University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2016 Late Prehistoric Lithic Economies in the Prairie Peninsula: a Comparison of Oneota and Langford in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois Stephen Wayne Wilson University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons, Geographic Information Sciences Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Wilson, Stephen Wayne, "Late Prehistoric Lithic Economies in the Prairie Peninsula: a Comparison of Oneota and Langford in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois" (2016). Theses and Dissertations. 1228. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1228 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]. LATE PREHISTORIC LITHIC ECONOMIES IN THE PRAIRIE PENINSULA: A COMPARISON OF ONEOTA AND LANGFORD IN SOUTHERN WISCONSIN AND NORTHERN ILLINOIS by Stephen W. Wilson A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Anthropology at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2016 ABSTRACT LATE PREHISTORIC LITHIC ECONOMIES IN THE PRAIRIE PENINSULA: A COMPARISON OF ONEOTA AND LANGFORD IN SOUTHERN WISCONSIN AND NORTHERN ILLINOIS by Stephen W. Wilson The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2016 Under the Supervision of Robert J. Jeske PhD This thesis is an examination of the environmental settlement patterns and the organization of lithic technology surrounding Upper Mississippian groups in Southeastern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. The sites investigated in this study are the Washington Irving (11K52) and Koshkonong Creek Village (47JE379) habitation sites, contemporaneous creekside Langford and Oneota sites located approximately 90 kilometers apart. A two-kilometer catchment of Washington Irving is compared to that of the Koshkonong Creek Village to clarify the nature of environmental variation in Langford and Oneota settlement patterns and increase our understanding of Upper Mississippian horticulturalist lifeways. Lithic tool and mass debitage analyses use an assemblage-based approach to understand the lithic economies at each site, accounting for procurement and manufacturing strategies and assemblage diversity and complexity. ii © Copyright by Stephen W. Wilson, 2016 All Rights Reserved iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ vi List of Tables ............................................................................................................................. ix Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................... xii Chapter 1: Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Research Goals ................................................................................................................ 1 Thesis Organization ......................................................................................................... 4 Chapter 2: Oneota and Langford Archaeological Traditions ..................................................... 6 The Upper Mississippian Pattern .................................................................................... 6 Oneota Cultural Tradition ............................................................................................... 10 Langford Cultural Tradition ............................................................................................ 16 Chapter 3: Catchment Analysis Methods and Methodology ..................................................... 25 Optimal Foraging Theory ................................................................................................ 25 Catchment Analysis ......................................................................................................... 28 Vegetation Zones ............................................................................................................. 31 Reconstructing the Prehistoric Vegetation ..................................................................... 34 Geographic Information Systems/Science Methodology ............................................... 36 Expectations .................................................................................................................... 41 Chapter 4: The Study Sites ........................................................................................................ 43 The Washington Irving Site (11K52) .............................................................................. 43 Description of the Washington Irving Site Location ....................................................... 53 The Koshkonong Creek Village Site (47JE379) ............................................................. 59 Description of the Koshkonong Creek Village Site Location ......................................... 67 Chapter 5: Discussion of the Catchment Analysis .................................................................... 73 Catchment Analysis ......................................................................................................... 76 Non-Economical Factors ................................................................................................. 84 Resource Pull Analysis .................................................................................................... 89 Summary and Discussion ................................................................................................ 95 Chapter 6: Macroscopic Methods of Analysis ........................................................................... 98 Organization of Technology ............................................................................................ 98 Assemblage-Based Approach ......................................................................................... 103 Methods of Data Collection and Analysis ....................................................................... 104 Chapter 7: Description of the Lithic Assemblages .................................................................... 110 The Washington Irving Debitage Assemblage ............................................................... 110 The Washington Irving Tool Assemblage ...................................................................... 112 Washington Irving Tools Based on Morpho-Functional Categories .............................. 118 Summary of Washington Irving Lithics .......................................................................... 123 iv The Koshkonong Creek Village Debitage Assemblage .................................................. 126 The Koshkonong Creek Village Tool Assemblage ......................................................... 126 Koshkonong Creek Village Tools Based on Morpho-Functional Categories ................. 131 Summary of KCV Lithic Assemblage ............................................................................. 134 Chapter 8: Comparative Analysis of the Lithic Assemblages ................................................... 136 Lithic Raw Material Procurement and Modification ...................................................... 137 Lithic Tool Form, Morphology, Use and Discard ........................................................... 144 Proportion of Lithic Debitage to Tools ........................................................................... 152 Lithic Economies in an Environmental Context ............................................................. 154 Chapter 9: Conclusions .............................................................................................................. 157 Summary and Discussion ................................................................................................ 157 Broader Impacts .............................................................................................................. 159 Future Research .............................................................................................................. 160 References Cited ........................................................................................................................ 167 Appendix A: Mass Analysis Schema for Debitage .................................................................... 186 Appendix B: Chipped Stone Tool Recording Schema .............................................................. 187 Appendix C: Plates of Tool Types from the Study Sites by Morpho-Functional Categories .... 195 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Location of the Washington Irving and Koshkonong Creek Village sites in Northeastern Illinois and Southeastern Wisconsin ..................................... 2 Figure 2.1: Localities of Wisconsin Oneota occupations .......................................................... 14 Figure 2.2: A continuum of triangular bifaces from Washington Irving from refined Madison points to crude humpback bifaces ............................................... 19 Figure 4.1: Location of the Washington Irving site in Kane County, Illinois ........................... 44 Figure 4.2: General Land Office plat map of the Washington Irving site ................................