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2011 – Freedom’s Frontier in the Flint Hills Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal (Laurie J. Hamilton, Editor)

The Claussen Archaeological Site: Prehistory Of The Flint Hills

Rolfe Mandel

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Recommended Citation Mandel, Rolfe (2011). "The Claussen Archaeological Site: Prehistory Of The Flint Hills," Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal. https://newprairiepress.org/sfh/2011/nature/9

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This is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences at New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in Symphony in the Flint Hills Field Journal by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Claussen Archaeological Site: Prehistory Of The Flint Hills On a warm afternoon in May 2000, I was walking along Mill Creek in Wabaunsee County inspecting soils and sediment exposed in a steep stream bank that stands about thirty feet above the creek. It is a common routine for me. Most of my research involves reconstructing the geology, paleoecology, and archaeology of stream valleys, so I look for places where creeks and rivers have cut into their own deposits. These

cutbanks are my “windows” into the past.

The stream bank along Mill Creek was Streams frequently deposit sediment on one of those windows. When I looked their floodplains, so it’s not unusual to down the steep face at the southern end find the remains from prehistoric people of the exposure, I noticed mussel shells, far below the land surface. Given what CLAUSSEN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE MILL CREEK, WABAUNSEE COUNTY pieces of flint, and fire-reddened rocks I know about rates of sedimentation, I Steven Perry sticking out about eight feet below the suspected that the buried archaeological land surface – a buried archaeological site. horizon was approximately 1,000 years

99 old. My estimate wasn’t far off. Charcoal I also saw concentrations of artifacts 3-4 It is the second oldest recorded buried some animal bone. According to Roper, among the buried artifacts later yielded feet below the artifacts that initially caught archaeological site in the Flint Hills and this occupation represents a Middle a radiocarbon age of about 1,225 years my attention. The dark layer containing all among the oldest stratified sites in Kansas. Ceramic-period short-term encampment. before present. This places the occupation the artifacts is a former surface soil, now The most extensive excavations at the During the excavation more than 130 in the Middle Ceramic period, when buried under 25 feet of stream deposits. Claussen site occurred in 2003, when groups of farmers and hunter-gatherers Considering the depth of the artifacts the Kansas Anthropological Association The Claussen site is the inhabited the Flint Hills. and the magnitude of weathering in the and the Kansas State Historical Society second oldest recorded Although my discovery was significant, stream deposits, I knew the shallowest joined forces with the University of buried archaeological what I saw several hundred feet to the archaeological horizon was at least 10,500 Kansas for a two-week dig in the hot site in the Flint Hills and north and at a much greater depth was years old. Again, later radiocarbon dating July sun. Two groups of archaeologists even more exciting. As I cautiously walked confirmed my estimate. Three separate under the direction of Donna Roper among the oldest stratified along the bottom of the 30-foot-high stream archaeological horizons were identified and Virginia Wulfkuhle focused on the sites in Kansas. bank, I spotted mussel shells eroding out in the upper 3 feet of the buried soil: an Ceramic-age cultural deposits at and of a dark layer about 25 feet below a stream upper horizon dating to 10,300 years ago, near the south end of the stream bank, pottery fragments belonging to a single terrace. The terrace is a former floodplain a middle horizon dating to 10,400 years while a third group supervised by KU vessel were found over a small area. left elevated above the valley floor when a ago, and a lower horizon dating to 10,550 archaeologist Jack Hofman concentrated Partial reconstruction of the vessel stream down-cuts, and all of the sediment years before present. Based on these ages, on the deeply buried Late Paleoindian revealed a plug-shaped handle with a exposed in the tall bank was deposited the three cultural horizons represent Late cultural deposits at the north end. I human effigy face. The face is simple: over thousands of years by floodwaters. Paleoindian occupations on a former focused on the soils and stratigraphy of the eyes and mouth are holes that were I crawled up to the mussel shells and floodplain. the site and placed the archaeological made with a small hollow tool, and used a trowel to clean off the face of the This discovery on the bank of Mill record into a geologic context. finger pinches on the soft, pre-heated nearly vertical bank. With each stroke of Creek launched a series of archaeological A large excavation block at the clay formed the nose. the trowel, more mussel shells appeared, and paleoenvironmental investigations southern end of the stream bank The Late Paleoindian horizons along with charcoal, bone fragments, over the next ten years, and the locality exposed a pair of hearths surrounded by dating between 10,300 and 10,550 charred hackberry seeds, burned earth, would gain fame as the Claussen site, dense scatters of chipped stone, pottery, years ago yielded many chipped-stone and a few small pieces of chipped stone. named after landowner Dr. Vern Claussen. and mussel shells, plus several tools and artifacts, all derived from the Permian-

100 101 animal remains recovered here indicate in the North American archaeological that subsistence behaviors soon after record. Initially referred to as “turtleback the Ice Age were very different from the scrapers” because of their shape — flat on bison-focused Native Americans on the the bottom and humpbacked on the top— Plains out west at that time. Dalton adzes probably were hafted like No projectile points or other artifacts that could be assigned to specific cultural ...the earliest people who groups were found in the Paleoindian occupied the Claussen site horizons during the 2003 excavations. AN EFFIGY HUMAN FACE were eating just about every ON THE HANDLE OF A VESSEL UNEARTHED AT THE CLAUSSEN SITE However, inspection of the site in 2005 Kansas State Historical Society animal that came down to resulted in the discovery of a Dalton adze age Florence cherts, or “flint,” common occupied the Claussen site were eating used for smoothing rough-cut wood, plus the creek for a drink... to the Flint Hills. We discovered only just about every animal that came down a complete Dalton projectile point. The a small handful of tools, however. to the creek for a drink, plus waterfowl, adze and projectile point were lying at modern adzes, in which the cutting blade Nearly all of the stone artifacts were land birds, reptiles, mollusks, and the foot of the 30-foot-high stream bank, is perpendicular to the haft or handle. flakes shed during the production or fish. Deer and antelope were the most so their original position in the artifact- Over the past five years, we’ve learned sharpening of tools. Apparently, the common vertebrates, along with birds, bearing buried soil is unknown. The a lot about what the environment looked Paleoindians were careful not leave especially turkey. Fresh-water mussels Dalton period extends from about 12,500 like before, during, and after the periods many tools behind. This seems logical also were a major food source. The to 11,000 years ago, when a culture of of prehistoric human occupation at the given the great effort that goes into Paleoindians gathered live mussels from ancient Native American hunter-gatherers, Claussen site. The paleoenvironmental making them. Also, the remains of a gravel bars, placed them in shallow pits referred to as the Dalton people, made information has been gleaned from fossil variety of animals, including vertebrates with smoldering wood, and covered them a distinctive set of stone tools that are land and aquatic snails, from ancient and invertebrates, were found in the with green vegetation. This slow cooking today found at sites across the middle phytoliths (microscopic silica bodies Late Paleoindian horizons. Although process caused the shells to pop open – a of the United States, especially the left behind by plants) and from the Paleoindians frequently are described as Kansas clam bake. Oddly, the remains of Ozarks. The Dalton adze is the earliest chemistry of organic carbon preserved in big-game hunters, the earliest people who only one bison were found. Hence the known heavy-duty woodworking tool the soils and sediment at the site.

102 103 Here’s what we now know. About Also, upland prairie plants, including wild 12,500 years ago the valley bottom of Mill onion, prairie turnip, hog peanut, funnel Creek was a moist, woodland setting with lily, and Jerusalem artichoke, and a variety one or more springs in the immediate area of bottomland plants, such as hackberry, of the Claussen site. Between 12,500 and wild cucurbit, ragweed, goosefoot, marsh 10,600 years ago the setting became drier elder, and sunflower, were food sources. as spring activity decreased, though trees There’s high-quality Permian chert for were common. But soon after the Late making tools exposed in the valley wall Paleoindians arrived, the climate became several hundred feet from the site. Finally, warmer and drier, trees disappeared, and fresh, clean water was available in the the landscape was transformed into an creek and from at least one local spring. open, dry setting with prairie to brushy The Claussen site was a prehistoric vegetation. Since about 10,000 years ago paradise. And many sites similar to it Mill Creek valley has been dominated by probably are deeply buried in stream prairie vegetation with trees mostly limited valleys throughout the Flint Hills. to the edges of the stream. Finding those sites remains a challenge,

What attracted people to the Claussen but thanks to Claussen, we know what

site over a period of at least 11,000 years? they look like and where they may occur. The answer is now obvious. Game, including deer and turkey, was abundant Rolfe Mandel is the Executive Director of the Odyssey Geoarchaeology Research Program at just as it is today. Mussels thrived in the Kansas Geological Survey and a Professor gravelly sediment on the stream floor in the KU Anthropology Department. He has providing readily available protein and spent much of his career studying post-glacial landscape evolution in the Great Plains, ARTIFACTS DISCOVERED minerals. (Pesticides, herbicides, and and he is an authority on how earth-surface AT THE CLAUSSEN SITE IN 2005 silt-laden runoff from agricultural fields Illustrations by Wade Parsons processes have affected the archaeological have reduced today’s mussel population.) record of the Plains and Midwest.

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