Great Lakes Archaeology

Although it is now commonplace for archaeologists to study use-alteration patterns on ceramics, the same cannot be said of one of the most ubiquitous classes of hunter-gatherer artifacts, fire-cracked rocks (FCR). It can be shown, however, that many of the same methods and theories applied to the study of cooking ceramics are also relevant to the investigation of rocks used as heating elements. Because use alteration analyses of FCR are so scarce, I describe a range of attributes with the goal of helping researchers identify use alterations (e.g., sooting, reddening, various fracturing patterns) on lithic artifacts from sites worldwide and evaluate their potential function in various cultural practices. These attributes are also outlined in order to create a standardized terminology for describing FCR use-alteration patterns. I discuss my analysis of FCR from three Late Archaic sites (Duck Lake, 913, and 914) on Grand Island in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, followed by an interpretation of their cooking contexts, as a case study. The results indicate great intersite variability among FCR characteristics, cooking methods, and cooking facilities (earth oven, stone boiling, and rock griddle). This use alteration analysis can be applied in archaeological contexts worldwide where similar materials are recovered.

We employ social network analysis of collar decoration on Iroquoian vessels to conduct a multiscalar analysis of signaling practices among ancestral Huron-Wendat communities on the north shore of Lake Ontario. Our analysis focuses on the microscale of the West Duffins Creek community relocation sequence as well as the mesoscale, incorporating several populations to the west. The data demonstrate that network ties were stronger among populations in adjacent drainages as opposed to within drainage-specific sequences, providing evidence for west-to-east population movement, especially as conflict between Wendat and Haudenosaunee populations escalated in the sixteenth century. These results suggest that although coalescence may have initially involved the incorporation of peoples from microscale (local) networks, populations originating among wider mesoscale (subregional) networks contributed to later coalescent communities. These findings challenge previous models of village relocation and settlement aggregation that oversimplified these processes.

The Leech Lake/Red Lake Trail was a historic travel route between the Chippewa Agency on Leech Lake and the Agency on Red Lake.  It was established as a part of the Old Crossing Treaty of 1863 and was used by the Ojibwe as well as White settlers, loggers, teamsters, and others. Use of the trail declined when railroads became the preferred mode of transport in the early 20th century.  Most of the trail had fallen out of use in the years following World War I.

The route of the trail has been plotted through part of the Chippewa National Forest in Cass County using GIS and historic maps.  We have been conducting archaeological surveys along the route of the old trail and have been identifying segments of the trail as well as 19th and early 20th century Ojibwe homesites located along the trail.  This poster will summarize our work to date.

The diverse ecological habitat south of the Western Basin of Lake Erie has been utilized by humans since their arrival in Ohio some 11-13,000 years ago.  The prevalence of Late Woodland and Late Prehistoric Period habitation sites in northwest Ohio suggests that this area experienced a period of significant human activity in late pre-history.  Unfortunately, the people who originally occupied the southern and western shores of Lake Erie had largely abandoned this area just prior to European contact in the mid-1600s, leaving a large gap between the prehistoric and historic record of the area.
Archaeologists have only recently begun to assemble a broader, more comprehensive understanding of the late prehistory of northern Ohio.  It has generally been accepted that the intensification of maize subsistence and the subsequent transition to a more sedentary, agrarian-based settlement pattern in northwest Ohio occurred during the transition between the Late Woodland and Late Prehistoric Periods (750AD-1450AD). 

While stable carbon isotope ratio analyses of dated skeletal materials in the region have established an intensification in maize consumption at around 1000AD, a change in settlement patterns is not believed to have been established until around 1200AD.  This contrasts with archaeological evidence that suggests that an agrarian-focused, nucleated habitation pattern, sometimes referred to as the “Mississippian” influence, was already firmly established in southeastern Ontario and much of midwestern and northeastern North America by at least 1000AD.  The regional causality behind this transition in subsistence and habitation, as well as reasons for the apparent regional “lag” in this transition – despite the comparatively early appearance of maize in this region - continues to be debated as new information becomes available.

In northern Ohio, this shift in habitation has been described by many as a transition from short-term, often seasonal occupations of lakeshore-oriented sand spits, prairies and major downstream drainages to more sedentary agricultural village settlements located at secondary river confluences, well-drained ancient beach ridges, and/or defensible river bluff locations.  The primary data supporting this assertion is largely qualitative and anecdotal in nature, although this proposed habitation shift is frequently cited by many in academic literature as if it were fact. 

It is believed that the claim of such a change in settlement patterns needs to be tested in a more rigorous fashion.  It is the objective of this study to utilize Geographic Information System (GIS) technology to conduct a settlement analysis of a five-county, 1,904 square mile (5,000 km2) area in northwest Ohio, in order to empirically test the proposed settlement pattern change across this transitional time period (750AD-1450AD).  This analysis will utilize compiled archaeological and environmental data from Late Woodland and Late Prehistoric Period habitation sites in the region in order to substantiate and quantify this proposed inland shift of settlement locations.  The intention of this study is in no way to “prove” or explain a link between subsistence, social change, and potential habitation transition, but rather to substantiate and characterize the proposed spatial change in habitation location choice using a number of GIS measures, and to present the data and findings for further study and consideration.

The surface record of cultural boulder features constructed by Inland Inuit caribou hunting families who lived year-round on the arctic tundra west of Hudson Bay for much of the 19th and 20th centuries provides guidance in the search for archaeological features on the now-submerged Alpena-Amberley ridge, where caribou likely contributed to the subsistence of hunting societies that occupied this region during the early Holocene. The form, scale and prominence of these features in the archaeological record of this part of the Canadian tundra, where the most common rock forms are standing stones, stone rings, boulder clusters/clearings, cobble/boulder field depressions, and continuous stone rings or arcs, suggest patterns that might be useful in focusing attention away from natural and onto cultural distributions of rocks on the ridge, on the bed of Lake Huron.

Evidence from house structures, artifacts and fauna are used to infer political and economic changes at the Benson site, a late sixteenth century Huron village near Balsam Lake, Ontario. It  is suggested that one household acquired trade links to Europeans in the St. Lawrence valley, and as a result became the largest and most prestigious household in the community. Subsequently, a second household expanded to a comparable size, but did so in opposition to the first house, and represented the “traditionalist” faction.  Ultimately, the traditionalist faction prevailed, and the more progressive house was dismantled, and its inhabitants moved elsewhere.

During the Late Archaic to Early Woodland transition, caches of blue gray chert bifaces were deposited throughout the Midwest, often in association with burials. Their utility between manufacture and deposition has long been the subject of speculation, but never compellingly demonstrated. Comprehensive use-wear analysis of these bifaces demonstrates that they were, in fact, used prior to deposition. Unfortunately, use-wear data in isolation tells us little about the actual role these bifaces played in the lives of the people who produced, used, and deposited them. Relatively few of these caches have been recovered as a result of systematic excavation, so other datasets that can be used to contextualize use-wear data are scarce. The Riverside Site is a Red Ochre affiliated burial and habitation site in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, excavated by the University of Michigan, the Milwaukee Public Museum and the Oshkosh Public Museum. Excavations in the 1950s and 60s uncovered a total of 83 bipointed bifaces. Use-wear analysis of a sample of these bifaces allows us to expand the conversation about their significance to include not only information about their depositional context but their active social and economic context as well.

A basic premise of archaeology is that the more frequently two human populations interacted with one another the more similar was their material culture. A corollary of this is that the closer two human populations are to one another geographically, the more frequently they will interact. This corollary has been expressed in the archaeological study of northern Iroquoia since the 1950s on the basis of historical ethnic territories. The expectation has been that after ca. A.D. 1000 to 1300 there was more interaction between village populations within these historical territories than between village populations located in different historical territories. Here I test this corollary with pottery decoration data from 114 northern Iroquoian village sites dating from c. A.D. 1350 to 1640. Results indicate that geographic distance has little effect on pottery assemblage similarity.

A compilation of known sites from the upper reaches of the Trent valley and the Gull River extending into the Haliburton Highlands indicates that throughout much of prehistory the area witnessed little, if any, human occupation. Two episodes of significant occupation are the Middle Archaic and the Late Iroquoian period. The Middle Archaic is represented by a number of early Laurentian occupation sites and later Laurentian find spots, suggesting a brief colonization of the area during the earlier period, followed by a period of less intensive use. Parallels between the Archaic and Iroquoian episodes of occupation prompt the suggestion that while climate may have been a factor in both cases, other less archaeologically tangible factors are equally likely to have been at work.

The Screaming Loon site is a Late Archaic site located on the Inland Waterway of northern lower Michigan. The site is radiocarbon dated to 3600 years B.P. and is situated at post-Nipissing elevations of ca. 183-184.4 m 1600-605 feet) above sea level. Fauna! remains reveal a spring/summer occupation with a broad spectrum foraging strategy. Features and lithics indicate a wide range of occupation activities suggestive of either a residential camp or repeated logistic activity sets. Assemblage composition and chert types suggest cultural affiliations with the northeast coast of Lake Michigan and the northern Lake Huron basin.

The high density of Late Woodland and Late Prehistoric Period habitation sites in northwest Ohio, south of the Western Basin of Lake Erie, suggests that this area experienced a period of significant human activity in late prehistory.  It has generally been accepted that in this area the intensification of maize subsistence and a subsequent transition to a more sedentary, agrarian-based settlement pattern occurred during the transition between the Late Woodland and Late Prehistoric Periods (750AD-1450AD).  This proposed settlement shift has been described by many as a transition from short-term, often seasonal occupations of lakeshore-oriented sand spits, prairies and major downstream drainages to more sedentary agricultural village settlements located upstream at secondary river confluences, well-drained ancient beach ridges, and/or defensible river bluff locations.  While this proposed change in settlement patterns is frequently cited in academic literature, the primary data supporting this change is largely qualitative and anecdotal in nature.  Geographical Information System (GIS) Technology provides a new approach to conduct a regional settlement pattern analysis of this area in order to substantiate, quantify, and characterize any proposed change in habitation patterns that may have occurred during this time period, subsequent to the intensification of maize subsistence.  The settlement analyses presented in this thesis represent a first attempt to not only aggregate the necessary habitation site data to permit a comprehensive settlement analysis in this region, but also the first to utilize GIS technology combined with environmental data to do so.  It is believed that a better understanding of changes in settlement patterns – spatially, chronologically and qualitatively – can help to provide new insight regarding the cultural change that was likely occurring during this transitional time period, as archaeologists are still in its early stages of developing a more comprehensive understanding of the late prehistory of this region.

The Nelson stone tool cache was discovered in 2008 in Mount Vernon, Ohio. The cache does not include any diagnostic materials, and independent age control is unavailable. Although aspects of its 164 bifaces are suggestive of a Clovis affiliationincluding the occasional occurrence of unmistakable flute scarsnearly all are in the early-to mid-stages of production, there are no definitive finished Clovis fluted points that would make it possible to assign the cache to that time period. To ascertain its cultural affiliation, we undertook a detailed qualitative and quantitative comparison of the Nelson cache bifaces with ones known to be both Clovis and post-Clovis in age. We also conducted geochemical sourcing, ochre analyses, and microwear analysis to understand the context of the cache, regardless of its age and cultural affinity. By some key measures it is consistent with Clovis caches in this region and elsewhere, but the case remains unproven. Nonetheless, if the Nelson cache is from the Clovis period, it is significant that most of its bifaces appear to be made on large flakes, in keeping with Clovis technology in the Lower Great Lakes, and an economically conservative, risk-mitigating strategy that conforms to predictions of human foragers colonizing the area in late Pleistocene times.

The East Bay Site is a late Middle Woodland site in the Grand Traverse region of Michigan. The article presents the results of Phase II testing and Phase III data recovery excavations carried out at the site between 1990 and 1992.  These excavations provide significant new information concerning the Middle to Late Woodland transition in northwest lower Michigan.

An artifact-accompanied Early Woodland burial on a low plateau overlooking a bay of Lake Michigan was excavated and reinterred during the early fifth century CE.  During that ritual unparched grains of wild rice (Ziziana aquatic) were accidentally included with the earlier cremation

Excavations occurred following bank erosion of a NW Michigan logging roard evealed a ceremonial Late Middle Woodland (5th Century) reburial of an Early Middle Woodland cremation with incidental inclusions of charred wild rice.  The report documents the millennial persistence of place-making rituals in the Lake Forest ecotone.

Foraging societies with low population densities would seem an unlikely context in which to find extensive, continental scale, exchange systems featuring formal and standardized methods and materials of interaction. Yet, in the Late Archaic of the North American Midcontinent, this situation unfolds. How does formalized exchange function in such dispersed, small scale foraging societies? How does it help to create larger social entities and increasing sociopolitical complexity? How do such systems develop, what do they do, and why? In this study, a synthesis of anthropological theory on exchange and evolutionary theory of cooperative behavior is developed to produce a model of exchange with several testable predictions. These predictions include that differential access to exchange benefits will exist within and between communities, that exchange is inherently risky to participants and their communities, the frequency and scale of exchange will increase as trust is established and validated, exchange of material goods creates opportunities and incentives for social change, and conflict between communities is expected when trust is lost or undermined. These are then examined through a methodologically diverse set of studies involving analysis of lithic and copper artifacts to examine changes affecting Late Archaic societies in the western Great Lakes between 4000 and 2000 years ago. Data from the Late Archaic Riverside site, Middle Archaic Reigh site, and sites of the Late Archaic Burnt Rollways phase are examined to understand the production and movement of copper and lithic exchange materials, access to and benefits from exchange networks, and social changes accompanying the development of such systems of interaction. This study demonstrates that the Burnt Rollways phase is socially distinct from, and not interacting with, their downstream neighbors at Reigh and Riverside, while Riverside is engaged in a formal system of interaction and ritual with communities as distant as the lower Ohio River valley. As a consequence of this interaction network, Riverside exhibits differential access to benefits, standardization and ritualization of materials of interaction including formalized bifaces of Wyandotte chert and copper beads, intensification of exchange through time, significant social
changes emphasizing the growing importance of women and children, and conflict.

A review of evidence for Algonquin (Anishinabek) cultural presence in southern Ontario over the past four centuries as well as prior to European contact.  Archaeological constructs and terminology used in Ontario Iroquoian archaeology are contrasted with the absence of such constructs and terminology for Ontario Anishinabek archaeology.  Statements of ethnicity, linking living peoples with archaeological constructs based on material culture, are questioned as unlikely to have validity.

From  Rageneau's account of the Algonquin Missions in the Jesuit Relation of 1648-1649, Chapter X:  "On the south shore of this fresh-water sea, or Lake of the Hurons, dwell the following Algonquin tribes: Ouachaskesouek, Nigouaouichirinik, Outaouasinagouek, Kichkagoneiak, and Ontaanak, who are all allies of our Huron  With these we have considerable intercourse, but not with the following, who dwell on the shores of the same Lake farther toward the West, namely: the Ouchaouanag, who form part of the Nation of fire; the Ondatouatandy and the Ouinipegong, who are part of the Nation of the Puants".

The foundations for modern scholarship concerning Wendat history and archaeology were laid in the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by researchers, such as Andrew Hunter and Arthur Jones, investigating
hundreds of sites and ossuaries that had been reported to provincial authorities. The focus of their work and
of the work of many of those who followed was the search for places that could be related to villages and missions
mentioned in early documentary accounts. Avocational, academic, and government agency archaeologists
working in the mid-twentieth century had only these early archaeological studies to inform their investigations
ofWendat sites. During the past 30 years, however, a revolution in archaeological data collection has occurred.
Some of these data are published and thus accessible to current researchers, but much of it remains unpublished
and some of it has not even been reported on. This paper is an overview of most of this work, especially of those
sites where substantial excavations have occurred. It is intended to provide a guide for those who wish to use
these studies to delve deeper into various aspects of the history of historic-period or ancestralWendat communities.

In this presentation, I delve into later prehistory and explore the relationship between people and their physical environment using an example derived from Late Woodland (A.D. 700 to A.D. 1600) settlement and subsistence patterns from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  The dominant model for this region derives from a relatively small number of coastal Great Lakes archaeological sites and is linked to the development of the Inland Shores Fishery and especially to the advent of deep water fall fishing. 
      Recent research examines data from both coastal and interior archaeological sites resulting in a more complete picture of Late Woodland settlement dynamics. The results show that Late Woodland peoples exploited certain site settings and habitats more extensively than others. Some site settings appear to change over time, and others exhibit characteristics of culturally modified landscapes. While it can be assumed that the distribution of Late Woodland sites reflects the location of resources used by Late Woodland peoples, their distribution is not entirely random and suggests that other cultural factors played a role in the selection of site locations.

The current state of research allows stating that the idea of sacrificial lake/bog sites is in no way limited to northern Europe. To the south of the Baltic Sea one can name lake sites (some of them evolved into bogs – like Czaszkowo – or were dried – like Wólka; some have preserved as lakes – Lubanowo, probably Krępsk), numerous bog sites, depots in the vicinity of certain rivers (Czarnków, Stare Dłusko, maybe Żarnowiec) and, in the end, riverine sites (appearing at least in two horizons). They were surely more numerous than it is known at this moment. The underrepresentation results from the general lack of long-lasting and systematic underwater surveys. Another important factor stems from the fact that a great majority of the lakes in the European Lowland is covered in their littoral zone by organic sediments, at least 0.5–1.0 m thick. This significantly limits the use of metal detectors even in case of large-sized items buried beneath. Lake Lubanowo presents itself unique as its bottom is solid (sandy-stony-clayish) in the vicinity of the shore. Only future archaeological studies may lead to an answer whether the swords found in rivers are overrated in their number or other categories of weapons were thrown into the flowing waters as well, and what regularities may be traced in the sacrificial activity characteristic for the lake sites in certain periods. Also the phenomenon of depots should be studied in detail, as it seems as the least recognized one. Only after the thorough research one may try to connect such sites with the supra-regional phenomena like the Marcomannic Wars or
the Crisis of the Third Century. Therefore – let’s dive!

The cache pits at the Ne-con-ne-pe-wah-se site (20NE331) are noteworthy, as this class of features is a poorly understood phenomenon in Michigan archaeology. The recovery of a wide range of botanical materials representing a variety of food and other cultural taxa is compelling testimony that the features tested at 20NE331 were used for the storage of dried nuts and fruits in the late nineteenth century. The Ne-con-ne-pe-wah-se site was formed as a result of the activities of nineteenth century Native American women and children. This observation was greatly clarified through the interpolation of ethnohistoric and archaeological data that provided a cultural context or model to illuminate the archaeological data. Without such cultural context, the site would simply represent a storage site and not a locale reflecting gendered space and activity.