Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society
Volume 37, 1990
Stephen C. Lensink, Editor
A pit filled with 47 kg of freshwater mussel shells was found on an Oneota habitation site during 1988 in La Crosse County, Wisconsin. The exceptional preservation and particular configuration of the shells indicates a rapid and unusually "clean" burial without associated cultural or vertebrate materials. The species composition of the shell assemblage indicates the source for these mussels was the Mississippi River, some 10 km from the find location. It is suggested that this shell deposit may represent a cache of material to be used as a tempering agent during Oneota ceramic production. The 47 kg of shell recovered would possibly be sufficient to temper about 16 40-l pottery vessels.
Historic Shipwrecks of Iowa
Martha H. Bowers, Hans Muessig, and Lowell J. Soike
pp. 4-39
This article provides historical background material on the rise and decline of the age of the steamboat, the role this form of transportation played in the expansion of the Western frontier, and the importance of shipwreck and steamboat era remains for adding to our knowledge of this period in American history. The report focuses on these topics specifically in regard to Iowa and its rivers—chiefly the Mississippi and the Missouri—and includes a list of potential extant shipwrecks, most of which are unverified and unexcavated.
The consequences of fundamental recording errors, as reflected in published literature and the management of significant resources, is traced through the work of five generations of archaeologists. The paper is an object lesson in the need for vigilance regarding precise provenience data and cautions against the continuation of the archaeological cold war.
The Cribb's Crib site (13WA105) represents a Moingona phase Oneota village in the central Des Moines valley occupied ca. A.D. 1220. Excavations at the site in the summer of 1968 salvaged archaeological data prior to the construction of a protective levee around the southeastern city limits of Carlisle, Iowa. Ceramics, lithics, ground stone, bone and shell artifacts, and numerous faunal and floral remains were recovered. Hand excavations and mechanical stripping uncovered 160 cultural features, including storage pits, hearths, and a chert knapping cache. Analyses of the archaeological data indicated that the village was probably occupied semipermanently over a few years.
Iowa Science Foundation-funded research on the documentation in the Charles R. Keyes Collection resulted in the identification of 323 previously unrecorded archaeological sites. With the addition of earlier research efforts and existing Iowa Site Records, the total number of sites represented by the Keyes Collection now stands at 929. Over 600 of these site locations need to be field checked and verified. Continuation of the original grant proposal concept to invite Iowa Archeological Society members to assist in the relocation effort is proposed.
Book Reviews
William T. Billeck, Ed.
pp. 93-98
Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society
Webpage by Heidi M. Thunhorst, September 3, 2002.