si.edu Art, Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology (Through January 2, 2008) and Ethnology, and private lenders. (607) 547-1400, www.fenimoreartmuseum.org (Through December 30) FENIMORE AR FENIMORE american archaeology 5 Pointe-À-Callière/Montreal Museum of Archaeology & History Quebec, Canada—As part of the museum’s 15th-anniversary celebration, the new exhibit “, French Royal Collections” will feature 85 stunning 18th- and 19th-century Events Amerindian artifacts from eastern North America, on loan from

the prestigious collections of the Musée Du Quai Branly in Y Paris. Originally belonging to French aristocrats or presented as royal gifts, the objects include magnificent painted deer and bison skins, embroidered moccasins, wampum belts made of shells, and other garments, ornaments, weapons, and tools from a wide array of native groups such as the Naskapis from Labrador, the Mi’kmaqs from Acadia, the Mohawks, Hurons, and Abenakis of the St. Lawrence Valley, the Ojibwas west of the Great Lakes, and other nations. (514) 872-9150,

www.pacmusee.qc.ca (June 5–October 14) POINTE-À-CALLIÈRE/MONTREAL MUSEUM ARCHAEOLOGYOF & HISTOR

I CONFERENCES, from around the country and the LECTURES & FESTIVALS world. This year’s diverse program ex-

Homolovi Ruins State Park plores the many facets of rock art. Pre- T Events & Suvoyuki Day sentations on the rock art of Montana Saturdays June 2–August 25, Homolovi and beyond form the heart of the con- Ruins State Park, Winslow, Ariz. Meet ference. There will also be field trips, Hopi artists as they demonstrate their forums on education and conservation, crafts and speak about the materials, an auction, and a vendor room. Larry processes, and styles they’ve mastered. Loendorf, past ARARA president and a On Suvoyuki Day, Friday evening, July 6 native of Billings, is the keynote speaker. and Saturday, July 7, Hopi artists will Field trips will include a mixture of rock

demonstrate their crafts and traditional art sites on public and private lands. AR AMERICAN MUSEUM OF CERAMIC American Museum food-making techniques. The Hopi and For more information, contact Donna archaeologists will give tours of sites Gillette at (408) 223-2243, rockart@ of Ceramic Art within the park. Most events are free ix.netcom.com, www.arara.org. Pomona, Calif.—The revival of and are coordinated by the Hopi Tribe, ancient ceramic Arizona State Parks, and the Homol’ovi 74th Annual Hopi Festival of Arts & Culture traditions taking place in the small northern Mexican village Chapter of the Arizona Archaeological June 29–July 1, Museum of Northern of Mata Ortiz is explored in “The Society in celebration of Arizona State Arizona, Flagstaff, Ariz. Established in Pottery of Mata Ortiz: A 40-Year Parks’ 50th anniversary. (928) 289-4106, 1930 as a way to preserve Hopi artistic Phenomenon.” Many families in www.homolovi.com traditions and to provide a marketplace the village make pottery using the same materials, techniques, and for their goods, the festival has become decorative styles as those used 2007 Southwest Seminars Lecture Series one of the largest Hopi arts and cultural at the nearby Casas Grandes “Voices from the Past” lecture series, shows in the U.S. Visitors gain insights archaeological site. All pots are Mondays June 18–August 13 at 6 p.m., from Hopi carvers, painters, jewelers, hand built without the use of a potter’s wheel. Shaping, polishing, Hotel Santa Fe. “Native Voices,” Mon- potters, and basket and textile weavers. and painting the clay is also days August 20–October 15, at 6 p.m., Storytelling, music, and dancing are entirely done by hand, often in Hotel Santa Fe. Lectures are presented by also part of the festivities. (928) 774- primitive surroundings with historians, archaeologists, and native peo- 5213, www.musnaz.org brushes made from children’s hair. Mata Ortiz resident Juan ples and are $10 each or $45 for a series Quezada and his extended family subscription. (505) 466-2775, South- Pecos Conference 2007 of brothers, sisters, their children, [email protected], www.Southwest- August 9–12, Pecos National Historical and neighbors are the core of this Seminars.org Park, Pecos, N.M. The latest Southwestern now-thriving pottery movement. On opening day, June 9 from archaeological research will be presented in 6–9:30 p.m., the public is invited American Rock Art Research Association field reports, posters, and symposia. Field to a reception to meet Juan 34th Annual Conference trips to local sites will be held on Sunday. Quezada, who will conduct June 29–July 2, Crowne Plaza Hotel Contact Christine Beekman at (505) 757- a ceramic workshop on June 10 from 9–4 p.m. (909) 865-3146, (formerly the Sheraton Billings), 6414 x227, [email protected], www.ceramicmuseum.org Billings, Mont. The annual ARARA www.swanet.org/2007_pecos_conference/ (June 9–August 25) conference attracts rock art researchers index.html. 6 summer • 2007 in the Evidence of Ancient Farming Found Panama plant remains are among NEWS oldest in the New World.

esearchers have identified mi- croscopic remains of domesti- R cated plants in Panama that are as old as 7,800 years. These remains are some of the oldest known evidence for farming in the Americas. A team of researchers led by Ruth Dickau, an archaeologist at the University of Calgary in Canada, identified grains of starch from , manioc, and arrowroot plants in the crevices of stone tools used to process the plants. Being lodged in

J. RANERE the crevices appears to have prevented some of the particles from decom- posing. “We need more experimental ANTHONY work to understand exactly how starch is protected and preserved in These grinding stones were recovered from sites in western Panama that yielded starch grains of these micro-crevices,” Dickau said. domesticated plants. The grains were found in tiny crevices in the stones. Employing a new technique called starch grain analysis, which entails the particles, the researchers were quently, scientists surmise that people using a microscope to determine the able to identify them. They found living in these regions of Mexico and size, shape, and surface features of evidence of early domesticated plant Brazil first domesticated these plants at consumption at sites in both central an earlier time. Genetic data, for example, and western Panama. In central indicates that maize was domesticated Panama, where the remains are as old approximately 9,000 years ago in the as 7,800 years, paleoenvironmental Balsas River Valley in southwest Mexico. evidence of forest clearing indicated For years archaeologists have de- widespread use of slash-and-burn bated when the peoples of Mexico agriculture. In western Panama, and Central America evolved from where the recovered maize and root hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists. crop remains are 5,600 to 7,400 years Research from the 1960s and ‘70s old, there was no evidence of agricul- indicated that farming began about ture near the sites the archaeologists 5,000 years ago in Mexico. Dickau investigated, which could suggest the said her research is “part of a whole crops were brought in from another host of studies” that indicate agricul- area or obtained by trade. ture is much older. “We have all these early dates for The first evidence of large-scale these domesticated plants, but we permanent settlements in Panama know they weren’t domesticated in this dates to about 2,500 years ago, region,” Dickau said. It’s known that which indicates that sedentary

HUGH ILTIS maize grows wild in southwest Mexico lifestyles were not an immediate Examples of teosinte (left), the wild ancestor and manioc in southwest Brazil, but consequence of the development of of domesticated maize (right). neither is native to Panama. Conse- agriculture. —Michael Bawaya american archaeology 7 in the Rare Paleo-Postmolds NEWS Identified

Eleven-thousand-year-old postmolds and hearth found in New Hampshire.

rchaeologists investigating a site in northern New A Hampshire have identified approximately 20 rare Paleo-Indian postmolds. The postmolds, which are approximately 11,000 years old, were found along with a hearth of the same age and manufacturing debris. “There just aren’t many out there,” said Dick Boisvert of the ancient postmolds. “We know that they’re very, very rare.” Boisvert, New Hampshire’s state archaeologist, codirected an excava- tion of the site, known as Colebrook, last year. The archaeologists found

one biface fragment and 73 channel T flake fragments, debris resulting from fluting, a process whereby a groove was carved into a point, presumably for hafting. About 3,000 other flakes DICK BOISVER were also discovered. He said there are a Two of the rare 11,000-year-old Paleo-Indian postmolds found at the Colebrook site. number of other “anomalies” that might also be postmolds, but the archaeologists and charcoal residue from small fires The site, known as Colebrook, aren’t certain at this point. have been sent to a laboratory at was discovered in 1997 during a “We have a very small, very spe- Northern Arizona University for survey in advance of a gas pipeline cial-purpose paleo encampment,” analysis. “We’re optimistic that construction project. Archaeologist Boisvert said. That special purpose, they’re going to hold good botanical Edna Feighner, then with Victoria he surmised, was “preparing for the evidence,” said Boisvert. The analysis Bunker, Inc., a contract archaeol- hunt.” The evidence suggests that could reveal information about the ogy firm, discovered some of the the Paleo-Indians brought unfin- kind of fuel the Paleo-Indians were postmolds and part of the hearth ished points to the site and fluted burning, the food they were eating, during limited excavation. Feigh- and sharpened them there. The site and the environment they lived in. ner, who is now a member of is on the Connecticut River, and he The majority of known Paleo- Boisvert’s staff, codirected the 2006 speculated that the Paleo-Indians Indian sites in the Northeast are on excavation. As a result of the survey, ambushed caribou as they crossed deposits that were formed by melting the pipeline was routed around the the water. The archaeologists don’t glaciers, according to Boisvert. But site. The landowners protected the know what the postmolds represent. the Colebrook site is on an alluvial site, and last year they invited the The posts that made them may have terrace that protected it. “Subsequent archeologists to conduct additional been used to build windbreaks or flooding capped it,” Boisvert said. “I excavations in hopes of nominating some other structures. think there were a lot more of them the site to the National Historic Fill from a few of the postmolds out there, but they’ve been lost.” Register. —Michael Bawaya 8 summer • 2007 in the Revised Dates Question NEWS Clovis-First Theory Research has implications for peopling of the Americas.

or nearly 50 years, the Clovis people, identified by their unique stone projectile points, have been Fconsidered the first humans to occupy the Americas. It was thought that they lived from about 13,600 to 13,000 years ago. The “Clovis-first” model, which has faced growing skepticism in recent years, holds that these prehistoric hunters crossed the Bering land bridge from Siberia to Alaska, traveled through an ice-free corridor into North America, then migrated into South America over the course of 600 to 1,000 years. But new research revising the Clovis period from a maximum of 450 years (13,250 to 12,800 years ago) to a minimum of 200 years (13,125 to 12,925 years ago) suggests humans already occupied the Americas when the Clovis arrived. “The Clovis date record was lacking in accuracy,” explained Michael Waters, director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University. He

. and radiocarbon dating specialist Thomas Stafford Jr. re-dated material from various Clovis sites in North and South America using precise accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) technology to obtain more accurate dates. “Many of the dates from these sites were run in the 1960s, ’70s,

CHARLOTTE PEVNY and ’80s, when the radiocarbon method yielded dates with large standard deviations of plus or minus 180 to 250 These Clovis points were recovered from sites across North America. The years,” Waters said. “Now the precisions are phenomenal.” researchers dated items from a number of Clovis sites in the Americas. For example, in 1982 when Stafford dated the Domebo site in Oklahoma, his dates ranged from 12,950 said the researchers, who published their findings in Science. to 13,400 years ago. Twenty-five years later, AMS tech- Despite the conflicting evidence, the long acceptance nology narrows the dates from 12,950 to 13,100 years of the Clovis-First theory may have prevented recognition ago. Stafford, a geochemist and geochronologist and of earlier human occupation at some sites, Stafford said. founder of Stafford Research, Inc. in Colorado, prepared The revised dates call for a new model of the peo- the 43 samples of Clovis site material—purified bone pling of the Americas, according to the researchers. “My collagen, ivory, and seeds—for radiocarbon dating. view is there were multiple immigrations from multiple The scientists said the revised Clovis period was too geographic areas in Eastern Europe, western Asia, and short a time to have adapted to a virgin continent and Asia over the last 20,000 or more years, similar to the migrated thousands of miles to the southern tip of South populating of the New World post-1492,” said Stafford. America, where evidence of very early human occupa- A more coherent and comprehensive model, Waters tion has been found. Further, the revised Clovis dates added, would take into account the genetic data and overlap those of other New World sites not associated with empirical archaeological evidence, along with geological Clovis. The existence of coeval sites implies the Clovis conditions allowing or preventing migration. people were not the first humans to inhabit the Americas, —Elizabeth Wolf american archaeology 9

in the NEWS Cache of Armor Discovered at Jamestown Historical accounts say colonists buried their armaments.

rchaeologists excavating a pit in the north corner of James Fort A have found a cache of arms and armor buried by Jamestown colonists 400 years ago. The artifacts were found in a pit that may have been an early well that went bad and later became a trash pit.

“It may be like the tip of an ice- TION VIRGINIA berg,” said William Kelso, the excava- VA tion’s director. “We expect that these PRESER

exciting artifacts may be buried with A many other related finds.” Archaeologists have recovered tasset lames (thigh armor), a nearly complete broad sword with an intact

handle, a rapier hilt, and an iron MICHAEL LAVIN/APV pole. Other artifacts found in the pit Archaeologists excavate a cache of arms and armor in what may have been an early well. include glass trade beads, baubles, chess pieces, iron objects, and pottery stone, a bone needle, and shell beads. buried the military equipment sherds dating to the early years at Historical accounts state that in June before planning to leave to seek sup- James Fort, as well as Virginia Indian 1610 following the harsh winter plies and passage back to England. artifacts that include a grinding known as the “starving time,” colonists —Tamara Stewart

ACur report citesation lack of spaceProblems and funding for collections. in Arizona

report by the Governor’s The report also said that Arizona’s that repositories must increase their Archaeology Advisory major repositories will probably be curation space through means such Commission in Arizona full in five to 10 years. as building new repositories, more hasA concluded that the state’s “The situation is dire,” said efficient use of existing space, and archaeological collections are threat- archaeologist Patrick Lyons, who “ethical deaccessioning.” This will ened by “a lack of adequate space chairs the commission. Arizona is require more funding for curation. and funding for curation.” the fastest growing state in the The report also stated that “collec- The report noted that the Arizona country, he noted, and this growth tions growth must be effectively State Museum, the official repository results in more development, which and aggressively managed through for archaeological materials recovered in turn results in more archaeological long-term strategic planning by from state lands, recently imposed surveys and excavations. “A long- repository staffs and the archaeolo- a year-long moratorium on accepting term solution is needed.” gists who create collections.” new collections because it was full. The commission concluded —Michael Bawaya

10 summer • 2007 in the New Feature NEWS Discovered at Circular feature may offer new insights into well-known Hopewell site.

ecent test excavations of a circular feature discovered at R Fort Ancient, home to a series of massive earthworks built by the Hopewell more than 2,000 years ago in southwestern Ohio, have revealed what appears to be a large “wood- henge” that may have served ceremo- nial purposes. It was detected in 2005 by a remote-sensing survey done in advance of an erosion control project, and it’s one of a limited number of features that have been discovered at Fort Ancient since the site was explored and mapped in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Last summer, Robert Riordan and a team of students from Wright RIORDAN

T State University excavated the feature, which they named ROBER after pioneering archaeologist Warren K. Moorehead, who worked at Fort Wright State students trowel the subsoil of the outer ring at the Moorehead Circle. Ancient from the 1880s to the 1890s. The circle is almost 200 feet in diameter and it consists of two con- outer circle, with at least 25 tons of large timber of burned red oak asso- centric rings of postmolds in the rock filling the trenches. So far, five ciated with the pit was radiocarbon site’s North Fort area. The outer ring radiocarbon dates have been obtained dated to between A.D. 250 and 420. was made up of nine-inch diame- from the postmolds, suggesting the Riordan hopes to expand the team’s ter posts set more than three feet feature was built sometime between investigations around the central pit deep in a trench about every 30 A.D. 60–240, during the Middle this summer. inches. Piles of rocks were used to . The team recov- “At this point, we do not know help support the posts. The inner ered more than 1,000 potsherds, what the circle was built for,” says ring was about 15 feet inside the over 100 stone tools, a few shells and Riordan. “With its prominent place- outer ring and the posts were not set animal bones, and a textile fragment. ment in the North Fort, however, as deeply in the ground, suggesting In the center of the circle the and factoring in the amount of time these posts may have been shorter researchers found burned red soil and effort that went into its con- than those used for the outer ring, that had been used to fill a pit that struction, it may very well have been which Riordan estimates were 10 to was originally 15 feet long by 13 feet the most important single element in 15 feet high. More than 200 posts wide and two-feet deep. The pit may the ritual life at Fort Ancient during are thought to have been used in the have been covered by a structure. A its period of use.” american archaeology 11 UNCOVERING BASQUESBASQUES IN CANADA

12 summer • 2007

InIn thethe 1500s1500s BasquesBasques traveledtraveled toto northeastnortheast CanadaCanada toto hunthunt whales.whales. ArchaeologistsArchaeologists areare discoveringdiscovering thatthat thethe BasquesBasques stayedstayed therethere longer,longer, andand engagedengaged inin differentdifferent activities,activities, thanthan waswas previouslypreviously thought.thought. ByBy DavidDavid MalakoffMalakoff

Hare Harbour, which was occupied into the early 1700s, is the youngest known Basque site in North America. Archaeologists have found some evidence of whaling here, but it apparently wasn’t the Basque’s primary activity. BILL FITZHUGH american archaeology 13 unexpected turns as the digging has progressed. What at first seemed a straightforward story of a 16th-century seasonal whaling camp has evolved into a more puzzling tale that involves geopolitical intrigue, a cross-cultural economic alliance, an endangered species, and even the doomed Spanish Armada of 1588. Hare Harbour has also proved to be at least 100 years younger than the researchers initially expected. It appears to have been occupied into the early 1700s, making it by far the youngest Basque site documented in North America. “It might have been a kind of last stand for the Basques,” Fitzhugh says, “a place where we can see the end of an era.” The Basque Voyagers If so, Hare Harbour will help historians and archaeologists add some key pieces to a puzzle they began assembling more than 40 years ago. At the time, scholars knew relatively little about Basque forays into the New World. They did know that by the 1100s, the Basques were a fiercely independent people living in parts of Spain and France, speaking a distinctive language that can be traced to pre-Roman times. And they knew the Basques were expert seafarers. By the 1400s, they were voyaging as far as Iceland to net codfish and harpoon whales.

But it wasn’t until a historian named Selma Huxley WILFRED E. RICHARD Bill Fitzhugh measures the length of a butchered whale flipper bone found Barkham began sifting through Spanish archives in the 1960s on the sea bottom in the harbor adjacent to the land site. that it became clear just how early Basque captains began crossing the Atlantic to cruise the rich waters off Canada. Tax he weather was miserable. A gale shook the small boat, forms and court documents revealed that, by the 1530s, and the frigid rain made it impossible to take notes or dozens of Basque whalers were routinely setting off each June Tsnap a photo. Still, Bill Fitzhugh and his team were for the two-month voyage to Canada. Once there, they set up doing the best they could. The archaeologists had scrambled camps along the Gulf of St. Lawrence, aiming to catch the ashore on a remote beach along Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence humpback, bowhead, and right whales that migrated south to check out a promising site. Above the steep shore, a tower- ing cliff hung over a grassy shelf, creating an inviting shelter. There was just enough time to dig a couple of test pits in the rocky soil. “We saw the roof tiles right away…the place was paved with them,” recalls Fitzhugh, director of the Arctic Stud- ies Center at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He knew the red clay tiles meant just one thing: Hundreds of years ago, Basque seamen had made a dangerous passage from Europe to hunt for riches along this rugged coast. Intrigued, Fitzhugh wanted to learn more. But he’d have to wait. The storm wouldn’t let him linger. Luckily, the weather has been more cooperative since that summer day in 2001. Over the last five years, it hasn’t pre- vented Fitzhugh’s joint Canadian and American research team from making an annual voyage back to that remote stretch of the Québec coast. The destination: Petit Mecatina, a finger of granite that juts into the sea some 600 miles northeast of Québec City. There, at a site called Hare Harbour, the archaeologists have found the remains of a bustling seasonal harbor and shoreline workshop. The discoveries, including

everything from those distinctive red tiles to mysterious ANJA HERZOG sunken piles of rock and fish bones just offshore, are adding a This reconstructed Normandy stoneware vessel was found in the Basque fresh chapter to the rich but little-documented history of cookhouse. Stoneware vessels were often used for storing salted foods Basque seafarers along Canada’s coast. and they have been found in 17th- and 18th-century cod fishing sites as The story at Hare Harbour, however, has taken some well as in 16th-century Basque sites like Red Bay. 14 summer • 2007 through the area each fall. The whalers typically used the shore stations as workplaces, and lived aboard ship. Usually, they’d head home in December, their holds stuffed with barrels of oil that they burned in lamps. “Before Barkham, we didn’t have much of a clue that all this was going on,” says Fitzhugh. Archaeologists were soon following the paths created by her archival sleuthing and the results were impressive. At dozens of places along the northern JEAN-FRANCOIS MOREAU coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canadian archaeologists Walter Kenyon and James Tuck found the Basque’s distinctive The archaeologists have recovered various types of beads from the site. calling card—huge heaps of red clay tiles—eroding out of It’s thought that these beads date from about 1680 to 1730. shorelines and buried under peat. Basque captains “used the tiles first as ship ballast on the trip over,” Fitzhugh says. “Then 1590, the site might have been a whaling station near a settle- they’d put them on the roofs of the workshops on shore, where ment called Petit Canada. But almost from the moment they extracted the whale oil.” Fitzhugh’s team returned in 2002 for several weeks of careful Barkham’s research also guided divers to a spectacular digging, the picture of Hare Harbour as a 16th-century whal- underwater find. In 1978, a team led by Robert Grenier of ing station began to fade. One reason was the artifacts the Parks Canada discovered the remains of a Basque whaler in team didn’t find—namely ovens and whale bones. To extract Red Bay, about 150 miles northeast of Hare Harbour. The whale oil, the Basques often built large hearths or ovens under ship, the San Juan, sank during a storm in 1565 with 1,000 an open shed with a tile roof. Typically, that means archaeolo- barrels of oil aboard. Since then, researchers have documented gists find work areas encrusted with burned blubber and littered other Basque wrecks at Red Bay, along with extensive shoreline with whale bones. workshops and a graveyard holding nearly 150 whalers. They Next to the cliff, under about five inches of dark, moist say the site, now a historical park with a museum, was home soil, they found the remains of a small structure with a tile roof. to thousands of whalers each year during the Basque whaling It had a floor paved with rough slabs of rock, and a big open boom, which lasted from about 1540 to 1600. hearth near one end. Above the floor the team found numerous iron nails and spikes (probably used to hold the structure together), Incorrect Assumptions shards of bottle glass, lots of stone, earthenware, and plenty of Initially, Fitzhugh assumed that Hare Harbour had been a part charcoal. But little whale blubber. In fact, “the absence of of that 16th-century whaling boom—a kind of miniature Red blubber encrustation” pretty much “rules out its identification Bay. Indeed, he had an old Basque map that suggested that, in as a rendering oven,” the team concluded in its report that year. TION DE QUEBEC VA J. BEARDSELL, CENTRE DE CONSER These fragments of a leather shoe have not yet been analyzed, but probably date to the Basque occupation. They were recovered from the underwater site. The 46-degree water of Hare Harbour allows for the remarkable preservation of organic materials such as these. american archaeology 15 ARKS CANADA/CINDY GIBBONS/2007 P This miniaturized version of a whale oil rendering station is on display at Red Bay National Historic Site of Canada in Red Bay, approximately 180 miles north of Hare Harbour. James Tuck of Memorial University of Newfoundland constructed the model based on excavations he led in the 1980s.

The researchers didn’t find many whale bones either. exploring the nearby seafloor, finding thick layers of wood The next year’s dig raised even more questions about what chips and fish bones, mostly from cod, in waters up to 60 feet the Basques did at Hare Harbour and when they did it. The deep. Fitzhugh wonders if the wood chips are the remains of a excavations around the workshop were greatly expanded, but shipboard timbering operation. Researchers are currently they failed to find convincing evidence of whale processing. And studying the bones, to see if they were produced by some kind the opening of several new areas—including the top of a nearby of commercial fishing operation. “We have pretty much ruled embankment—uncovered glazed pottery, clay pipe stems, and a out whaling as a central economic focus of the site,” he says. half-dozen types of glass trade beads that appeared to date from the 17th century. “So we started thinking: ‘We’re dealing with An Economic Alliance the 1600s, maybe the late 1600s and early 1700s, not the Other artifacts found at Hare Harbour have sparked speculation 1500s,’” says Fitzhugh. “So this isn’t like any other Basque site. that the Basques may have also forged some unusual economic And we’re thinking that maybe, by this time, the Basques are arrangements with the indigenous people. doing more fishing, timbering, or trading, not whaling.” The digs have uncovered at least three stone artifacts of Field and laboratory work over the last few years have Inuit design: portions of two soapstone whale oil lamps and a reinforced that notion. For instance, Canadian researchers soapstone cooking pot. All three, Fitzhugh says, were associ- used a technique that bombards an object with neutrons to ated with Basque artifacts and “are typically associated with date the glass beads to between 1675 and 1750. This process Inuit women. So it’s possible the Basques we’re employing revealed the chemical compositions of the beads, which were Inuit women to cook or help with the work. That’s interesting then correlated with beads of identical composition that were because it would be one of the earliest examples we know of recovered from dated archaeological sites. Fitzhugh says where Europeans employed Inuit.” those dates are similar to estimates for the pipes. The Hare Harbour, Fitzhugh adds, sits in a kind of “no man’s archaeologists found more beads and a small blacksmith’s shop land” that was on the edge of territory used by both the coastal that shows a pattern of repeated annual use. Divers also began Inuit and the Innu, an inland culture. He notes that one WILFRED E. RICHARD This wooden pin was found sandwiched between layers of water-saturated peat near the cookhouse and the blacksmith shop. The presence of several layers of trampled, charcoal-stained peat with Basque roof tiles, a wood bowl, and other materials suggests repeated occupation of the site over several decades. 16 summer • 2007 Archaeologists have found that whaling was not the main endeavor at Hare Harbour. A preliminary examination of fish bones recovered from the underwater site indicates that they were almost exclusively medium- sized cod that were processed in a way that indicates pickling or salting. This evidence suggests that cod fishing could have been an important activity of the Basques. ANJA HERZOG

French name for the site is “L’Anse aux Esquimaux” (Eskimo look like giant sea cucumbers heading for the beach.” Point; the term “Esquimaux” can mean Inuit or Innu). Fitzhugh speculates the mounds are ballast stones dropped by Fitzhugh speculates that the Basques could have interacted with visiting ships, but they might also be footings for piers. both groups as they followed migrating seals, fish, or birds. There has been a long-running debate over whether the Hare Harbour’s geography may also explain why the Basques overhunted the North Atlantic right whale, helping to Basques decided to set up shop there so late in the 17th cen- destroy their own industry and drive the species to the edge of tury, when the French, Dutch, and English were competing extinction. Today, just 300 or so North Atlantic right whales for control of Canada’s coast. Fitzhugh says that, by then, the remain. Though the archaeologists have found some whale Basques had ceased to be a force in the region. One reason bones at the underwater site, which indicates hunting, DNA may be that, in 1588, Spain ordered the Basque whaling boats analysis of the bones revealed they are the remains of humpback into naval service, to support the Spanish Armada assembled and bowhead whales. The number of bones suggests that whal- to attack England. (The Basque, then as now, occupied a region ing was a minor activity at Hare Harbour, and, combined with that spans the border between Spain and France, and conse- data from other Basque sites, this evidence also suggests that the quently many of them lived under the dominion of Spain.) Basque did not decimate North Atlantic right whales. Much of the Armada later sank in a storm, and it apparently To help out with such tasks, Fitzhugh and some of his took the whaling fleet years to recover. team have learned to scuba dive, although he says the frigid By the time the Basques returned, Fitzhugh says, “they waters are daunting. “Just getting in and out of your gear takes might have wanted to keep a low profile, stay out of sight if almost an hour. Dry suit, buoyancy vest, hoods, and mittens they could, and Petit Mecatina is a good place to do that.” He so tight you can hardly get them on or off. By the time you does wonder, however, if the ample charcoal found in the flop into the drink you are so overheated you feel like a boiled Hare Harbour workshop indicates that it may have been dis- lobster.” But that doesn’t last long, he adds. “Bend your head covered and burned by a competitor. and 40 degree water slices into the back of your neck.” That’s not the only challenge the researchers face. Some Answers in the Sea years they’ve battled swarms of biting bugs. In others, pouring Fitzhugh says that and other questions will help frame field- rain swamped their excavations. But, like the Basques, Fitzhugh’s work at Hare Harbour over the next few years. One major team hasn’t let those troubles prevent them from returning, year focus will be to step up underwater exploration of the site with after year, to the rocky shores of Petit Mecatina. the help of maritime archaeologists from Canada. They’ve already found everything from 18th-century gin bottles to DAVID MALAKOFF is an editor and correspondent for NPR’s science desk. large earthenware jugs on the sea bottom. But they are still His article “Demystifying the Maya” appeared in the Spring 2005 issue of puzzling over some huge submerged “piles of basalt stone that American Archaeology. american archaeology 17 Searching For

ArchaeologistsPIRATES are investigating sites on land and underwater to learn more about these swashbuckling figures.

By Tony Reichhardt

hat are the odds of finding rec- ognizable artifacts from a W sunken pirate ship after 300 years underwater? Not good, say those who’ve tried. “Cloth rarely survives in the archaeological record, wood floats away, and iron corrodes. That takes care of the flag, eye patch, wooden leg, and hook,” writes East Carolina University marine archaeologist Lawrence Babits and colleagues in the book X Marks the Spot: The Archaeology of . They’re not joking about the diffi- culty. Unequivocal archaeological evi- dence of pirates—history’s favorite criminals—is hard to find. Storms and waves scatter and cover up objects lost at sea. Despite the folklore and the thousands of holes dug over the years by seekers, pirates didn’t bury their gold. “Who in their right mind is going to leave money in the dirt?” asks Allen Saltus, an underwater archaeologist who has searched Grand Terre Island off of New Orleans for traces of the early 19th-century pirate . Yet, occasionally, in the few sus- pected pirate sites excavated to date, an object turns up that is intriguingly, per- haps uniquely, piratey. For example, The famous pirate was a gold jewelry from Africa, cut into pieces menacing figure who tied lit fuses to his hair.

so as to be shared equally among the DON MAITZ 18 summer • 2007 crew. A French silk ribbon tied around an English pistol: just prey on Spanish ships, technically making him a what you might expect from a dandified sea dog. Or a single, rather than a true pirate (the distinction could be subtle). mysterious symbol scratched on a pewter plate in 1717 that Archaeologists have conducted three major underwater could provide new insight into the politics of piracy. excavations of what used to be ’s waterfront over the Archaeology has already made valuable contributions to past 40 years. Based on the density of brick buildings and the scholarship on the subject, says Marcus Rediker, a University of abundance of artifacts, including forks and crystal Pittsburgh historian who’s written extensively about pirates and glasses, they could tell Port Royal was an affluent place in is familiar with the archaeological excavations done to date. “I 1692. But the only real sign of pirates is an offshore wreck that think we’ve found most of the documents we’re going to find archaeologist Robert Marx identified in the 1960s, based on about pirates,” he says. “So most of the new knowledge that will markings on a 1724 map, as the pirate ship Ranger. For a short be generated in the future will come from archaeological sites.” time the Ranger belonged to Bartholomew “Black Bart” During the so-called in the first Roberts (though not at the time it sank in a hurricane in quarter of the 18th century, there were about 1,000 to 2,000 1722), one of the most successful of the Golden Age pirates. men (and a few women) sailing under the black flag at any one The wreck has never been excavated. time, Rediker estimates. They preyed on merchant ships travel- Jean Lafitte was a different kind of pirate. As well as rob- ing the lucrative trade routes of the Atlantic and hid out in bing ships on the high seas, he smuggled goods along the Gulf shallow coves from the Caribbean to the Carolinas, where the Coast around the time of the War of 1812. “Lafitte was a big warships couldn’t follow. By 1726, pirates had largely disap- fence,” says Saltus, a consultant with Archaeological Research, peared, having been chased down by the British Navy, killed in Inc. in Prairieville, Louisiana. In 1989, 1995, and 2001, Saltus action, jailed, or hung. “Most of the pirates didn’t last too long,” investigated and monitored Lafitte’s settlement on Grand Terre says Charles Ewen, director of the Archaeology Laboratories at Island. The settlement had been identified with the help of a East Carolina University and co-editor of X Marks the Spot. 19th-century map by Coastal Environments Inc. in 1979. Nor did they leave much of a trace on land. The most im- Saltus found a variety of ceramics, green glass bottles and nu- portant pirate hangout excavated to date is Port Royal, , merous pieces of cut bone, “lots of spoilage and breakage.” known as the “wickedest city in the world” at the time it was The ceramics were more diversified “than what you’d find at destroyed by an earthquake in 1692. Port Royal was a major one plantation,” he says, which is consistent with a fencing North American center of trade, legal and illegal, and a mecca operation where lots of goods were flowing in and out. for pirates like , who was hired by the English to To find evidence of pirates, archaeologists have generally TH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL RESOURCES NOR

A diver recovers a pewter plate from the QAR site in 1998. This is one of 10 plates that archaeologists have found. american archaeology 19

TH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL RESOURCES NOR Researchers hoist a four-pounder cannon recovered from the QAR into a boat during the 2005 season. “Four-pounder” is a designation reflecting the weight of the cannonball the gun fired. The crew has also recovered cannon of other sizes.

looked to sea, and to their ships. Most of the estimated 80 ves- muskets and pistols (more than 300 pieces in whole or part), sels used by pirates were either recommissioned or disposed of and a human leg bone found inside a silk stocking and shoe. by the authorities after their capture. A few, though, sank in Analysis showed that the bone belonged to a child—most shallow coastal waters. One such wreck, ’s likely 10-year-old John King, the only boy known to have Whydah (pronounced “widduh”) sank along with its captain sailed with Bellamy’s pirates. and most of its crew in a storm off Cape Cod in 1717. Bel- The archaeologists found numerous navigational devices, lamy had captured the ship, a slave transport, a couple of including a ring dial, a stylus, and charting compasses—more months earlier, whereupon the pirates loaded it with plunder than what Bellamy’s pirates would have needed just to pilot from more than 50 other ships, including several tons of gold, their ship. Project historian Ken Kinkor speculates that this silver, and jewelry. was loot. “Navigational instruments were the high-tech of the Underwater explorer Barry Clifford, backed by private day, and they could be sold for a lot of money.” investors, located the site in 1983 under 20 to 30 feet of water More than 80 percent of the artifacts recovered from the off Marconi Beach. Two years later it was confirmed as Bellamy’s Whydah are ammunition, including lead shot for small arms. flagship when the team found a bell with the inscription “The Some of the ammunition has given archaeologists new insight Whydah Gally 1716.” By 1991 the team, which included into the way pirates fought their battles. We know from the professional archaeologists, had mapped portions of the site historical record that British naval ships favored standing off and the distribution of artifacts. Fieldwork picked up again in from an enemy and blasting away with cannons. Pirates pre- 1998 and continues today. ferred close action. They wanted to disable a ship rather than So far more than 100,000 artifacts have been recovered, destroy it. On the Whydah, the archaeologists found three can- everything from bottles to buttons to gold dust. There are non balls held together in a stitched bag to make one giant 20 summer • 2007 1718, Blackbeard caused such trouble that the authorities pursued him dili- gently. He cut an imposing figure, standing 6 feet 3 inches and going into battle with lit fuses dangling from his hair. In June 1718 the pirate ran his flagship, a captured French slaver he’d renamed the Queen Anne’s Revenge, aground on a sand bar off Beaufort, North Carolina. The crew abandoned their foundering ship and got away safely. Several months later the Royal Navy caught up with them at Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and during an epic battle, Blackbeard was killed. Cannon, anchors, and ballast stones from a ship matching the general age and description of the Queen Anne’s

ORIC SHIPWRECKS, INC. Revenge (QAR) were found off Beaufort

HIST in 1996 after an eight-year search by Conservators remove concretions from the Whydah’s bell. The recovery of the bell confirmed that Intersal, Inc., a shipwreck-hunting Barry Clifford's exploration team had discovered the first fully authenticated pirate shipwreck. firm. A team of researchers began investigating the site the following projectile. Kinkor thinks they may have been designed to take year. So far they’ve located 25 cannon, says QAR project director out an enemy’s cannon. Mark Wilde-Ramsing, at the North Carolina Underwater A total of 27 cannon have been brought up from the Archaeology Branch. According to historical documents, the wreck site so far. That itself is a large number, indicative of a ship was carrying up to 40 guns at the time it sank. The heavily armed “predator” ship. In 2005 the team discovered archaeologists found most cannon still loaded, one of which another dozen or more lined up on the seafloor. From the way held a type of shot called langrage, used by pirates to shred a they fell, it appears they’d been stored together below deck. ship’s sails rather than sink it. And divers have found still another small cannon cluster. There is considerable evidence to suggest the shipwreck is Rediker finds that an especially interesting detail. At the the QAR. The oak treenail and wrought iron fastener pattern time the Whydah sank, Bellamy and his crew reportedly were matches early 18th-century French shipbuilding practices. planning to set up a land base similar to one established a few Radiocarbon dates from hull fragments indicate it was constructed years earlier in Madagascar. The authorities trembled at the between 1690 and 1710. A commemorative wine glass from thought of pirate strongholds proliferating on land. The Whydah’s the coronation of King George I dates the wreck to no earlier cache of extra cannon—perhaps to arm a fort—suggests that than 1714. the fears may have been justified. Among the artifacts hauled up from the seafloor are 90 to 100 concretions—masses of hard material containing artifacts too encrusted to identify. This past spring, the Canon Corpora- tion loaned the Whydah project equipment to do x-ray fluores- cence analysis to look inside the concretions. Kinkor says this analysis has been a “tremendous help,” allowing conservators to prioritize which concretions to break open now and which to store for later. The x-rays have revealed a “particularly nice sword hilt” inside one concretion, and another English pistol. The only other near-certain pirate ship found to SWENSON

T date belonged to the most famous of all, Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. Unlike the Whydah, no engraved ROBER bell or other artifact has proven beyond doubt that the wreck, discovered 11 years ago off North Carolina’s Outer Banks, is Pirates operated on the rivers of eastern North America as well as the Blackbeard’s ship. But archaeologists who’ve studied the site, and oceans. Students from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, excavate most other scholars, including Rediker, are convinced that it is. a flatboat along the in southern Illinois. This was the type of In his rampage throughout the Caribbean from 1716 to boat that pirates often attacked. american archaeology 21 Rediker doubts there are many more pirate ships to be dis- covered. Without documentation pointing them to a particular site, distinguishing between a pirate and an ordinary shipwreck is likely to remain a tricky problem for archaeologists. Based on his experience with the Whydah, Kinkor offers a few suggestions for positively identifying a pirate ship. He would look for a large number of small arms from a variety of manufacturers of different nationalities. Pirates procured their guns from various sources. Kinkor would expect the guns to be fancier and perhaps more lethal than those carried by merchant sailors. And he would look for modifications: Among the stash of firearms recovered from the Whydah, he says, “we’ve got a number of weapons that were sawed off” to make them more deadly in close boarding actions. One French pistol recovered from the Whydah even had a silk ribbon wrapped around its handle, a detail straight out of This apothecary counterweight was recovered from the QAR site in 2006. Captain Charles Johnson’s General History of the Pyrates, published in 1724: “[The pirates tried] to outdo one another, in the beauty and richness of their arms…These were slung in times of service, with different colored ribbands [sic], over their shoulders, in a way peculier [sic] to these fellows in which they took great delight.” Guns were “a big part of their self-image,” Rediker says of pirates. Among the pewter plates recovered from the Whydah is one with a peculiar symbol scratched on its face that looks, at first glance, like an oddly shaped letter “A.” Kinkor believes it’s

A few of the hundreds of gold grains found during the QAR excavations.

Some of the recovered items, like navigational instru- ments and the side plate of a blunderbuss, are very similar to artifacts from the Whydah. Like their colleagues in Massachu- setts, the QAR archaeologists have used x-rays to peer inside concretions, revealing objects ranging from a jaw harp to what may be a slave shackle. An active slaver would have carried hundreds of these, says Rediker, while their absence on a slave ship might suggest modification by pirates. Notably, there aren’t many small arms, knives, or swords. That makes sense, however, given that Blackbeard’s crew had plenty of time to remove their weapons, unlike the Whydah’s crew, who went down with their ship. The QAR archaeologists hope to finish excavating in three or four years. Though there is no evidence that any other ship of that size, type, and age sank off Beaufort, some skeptics still refuse to call the wreck the Queen Anne’s Revenge until there’s absolute proof. Ewen thinks the accumulation of evidence over the past few years has shifted the burden of proof to skeptics TH CAROLINA DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL RESOURCES who should have to demonstrate the wreck is not the QAR. NOR Most researchers, says Wilde-Ramsing, “don’t see any reason not to believe it.” This bronze bell, dated 1709, was found at the QAR site in 1996. 22 summer • 2007 ORIC SHIPWRECKS, INC. HIST

This pistol discovered during the Whydah excavation is very similar to pistols made by Edward Wornell of London in the 1690s. It was found with its hemp holster and a silk sling festooned with roses and thistles. It’s thought that guns played an important role in pirates’ self-image.

something else—an early depiction of the Freemason’s “com- Hanover family. Blackbeard, after all, named his ship Queen pass and square.” If he’s right, it would be the earliest version Anne’s Revenge, although Rediker believes that was probably a of the Masonic symbol ever found. The year the Whydah sank, general rejection of authority rather than a statement of Jacobite 1717, happens to be the same year the secret society “came out politics. Pirates valued symbols like the that tran- of the closet” and formed its first Grand Lodge in England, scended nationality and class, and Rediker believes “it’s dis- says Kinkor. tinctly possible” that the scratches are in fact a Masonic symbol. The connection between pirates and Masons may not be Kinkor is “absolutely convinced” of it, and he’s not alone. Masons farfetched. There is some historical evidence linking early from as far away as Germany have come to visit the Whydah Freemasons with Jacobites, who opposed the switch from museum. “They come just to see the plate,” says Kinkor. Queen Anne’s Stuart line of succession to King George and the From historical accounts, we know that pirates were social rebels who formed a short-lived egalitarian society free of the hard rules of 18th-century naval authority. They elected their The Treasure captains and shared their loot equally. Archaeological evidence from the Whydah seems to support this: African gold jewelry Hunter Stigma recovered from the ship had been cut into pieces apparently for You’d think the discoverers of the first positively identified pirate that purpose. According to accounts from that time, they even ship would be guests of honor at a meeting of the Society for paid into a disability fund for injured crewmates, something Historical Archaeology. But when archaeologists from the Whydah governments of the day never would have considered doing. Pirates project originally tried to present at an SHA conference in the were tolerant when it came to behavior, nationality, and race; 1980s, they weren’t allowed. The Whydah had been found by slaves from captured transport ships were sometimes invited to underwater explorer Barry Clifford, and for many professional join up. And there was honor and solidarity among thieves. archaeologists that tainted the project. Researchers who worked They generally didn’t steal from each other, and when survivors with Clifford’s group found themselves regarded with suspicion by from the Whydah were jailed in Boston, Blackbeard burned a colleagues. “Just about all of them took a hit in their careers,” merchant ship from that city in retribution. says archaeologist Charles Ewen. Three centuries after the pirates’ rebellion was quelled, it’s Some of the squabbles over the Whydah and the Queen still difficult for scholars to say exactly what they were like and Anne’s Revenge have since simmered down, say Ewen and others, how they lived. But they look increasingly to evidence like a and both projects are now considered to be doing a thorough, scratched symbol on a pewter plate to help round out the story. professional job of excavating their sites and curating recoverxed “This is an example of how proper archaeological work can lead artifacts. “We don’t sell treasure,” says Whydah’s project historian one into entirely new areas of historical inquiry,” says Kinkor. Ken Kinkor. “That’s when you cross the line with archaeologists” says TONY REICHHARDT is a freelance writer in Fredericksburg, Virginia. His Mark Wilde-Ramsing of the Queen Anne’s Revenge project. Luckily, article “The Difficulties of Deaccessioning” appeared in the Spring 2007 issue says Ewen, both the Queen Anne’s Revenge and the Whydah have of American Archaeology. yet to stray across that line. “The [ Whydah] collection is still intact,” he says. “It’s not been sold off like the treasure from the For more information about the Queen Anne’s Revenge and Atocha,” a Spanish ship recovered by a treasure hunter. Whydah investigations, visit the Web sites www.qaronline.org —Tony Reichhardt and www.whydah.com. american archaeology 23 AA RockRock ArtArt REVOLUTIONREVOLUTION

Due to breakthroughs in direct dating, new interpretations, and other factors, researchers are recognizing the importance of rock art. By Tamara Stewart The Ojito Wilderness area in New Mexico features Archaic

By Tamara Stewart and Anasazi ruins, and unique horizontal petroglyph panels. WILLIAM STONE 24 summer • 2007 ecked, engraved, or painted images on natural rock sailors making the sites in the popular press,” says James surfaces are found in nearly every geographic region Keyser, a retired regional U.S. Forest Service archaeologist. across North America. Roughly 100,000 petroglyphs Keyser has published widely on North American rock art, of bighorn sheep and abstract images are depicted on providing detailed analyses based on ethnographic records. the basalt boulders of eastern California’s Coso Due to cultural resource management (CRM) studies man- PRange, which probably has the largest concentration of rock art dated by federal and state preservation laws enacted in the in North America, while massive, looming triangular beings 1960s and ’70s, dating breakthroughs, and the careful use of with horned headdresses and ornate necklaces characterize ethnographic information, rock art research is finally coming much of Utah’s prehistoric rock art. Images of shields, horses, into its own, though it is still largely practiced outside the world and weaponry were often used in the Plains, and stylized of academic archaeology. The Native American Graves Protec- anthropomorphs with round ear ornaments have been recorded tion and Repatriation Act and other legislation passed in the in the Eastern Ozarks of Arkansas. These images convey the beliefs 1990s forced many archaeologists to consult with Native Amer- and practices of ancient and recent peoples and therefore have icans for the first time and to deal with rock art sites as cultural the potential to offer tremendous insight into their makers. properties of religious significance. Due to federal and state The study of rock art in North America, which contains some CRM projects and the efforts of organizations such as the of the densest concentrations of pictographs (painted images) and American Rock Art Research Association, there has recently petroglyphs (engraved images) in the world, has existed on the been a dramatic increase in rock art recording and conservation. fringe of mainstream archaeology. Archaeologists were once “Rock art research has been revolutionized internationally interested in rock art but, unable to reliably date or interpret the in the last two decades due to a convergence of circum- images, most dismissed its study altogether. Due to the miscon- stances,” says David Whitley, who, despite being told in 1982 ception that native peoples had no relevant knowledge of its that writing his Ph.D. dissertation on rock art was a major career creation and use, researchers seldom sought their input. mistake, went on to become one of the field’s leading experts. “The problem is, archaeology has left the interpretation “This has brought the kind of detailed intellectual and of these rock art sites to amateurs, and a few of them are lu- methodological education, intensive fieldwork, and sophisti- natics; so you get space men and Irish monks and Chinese cated analyses that were needed to elevate the field from the ALAIN BRIOT It can be difficult to establish the age of rock art. Sometimes there are obvious clues, such as in this stunning pictograph known as the Rider’s Panel on the

Navajo reservation in Arizona. The Spanish reintroduced the horse to North America in A.D. 1540, therefore this panel was created after that time. american archaeology 25 The Anasazi placed great significance in astronomical events. According to ancient Chinese records, a supernova (the remains of which are now known as the Crab Nebula in the constellation Taurus)

was seen from earth in A.D. 1054. It’s speculated that the star to the left of the crescent moon may have represented the supernova. New dating techniques have shown that a group of California pictographs that had also been thought to portray the supernova event are too young. JAMES Q. JACOBS.PHOTOGRAPHY level of a weekend hobby, however passionately pursued, to a AMS even if charcoal or other visible organic materials necessary legitimate academic area of study,” he says. to obtain a date are absent. “What is unique about our technique The role of shamanism in the creation of rock art by is that we can extract the organic carbon from a pictograph hunting and gathering societies is but one of a number of sample, whatever the organic material may be,” he says, topics rock art researchers are addressing. “Without relevance adding that this is accomplished without extracting other to the larger issues, rock art research becomes an idle pursuit components of the paint that might affect the accuracy of the of individual fame and fortune with the potential to be radiocarbon date. relegated to the role of entertainment rather than legitimate Several laboratories are using the plasma-chemical carbon inquiry,” says Solveig Turpin, who has conducted rock art and extraction technique to date pictographs, although the method other archaeological research in the lower Pecos region of is still considered to be experimental. Rowe’s pictograph dates Texas and northern Mexico since 1978. DETERMINING Age The development of methods for directly dating images has been crucial to rock art research. In the last 15 years the dating of small samples of pictographs by accelerator mass spectrom- etry (AMS), a precise form of radiocarbon dating, has become feasible. Pictographs were made by grinding up plants and minerals and mixing them with liquids that congealed the pig- ments into a paint that was applied to rocks. What those liquids were is uncertain, says Marvin Rowe, a chemist at Texas A&M

University, but there is speculation that they could have been YLOR TA anything from blood to urine to egg yolks or whites. Rowe led

a team of researchers that was the first to radiocarbon date pic- MIKE tographs in North America using AMS in 1990. The group James Keyser uses a magnifying lens to examine the red, black, and white then developed a technique, known as plasma-chemical car- pigments on this sunburst pictograph in southern Washington state. The bon extraction, for extracting minute amounts of carbon from image is located in the border area between the Chinookan and Sahaptin the paint, allowing them to radiocarbon date pictographs with cultures and was probably created within the last few hundred years. 26 summer • 2007 are generally in agreement with dates derived from associated themselves influenced by major changes in regional climate. archaeological evidence, but those dates are not precise enough Liu’s rock varnish microlamination dating method is based on to corroborate Rowe’s technique. Funding for rock art research establishing a profile of the layers of varnish on a rock art in the U.S. is limited; consequently, Rowe’s largest rock art dating panel and comparing that profile to a database of stratigraphic projects are currently in Spain where, as in France and Australia, profiles of dated rock varnishes taken from the region. more resources are devoted to its study and preservation. Various other techniques for dating petroglyphs are being The earliest pictographs in the U.S. dated by Rowe’s tech- developed involving either the analysis of mineral weathering nique are along the Lower Pecos River in southwest Texas. or of rock coatings and associated minerals. All petroglyph About 20 dates for Pecos River–style polychrome pictographs dating techniques are considered experimental; therefore, have been obtained, generally ranging between 2,500 and researchers attempt to verify these dates with other evidence 4,200 years ago. Prior to obtaining these dates, rock art in this such as associated archaeological items, datable rock art motifs, region was largely disregarded by archaeologists because of the and ethnographic knowledge. absence of reliable dates or a clear association with nearby The new dating techniques are indicating that accepted archaeological remains. In addition to Texas, radiocarbon dates North American rock art chronologies based on distinct styles have been obtained for pictographs in Arizona, Colorado, are often inaccurate. In some instances, such as in the western Missouri, Utah, California, , and Montana. Great Basin, stylistically distinct rock art previously thought to A decade-long project by Tanzhuo Liu of Lamont-Doherty be diagnostic of specific cultures and time periods has been Earth Observatory at Columbia University and separate but found to span the entire Holocene. Direct dating has also related research by geomorphologist Ronald Dorn at Arizona shown that different images on the same rock art panel, which State University have recently resulted in a critical breakthrough were thought to have been created at the same time, date to in petroglyph dating based on rock varnish. Rock varnish, also different time periods. known as desert varnish, is a very thin, dark layer of airborne Direct dating methods have also shown prior rock art inter- clay particles that is deposited on exposed rock. In this process, pretations to be false, as in the case of a group of three pic- which occurs primarily in deserts, bacteria living on the rock tographs in California’s Lava Beds National Monument which enhance manganese oxides, and the manganese then attaches were thought to depict the A.D. 1054 Crab Nebula supernova the clay particles to the surface, giving the rock a dark coating event. Researchers dated the images with AMS in an attempt that is scraped away when making petroglyphs. Over time the to determine if they were created during the same time period varnish grows back, eventually covering the petroglyphs. as this celestial event. Their findings showed the images to be Layers of rock varnish coating develop over time and are younger and therefore the supernova interpretation is invalid. .COM T DOAK HEYSER/SINGINGDESER This petroglyph in John’s Canyon in southeast Utah appears to depict Native Americans hunting game. american archaeology 27 EXPLAINING ITS altered states of consciousness and developed by archaeologist and rock art researcher David Lewis-William, provides an explanation for the creation of rock art by foraging groups. “The N-P model is widely accepted among archaeologists Significance working with North American hunter-gatherers’ art, because Ideological breakthroughs are also playing an important role. their religious systems were so heavily based on shamanism, Recent reexaminations of ethnography in the United States, and the art fits the model so well,” says Whitley. His reanalysis particularly in western regions such as California, the Great of ethnographic data regarding Great Basin groups has shown Basin, and the Columbia Plateau, are having a tremendous clear relationships between shamanism, the pervading religious impact on rock art interpretation and the involvement of native system of North American hunter-gatherers, and the creation peoples. “It is clear that rock art can only be understood from and use of rock art. Recent reexamination of ethnographic the perspective of non-western traditional systems of symbol- records from the Northern Plains and the Columbia Plateau by ism and thought,” says Whitley. “In order to understand truly Keyser, and the Southern Plains by New Mexico State Univer- ancient rock art, we need to first understand why recent rock sity archaeologist Larry Loendorf, show similar correlations. art was made and how it was used, not because the ancient art According to shamanistic beliefs, humans may interact had identical origins or functions necessarily, but instead to with the spiritual world by entering a trance during which understand the potential range of variation in origin and use.” they may obtain visions or powers, such as the ability to heal As some cultures left no ethnographic record and are the sick or make rain. Whitley argues that, for the most part, known only archaeologically, scientific methods have also been Great Basin rock art depicts the hallucinations experienced developed to try to understand symbolic meaning in rock art. during shamanic trances, and that such sites served as vision The neuropsychological (N-P) model, derived from research quest locations where supernatural powers and visions could about human perception of mental imagery experienced in be obtained. According to neuropsychology, geometric forms such as zigzags, spirals, and grids are commonly perceived during trance states. These images, which would be expected in rock art portraying such states, are well documented in the Coso Range and other places. Nonetheless, researchers Alanah Woody and Angus Quinlan of the Nevada Rock Art Foundation suggest that a different approach is needed to understand many Great Basin rock art sites in or near settlements. They inter- pret what they refer to as “domestic” rock art as a form of communication that both legitimated and challenged people’s social and cultural identities. Because the rock art was in a public location, many people would incorpo- rate it into their cultural traditions, which indicates the art’s intended audience was not restricted to vision questers. Groups who believed that the rock art was created by their ances-

Incredibly preserved polychrome pictographs such as this image were created by Archaic peoples between about 2,500 and 4,200 years ago along the Lower Pecos River in southwest Texas. Recent AMS radiocarbon dating of the images in this region is enabling researchers to incorporate the rock art into the archaeological record, giving BURGESS

insights into ancient hunter-gatherer belief Y systems, ritual practices, and lifeways. TERR 28 summer • 2007 tors may have also used that as evidence that their people occupied the land for long periods, which legitimated their claim to it and its resources. In rock art-rich areas of the Puebloan Southwest, such as the Rio Grande Valley, the Galisteo Basin of central New Mexico, and the Three Rivers site of southern New Mexico, comprehensive archaeological surveys have taken into account the relationships among rock art, landscape features, and settlement archaeology. “In the Rio Grande region of New Mexico, rock art research has contributed significantly to understanding the antecedents and development of Pueblo religious societies such as the kachina cult and warrior societies, and how these contributed to the history of Pueblo religious development and their role in the social organization of the large late prehistoric villages that characterize the northern Rio Grande,” says rock art researcher Polly Schaafsma. There are correlations between 14th-century rock art imagery depicting kachinas, masked god-like figures, and changes in settlement organization, such as a shift to a plaza-oriented layout similar to modern pueblos, where many people still practice the kachina religion. These developments followed the abandonment of vast areas of the Colorado Plateau by people who resettled in large communities. This change in settlement pattern has been interpreted as an indication of a socio-religious shift in Pueblo

RUPESTRIAN CYBERSERVICES ideology caused by factors such as the kachina cult, which transcended clans and lineages and facilitated the integration of large villages or towns. The creature depicted in this petroglyph in northwest Wyoming is called Schaafsma adds that, for the Pueblo region, correlations the cannibal owl. Members of the tribe have seen this creature between rock art images and those painted on ceramics and on during altered states of consciousness. walls help researchers date rock art and inform notions about how such iconography functioned to convey belief whose areas of expertise are the U.S. Plains, Columbia Plateau, systems and traditions. and Northwest Coast regions. Keyser, with the help of the Oregon Archaeological Society and representatives of several Oregon tribes, directs a volunteer rock art recording project. The group INCREASING has documented sites from Alaska to Montana, with a particular emphasis on the Dalles region in the Columbia River Gorge of Oregon, which contains one of North America’s densest Public concentrations of pictographs and petroglyphs. The project’s success is due to its collaborative nature. By involving trained volunteers as well as archaeologists and native peoples, different perspectives are incorporated, costs contained, and the public Awareness educated about the significance and fragility of rock art. Similar Technologies such as global positioning and geographic infor- programs are underway in Arkansas, the Galisteo Basin in central mation systems, satellite and digital imaging, and various new New Mexico, and in the Mississippi Valley, where a rock art pigment, rock, and soils analyses are dramatically improving tradition has been discovered in Appalachian caves that the recording and analyses of rock art. Efforts to systematically spanned more than 3,500 years. record rock art in the U.S., which are largely led by volunteer While archaeologists know where thousands of rock art organizations, are giving researchers a greater appreciation of sites are located across North America, only a handful have its age and diversity. Despite these advances, a lot of work been examined to determine their condition. Geographer remains to refine rock art chronologies and to record the vast Niccole Cerveny of Arizona’s Mesa Community College, in numbers of sites that remain undocumented and vulnerable to coordination with Dorn and Whitley, has developed a method natural and human destruction. for assessing the condition of rock art. “It has become apparent “There are more than 50 percent of the sites in all my that monitoring rock art panel stability has reached a crisis,” areas of expertise that have yet to be recorded even with the says Dorn, who has been studying the nature of rock weathering basic information, and 90 percent of the total of all sites in for the last three decades. “Thus, the Rock Art Stability Index these areas have not been studied in detail,” says James Keyser, was developed to triage rock art panels.” american archaeology 29 WILLIAM STONE This 14th-century petroglyph panel in the Galisteo Basin of north-central New Mexico depicts humanoid figures holding shields. The area’s rock art is informing researchers about the development of ancestral Pueblo religious practices and warrior societies during this period, developments that correlate with changes in Pueblo settlement layout and sociopolitical structure.

Known as RASI, this method rates the conditions of panels Cerveny and Dorn hope to integrate RASI into Mesa Community to determine if they are in danger of deteriorating. The index College’s curricula to train students in rock art management and takes into consideration such factors as the condition of the research, subjects that are ignored by most schools. bedrock supporting the panels, incremental erosion, and the “I see the greatest hope for the future of rock art in public potential of vandalism. By incorporating this information in a education and interpretation,” says Woody. “If the general public GIS database, it’s possible to determine which sites are the most begins to see why these sites really do matter to themselves and endangered. “RASI will not fix all of the problems that our rock how they can enrich their own lives and the lives of their art heritage currently confronts,” says Dorn. “But it does provide children by protecting them, then the sites will be protected.” us with a means for attacking these problems in a coordinated and efficient fashion and is the first logical step in the important TAMARA STEWART is the assistant editor of American Archaeology and the task of saving our rock art resources for future generations.” Conservancy’s Southwest project’s coordinator. 30 summer • 2007 Before and After Columbus The Taino, the first Native Americans Columbus encountered, occupied the Caribbean for centuries prior to the explorer’s arival. They were a vibrant culture before encountering the Spanish, but they declined sharply thereafter. By Mike Toner RESOURCE, NY T BILDARCHIV PREUSSISCHER KULTURBESITZ / AR / BILDARCHIV PREUSSISCHER KULTURBESITZ

The first encounter between Columbus and the people of the New World is depicted in this engraving by Theodore de Bry.

hen Columbus landed on the island he called San World cultures had similar results. By 1542, Bartolomé de las Salvador in 1492, the Bahamian archipelago was Casas, a Spanish priest, historian, and human rights advocate, Whome to as many as 80,000 native people. By would lament the passing of “the most humble, patient and Ponce de Leon’s voyage in 1513, the Bahamas were uninhabited peaceable…of any people in the world.” And he minced no —the people dead of disease or taken away to serve as slaves in words about the cause of their demise on Hispaniola, conclud- Spain’s New World colonies. ing that the “killing, terrorizing, afflicting, and destroying” by his Elsewhere in the Caribbean—in Puerto Rico, in Cuba, countrymen had reduced the island’s population from perhaps and on the island of Hispaniola—the meeting of New and Old three million people to “barely two hundred persons.” american archaeology 31 culture is the vibrant sense of creativity and exuberant innova- tion,” says Kathleen Deagan, research curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History in Gainesville. “Taino artisans

produced a wide variety of craft items, including elaborate Y decorated ceramics, cotton products, ground and polished stone beads, carved shell and bone ornaments, tools of stone, tobacco, various foodstuffs, and exotic birds and feathers.” A snapshot of the Taino people in 1492 would have shown a diverse, politically complex, hierarchical society with as many as several million people living on the larger islands of the Greater Antilles—Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica. These experienced farmers grew yuca, beans, squash, guava, pineapple, tobacco, and other crops. They had ocean-

going canoes that could carry as many as 100 people and they FLORIDA MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTOR This coral drill found at En Bas Saline in Haiti dates to about A.D. 1400. traded with other islands in the Caribbean as well as the main- land of Central America. They lived in hereditary chiefdoms Estimates of indigenous populations, and the scope of the ruled by powerful caciques who controlled up to 100 villages depopulation in the years following contact, vary widely, but and thousands of people. there is little doubt that within a few generations, the people “By the time Columbus arrived, more than 200 genera- now known as the Taino—“good” or “noble” in the Arawak tions of indigenous Caribbean people had come and gone, language they spoke—had been thoroughly decimated. passing their knowledge and relationships on to their children,” Until recently, contemporary knowledge of the Taino has says Wilson. “There were long periods with little noticeable been shaped mostly by the written record—Spanish censuses, change and periods of dramatic cultural change—some of official reports, and the writings of chroniclers like Las Casas them cataclysmic.” The arrival of Columbus would prove to and Fray Ramón Pané who, at Columbus’ behest, lived among be the most cataclysmic of all. “los Indios” of Hispaniola for four years and recorded their Radiocarbon dates associated with lithic tools in Cuba, customs. The Spanish, however, inevitably saw the Taino Haiti, and the Dominican Republic indicate that humans have through the lens of their own experience. lived in the Caribbean since about 4000 B.C.Many, but not “Although the Spanish had no experience with this form all, experts believe that around 2000 B.C. a wave of hunter- of social organization, the Taino were matrilineal,” says gatherers migrated northward from South America into the Samuel Wilson, an archaeologist at the University of Texas, Austin. “Descent and inheritance passed through the female line. In most cases, however, men held the office of cacique (chief), reflecting the distinction between social hierarchy and political power.” “We attach so much weight to written accounts, but we have to realize that the Spanish only saw the world as they understood it,” says archaeologist Geoffrey Conrad of Indiana University. “You have to remember that Columbus initially thought he was off the coast of Japan.” “One of the major mistakes the Spanish made was that they thought all of the Caribbean people they met were the same and they assumed they were all Taino,” says University of Florida archaeologist William Keegan. “There’s a famous passage from Las Casas in which he reports that the Indians all spoke the same language, but there were three mutually unintelligible languages on the island. Archaeological evidence supports that idea that the Caribbean was a melting pot of different cultures when Columbus arrived and had been for a long time before that.” Today, with a growing body of material evidence, and a reappraisal of written accounts, archaeologists are piecing together a fuller and more accurate picture of the origins of the people who discovered Columbus, as well as the aftermath CHARLES BEEKER of the collision of cultures that began in 1492. Archaeologist John Foster holds a Taino war club in his left hand and a “One of the distinctive features of 15th-century Taino canvas bag with fragile artifacts in his right. 32 summer • 2007

SAMUEL WILSON The ballcourt complex at Caguana in west-central Puerto Rico has as many as 10 plaza features. This photo shows rectangular courts, cobbled pavements, circular features, and, in the middle-right of the picture, a row of standing stones carved with petroglyphs.

Lesser Antilles and Puerto Rico. Then, around 500 B.C., another have been identified throughout the region, even on smaller migration took place—its presence in the archaeological islands like St. Martin and Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. record marked by the distinctive white-on-red painted pottery The rules varied, but the Caribbean ball game, which differed and incised crosshatched designs—a style called Saladoid from the Mesoamerican version, was generally a contest after the site in Venezuela’s Orinoco Basin where it was first between teams of 10 to 30 players—usually, but not always identified. By A.D. 600, large, but widely scattered Saladoid men—who used a rubber-like ball to score points. But the communities were found from Trinidad through the Lesser competition wasn’t just for sport. The outcome helped resolve Antilles and east as far as the Dominican Republic. conflicts between communities without armed conflict. “The Saladoid peoples were horticulturists who also relied Elaborate petroglyphs with images linked to important myths extensively on fishing and the collecting of marine and faunal in Taino cosmology surrounded some of the fields, attesting resources,” says Peter Siegel, an archaeologist at Montclair that they were sacred spaces. State University in Montclair, New Jersey. “They produced Siegel says the first sacred spaces in Puerto Rico were thin-walled, elaborately painted, incised, and modeled ceramic little more than centrally located open plazas that also served vessels and figurines, ground-stone celts, in addition to many as graveyards. At Maisabel on the island’s north coast, Siegel everyday items fabricated from stone, bone, shell, clay, coral, estimates there are more than 2,500 burials in the plaza. But woods, and feathers.” he contends that in the earliest courts the absence of high- Archaeologists believe that over the next several centuries, status goods in the graves, along with the presence of elaborate interactions between the agrarian Saladoids and the earlier stone celts and other artifacts in middens constructed outside hunter-gatherer populations led to the emergence of the more the courts, shows that the early Tainos were egalitarian and complex, and more highly organized Taino society that, by village-oriented. During the formative period of Taino culture, Columbus’ arrival, was concentrated in the Greater Antilles. elite burials were largely absent. Siegel has chronicled the gradual evolution of Taino culture By A.D. 700, however, the ball courts were becoming in the ball courts and ceremonial plazas of Puerto Rico and more elaborate. The plazas were landscaped and outlined with other islands. Ball courts—large, defined spaces for ritual com- boulders and carved rocks—physical evidence, Siegel says, that petitions and community events—were built by prehistoric ancestor worship remained a key aspect of the culture, but the cultures throughout Mesoamerica. Approximately 100 of consolidation of power into regional polities had begun. By them have also been found in Puerto Rico, and many more 1200, burials had been moved entirely outside the courts. The american archaeology 33 The Taino’s spirit ancestors were zemis, a term that also applies to iconographic stone, wood, bone, or shell objects— often three-pointed in design—that carried human or animal likenesses. For the Taino, caves provided the access between the earth’s surface and the underworld. For modern archaeologists, they are proving to be a rich source of cultural material. Jose- Maria Cave in the Dominican Republic’s East National Park, for instance, contains over 1,200 pictographs ranging from geometric designs and anthropomorphic figures to one that appears to depict a square-rigged Spanish ship. Although rock art and ceramics make up the greatest share of the Taino’s extant material culture, some subterranean sites have yielded less durable artifacts. At Manantial de la Aleta in the Dominican Republic, for instance, Conrad’s colleagues

underwater archaeologists Charles Beeker of Indiana University JOHN FOSTER This pictograph panel was found in Jose-Maria Cave in the Dominican and John Foster of California State Parks have located a huge Republic. The image on the right is perhaps the first known image of a trove of organic items, some nearly 1,000 years old, that were Spanish ship painted by New World peoples. preserved in the dark, anaerobic waters of a remote sinkhole in a tropical forest. It’s a mystery how the Taino entered the deep courts were larger, paved, and formally constructed to reflect sinkhole and placed offerings in the water so deliberately that the power of the leaders who presided over them and the their bowls of seeds remained upright for centuries. “elaborate ceremonies and rituals revolving around them.” By The site holds a host of rarely seen objects: woven baskets, the time Columbus arrived, the ball courts were the tangible gourd vessels, a carved crocodilian figure, part of a canoe pad- expression of chiefly power that the caciques wielded over dle, and even a small ceremonial stool used by chiefs and other many villages. high-ranking individuals as a symbolic and literal seat of Researchers have found another intriguing sign of the power. The water-logged discoveries include a macana, a two- evolution of the complex hierarchical society that Columbus handed war club said to be capable of crushing a man’s skull, stumbled upon. archaeologist Ken Wild has excavated two Taino ceremonial sites on the north coast of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands that he believes were used for ancestor worship. Between them, the sites at Cinnamon Bay and Trunk Bay contain a tightly dated sequence of Taino iconography that spans the entire 600 years preceding Euro- pean contact. Bats have always been a dominant figure in Taino art. Early historical accounts say the Taino looked upon the Caribbean’s ubiquitous fruit bats as spirits of the dead, who lived in caves by day and came out at night to feed. But Wild has found that during this period the icons used to decorate ceremonial pottery underwent significant changes. In the beginning, the hollow-eyed icons had predominantly human features. Over the centuries, however, the human faces came to be crafted with distinct, bat-like noses, a feature that reflects the growth of social complexity. By the 1400s, however, the bat-nosed human faces were also embellished with chiefly headdresses, a feature that Wild says suggests the emergence of an elite hierarchy with chiefs claiming links to departed ances- tors and spiritual beings the Taino revered. One expression of the Taino reverence for the dead is what University College London archaeologist Jose Oliver calls “en- docanibalism”—a ceremony in which the “spiritual essence” of the departed was served to the living in a beverage made of the person’s ground and burned bones. Oliver says some indige-

nous South American people engage in a similar ritual today, KEN WILD/NPS embracing the notion that bones are the source of life itself. This bat-nosed icon was found at Cinnamon Bay. It once embellished a vessel. 34 summer • 2007 JOHN FOSTER for system imposedby Ponce deLeon,butwere soundlydefeated. in Puerto Rico,the Taino rebelled against theforced labor inChristianityand“civilization.”return forinstruction In 1508 forced laborthatrequired Taino towns toprovide workers in subjugation oftheislandand impositionofasystem Hispaniola, five years of openconflictendedwithSpanish gold, quicklydashedanyhopeofpeacefulcoexistence.On thousandsofobjectsare stilldownperhaps there.” organic objectsinthesinkhole,”Conradsays.“Hundreds, rituals. “S person’s throat. It’s believed thatalloftheseitemswere usedin thought tohave inducedvomiting whenitwasputdown a spatulathatis munications withthespiritworld,andacarved a bowl forhallucinogenic snuffusedduringceremonial com- leftinsitu. were but theotherartifacts bowlwasrecovered, Thepottery amazinglywellpreserved. are conditionsofthe sinkhole,theseartifacts the anerobic containerswithcor photoshowsgourd This underwater the Spaniar but thearriv Guancanagari blamedthemassacreoutsiders, destroyed. on deadandtheirencampment,namedLaNavidad,behind second voyage in1493and found the30menhehadleft but relations soured quicklyafterColumbusreturned onhis his menw attention totheculturalupheavaland thatfollowed. Columbus focus onthestateof Taino culture before Columbus, with little ameri ced physicalrelocation, diseases social abuses, andnew “ U can archaeology The combined effects of military defeat,near-slavery,The combined effectsofmilitary ntil r er o farwe have removed onlyasmallsampleofthe ecently ds e initiallybefriendedby thecaciqueGuancanagari; al ofmor ’ needforlabor , archaeological investigationsto havetended e than1,300permanentcolonists,and ers toraisetheircr dage, a decorative pottery bowl,andafeatheratthebottomofManantialdelaAletasinkhole.Because dage, adecorativepottery ops andmine A T aino amulet made from manateebone. aino amuletmade from 35 until the middle of the 16th century,” says Keegan. Recent ex- cavations of wooden structures at Los Buchillones on the north coast of Cuba, in fact, suggest that a Taino village there may have been occupied as late as 1640. Although some indigenous villages are thought to have survived in remote parts of the Caribbean where the Spanish presence was less extensive, archaeologists agree that the Taino ceased to be a cohesive society within a few generations of Columbus’ arrival. In some cases, remnant populations were simply assimilated. In Puerto Rico, for instance, one-fifth of the marriages recorded in 1530 were between Spaniards and Tainos. “The culture essentially disappeared,” says archaeologist L. Antonio Curet, of Chicago’s Field Museum. “The Taino were the first people in the New World to feel the impact of contact and its aftermath. It was a preview of what would happen later in other Spanish colonies.” Even today, however, echoes of the culture that once dominated the Caribbean still linger in the modern world. In Puerto Rico, one genetic study funded by the National Science Foundation shows that as many as 60 percent of the island’s long-time residents have Native American DNA. “The politi- cal system of the Taino fell apart pretty quickly,” says Wilson. “But we can’t really say with any certainty when the culture ended. If you think of culture as the style of houses, or food, JOHN FOSTER This intact water jar, called a potiza, was recovered from Chicho Cave in or basic economies, you could go into some parts of the the Dominican Republic's East National Park at a depth of 25 feet. Caribbean today and still find people doing some things the Potizas are Taino pottery jars with incised decorations and phallic necks. way the Taino would have done them.”

created severe demographic pressure and population loss,” says MIKE TONER is a Pulitzer Prize–winning science writer for the Atlanta Journal Deagan. The Taino, however, did not vanish as swiftly, or as Constitution. His article “Where The Trail of Tears Began” appeared in the surely, as historical accounts suggest. Deagan’s excavations on Summer 2006 issue of American Archaeology. the north coast of Haiti, at En Bas Saline, which is widely believed to be the location of La Navi- dad, found signs of sub- stantial and continued Taino occupation—more than 188,000 artifacts —for more than three decades after Columbus visit. The paucity of European trade goods and food suggests that the Taino there had little to do with the colonists. As late as 1530, in fact, the Taino were mounting guerilla- style attacks on the nearby settlement of Puerto Real. “There is increasing evidence that, in some parts of the Caribbean, KEN WILD/NPS Taino culture continued This carved stone face was found in situ with other ceremonial items at Cinnamon Bay. 36 summer • 2007 NPS T mountain ranges. r of Interstate 5,butalsodrive manymilesonpeacefultwo-lane North America. You willspendtimeonthewideconcrete ribbon andthemostbeautifullively citiesin tacular scenery alongside glaciersduringthelast Ice Age. ish explorers). Further backintime,mastadonstromped mouth oftheStrait ofJuan deFuca (inturnnamedby S ar ameri OF THE oads with views of oceans,mightyrivers,oads withviews andcrenellated potatoes, onions, and other crops thatwer potatoes, onions,andothercrops For ea ’s reaches, northern whiletheMakah huntedwhalesatthe t Vancouver’s chives,leeks,squash, features garden replica B A tourofthisr can archaeology Coast tribessuchastheHaida flourishedalongthis andClarktoric riches.Lewis campedthere. Northwest he Pacific Northwest isaregion ofhistoric and prehis- egin atF Summer Travel Special Summer Travel THE or t V ancouv egion alsoincludessomeofthe mostspec- er National Historic Site PACIFIC NORTHWEST HISTORY e gr own intheoriginalgar By DouglasGantenbein in and V ancouv pan- den. er , exact location of the original fort, whichisamazinggiven the exact locationof theoriginalfort, O enormously influentialinshaping thedevelopment of the west. It wasthefur trade capitalofthe was West and Coast, south, andtotheRocky Mountains andPacific Ocean eastto ranged fr area varied stretchThat of700,000square milesofland. Bay Company. Assuch,its600employees managedawildly Washington, justacr for theColumbiaD wastheadministrative centerandsupplydepot 1825, thefort tions inthe Vancouver National Historic Reserve.Founded in Oregon. Fort Vancouver isthemostnotableof several attrac- regon Territory. T oday areplica ofthefort’s logstockade standsonthe Beauty om Russian AlaskaandMexican California north to epar oss theColumbiaRiver from Portland, tment oftheLondon-basedHudson ’s 37 38 Le mo ably leaked—badlone N raining mostofthetime. forthreeparty months.By allaccountsitwasamiserablewinter, ground inthemiddle,Fortparade Clatsophousedthe33-member collection ofseven rooms,A rude enclosedwithinawallwith ria, theaddress of Portland, thentakeState Route andwest toAsto- 30north here from 1936to1938whenhewasbasecommander. later wonaN H inthecountry,active airfield andtheGeorge C.Marshall attractions ar Store, where are artifacts now cataloged. H isflourandwater“sea biscuits”), theCounting specialty O life.Similarfort activitytakesplaceintheCarpenter’s Shop. ofaxes, nails,hinges,andotherthings requireddaily in replicas now istooexpensive forallbutspecialprojects), forging glowing chunksofsteel(thewrought iron usedinthe1820s v evidence.Ifarchaeological you’re lucky, agangofgarrulous and historicaldocuments, from drawingsoftheoriginalfort, buildings. of originalfort Their shapesandsizes are derived the size oftwofootballfieldsstandahalf-dozen reproductions development intheregion.urban extensive Inside anarea about Vancouver.in theBlacksmithShopatFort A trainedblacksmithpracticeshiscraftjustasitwasdoneinthe1800s waters toproduce salt. waters site alsowasneartheocean,andexpeditionboiledits on theO They settledonaflat,woodedarea, withagoodcanoelanding in hisjournal),thegroup decidedtocampnearby forthewinter. November 7(“Ocian O! [sic]inview! The Joy!” Clark wrote were atlastnearthePacific Ocean. Reaching theoceanon they stretch oftheColumbia River inthefallof1805,knowing olunteers willbeatwor ouse onthefort’s 1880s-eraOfficers’ Row. Marshall, who ouse, wher ther replica buildingsincludetheB wis andClar v ed inwhentheexpedition left,andpromptly mo I After touringF the Among Vancouver National Historic Reserve’s other n December 1805, Lewis andClark’sLewis 1805, n December menbuiltFort Clatsop. r egon sidewher e thePearson AirMuseum, locatedontheoldest e scribeslabored over inventories, andtheFur obel Prize forcraftingtheMarshall Plan, lived k ’ s CorpsofDiscovery gratefullypaddledthis Lewis andClark National Historical Park or ational Park ranger saysthatnatives Service t The fort itselfwas hastilybuiltandprob- The fort k intheBlacksmith Shop, bangingon Vancouver, spendanightinnearby e elkw er e saidtobeabundant. The akery (thehouse akery ved backout. . This replica of the Corps of Discovery salt cairn wasbuiltin1955. saltcairn oftheCorps Discovery This replica observation decktoenjoy thatstretchobservation views miles. Astor Column)inAstoriaandclamberupthe167stepstoan towns inthearea. AlsovisitAstoriaColumn(alsoknown as Clark commentedonthatnow front CannonBeach andother Mu of Victorian-era homes,touringtheelegantFlavel House stayed priortomoving toOregon andbuildingFort Clatsop. inNovemberparty 1805,andStation Camp, where theCorps bia River, findClark’s Dismal Nitch, where astormtrappedthe tives formeatandoilfrom abeachedwhale.Across theColum- ther southisCannonBeach, where theCorpstradedwithna- built toboilseawaterproduce aboutfourbushelsofsalt.Fur- to seetheSalt Works, areplica ofthestonefurnaceCorps to CannonBeach, Oregon. Head southtothetown ofSeaside from LongBeach,coast rangingnorth Washington, andsouth Park’s 12sites,whichare locatedona40-milestretch ofthe has fire-suppression systems. It home. would likelyhave also,however, builtatemporary the originalre-creation, toreflect how theexpedition’s men has beencompleted,onethatisdeliberatelymore than rustic floorboards. A“new”for ademonstration,ignitedthedry fort in December fire, 2005whenembersfrom anopenhearth lit closetotheoriginalsite. built onorvery That replica burned farmers cleared ago. thearea In acentury 1955areplica was seum, and walking the wide, sandy beaches that Lewis and seum, andwalkingthewide,sandybeachesthatLewis The logsoftheoriginalfor While here, spendtimeadmiringAstoria’s finecollection andClark isoneoftheLewis NationalThe fort Historical t likelywere burnedwhen summer •2007

RON NIEBRUGGE NPS Head north by cross- ing the Columbia at Astoria, then taking State Route 4 to Interstate 5 in the city of Longview. If time allows, take a half-day detour to the east to visit the Mount St. Helens Na- tional Volcanic Monu- ment. Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, killing 57 people, and nearly 230 square miles of forest was blown down or buried be- neath volcanic deposits. Returning to Interstate 5, drive 20 miles north to the junction with State Route 12. Exit there and drive east, then north on State Route 7 and east on State Route 706 to Mount FORT NISQUALLY LIVING HISTORY MUSEUM Rainier National Park. There’s no archaeology The Fort Nisqually granary was built in 1850. It’s one of the few original buildings at the park. on display here, and the park was badly damaged by heavy rains this past November; highlighted here is John Nordstrom, who with his partners nonetheless, it is well worth visiting. (Check the park’s Web site sold a disputed mine claim for $30,000. The mine’s buyers’ or call the visitor center before going. Roads and trails may re- subsequently dug up $2 million in gold. But Nordstrom came main closed through the summer.) Mount Rainier, a 14,410- out OK. He pocketed $13,000, returned to Seattle, and used foot extinct volcano, is the most heavily glaciated peak in the his stake to found a shoe store that evolved into one of the lower 48 states. From Paradise, a lodge on the mountain’s south most successful retailing operations in the United States. flank, dozens of trails lead up toward the peak itself. On a sunny After lunch in one of Pioneer Square’s many restaurants summer day the hillsides are ablaze with Indian paintbrush and and a stroll of the district, continue north on Interstate 5 to lupine, while marmots peer at hikers from warm boulders. But the Northeast 45th Street exit and drive east to the University don’t get too ambitious—Camp Muir appears to be nearby, of Washington campus and the Burke Museum of Natural though it is in fact a vertical mile above Paradise and can pres- History and Culture, located on the campus’ northwest corner. ent a challenge even for fit, well-prepared hikers who must as- The Burke’s outstanding archaeological and ethnographic cend a long snowfield where the weather can change in minutes. collections include more than one million artifacts from the A counterclockwise loop around the mountain on State Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Japan, and Oceania. Its Route 410 ends in Tacoma. (If 410 is closed, take State Route particular strengths are extensive collections from the Lower 7 north to Tacoma.) Stop at Fort Nisqually Living History Columbia River and the Puget Sound Region of Washington Museum, a re-creation of Fort Nisqually, a Conservancy State. The remains of 9,400-year-old also preserve that was established in 1833 as an outpost of the reside here, but they are not on display. Hudson’s Bay Company. It was the first European settlement This summer the museum is mounting a major exhibit of in this area. Fort Nisqually is, like Fort Vancouver, a “living contemporary Native American carvings, masks, silk prints, and history” park where volunteers re-create fort activity. textiles titled “In the Spirit of the Ancestors: Contemporary Drive north again on Interstate 5 to downtown Seattle, Northwest Coast Native Art.” It includes more than 100 works where you’ll visit the Seattle unit of the Klondike Gold Rush created in the past half-century. Don’t miss Calvin Hunts’ National Historical Park. It’s actually a small museum located carved wooden “Kwagu’l Sea Monster,” Primrose Adams’ woven at Second and Jackson near Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square cedar “Frog Hat,” and Marie Oldfield’s “Ravenstail Robe.” district. The museum’s displays explain the huge impact of the Continue north on Interstate 5, exit at Milepost 189, and Gold Rush on the then-depressed city of Seattle. Visitors can follow the signs to the Mukilteo Ferry. En route you’ll pass the use touch-screen displays to follow the adventures of five Boeing factory where the giant 747 airliner, and Boeing’s new prominent gold-seekers who braved the brutal winters of the super-efficient 787 Dreamliner, are built. Ferries leave every 30 Yukon and endured the backbreaking work of searching for minutes for the 20-minute trip to Whidbey Island. Stop in the gold. Needless to say, few found great wealth. One of the five picturesque town of Langley for lunch and shopping, then american archaeology 39

40 The reserveconsistsofse www.vancouverhistoricreserve.org 5400 Nor Point DefiancePark NisquallyLivingHistoryMuseum Fort oronfoot horseback, bicycle, cycle, for visitors16andolderenteringbymotor Admission: $15foraprivatevehicleor$5 W National ParkServiceandthestatesof 40-mile areaandareadministeredbythe The parkconsistsof12sitesthatspana www.nps.gov/le 503-861-2471 ext.214 Astoria, ClatsopRoad 92343 Fort andClarkNationalHistoricalPark Lewis andotherinformation. prices, admission the Visit Web siteforhours, Site. including For V Vancouver NationalHistoricReserve hours andclosuresdueto2006flooding Hours: Contacttheparkforinformationon www.nps.gov/mora/ 360-569-2211 Ashford, 55210 238th Mount RainierNationalPark andadmissionfees. hours ofoperation, for moreinformationaboutthesites, When you go: ancouver sigo n rgn Contactthepark ashington andOregon. OR 97103 WA 98304 th PearlStreet#11 , WA t Vancouver NationalHistoric Avenue East wi veral attractions, . - Culture Universityof Burke MuseumofNatural Historyand Admission: Free Hours: 9-5daily www.nps.gov/klse/contacts.htm 206-220-4240 Seattle, 319 Second Avenue South Klondik children5–12$2 students 13–17$3, Hours: Facilitiesinthereserve have www.nps.gov/ebla/ 360-678-6084 Coupe 162 CemeteryRoad Box774 P.O. Historical Reserve Ebey’s LandingNational students andyouth$5 seniors$6.50, Admission: Adults $8, andadmissionisfree 8 p.m. First Thursday ofeach monthopenuntil Hours: 10–5daily www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/ 206-543-5590 WA 98195-3010 Seattle, 17th Admission: 11–4. 31Wed.-Sun., 4–Dec. Sept. 311–5daily, Hours: May28–Sept. www.fortnisqually.org 253-591-5339 T cm,WA98407 acoma, Avenue NEand45thStreet ville, e GoldRush(Seattleunit) WA 98104 Adults $4, WA 98239 . W seniors/ ashington 6393 N.W. English Camp 5–June3 Wed.-Sun.: 8:30–4:30. Sept. 48:30–5daily, June 4–Sept. Hours: American Camp Center,Visitor www.nps.gov/sajh/ 360-378-2240 WA98250 Friday Harbor, P 650 MullisStreet San JuanIslandNationalHistoricPark 18 andunder$7 65andover$7, Admission: Adults $9, T Hours: May19–October810–5daily, www.moa.ubc.ca/ 604-822-5087 Vancouver W 515 ext. Information:360-856-5700 Visitor Sedro-W 810 StateRoute20 CascadesNational Park North admission. andsomecharge upon theseason, varying hoursofoperationdepending of University ofBritishColumbiaMuseum campingfeesvary Admission: Free, July–August 9–6 Hours: visitorcenter9–5daily, www.nps.gov/noca/ 39 360-873-4590 ext. edy pnutl9pm (payasyoucan). uesdays openuntil9p.m. .O ilderness InformationCenter Anthropolog Box429 . oolle , B.C. Canada V6T 1Z2 CanadaV6T B.C. , Contact thereservefordetails. Marine Drive y V WA98284 , y isitor Center : : www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/ the ferryschedule, For informationabout W Admission: Free 8–4 Hours: Tues.–Sat. www.sequimmuseum.org/ 360-683-8110 Sequim, 175 Sequim-Dungeness V Museum & students/seniors$4 Admission: Adults $5, Hours: 10–5 www.makah.com/ 360-645-2711 Neah Bay P Makah IndianReservation Additional feesforIMAXtheater. $37.50. family, Childrenfree, $9.50, seniors/students $14, Admission: Adults, Hours: 9–5daily www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 250-356-7226 V 675 Belle Royal BCMuseum Admission: Free 5–June3 Wed.–Sun.: 8:30–4:30 Sept. 4:9–5daily, June 4–Sept. .O ictoria, ashington StateFerries . Box 160 W est CedarStreet WA 98382 B.C. , ville Street WA 98357 Ar Canada V8W 9W2 Canada V8W ts Center summer •2007 visit alle , y

EVOLUTION GRAPHICS continue north on State Route 525 to the Ebey’s Landing area and used it as a travel and trading route to the eastern National Historical Reserve. part of the state. Some of the park’s numerous archaeological Although there are attractions—the Alexander Block- sites are more than 8,500 years old. The visitor center has a house in Coupeville, built in 1855 to protect settlers, and small artifact collection on display, and a nearby trail leads to Ebey’s Landing itself, named for Colonel Isaac Neff Ebey, who a Native American campsite. Plus, the park has some of the landed there in 1851—Ebey’s main appeal is the landscape. most rugged terrain in the United States, with soaring peaks It has been shaped by humans but not overwhelmed by them. and deep forests of Douglas fir and alder. It encompasses eight It retains its prairie-like openness, with views of the Olympic climate zones, and has a wider variety of trees and plants than Mountains, Mount Baker, and other peaks and ranges. any other national park. Don’t miss Fort Casey State Park. Fort Casey, built early Continue north on Interstate 5 to the Canadian border. in the 1900s, was one of several forts that protected Puget (A passport is now required to enter Canada.) Head for Van- Sound. Today its impressive concrete battlements still watch couver, one of the most cosmopolitan and beautiful cities on over the sound. The park also features two authentic 12-inch the West Coast. Your destination is one of the high points of “disappearing rifles.” Mounted on pivots, they popped over this road trip, the University of British Columbia’s Museum of the parapet to fire at ships, then were lowered out of view with Anthropology. Founded in the 1940s, the museum now is counterweights. Needless to say, aircraft had rendered these housed in a building erected in 1976 and designed by great forts obsolete by 1918. renowned Canadian architect Arthur Erickson. It perches North of Ebey’s Landing, pass through the town of Oak dramatically on a bluff overlooking the Strait of Georgia. This Harbor and continue on State Route 525. Stop at Deception land was long occupied by the local Musqueam peoples, many Pass, where an arching bridge leaps over a deep gorge separat- of whose artifacts and artworks are displayed in the museum. ing Whidbey Island from the mainland. Follow the signs to Plan on a full day here. First, walk the wonderful central Anacortes and then Interstate 5. hallway, flanked by giant house posts and other carved pieces If you’re so inclined, take a detour east on State Route 20 by Haida, Musqueam, and Kwakwaka’wakw (also known as into North Cascades National Park. The place names there— Kwagiutl) artists. Many of these once helped support the Stehekin, Nooksack, Shuksan, Nohokomeen, Hozomeen— impressive cedar plank longhouses in which these people lived. were bestowed by Native American people who lived in this Further down, in and near the main gallery, there are giant NORTH CASCADES NATIONAL PARK National Park Service archaeologists discovered that Cascade Pass has been used for more than 9,000 years to cross the Cascade Range, making it the oldest known high-elevation site in Washington. The archaeologists found hunting and base camps, and stone quarries used to make tools. american archaeology 41 UBC MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY / BILL MCLENNAN These pole fragments are from three village sites on Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia. They were made in the mid-19th century from red cedar and are hollowed out at the back, indicating they were once mounted on the fronts of bighouses.

bentwood cedar boxes formed from single planks and steamed Reboard the ferry. Disembark in Sidney, on Vancouver Island into shape. These boxes sometimes served an individual (you’re back in Canada), and follow signs to Victoria. Head for throughout his or her life—a cradle at birth, a casket at death. There are also huge carved wooden dishes in which food was served at a potlatch, the elaborate week-long ceremonies in which people told their family stories, danced, and offered gifts. More than a dozen impressive totem poles, some more than 100 years old, are also found here. Then step outside the museum to view reproductions of two coastal native plank homes. Erickson used their post-and-beam construction as inspiration for his own design. Lastly, visit the Visible Storage rooms, where more than 13,000 cataloged objects are available for viewing and research, among them giant fish hooks for halibut, carvings made from the glossy black stone argillite, and wooden masks representing the fearsome giantess Dzunuk’wa. Dzunuk’wa wandered the woods making loud hooting noises and grabbing any small child who wandered from the village, tossing them into her woven basket as a handy snack for later. That story was a wonderful tool for keeping children in the village. Return to the United States and retrace the path to Anacortes. Board a Washington State ferry to San Juan Island National Historical Park. The park preserves evidence of the infamous “pig war,” which began in 1859 when an American settler shot and killed a pig belonging to a Hudson’s Bay Company employee. The incident rekindled a dispute over the border between British land and the United States’ territory, and hundreds of

troops soon were peering over cannon and musket at one another. ROYAL BC MUSEUM War was averted, but San Juan Island endured joint military This seated human figurine bowl is in the collections of the Royal BC Museum. occupation until 1872. It’s made of hard soapstone and is believed to be about 2,000 years old. 42 summer • 2007 Fuca to Port Angeles. Drive west to the Makah at remote Cape Flattery, home to a 1,600-member tribe famous for it whaling prowess (it last hunted a whale in 1999). The Makah Museum displays artifacts from the Ozette collection, uncovered from a Makah village partially buried by a mudslide nearly 500 years ago. The museum collection also includes a replica longhouse, four cedar dug-put canoes, basketry, and tools. The coastal portion of Olympic National Park at La Push is also worth seeing. Return to Port Angeles on State Route 112 and continue on to Sequim. This is your last stop, the Museum & Arts Center Sequim-Dungeness Valley. It is home to the remains of the Manis Mastodon, which were excavated in the front yard of Emmanuel and Clare Manis in the late 1970s. This site

MAKAH CULTURAL AND RESEARCH CENTER is also a Conservancy preserve. A was found These seaworthy replicas of Makah whaling and sealing canoes were embedded in the remains, offering the first known evidence of built in the 1970s. The Makah and their ancestors have used canoes humans hunting mastodons some 14,000 years ago. The center- like these for at least 3,500 years. piece is a mastodon mural, along with the remains, artifacts, and a video on the excavation. the Royal BC Museum, founded in 1886. It has a fantastic From Sequim, you can drive to Seattle or Portland. This First Peoples (the Canadian term for Native American) gallery, tour has covered a lot of ground—across two states and part of including the house of Chief Kwakwabalasami (Jonathan Hunt), a Canadian province—and thousands of years into the region’s a Kwakwaka’wakw. His son, Henry Hunt, and grandsons, rich past. Tony Hunt and Richard Hunt, created the house and carvings for the exhibit. The museum also has an extensive collection of DOUGLAS GANTENBEIN is the Seattle correspondent for the Economist. His totem poles and houses posts. article “Graving Yard, Graveyard” appeared in the Summer 2005 issue of Now take the M.V. Coho ferry across the Strait of Juan de American Archaeology. B. COOPER Several bones recovered from the Manis Mastodon excavation are mounted on this life-size mural. The excavation, which uncovered an ancient bone projectile point in a rib fragment, presented evidence of humans hunting mastodons about 14,000 years ago. american archaeology 43

new acquisition The Legacy of the Kansa A 19th-century village was home to hundreds of people.

ard Chief’s Village is an historic Kansa settlement located on a high upland ridge overlooking the Hsouth bank of the Kansa River a few miles west of Topeka. Recently the four-acre parcel of land that contains the site was donated to the Conservancy by the landowner, Kathy Fox. By the 1820s the Kansa had organized themselves into three bands that were led by Hard Chief, Fool Chief, and American Chief. Hard Chief’s Village, the second largest of the area’s Kansa villages, was occupied from about 1830 to 1848. Shortly after the village was established, a Methodist mission and a trading post were built near the village. The Kansa were heavily dependent on goods from the trading post but disliked the proselytizing Methodists.

As his name implies, Hard Chief was a stern and con- THE OLD FRONTIER AND GEORGE CATLIN servative leader. Having learned that several children from The noted artist George Catlin painted this picture of a group of Kansa in other villages who attended mission schools became seriously 1830. Though it’s not certain, these Kansa may have been residents of ill and died, Hard Chief refused to let his village’s children Hard Chief’s Village, which was donated to the Conservancy. attend. At its peak the village was home to about 500 to 600 people living in 50 to 60 earthlodges, but soon after the it was presumed to have been destroyed. In 1987, however, mission was established many of the village’s inhabitants the Kansas Anthropological Association and the Kansas started moving west to live in smaller villages along the State Historical Society held a summer field school and Kansas River. In 1848, Hard Chief’s Village was com- identified one definite and 14 possible Kansa earthlodges pletely deserted when all of the Kansa were forced by the along with artifacts and habitation debris from a Wood- U.S. government to move to a new reservation at Council land occupation that predated the Kansa by at least a Grove in central Kansas. thousand years. Historical accounts estimate that nearly a hundred Several years ago Fox and Randy Thies, an archaeologist earthlodges might have been constructed during the time for the Kansas State Historical Society, started working the village was inhabited. In the 1880s Franklin G. Adams together to protect and preserve this site. Fox offered the and W. W. Cone, historians with the Kansas State Histori- site to the Kaw Nation, but the tribe declined, apparently cal Society, reported seeing 85 lodge depressions. In the early deciding they couldn’t assume responsibility for managing 1900s a report from J. V. Brower of the Minnesota Histori- the property. Fox then donated the site to the Conservancy, cal Society described seeing “69 hut rings.” In the 1930s it which accepted the donation with the understanding was reported that the entire village had been plowed, and that, should the Kaw Nation wish to assume management responsibilities for the property in the future, the Conser- vancy would consider transferring ownership to the tribe. In the meantime, a management plan has been established for the site, wherein the Conservancy will fence the property and begin the process of removing trees and other invasive plants that are choking out the native prairie grasses. As a result of Fox’s donation, the Kansas Anthropological Association and the Professional Archae- ologists of Kansas gave her their Public Service Award for her contributions to the preservation of Kansas history. —Amy Espinoza-Ar 44 summer • 2007

new acquisition Out of Harm’s Way The Horn Mound is donated to the Conservancy. hio’s Pickaway County has a rich past, as evidenced by its Oapproximately 850 recorded archaeological sites. Unfortunately, most of these sites have already been damaged or destroyed. One site that has largely avoided harm is the Horn Mound. Despite the fact that it stands 21 feet tall and has a 100-foot diameter base, it was not recorded by professional archaeologists until Holmes Ellis visited the site in 1941. The Horn Mound hasn’t been MCQUOWN

Y plowed, nor has it been professionally

TERR excavated. In fact, its biggest threat has been erosion from an adjacent creek, Owner Eugene Winland stands in front of the 21-foot-tall mound. It’s thought that the Adena people which has worn down a portion of the built the mound sometime between 500 B.C. and A.D. 100 and that it was probably used as a mortuary. mound’s east side. Because of its large size, unusual location, and good integ- crafted grave goods, including shell in the transfer of one family’s com- rity, the Horn Mound was listed on the beads, tubular stone pipes, pottery, mitment to protection of these National Register of Historic Places in and shaped flint blades. In addition diminishing, dramatic, and irre- 1974. Only three other privately to their use as burial grounds, Adena placeable features.” The owners of owned Pickaway County sites have mounds may also have served as terri- the Horn Mound, Faye and Eugene received that honor (one of which is torial markers, and testified to the Winland, have taken great care of the Arledge Mounds, which also is length of time that a particular group the mound since they purchased the being donated to the Conservancy occupied the area. property. Their donation will ensure [see American Archaeology, page 46, “The Ohio landscape is quickly that the Horn Mound, which has Winter 2006-2007]). changing,” says Brent A. Eberhard, not been professionally excavated, The Adena people likely con- the archaeology survey and data will be preserved for future genera- structed the Horn Mound sometime manager at the Ohio Historic Preser- tions. —Terry McQuown between 500 B.C. and A.D. 1. Like vation Office. “Conservatively, hun- other Adena mounds, it was probably dreds of archaeological sites, small Conservancy used for mortuary purposes and it and large, are now lost each year. The may contain the remains of several donation of the Horn Mound to the Plan of Action individuals who held special social or Conservancy is an encouraging chapter SITE: Horn Mound religious positions within the local CULTURE AND TIME PERIOD: Adena, Adena community, such as shamans, 500 B.C.–A.D. 1 warriors, or political leaders. Although STATUS: The mound is threatened Adena mortuary practices changed by erosion and development. ACQUISITION: Although the mound over time, burial mounds were often is being donated, the Conservancy constructed by interring individuals needs $10,000 to cover closing in log tombs and then covering the costs and to address erosion tombs with earth. Over the years, as caused by the nearby creek. additional individuals were added to HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send the mounds, and more earth was contributions to The Archaeological Conservancy, Attn: Horn Mound piled on top of them, the mounds Project, 5301 Central Ave. NE, Suite grew larger and larger. Many Adena 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517. people were buried with finely american archaeology 45 new acquisition A Look at Church Life The Conservancy obtains an 18th-century church site in Virginia.

hen Charles Ryland, a retired attorney from Warsaw, Virginia, noticed that several parcels of land were up W for sale in the northeastern part of the state, he decided to purchase them. Being a history scholar, Ryland knew the property contained the remains of the 18th-century Upper Lunenburg Episcopal Church, and they were in danger of being damaged by development. The church was destroyed in the 19th century and since then the site has been lying vacant, covered in sycamore trees and ivy, with concentrations of brick and other debris providing the only clues of its former existence. In late 2006, the site was brought to the Conservancy’s attention by archaeologists David Brown and Thane Harpole of DATA Investigations, LLC. Brown and Harpole con- ducted archaeological investigations at the Lower Lunenburg Church, the sister church to the Upper Lunenburg, in 2005. They surmise that the Upper Lunenburg site could yield data equal in significance to what they uncovered at

the Lower Lunenburg Church. “We believe that our testing TIONS, LLC of this site (Lower Lunenburg Church), with its similar surface conditions and treatment, since both churches were destroyed in the 19th century, is indicative of the INVESTIGA TA

state of preservation of the upper church site,” Brown and DA Harpole wrote in a letter encouraging the Conservancy to Archaeologist David Brown is standing where the Lower Lunenburg acquire the property. Ryland then generously agreed to Church wall was removed in the early 19th century. The missing wall and donate the church site to the Conservancy for permanent foundation indicates that a substantial brick-salvaging operation was preservation. conducted at the church after it was no longer in use. The archaeologists found that, while much of the brick was taken from the Lower Lunenburg Church site, tecturally grand statements as well as the center of the significant portions of the cruciform foundation remained community. The first congregation of the Episcopal intact. This cruciform plan was widely used in 18th-century Church in America was formed at Jamestown in 1607 as churches in Virginia. Most of the recovered artifacts were a component of the Church of England, also known as architectural, but personal items, such as a pipe stem, and the Anglican Church. The Episcopal Church became the food remains were also recovered. A partially intact and established church in Virginia in 1609. The Episcopal elaborate tomb belonging to a prominent family in vestry became in effect a type of local government that Virginia was also investigated. cared for the poor and upheld moral standards. However, Eighteenth-century churches in Virginia were archi- wealthy landowners were in control of the church and thus the local government, which brought about much resentment from small landowners. Archaeological investigations at the Upper Lunenburg Church can provide answers to questions concerning 18th-century church architecture and landscapes in Virginia as well as information on religious and burial practices. Stables and kilns, which were often associated with 18th-century Virginia churches, may also be present at the site. —Sonja Ingram 46 summer • 2007

new acquisition Joining the Past and Present The Promontory sites will be preserved as open space in a new community.

ue to years of effort by the Sacramento Archaeological So- Dciety, local community members, the Conservancy, and developers of The Promontory residential commu- nity, The Promontory archaeological sites are finally being preserved. Located along the southern edge of the wide American River Valley in central Cal- ifornia, The Promontory sites consist of an extensive trash midden, a bed- rock outcrop with five mortar cups used to grind seeds and other foods, as well as human remains, burned glass, shell beads and bead fragments, and stone tools and debris. The sites are attributed to the Miwok or Nisenan

MARK MICHEL (also known as the Southern Maidu) groups and date from the late 1700s One of the sites consists of extensive midden deposits in association with these large boulders. to the early 1900s. A survey to identify cultural community mapped the disturbed trappers and traders who moved into resources prior to the proposed de- areas, screened the dirt displaced by the area in the late 1820s, establish- velopment of The Promontory area the looters, analyzed artifacts, and ing camps in the Nisenan territory. A revealed that the sites had been then lined the areas with a geotextile massive epidemic, believed to be repeatedly looted. This prompted the barrier, capping the sites with fill. malaria, swept through the area in Conservancy to coordinate a limited Then they replanted the area to reduce 1833, devastating the Nisenan, many data recovery and stabilization project erosion. The project confirmed the of whom fled to join Nisenan groups with local agencies in 1994. Volunteers presence of buried human remains in the nearby Sierra foothills. It’s estimated with the Sacramento Archaeological and the sites’ occupation during the that 75 percent of the Nisenan in the Society and other people from the late 18th century and subsequent use valley died during the epidemic. for mourning ceremonies from the early While the mountain groups sur- 19th to the early 20th centuries. vived, within several years their lands According to ethnographic literature, were overrun by prospectors follow- the Nisenan practiced a mourning cere- ing the discovery of gold in 1848. mony each fall. Known as the “cry” or Thousands of people moved in and “second burning,” they built a pyre they persecuted the Nisenan and that was surrounded by a brush wall. destroyed their villages. The few sur- Within the wall, dancers and vivors moved to the outskirts of the mourners performed, wailing and towns. burning property. Following the The Tsakopoulos Family of AKT ceremony, the Nisenan feasted, Development and Mike McDougall gambled, and played other games. of MJM Properties are donating The Numerous beads recovered from the Promontory sites to the Conservancy. sites were apparently burned during They will be preserved as open space mourning ceremonies. The beads within the community and monitor- were likely obtained from the Hud- ed by members of the homeowner’s son’s Bay Company and American association. —Tamara Stewart american archaeology 47 NEW POINT-3 A Monongahela Village Is Saved

acquisition TEXAS INDIANS OF ARTIFACTS ONE

The Kirshner site is an example of the Youghiogheny phase. ST MCQUOWN Y TERR

The Kirshner site was probably occupied during the end of the 15th century. The Youghiogheny phase began in approximately A.D. 1450. Villages of this phase often had stockades with surrounding trenches. The houses had low wattle and daub walls that sloped outwards and pitched roofs with overhanging eaves.

hen Natale Kirshner and her late property and uncovered a Mononga- Johnson proposed a phase called Whusband, Thomas, purchased a hela village. Youghiogheny for certain sites in the house and some land in south- Between A.D. 1050 and 1635 Youghiogheny and Monongahela west in the mid-1960s, the thrived River Valleys that date to the later the previous owner told them that throughout and part of the Middle Monongahela their property contained an archaeo- adjacent portions of , period (A.D. 1250–1580) and the logical site. The property had not yet Maryland, and Ohio. Most Monon- early part of the Proto-Historic been scientifically investigated, although gahela sites are villages, and many of Monongahela period (A.D. 1580– local lore suggested it might contain them, including the Kirshner site, are 1635). According to Johnson, the prehistoric burials. Over the years, as in upland areas. Archaeologists differ Kirshner site is “a perfect example of they worked in their yard, the Kirsh- on the significance of the location of a Youghiogheny-phase site,” and it ners found bits of pottery, stone flakes, villages in upland areas. Some argue was likely occupied sometime during and other artifacts. Their interest in that such locations were chosen for the end of the 15th century. archaeology grew and they joined defense, others for horticulture. The Youghiogheny phase began the Westmoreland Archaeological While the Monongahela engaged in in approximately A.D. 1450 and Society. The Kirshners then realized hunting and gathering, they were coincides with the appearance of they might have important archaeo- the first large-scale horticulturalists vessels that resemble contemporary logical resources on their land. With in Pennsylvania, focusing on maize, Iroquoian pots. Throughout this the help of Jay Babich, William beans, and squash. phase, villages were typically stock- Johnson, and other professional and Archaeologists have divided the aded and had a surrounding trench, avocational archaeologists, the Kirsh- Monongahela culture into several although it is not known whether ners excavated a portion of their periods and phases. In the 1990s, the trenches were intended to be 48 summer • 2007 NEW POINT-3

acquisition defensive or were merely the result of hallmarks of a Youghiogheny-phase excavating dirt to stabilize the stock- village, it seems to lack two others: a ade. Inside the villages, there were charnel house (a structure in which usually one or two rings of houses the dead were sometimes buried) and Conservancy that surround a large open plaza a flower-petal house (a petal-shaped area. Two rings of houses have been structure that apparently served as a Plan of Action identified at Kirshner, although the council house). However, as Johnson SITE: Kirshner inner one seems to date to an earlier notes, “we only excavated a small CULTURE AND TIME PERIOD: phase known as Campbell Farm. portion of the village.” Middle Monongahela Youghiogheny-phase houses had Last spring, Johnson informed (A.D. 1250–1580) low walls of wattle and daub that the Conservancy that the Kirshner STATUS: Threatened by residential sloped outward and pitched roofs site might be going up for sale. The development with overhanging eaves. The houses Conservancy contacted Natale Kirshner ACQUISITION: The Conservancy were often associated with pear- and her daughter, Suzanne Farich, is purchasing the site as a bargain- shaped storage pits, and there were and they agreed to sell it at a bargain- sale-to-charity and needs $15,000 usually other storage pits scattered sale-to-charity price. Thanks to their to cover the purchase price, closing costs, and management expenses. throughout the residential portion of desire to preserve an important piece HOW YOU CAN HELP: Please send the villages. The large number of pits of the past, future researchers may contributions to The Archaeological suggests that people may have been be able to use the site to discover Conservancy, Attn: Kirshner Site caching food and supplies because of important new information about Project, 5301 Central Ave. NE, Suite a less predictable growing season. the Monongahela. 902, Albuquerque, NM 81708-1517. While the Kirshner site has several —Terry McQuown

POINT Acquisitions

«

Kirshner

The Protect Our Irreplaceable National (POINT) program was designed to save significant sites that are in immediate danger of destruction. american archaeology 49 CONSERVANCYFieldNotes JESSICA CRAWFORD

A Mississippi Forestry Commission employee ignites brush on the . The man is riding an ATV with a torch mounted on the rear. The controlled burn reduced the possibility of an uncontrolled fire and made it much easier to do fieldwork.

A Controlled Burn on a day when the wind pushed the ATV. Any animals on the property At Jaketown fire through the site and kept smoke had ample time to escape. Within from the nearby highway. The Con- about four hours the entire site had SOUTHEAST—The Conservancy servancy then planted native grasses been burned and portions that had recently did a controlled burn to and wildflowers along the front of been covered by brush for years were clear the 70-acre Jaketown site in the highway. The burning and new exposed. According to Steve Burgess central Mississippi of thick brush. plantings will make the site much of the Forestry Commission, a con- The burn was part of the Conser- more conducive to fieldwork which is trolled burn can protect an area from vancy’s site management plan. The scheduled to take place this summer. future fire and reduce disease and Mississippi Forestry Commission The fire was started using an insects. It can also prepare a seed bed carefully planned the burn before the accelerant and a backfire torch that for future planting and improve the emergence of new spring growth and was mounted on the back of an habitat for many wildlife species and 50 summer • 2007 native vegetation. “Fire is not always a bad thing,” he said. “In many cases, it’s nature’s best tools for encouraging and maintaining native habitats.”

Apple Street Preserve Expands SOUTHEAST—The Conservancy recently added another lot to its Apple Street preserve on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. Apple Street is a village that dates from approximately 1200 to 100 B.C. The soil is dark black and rich in organic material as a result of Native American habitations thousands of years ago. The site is known for the ornaments that have JESSICA CRAWFORD been discovered there, such as beads and pendants made from exotic This picture shows a portion of the Apple Street site before it was hit by Hurricane Katrina. stone found in northern Alabama and Georgia. It is likely these artifacts The Conservancy Expands railroad tracks, but investigations by were traded, eventually making their East Saint Louis Preserve John Kelly of Washington University way to the coast. have revealed surprisingly intact Although it is located only a MIDWEST—The Conservancy pur- archaeological deposits beneath the mile from the Mississippi Gulf, the chased an additional eight residential surface. site emerged from Hurricane Katrina lots to expand its East Saint Louis Excavations done in advance of intact. Apple Street is in a residential Mound Group. Six of the lots are highway expansion and the con- subdivision that was never com- contiguous and the other two lots struction of a light rail line produced pleted. As a result, the six lots on abut the Conservancy’s existing further evidence of the site’s preser- which the site is located became cov- property. vation. A light rail line that passes ered with the lush tropical vegeta- When first recorded in 1811 by through the site is surrounded by tion. This growth not only protected Henry Breckinridge, the East Saint wide swaths of green-space. The the site from the looting that Louis Mound Group consisted of Conservancy is purchasing lots in occurred when the subdivision lots about 45 mounds extending in an the vicinity of the green-space and were originally mapped several years arc along the east bank of the Missis- consolidating them into the pre- ago, but it also saved it from being sippi River. Interstate highways, rail- serve. The task is challenging, for washed away by Katrina’s tidal surge. road tracks, and the homes of one of even though the cost of individual The Conservancy now owns two of America’s hardest hit rust-belt cities lots is often modest, the number of the six lots and hopes to acquire the dominate the area now. A single lots needed is large, and the grounds other four soon. mound remains preserved between require maintenance. american archaeology 51 Reviews

Olmec Archaeology and Early Mesoamerica By Christopher A. Pool (Cambridge University Press, 2007; 354 pgs., illus; $30 paper, $75 cloth; www.cambridge.org)

In about 1400 B.C., an advanced and distinc- tive culture emerged in southern Mexico, probably in the lowland forests of the Gulf Coast. The Aztecs, who appeared 2,800 years later and are considered their cultural ancestors, called them the Olmecas, and we know them today as the Olmec. They are celebrated for their Historical Archaeology: Why the Past Matters early achievements in art, writing, and political organization, and By Barbara J. Little are often called the Mother Culture of Mesoamerica that bred the (Left Coast Press, 2007; 208 pgs.; $59 cloth, Teotihucános, Maya, Aztecs, and others. $23 paper; www.lcoastpress.com) University of Kentucky archaeologist Christopher Pool has produced the most thorough and up-to-date study of this fasci- Of rather recent vintage in the United States, nating culture, offering a fair and thoughtful evaluation of the historical archaeology is a rapidly growing major controversies in Olmec studies and a history of the field discipline that has achieved some spectacular itself. Rejecting the Mother Culture hypothesis as too simplistic, successes. Historical archaeologists study Pool nonetheless credits the Olmecs with crafting an “ideology of documents, but they also study material rulership” that supported Maya kings 2,000 years later. culture, which often leads to alternative The first major question Pool poses is “What is ‘Olmec?’” questions and interpretations. Historical First used to describe an art style that includes the familiar colos- archaeology seeks to provide information and sal heads as well as small, strange jade figures, in some circles it insights that neither of its parent disciplines came to represent an all-inclusive cultural identity. Pool argues for can provide by themselves. a more narrow definition that restricts the Olmec people to the Well-known archaeologist Barbara Little Gulf Coast, centered at the four main polities of San Lorenzo, has written a primer for this emerging field. In it Tres Zapotes, Laguna de los Cerros, and La Venta. Here the she covers the key questions posed by Olmecs were the first to form highly differentiated, hierarchical historical archaeology and the ethical and societies. They created Mesoamerica’s first monumental art, and political concerns they raise. Little imparts case mastered the difficult techniques of sculpture in the round. They studies of important projects like Jamestown, built extensive trade networks to gather the exotic materials they Virginia; Mission San Luis, Florida; and the needed for this art, and through these networks they spread the Garbage Project to illustrate her points. Olmec style some 600 miles. Historical Archaeology is a fine Pool concludes that this was not the work of a unitary state, introduction to the field of study that relates but one that featured competition and cooperation among local to public education, issues of justice, and our leaders. Poole’s book highlights the variation in Olmec art, econ- understanding of the past. omy, society, polity, ideology, and regional interaction.

52 summer • 2007 Reviews

Ancient Objects Looting : and Sacred Realms An American Edited by F. Kent Reilly King Tut’s Tomb and James E. Garber By David La Vere (University of Texas Press, (University of 2007; 320 pgs., illus.; Oklahoma Press, $50 cloth; 2007; 255 pgs., illus.; www.utexaspress.com) $25 paper; www.oupress.com) For more than 60 years scholars have tried to Spiro Mounds, on make sense of the the pre-Columbian artis- in eastern Oklahoma, was tic tradition of the one of the most impressive Mississippian mound Southeastern United complexes in the nation. At least 11 mounds surround States popularly known as the a great plaza that supported a large population in “Southern Cult.” During the 1990s, Kent Reilly A.D. 1200. organized a series of workshops seeking a breakthrough. Between 1933 and 1941, Spiro Mounds was all but Participants included archaeologists, folklorists, art historians, destroyed—first by a group of organized looters, and then anthropologists, and native religious practitioners. This by a government work program. Looting Spiro Mounds volume is the result, and according to archaeologist Vincus tells the story of this destruction and how it influenced Steponaitis’ foreword, it is the breakthrough Reilly sought. archaeological policy in America for years to come. To The Southern Cult flourished from A.D. 900 to 1600 many preservationists, the looting of Spiro Mounds is one and consists of the artifacts, symbols, motifs, and architec- of the greatest tragedies of the American archaeological tural groups for the ritual activities practiced by numerous experience. In 1933 six men organized as the Pocola ethnic groups in the region, including the Woodland and Mining Company leased the looting rights to a large part Mississippian cultures from the great centers at Moundville, of the site for $300. By 1935, they were finding and Alabama; Spiro, Oklahoma; Cahokia, Illinois; and hundreds removing vast quantities of some of the most spectacular of smaller sites. This volume brings together 10 essays by artifacts ever discovered in North America, which were leading archaeologists, anthropologists, and art historians, sold around the world. In a front-page story, the Kansas who analyze the iconography of Southern Cult art to recon- City Star compared Spiro Mounds to King Tut’s tomb. struct its cosmological vision and ideology. Created from In 1936, the Works Progress Administration (WPA) copper, shell, stone, clay, and wood, these sacred objects are began large-scale excavations of Spiro with up to 70 carved or incised with a complex set of symbols and motifs. unskilled laborers at a time. The WPA competed with The ceremonial communities were dominated by earthen Pocola Mining for leases, and many of the artifacts mounds and plazas arranged with geometric precision. recovered during the WPA project were stolen by the The scholars draw heavily on ethnographic materials workers and looters. from modern descendents, tribes that were mainly relocated Today, Spiro Mounds has been reconstructed as a to Oklahoma in the 19th century, to help them unravel the state park, but the artifacts are scattered far and wide meaning of the ancient iconography. Other clues go back to and often appear on Ebay. Most of the information about the Hopewell culture, which was centered in southern Ohio the people who lived there is lost forever. University of around A.D.1.Ancient Objects and Sacred Realms is a won- North Carolina, Greenville, historian David La Vere has derful piece of detective work that offers a rational solution produced a riveting account of one of the sorriest to a long-standing and difficult problem. —Mark Michel episodes in the history of American archaeology. american archaeology 53 THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONSERVANCY

Peoples of the Mississippi Valley When: October 13–20, 2007 Where: Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi How Much: $1,495 ($250 single supplement) Beginning in Memphis and following the Missis- sippi River south to Natchez, our week-long journey covers more than 5,000 years of history ranging from ancient earthen mounds to Civil War battle- fields. The trip offers an exciting opportunity to learn more about the rich and complex mound- builder cultures that flourished along the Mississippi

River Valley until the arrival of the Europeans. ALAN GRUBER While taking in the charms of the Old South, Mound A at Winterville, in Mississippi, is the fifth-largest mound in North America. we’ll visit important sites, including Emerald Mound, the third-largest Mississippian mound in Several of the Conservancy’s preserves, such as the United States. We’ll also visit sites from histori- Mounds, which may be the oldest mound site in North America, cal times, including the Grand Village of the are also featured on the tour. Natchez and the Civil War battlefield at Vicksburg. Master Potters of the Southern Deserts When: October 12–22, 2007 Where: Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico How Much: $2,295 ($350 single supplement)

Join us for a magical journey through time study- ing some of the world’s most beautiful pottery crafted by people from the , Mimbres, and Casas Grandes regions, and replicated by mod- ern masters today. The trip includes Hohokam ruins and pottery from the Phoenix and Tucson areas, Spanish missions and presidios, and a behind-the-scenes look at the Arizona State Museum. You’ll also see New Mexico’s Gila Cliff Dwellings, extensive collections of Mimbres pot- LORNA WOLF This stunning example of Casas Grandes–style pottery came from the village tery, northern Mexico’s Casas Grandes, and the of Mata Ortiz in northern Mexico. potters of Mata Ortiz. Archaeological experts will join us throughout the trip. 54 summer • 2007 UPCOMING TOUR JANUARY 2008 Maya of Palenque and the Yucatán From A.D. 300 to 1200, the Maya flourished in the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. Our tour will visit some of the most spectacular of their splendid cities that still tower over the rainforest and testify to the VICKI MARIE SINGER sophistication of the people who built them. Chichén Itzá, in southern Mexico, was occupied until the 13th century.

The Archaeological Conservancy BOOKS charitable gift annuity can: • Increase your financial security by receiving guaranteed fixed payments for your lifetime. • $10,000 minimum donation. • Reduce your tax burden with savings Coyote Press on capital gains and income taxes. P.O. Box 3377 • Help protect America’s cultural heritage. Salinas, CA 93912 Protect To receive more information and our Specializing in Archaeology, Rock brochure, mail information requests to: Art, Prehistory, Ethnography, archaeological sites The Archaeological Conservancy while increasing Attn: Planned Giving Linguistics, Native American Studies 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902 and anything closely related. your income Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517 We stock thousands of new books and reprints, used and rare books, Yes, I’m interested in making a planned-giving donation to and the back issues of many journals. Current Annuity The Archaeological Conservancy and saving money on my taxes. Browse or shop online at our newly Payout Rates Please send more information on: redesigned e-commerce website: Age Rates J Gifts of Stock J Bequests J Charitable Gift Annuities 65 6.0% Name:______WWW.COYOTEPRESS.COM 75 7.1% Street Address: ______E-mail: [email protected] 80 8.0% City: ______State: _____ Zip: ______85 9.5% Phone: (______) ______Proud sponsors of: www.californiaprehistory.com

american archaeology 55 Patrons of Preservation

The Archaeological Conservancy would like to thank the following individuals, foundations, and corporations for their generous support during the period of February through April 2007. Their generosity, along with the generosity of the Conservancy’s other members, makes our work possible.

Life Member Gifts of $1,000 or more Rosamond L. Stanton, Montana Paula Atkeson, Washington D.C. Barbara A. Watkins, Nevada Jim and Jeanne Bonk, California Gordon and Judy Wilson, New Mexico William W. Brydon, Mississippi Evelyn T. Wolfson, Massachusetts Robert and Donna Hughes, North Carolina Karin and Myron Yanoff, Pennsylvania Derwood K. Koenig, Indiana Joseph Kotzin, California Foundation/Corporate Gifts James and Renee Mitchell, Michigan The Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, Florida Douglas L. Peterson, New York The Clannad Foundation, Michigan Ronald J. Pierce, Pennsylvania The Ruth and Robert Satter Charitable Trust, Melvin and Giulia Simpson, New York Connecticut Sidney Stern Memorial Trust, Connecticut Anasazi Circle Gifts of $2,000 or more William G. and Marie Selby Foundation, Florida Anonymous Benchmark/Cedar Grove, LLC, Georgia Rosemary Armbruster, Missouri Carol M. Baker, Texas Bequests Betty Banks, Washington Mary Elizabeth Burton, Maryland Carol Demcak, California Marjorie Lambert, New Mexico Jerry Golden, Colorado David and Sue Knop, California Cynthia R. Rink, Washington TO MAKE A DONATION OR Joy Robinson, California BECOME A MEMBER CONTACT: Joe Schepps, New Mexico The Archaeological Conservancy, Harlan Scott, Delaware 5301 Central Avenue NE, Suite 902, Albuquerque, NM 87108 Elizabeth M. Shea, Massachusetts (505) 266-1540, www.americanarchaeology.org Ian and Talmadge Silversides, North Carolina

Gifts of Distinction

The Anasazi Circle is an elite group of members is lost forever. The Conservancy uses donated who contribute $2,000 or more annually to funds to act quickly and protect a site to The Archaeological Conservancy’s ongoing prevent significant information from being efforts to permanently preserve America’s cultural destroyed. treasures. Since its inception in 1993, partici- Benefits of Anasazi Circle membership pation in the Anasazi Circle has increased by include discounts on tours, recognition in over 267 percent. American Archaeology, a leading archaeology Anasazi Circle member support is essential magazine, and an invitation to an exclusive to the Conservancy’s ability to continually seminar weekend. This year’s Anasazi Circle expand its archaeological preservation goals. It Weekend will explore the archaeology of is crucial to preserve information regarding our North Dakota in September. By sending in nation’s past so we can better understand it. your donation of $2,000 or more today, you Cultural evidence is often destroyed before can ensure your invitation to the Conser- proper analysis can be done and the knowledge vancy’s 2007 Anasazi Circle.

56 summer • 2007 PUBLIC ARCHAEOLOGY SCHOOL IN SEARCH OF the Lost Colony Sponsored by the Lost Colony Center, Holiday Inn of Williamston and Falcon Motel in Hatteras, NC

ca 1585

ca 1583

• Public archaeology classes: be part of the team excavating the Croatan Indian Site. • Overnight field experiences with the archaeologists aboard our research vessel. • Classes in archaeological methods at Jamestown, Virginia and Roanoke Island and VIP presentations at Jamestown Fort and Roanoke Island (includes Lost Colony play). Prices start at $135 including room, dinner and continental breakfast, 4 people per room. Upgraded accommodation packages available. Leave message for reservations 252-792-3440 or email: [email protected] MAKE YOUR MARK IN TIME. Some Conservancy members think the only way to help save archaeological sites is through membership dues. While dues are a constant lifeline, there are many ways you can support the Conservancy’s work, both today and well into the future. And by OTTENS PUEBLO ON supporting the Conservancy, you SUGARLOAF MOUNTAIN not only safeguard our past for your children and grandchildren, A Conservancy preserve since 1991 you also may save some money.

PLACE STOCK IN THE CONSERVANCY. Evaluate your investments. Some members choose to make a difference by donating stock. Such gifts offer a charitable deduction for the full value instead of paying capital gains tax.

GIVE A CHARITABLE GIFT ANNUITY. Depending on your circumstances, you may be able to make a gift of cash and securities today that lets you receive extensive tax benefits as well as an income for as long as you live.

LEAVE A LASTING LEGACY. Rooms with a view 600 years ago. Many people consider protecting our cultural heritage by remem- bering the Conservancy in their Part of our cultural heritage today. will. While providing us with a dependable source of income, bequests may qualify you for an estate tax deduction.

Whatever kind of gift you give, you can be sure we’ll use it to preserve places like Sugarloaf

CKA Pueblo and our other 345 sites across the United States. JERRY JA

Yes, I’m interested in making a planned-giving donation to The Archaeological Mail information requests to: Conservancy and saving money on my taxes. Please send more information on: The Archaeological Conservancy Attn: Planned Giving J Gifts of stock J Bequest J Charitable gift annuities 5301 Central Avenue NE Name: Suite 902 Street Address: Albuquerque, NM 87108-1517 City: State: Zip: Or call: (505) 266-1540 Phone: ( ) -