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Volunteer Excavation at the Maxwell Great Oasis Site,Dallas County, Iowa
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Attired in squeaky new boots, slathered in sunscreen, and armed with freshly sharpened trowels, over 50 volunteers descended on the Maxwell Great Oasis site (13DA264) near Redfield, Iowa, to assist with archaeological excavations June 25-28 and July 3-13, 2001. Volunteers ranging from elementary school-aged students to senior citizens traveled from across Iowa and as far away as Arizona, Texas, and Illinois to help project directors, Joseph A. Tiffany, Iowa State University and Lynn M. Alex, Office of the State Archaeologist. |
| The Maxwell site (13DA264) is a Great Oasis Culture community on the South Raccoon River in Dallas County. It represents one of a cluster of Great Oasis sites in the central Iowa region inhabited about 1000 years ago. Research at the site in 1994 has suggested the presence of intact house remains, storage pits, intensive corn farming, and typical Great Oasis artifacts including pottery, stone, bone, and shell tools, and plant and animal remains. [For more information on Great Oasis Culture, click here.] |  |
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Sponsored by Dallas County Conservation in cooperation
with the State Historical Society of Iowa, the Office of the State
Archaeologist (OSA), Iowa State University (ISU), and the Iowa Archeological
Society (IAS), the 2001 project aimed to determine how much of the
thousand year-old settlement had been spared the flood waters of
the river. As the volunteers soon discovered, enough was left to
provide some good information and interesting discussion. Unfortunately,
much of the site has already headed downstream. Continued study of the recovered artifacts, features, animal
bones, charred seed remains, and excavation records will help assist Dallas
County in determining the fate of the remaining portion of the site and
appropriate conservation efforts.
An update on the site research will be presented as part of Iowa Archaeology Month 2001 at 10 am, Saturday, September 8, 2001 in the Auditorium of State of Iowa Historical Building, 600 East Locust, Des Moines Iowa. This event is sponsored by the State Historical Society of Iowa and is free and open to the public. |
Mary De La Garza, Web Master
Click here to go back to the OSA homepage. |
 Click here to go to The University of Iowa website. |