University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2016 The rP ehistoric Economics of the Kautz Site: a Late Archaic and Woodland Site in Northeastern Illinois Peter John Geraci University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, and the Economics Commons Recommended Citation Geraci, Peter John, "The rP ehistoric Economics of the Kautz Site: a Late Archaic and Woodland Site in Northeastern Illinois" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 1141. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1141 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE PREHISTORIC ECONOMICS OF THE KAUTZ SITE: A LATE ARCHAIC AND WOODLAND SITE IN NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS by Peter J. Geraci A Thesis Submitted In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Degree of Masters of Science in Anthropology at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2016 ABSTRACT THE PREHISTORIC ECONOMICS OF THE KAUTZ SITE: A LATE ARCHAIC AND WOODLAND SITE IN NORTHEASTERN ILLINOIS by Peter J. Geraci The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2016 Under The Supervision of Robert J. Jeske, Ph.D. The Kautz Site (11DU1) is a multi-component archaeological site located in the DuPage River Valley in northeastern Illinois. It was inhabited at least six different times between the Late Archaic and Late Woodland periods ca. 6000-1000 B.P. The site was excavated over the course of three field seasons between 1958 and 1961, but the results were never made public. This thesis seeks to document the archaeology of the Kautz Site in order to better understand the site’s economic history. An environmental catchment analysis was conducted to evaluate the level of time and energy needed to acquire important resources like water, food, wood, and chert. A macroscopic analysis of the lithic assemblage provided information about the lithic economy at the site. The results of the landscape analysis suggest that the site was located in an economically efficient location, however the macroscopic analysis suggests that a source of raw materials for chipped stone tools was not easily accessible and as a result the inhabitants practiced a number of common adaptive strategies to cope with resource scarcity. ii © Copyright by Peter J. Geraci, 2016 All Rights Reserved iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ………………………………………………………………………….. v List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………… vii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………….. viii Chapter One: Introduction…………………………………………………………….... 1 Chapter Two: Historical Background ………………………………………………….. 14 History of Archaeological Research in northeastern Illinois…………………... 14 Prehistory of northeastern Illinois…………………………………………….... 24 Chapter Three: The Kautz Site…………………………………………………………. 39 Physical Setting………………………………………………………………… 39 Circumstances of Discovery…………………………………………................. 44 Site Location……………………………………………………………………. 45 Excavation and Documentation Methods………………………………………. 49 Material Culture………………………………………………………………… 51 Chapter Four: Landscape Analysis……………………………………………………... 57 Problem…………………………………………………………………………. 57 Methodology……………………………………………………………………. 59 Methods and Data…………………….…………………………………………. 61 Results………………………………………………………………………….. 74 Discussion…………………..………………………………………………….. 128 Chapter Five: Lithic Analysis…………………………………………………………... 133 Expectations…...................................................................................................... 133 Methods………………………………………...……………………………….. 135 The Kautz Site Lithic Assemblage……………………………………………… 144 Results of the Formal Analysis………...……………………………………….. 149 Evidence for Economizing Strategies over time ……………………………….. 165 Discussion….………………………………………………………………….... 193 iv Chapter Six: Conclusion………………………………………………………………... 197 References Cited………………………………………………………………………... 204 Appendix A: Faunal Assemblage by Megan Leigl…………………………………….. 237 Appendix B: Lithic Documentation and Schema………………………………………. 265 Appendix C: Debitage Analysis Raw Data….………………………………… Supplemental Appendix D: Chipped Stone Tool Analysis Raw Data………………………... Supplemental Appendix E: Ceramic Analysis Raw Data…………………………………….. Supplemental Appendix F: Rough Rock Analysis Raw Data………………………………… Supplemental Appendix G: Detailed Artifact Distribution Map……………………………… Supplemental v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Satellite imagery of northeastern Illinois 2 Figure 2: The original Illinois Archaeological Survey form for the Kautz site (11DU1) 5 Figure 3: Location of the Kautz Site 6 Figure 4: Pre-settlement vegetation in northeastern Illinois 8 Figure 5: Excerpts from Chicago Daily Tribune Article, September 6th, 1877 15 Figure 6: Ferson mounds map on an 1872 plat map overlaid on LiDAR imagery 16 Figure 7: Fisher Mound plan map (adapted from Langford 1927) 18 Figure 8: Bar graph displaying recorded sites by decade 21 Figure 9: Surveyed areas in DuPage County (Dec. 2015) 22 Figure 10: Paleoindian and Archaic Sites in northeastern Illinois 25 Figure 11: Woodland sites in northeastern Illinois 31 Figure 12: Mortuary sites in Illinois 34 Figure 13: Frequently cited late prehistoric sites in northeastern Illinois 38 Figure 14: Northeastern Illinois drainages and physiographic regions 40 Figure 15: LiDAR imagery of the West Branch of the DuPage River near the Kautz Site 42 Figure 16: The Kautz Site in relation to the Prairie Peninsula 43 Figure 17: 1937 aerial photograph of the Kautz site and its proposed boundaries 46 Figure 18: 1961 aerial photograph of the Kautz Site and its proposed boundaries 48 Figure 19: Plan map of Excavation Unit I 50 Figure 20: Sample of the chipped stone tool and ceramic assemblage 51 Figure 21: Ceramic rim sherds 54 Figure 22: Decorated body sherds 55 Figure 23: The physiographic regions and contemporaneous sites in northeastern Illinois 75 Figure 24: Important archaeological sites in North and Central America 76 Figure 25: Important Havana and Hopewell Sites in North America 77 Figure 26: The DuPage River drainage and landscape 79 vi Figure 27: The pre-settlement vegetation in northeastern Illinois 82 Figure 28: Bar graph displaying number of prehistoric components within NE Illinois 84 Figure 29: Distribution of INHS forest boundary and forest Soils in northeastern Illinois 88 Figure 30: Map of chert sources in northeastern Illinois 90 Figure 31: Sample of Joliet Silurian chert collected from Dellwood Canyon, Will Co. IL 91 Figure 32: Joliet Silurian chert within Dolomite Matrix in Dellwood Canyon, Will Co. IL 91 Figure 33: Platteville-Galena Cherts (adapted from Stelle and Duggan 2003) 92 Figure 34: Platteville-Galena outcropping in Black Rock Run, LaSalle County, IL 93 Figure 35: Oneota chert occurring in boulder form in Pecumsaugan Creek, LaSalle Co. IL 94 Figure 36: Distribution of pre-settlement vegetation within 10-km catchment (INHS data) 95 Figure 37: Witness trees within the 10-km catchment 97 Figure 38: Pre-settlement vegetation and tree density within the 10-km catchment 99 Figure 39: Ecotone location and diversity rank within the 10, 5, and 1-km catchments 101 Figure 40: Ecotone diversity with corresponding vegetation communities 102 Figure 41: Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the 10-km catchment 103 Figure 42: Potential primary chert sources near the 10-km catchment 106 Figure 43: Culturally affiliated sites within the 10-km catchment 108 Figure 44: Culturally affiliated sites within forest and prairie soils in the 10-km catchment 110 Figure 45: 1830s land trail map of DuPage County (Thompson 1985) 111 Figure 46: Albert Scharf (1901) map covering areas of the 10-km catchment area 112 Figure 47: Pre-settlement vegetation within the 5-km catchment (Bowles et al. 1998) 114 Figure 48: Culturally affiliated sites within the 5-km catchment 116 Figure 49: Dimensions and profiles of the Winfield Mounds 117 Figure 50: Sample of artifacts recovered from the Hoglund excavations in 1978 119 Figure 51: LiDAR imagery showing the location of the three Winfield mounds 120 Figure 52: Updated sketch map of Winfield Mounds (Adapted from Neumann 1931) 121 Figure 53: Sketch map of mound site 11K402 (Adapted from Evans and Harris 1998) 122 Figure 54: Pre-settlement vegetation within the 1-km catchment (INHS) 124 vii Figure 55: Pre-settlement vegetation within the 1-km catchment (Bowles et al. 1998) 125 Figure 56: Digital Elevation Model of the 1-km catchment area 127 Figure 57: Horizontal distribution of debitage count and weight in Unit I 146 Figure 58: Horizontal distribution of tool count and weight in Unit I 147 Figure 59: Flake to tool ratio in Unit I 148 Figure 60: Non-hafted bifaces 163 Figure 61: Horizontal distribution map of diagnostic tools 167 Figure 62: Late Archaic Table Rock and Durst cluster bifaces 169 Figure 63: Late Archaic Merom cluster bifaces 173 Figure 64: Early Woodland Motley and Contracting-stem bifaces 175 Figure 65: Middle Woodland bifaces 179 Figure 66: Bladelets and blade-like flakes 183 Figure 67: Lowe cluster bifaces 187 Figure 68: Raccoon Notched and Madison Triangular points 189 Figure 69: Metrics from other Raccoon Notched points in the Midwest 190 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Number of Archaic sites in NE Illinois by landform 26 Table 2: Ceramic total count and weights by unit and level 53 Table 3: Distribution of vegetation by catchment area (INHS