St. Cloud State University theRepository at St. Cloud State Culminating Projects in Cultural Resource Department of Anthropology Management 5-2018 Old Collections, New Insights: Technological Organization of the Lungren Site (13ML224), A Middle Archaic Residential Camp Warren Davis St. Cloud State University Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/crm_etds Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Davis, Warren, "Old Collections, New Insights: Technological Organization of the Lungren Site (13ML224), A Middle Archaic Residential Camp" (2018). Culminating Projects in Cultural Resource Management. 21. https://repository.stcloudstate.edu/crm_etds/21 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Anthropology at theRepository at St. Cloud State. It has been accepted for inclusion in Culminating Projects in Cultural Resource Management by an authorized administrator of theRepository at St. Cloud State. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Old Collections, New Insights: Technological Organization of the Lungren Site (13ML224), A Middle Archaic Residential Camp by Warren David Davis A Thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Faculty of St Cloud State University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Cultural Resource Management Archaeology May 2018 Thesis Committee: Mark Muñiz, Chairperson Rob Mann John Doershuk 2 Abstract The Lungren Site (13ML224) is a Middle Archaic campsite located in Mills County, Iowa. The site was excavated in the 1960s during the Smithsonian River Basin Surveys, and represents one of a relatively small number of well-preserved Archaic period sites known in western Iowa. Lithic artifacts from the Lungren assemblage were reanalyzed as part of this thesis in order to derive better understanding of technological strategy and land-use by the mid- Holocene bison hunters who left these tools behind. Analysis of lithic debitage and raw material illustrates heavy utilization of locally acquired raw material for tool making. This includes both expedient and formal items that comprised a specialized tool kit well suited for a population of mobile bison hunters. While the Archaic period in many areas of the Great Plains remains poorly understood, data from this thesis will be useful in developing a better understanding of technological strategy and lifeways of peoples on the Eastern Plains during this time period. 3 Acknowledgements It is a shame that only one name can be on a master’s thesis, when it took the help of so many to make it happen. First, many thanks go to Dr. Mark Muñiz and Dr. Robb Mann of St. Cloud State University for their guidance on this committee as well as their support throughout graduate school. Thank you as well to John Doershuk, State Archaeologist of Iowa for serving on my committee as well as your insight in developing broader regional understandings of the Archaic period. The staff of the Smithsonian Institution was instrumental in making this research possible. Thank you to James Krakker for allowing me access to the Lungren collection, and also to Caitlin Haynes of the National Anthropological Archive, for assistance in finding the site forms and notes from the 1963 excavation. Finally, thank you to Lionel Brown, for surveying and excavating the site over 50 years ago. Without your help, this thesis likely wouldn’t exist. My cohort in the CRM Archaeology program was essential in helping me develop ideas for this thesis, not to mention keeping me sane through the worst of it. In purely alphabetical order, thank you to Heather Adams, Monica Bugbee, Christiana Reynolds, Rin Gaubatz, Sam Olson, Ben Shirar, Jeffrey Shelton, Seth Taft, and others I apologize for forgetting. May you all pursue bigger and better things. The Office of the State Archaeologist at the University of Iowa provided me invaluable insight in pursuing this research. Thank you in particular to Mark Anderson and John Hedden for feedback in developing conclusions for this research, and John Cordell for helping me access related Archaic collections. Special thanks to Michael Perry and Alan Hawkins for hiring a freshly minted undergraduate seven years ago. Finally, thank you to my wife Kathryn, for putting up with me while writing this thesis. 4 Table of Contents Page Lists of Tables ..................................................................................................................... 6 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 8 Chapter 1. Introduction and Goal of Research ......................................................................... 10 2. Literature Review .................................................................................................... 12 Site and Excavation History .............................................................................. 12 Physical Setting and Geomorphology ............................................................... 17 The Logan Creek Complex: Culture History and Site Comparisons ................ 19 Interstate Site Comparisons .............................................................................. 30 3. Research Design and Theoretical Considerations ................................................... 34 Methods ............................................................................................................. 47 4. Raw Material Analysis ............................................................................................ 57 Shawnee Group (Virginian) .............................................................................. 58 Kansas City Group (Missourian) ...................................................................... 61 Precambrian (Proterozoic) ................................................................................ 62 Other Raw Materials ......................................................................................... 63 Results ............................................................................................................... 65 5. Debitage Analysis ................................................................................................... 69 6. Chipped Stone Tool Analysis ................................................................................. 76 Utilized Flakes .................................................................................................. 76 5 Chapter Page Gravers .............................................................................................................. 78 Scrapers ............................................................................................................. 80 Other Unifacial Tools ....................................................................................... 83 Large Unifacial Butchery Tools ........................................................................ 85 Cores ................................................................................................................. 89 Bifaces and Projectile Points ............................................................................ 93 Other Artifacts .................................................................................................. 102 7. MANA .................................................................................................................... 103 General Nodule Analysis (GNA) Results ......................................................... 103 MANA Results .................................................................................................. 106 8. Conclusions ............................................................................................................. 109 Further Research ............................................................................................... 121 References Cited ................................................................................................................. 124 Appendices A. Maps ........................................................................................................................ 134 B. List of Chipped Stone Tools with Accession and Provenience Information ......... 142 6 List of Tables Table Page 1. Inventory of materials recovered from Lungren ..................................................... 16 2. Raw materials of chipped stone tools and debitage, including count and weight ................................................................................................................ 66 3. General debitage attributes ..................................................................................... 71 4. Flake type by raw material ...................................................................................... 71 5. Flake length attributes of specimens recovered from Lungren ............................... 73 6. Flake platforms by raw material type ..................................................................... 74 7. Attributes of utilized flakes recovered from Lungren ............................................. 77 8. Attributes of gravers recovered from Lungren ....................................................... 78 9. Attributes of scrapers recovered from Lungren. Use-length listed for scraper working bit unless specified otherwise ............................................................. 82 10. Unifacial tools (other) recovered from