The Alkire Mound (32SI200)

Abstract

The Alkire Mound Site, located on the west bank of the Missouri River in southernmost North Dakota, appears to be one more manifestation of the Woodland occupation of the northern Plains. The low earthen mound, some 90 feet in diameter at the time of excavation, was built over a log-covered burial chamber which contained five bundle burials and one extended innumation. The artifact yield was negligible, but the one projectile point found is of the sort usually associated with Woodland manifestations in the area. Estimates of the labor required to build the mound indicate that the people responsible for its construction had an economy which permitted spending an appreciable amount of time in nonsubsistence activities.     

The Boundary Mound Group (32SI-1): An Eastern Woodland Complex in North Dakota

Abstract

This site represents the first systematic investigation of a mound on the Missouri River in North Dakota. The mound group consists of 3 mounds on the North Dakota - South Dakota state line several miles southeast of Ft. Yates, South Dakota. The mounds are from 1-3 feet high and about 80’ in diameter. The reports covers the investigation of one of the mounds which had been partially removed by a railroad cut. Three excavations were carried out (1) along the edge of the railroad cut, (2) thru the center of the mound, and (3) an exploratory test pit east of the north end of center cut.

In the center of the mound was found the remains of a log covered tomb 10 x 12 feet containing 5 burials and a number of artifacts.

The Boundary Mound group suggests the presence of a Woodland group extending from eastern North Dakota to the Missouri River. This complex tenatively cross-dated at about 1000 A.D. is present but rare along the Missouri in South Dakota.     

The Olson Mound (39BF223) in Buffalo County,South Dakota

Abstract

A low, dome-shaped, earthern tumulus was excavated during the summer of 1957. The mound contained poorly preserved remains of a secondary burial in a shallow, sub-mound pit. Three individuals were represented in the burial.

Artifactual associations were sparse.They consisted of one simplestamped body sherd, 2 end scrapers,4 knives; 1 drill and 3 mealing stone fragments.

Similarities between this mound and other sites in the vicinity are discussed. An appendix contains the analysis of the identifiable skeletal material.     

The Eureka and Comstock Mounds,Southwestern Missouri

Abstract

Two rock and earth mounds in the Stockton Reservoir area provide data on two separate burial complexes previously unknownin thewestern Ozark Highlands. The Eureka Mound contained primary inhwnations with associations similar to those innearby Woodland and Mississippian mounds, but is unique in yielding a Caddoan water bottle of the Spiro Engraved type, and is dated about A. D. 1000-1450. This trade vessel, and Caddoan sherds from other sites in southwestern Missouri, provides leads to Caddoan contacts with groups in the Ozark Highlands. The Comstock Mound contained a single primary burial in a central pit associated with White trade goods which date around A.D. 1800. The mound may be of Osage Indian origin, but this identification is open to question because of transient Indian groups pas sing through the area about A. D. 1800.     

Two human Skeletons from 39LM227, A Mound near The stricker Site,lyman County,south Dakota

Abstract

Two burials from a mound in central South Dakota are considered to be Arikara from a group ancestral to the Arikara, on the basis of observations and measurements.     

Plains Facts

Abstract

During the summer of 1960, 8 burial or storage pits were uncovered at the Leary site 25RH1, Richardson County, Nebraska by a bulldozer of the county highway department. A rush archaeological salvage excavation was conducted, Remains of at least 3 individuals were recovered, Pottery resembles that excavated from the site in 1935 by the Nebraska State Historical Society and is classified as Oneota, A wine bottle of the type manufactured by the William McCully Company of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania between 1832 and 1890 was recovered from an undisturbed part of a storage pit. It is thought to be intrusive through rodent action.     

Archaic Skeletal Remains from the Central Plains: Demography and Burial Practices

Abstract

Recently a number of reports on Plains Archaic skeletal material have been published which quadruple the number of burials described and analyzed in the literature. Although the total number of burials is still relatively small, it is large enough to allow research to begin in paieodemographic aspects of the central part of thePlains and the suggestion of burial patterns for these materials. By combining all Archaic burials from the Plains a demographic profile has been developed. It is compared with other Archaic populations from the eastern United States, and with a Plains population dating after A.O. 1000. The results of the analysis show that with few exceptions burial patterns and the demographic picture of the Plains are quite stable over time, although differences are found in metric and non-metric variations in both the time and space continua. The analysis further shows that certain anomalous conditions in the skeleton appear to be much more prevalent inArchaic material than in recent material from the same area. The results finally suggest that Archaic people in the demographic and burial practice continua are quite similar to later populations, at least through Middle Mississippian populationsin the Plains.     

A Plains Woodland Burial from the Badlands of Western Nebraska

Abstract

Late Plains Woodland burial from a badlands region of western Sioux County, Nebraska produced the nearly complete skeleton of a robust adult male. Burial practices and associated grave goods are typical for the Woodland culture. However, osteological analysis has revealed a pattern of physical characteristics for the human skeleton which shows no real affinity to known Woodland populations to the south and east. Rather, the traits resemble very closely those of the nearly contemporaneous Late Middle Period people of Wyoming, to the immediate west. This lends evidence in support of recent hypotheses regarding the spread of Woodland culture across the central and western Plains.     

Cord-Roughened Pottery in North Central North America

Abstract

Basic data are offered on 2 pottery bearing localities in the Souris Basin, North Dakota. Additional data from adjacent areas are introduced to support the assertion that there was a relatively heavy occupation of the Northern Plains by a number of closely related groups which manufactured only slightly differentiated cordroughened pottery. The presence of this pottery reveals that the Woodland occupation of the Northern Plains was far more intensive and extensive than might be suspected from the extant literature.     

Plant Remains From a Woodland Storage Pit,Boney Spring,Missouri

Abstract

An Early Woodland storage pit, dated at 1920±50 BP, was found in the peat layer surrounding the spring feeder at Boney Spring, Benton County, western Missouri, in association with a burial and other cultural material. The pit contents were unusually well preserved, apparently because of the saturated condition of the spring deposits. Materials from the pit were compared with plant remains from a control block removed from the surrounding contemporary peat layer. The pit contained masses of white oak and bur oak acorns, numerous shagbark hickory nuts, and seven species of autumnal seeds, i ncl udi ng squash (Cucurbita pepo), giant ragweed, poke berry, wild pi um, elderberry, cocklebur, and black haw which did not occur in the control block and which indicate the contents were placed in the pit during the fall.     

Craniometric Relationships of Plains Populations: Historical and Evolutionary Implications

Abstract

Large skeletal samples from cemeteries in the Northern Plains near Mobridge, South Dakota have made possible the accurate determination of craniometric relationships between populations ancestoral to the historic Arikara. There is considerable change throughout the approximately 200 years represented, due primarily to gene flow from adjacent Siouan speaking groups. Arikara crania from the Northern Plains are seen to be morphologically similar to earlier crania further south, in particular St. Helena materials in northeastern Nebraska. This offers Support for the archaeological hypothesis that Coalescent Tradition cultures grew out of the Central Plains Tradition. Early crania from the Northern Plains are markedly different from those in the Central Plains and more similar to historic Mandan. The craniometric evidence argues for biological continuity rather than replacement in the Plains area.     

Additional Annotated References:

Abstract

This addendum contains 23 entrees dating between 1859 and 1927 relative to sites in Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, and the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The first section of this bibliography was published in Volume 7, Number 15, of Plains Anthropologist, 1962, and contained 302 references.     

Cultural Ecology and Ecological Dynamics of the Ceramic Period in Southwestern Manitoba

Abstract

A new research paradigm—the Co-Influence Sphere Model—is developed and applied to the archaeological record to account for the variability in prehistoric ceramics of Southwestern Manitoba. The Co-Influence Sphere Model emphasis the co-existence, interaction, and territorial overlapping of groups in the prehistoric and early historic periods

The model requires an evaluation of the seasonally fluctuating resource potential across the Plains, ‘Aspen Parkland, and Boreal Forest; the mobility and multiple biome utilization of historic groups; and the interaction of historic groups through formalized trade networks, conflict, and sharing of similar resources. The earlier emphasis on chronology and mutually exclusive home territories of historic groups is replaced by a more realistic and dynamic model of groups with core, secondary, and tertiary subsistencesettlement areas in which groups interact to varying degrees

For Southwestern Manitoba, the earlier Chronological Model (with one identifiable phase and one historic tribe per period and area) is replaced by a complicated record of four complexes during the Middle Woodland Stage, nine complexes during the Late Woodland Stage, and possibly 15 different ethnic groups in the protohistoric and early historic periods Furthermore, there is a shift in interrelationships between territorially overlapping occupants from the Boreal Forest and Plains with the advent of the Late Woodland Stage that is accompanied by the development of horticultural villages, the growth and fission of human populations, and symbiotic relationships between horticulturalists and hunters.

Use of the dynamic Co-Influence Sphere Model requires a shift away from defining complexes and seeking causal relationships or processes within a small research region. The environmental limitations, cultural history, and cultural processes of any region, and particularly a region like Southwestern Manitoba (which partly straddles an ecotone) can be determined only by an exhaustive study of fluctuating resources, ethnohistory, archaeological history, and variation in subsistence-settlement patterns beyond the region. In order to apply the Co-Influence Sphere Model to Southwestern Manitoba, local data have been related to developments in the Boreal Forest, Upper Great Lakes, Upper Mississippi, and Northern Plains. Relationships are determined by assessing regions and areas beyond the local research universe, rather than attempting to discover processes on the basis of limited local data.     

Temporal And Geographic Patterning of Relative Head Height in The Central Plains And Middle Missouri Areas

Abstract

Temporal and geographic patterning of vault height evaluated as the Auricular Mean Height Index is examined in samples of crania from the Central and Northern Plains. Crania are placed into two large categories: one consisting of historic Caddoan speakers and their ancestors, the other of Mandan speakers and their ancestors. Woodland crania from the Central Plains and Middle Missouri areas are added to their respective groups for part of the analysis. Time consistently shows a strong relationship to Auricular Mean Height Index; geographical latitude is equivocal but does exhibit a relationship to the vault height index in Central Plains-Caddoan without Woodland. Auricular height decreases with the passage of time and increases as one proceeds northward. The analysis further shows that Central Plains Caddoan groups have higher vaults than Middle Missouri-Mandan crania at a given point in time and space. That cranial morphology is different in the groups supports the notion that gene pool differences are responsible. The causes of decreasing head height through time are unknown.     

A Woodland Burial from Boney Spring,Missouri

Abstract

A secondary burial from a peat layer adjoining the spring feeder at Boney Spring, Benton County, southwestern Missouri, is identified as a young adult male, interred about A.D. 50. The burial, associated with Early Woodland materials in the peat bed, was less than one meter from the edge of the spring feeder in deposits once saturated with water - suggesting that the burial (and associated Woodland features) was made at a time of reduced spring discharge and, perhaps, during a period of reduced precipitation. The burial is well within the limits of characteristics recorded for eastern Archaic groups, lending support to the hypothesis of continuity between the Archaic and Early Woodland peoples in the American Midwest.     

Interpopulation Relationships of Four Post-Contact Coalescent Sites From South Dakota:

Abstract

Craniometric comparisons were used to determine tribal affiliation of three Le Beau Phase sites and one Bad River Phase site from South Dakota: Four Bear (39DW2), Oahe Village (39HU2), Swan Creek (39WW7), and Stony Point Village (39ST235). Oahe Village and Swan Creek classified as Arikara in all analyses. Four Bear and Stony Point Village probably also represent Arikara populations although the evidence is less conclusive. Some individuals were assigned to the Mandan in each site. While alternative explanations are possible, those cases may indicate that some Mandan were living in these villages. If Mandan burials are present at Four Bear and Swan Creek, they are not associated with the presence of secondary burials as suggested by Hurt (1957). Arikara populations of the Post-Contact period show considerable variation through time and space.     

A Late Archaic Burial From Southwestern Texas

Abstract

A unique rockshelter burial in southwestern Texas contained a 35 year old male placed in asitting position in a pit lined with matting. Remains of a woven stick and grass structure were over the burial pit. Affiliation is late Archaic and dates ca. 200 B.C.-A.D. 200.     

The Dune Buggy Site, 24RV1, and Northwestern Plains Ceramics

Abstract

The study of ceramics in the northwestern Plains has lagged since Wissler included “the lack of pottery” as one of the core Plains traits. In recent years, however, the poor development in ceramic studies is due to the lack of reported sites rather than a real void. The first part of this paper describes the Dune Buggy site and its large ceramic collection. In the second part, the pottery is identified as belonging to a non-Middle Missouri tradition and related to sites in northeastern Montana, southeastern Saskatchewan southwestern Manitoba and northwestern North Dakota. The combinations of profile, designs, and decoration appear to be heterogeneous, and an analogy is drawn to the historic period for the area to suggest an explanation for the apparent mixing. Specific problems include the lack of absolute dates and stratigraphic relationships, unpublished data, and potentially mixed components.     

MIDDLE WOODLAND POTTERY TYPOLOGY FROM SOUTHWEST IOWA

Abstract

This paper presents a typology for Middle Woodland pottery from the vicinity of Glenwood, southwest Iowa. It shows that the Glenwood materials have their closest Plains affiliation with Valley Cord Roughened and their closest Eastern Woodland affiliation with Havana tradition pottery of the Illinois River Valley. The main source of influence for the Valley Focus seems to have come from the Eastern Woodlands and not from the Hopewellian instrusion at the Renner site. Finally, it is argued that the Valley Focus and related materials originated in the Middle Woodland period, were composed of generalized Woodland traits, and were imposed onto the life styles of indigenous peoples on the Central Plains.