Cultural Inventory for Hillsdale Lake, Kansas 5 Volume I
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C -I 3 ' CULTURAL INVENTORY FOR HILLSDALE LAKE, KANSAS 5 VOLUME I By: Dr. Arthur H. Rohn and Craig F. Woodman Final Report to United States Corps of Engineers, Kansas City District for work done under Contract No. DACWU1-76-M-078Ì4 and No. DACWhl-?5-C-Ol68 Archaeology Laboratory ^Department of Anthropology I Wichita State Ujaiversity 4 1976, ^ i LIBRARY NOV 2 31977 Bureau of Reclamation' Ponvpr BUREAU (fc'ftfftiAfaMoKI DENVER LIBRARY \ 92082757 0* 92082757 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page VOLUME I Introduction 1 The Survey 2 Tentative Culture History 3 Nebo Hill U Late Archaic U Plains Woodland 6 Pomona 10 Post Pomona 12 Historic Euro-American 12 Sites of Unknown Cultural Affiliation 15 Project Impact 17 Proposed MitigationPlan 19 Table I 2h Table II 26 References 27 Appendix I Site Descriptions 1-1 VOLUME II Maps Appendix I 1975 Testing Results Appendix II Master Map VOLUME III Historical Report 1 Appendix I Assessment Rolls for Tontzville III-I-l Appendix II Abstracts - Lyons (Marysville), Tontzville III-II-l Cultural Inventory for Hillsdale Lake, Kansas By: Arthur H. Rohn and Craig F. Woodman Introduction Current plans call for creation of the Hillsdale Reservoir behind an earthen dam in Northwest Miami County, Kansas, The dam will back up water along Bull Creek and Little Bull Creek covering approximately 7,It00 acres with a total project area of more than 12,000 acres. Bull Creek flows southeastward into the Marais des Cygnes River, The project area lies within the Osage Plains sub-area of the Central Plains physiographic province. The Osage Plains section is characterized by gently dipping strata of low relief and northeast-southwest trending escarpments. Underlying rocks of Pennsylvanian and Permian age include alternating beds of limestone, shale, and sandstone. The major rivers are entrenched and drain from northwest to southeast. Major topographical features of Miami County are the Marais des Cygnes River valley, its tributaries including Bull Creek, and the Upland Plains created by erosion of underlying sedimentary rock beds. The climate is subhumid to humid with moderate preci pitation and hot summers suitable for agricultural pursuits. While Bull and Little Bull Creeks flow most of the year, during dry seasons water supply is restricted to deep holes. Numerous plants and animals in the area provide a long list of 1. 2. potential food resources. Nuts, berries, leaves, shoots, and fruits are plentiful along with small mammals, reptiles, and shell fish within the stream bottom environments. Archaeological work in the Hillsdale Lake District began in 1965 when Wilfred Rusted of the Smithsonian River Basin Survey identified 33 sites through ground survey. Husted's records and survey collections have been loaned to Wichita State University by the Smithsonian Institution for one year. During 1968 and 1969, University of Kansas archaeologists conducted limited excavations at several sites and surveyed an additional 19 sites (Carrillo 1969). One site each of Pomona/ Central Plains and Plains Woodland affiliation were excavated (Carrillo 1973j Art* jet _al 1975)» end five other sites were tested. Wichita State University began work at Hillsdale in 1972, Through contracts with the National Park Service, we have excavated one Pomona/Central Plains house site, tested two others, and con tinued site surveying. In 197h, further excavations were conducted at the same Plains Woodland site earlier dug by the University of Kansas crews. This last investigation is described below. The Survey Our survey of both pre-historic and historic sites was designed to cover all of the topographic situations within the total project area. The valley floors of Bull and Little Bull Creeks are exten sively cultivated and cultural debris could be readily observed. 3. Dense woods along the streams themselves and thick grass cover on hills and bluff tops obscured the ground at these topographic units and reduced chances for identifying sites. All sites recorded by previous investigations were revisited, often more than once, and additional surface collections made. Site numbers were assigned to every discrete locus of cultural debris to pro vide relatively small units for distributional analyses. Several large site areas have been subdivided into separate loci designa ted with capital letters. The historic survey encompassed on-site inspections, interviews, and research in county and state archives. This intensive inventory has recorded 118 separately numbered sites, several of which represent two or more distinct loci. At least 70 identifiable cultural components have been recognized. As per agreement with the contracting officer, 8 of the 10 sites specified in Contract No. DACWhl-76-N-078U were extensively tested. The results of the tests at these sites are given in the Site Descriptions. (See Volume I, Appendix I) Tentative Culture History The following cultural complexes may be tentatively described from work already accomplished in the Hillsdale Archaeological District. Since most of our data come from remains visible on the ground surface, the descriptions are tenuous at this time. Interpretations have been drawn from known materials in eastern Kansas, the Osage River drainage, and the Kansas City region. a. Nebo Hill The oldest recognized cultural complex is marked by the presence of Nebo Hill points (Shippee 19b8$ 196b). At Hillsdale, Nebo Hill points (figure 1) have been recovered from five separate sites. One occurred in an undisturbed cultural deposit approxi mately % meter below ground surface at site lbMM27* Local collect ors have picked up numerous points from sites lbMM2 and lbMM21. We collected two from the surface of liiMM12B. A former farmer at Hillsdale found Nebo Hill points at site liiMMl by plowing down a terrace edge to reach deeper soils. Both this site and 1LMM27 probably contain undisturbed deposits of this cultural complex. All the other surface finds may or may not represent undisturbed deposits, especially since lbMM21 and lbMM2 have suffered consi derable damage from past flooding. Shippee (196b) describes Nebo Hill sites from hilltops and other high ground situations. All of our known occurrences in Hillsdale are in valley bottoms where they may have been covered by stream alluviation. This setting alone argues for a somewhat different ecological adaptation than that presently described. From similarities with other lanceolate points and the apparent associations of grooved ax heads and grinding stones (Shippee 19b8 196b), the age of the Nebo Hill Complex would seem to be Middle Archaic (ca. 5000-3000 B.C.). Late Archaic Existence of Late Archaic sites throughout eastern Kansas is figure 1 NERO HILL POINTS 6. marked by large stemmed and side-notched dart points. At Hills dale, we have identified side-notched point styles like Ensor and Ellis. Stemmed points include Table Rock, Edgewood, Gary, Langtry, and several other unnamed types with contracting stems. It is possible that some corner-notched styles with concave bases also belong to the Late Archaic. The presence of these points (figures 2, 3, U) from surface collections combined with the absence of pottery argues for the existence of Late Archaic components at at least 13 sites. Many of these points have appeared in surface collections from sites containing later occupational components. Several sites appear to have been damaged by flooding. Like the Nebo Hill Complex, these components may lie buried by alluvial deposits and later occupations. It is also possible that many of the sites of inde terminate cultural affiliation belong to this state since they produced no pottery. Presumably this stage dates from around 3000-200 B. C. Plains Woodland Large corner-notched or well made stemmed dart points to gether with thick grit-tempered pottery and ground stone celts mark the Plains Woodland occupation at Hillsdale. The lower component at site 1LMM26 (Artz et al 1975) exemplifies this cul tural complex. Even though Artz et al consider this site part of the Kansas City Hopewell, most of the distinctively Hopewellian characteristics are missing (Wedel 19ii3). Consequently, it may figure 2 LATE ARCHAIC POINTS figure 3 LATE ARCHAIC POINTS figure U figure U TOP LEFT: PLAINS WOODLAND POINTS BOTTOM & RIGHT ROW: LATE ARCHAIC 10. be more appropriate to simply label these kinds of manifestations as Plains Woodland. Plains Woodland materials have been recovered from 27 Hills dale sites. Many of these tend to cluster and may represent dif fuse settlements. While some of the cultural deposits obviously occur on or near the surface, others clearly occur below plow zone depths. In fact, it is even possible that as yet undiscovered components underlie later Pomona occupations. Plains Woodland occupation probably covers the range from about 200 B.C. to A.D. 800 (figure 5). Pomona By far, the most extensive occupation of Hillsdale was by people practicing a culture labeled Pomona (Witty 196?). Pomona sites are clearly marked by the presence of distinctive cord- marked pottery with small arrow points. In ceramics at least, Pomona closely resembles the Smoky Hill Aspect of the Central Plains Tradition (Wedel 1959)« Baked daub often occurs in surface collections from these sites. They are most often situated on low terraces in the flood plain and they tend to cluster around natural water holes in the stream channels. About 1/3 of the 5U recognized Pomona components probably represent house sites of one or two structures. The remainder seem to be simply specialized activity areas associated with the house sites. Any given cluster of Pomona sites may contain J or h probable house sites and 2 to 3 times as many of the specialized activity areas. This apparently figure 5 PLAINS WOODLAND POINTS 12. represents a diffuse settlement pattern closely attuned to exploitation of nearby environmental resources (figures 6, 7)» Post Pomona Two sites on Little Bull Creek yielded pottery with smooth surfaces and shell or sand temper. A small Fresno point was also found at one of these sites.