Number 8, Fall 1965
Elden Johnson, Editor
[5 pages, 2 figures]
Sister M. Inez Hilger, anthropologist at the College of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, Minnesota, recently forwarded the information that Mr. Nick Wenner of Cold Spring had discovered a nearly complete pottery vessel which might be of some significance. Mr. Wenner was contacted and kindly brought the partially reconstructed vessel to the University of Minnesota. The following description of the vessel is presented because the information is of importance in expanding our knowledge of the poorly defined Middle Woodland horizon in central Minnesota.
The reconstructed vessel is shaply [sic] conoidal, as seen in the accompnaying [sic] figure. A slight constriction above the rounded shoulder forms a neck which leads to the moderately flaring rim. Vessel walls are remarkably uniform in thickness, ranging from 0.9 to 1.0 cm. at all points other than the thickened conoidal base. The vessel is 39.5 cm. high; body diameter at the shoulder is 28.2 cm; neck diameter at the point of maximum constriction is 22.8 cm.; and the vessel mouth has a maximum diameter of 23.9 cm.
The compact dark gray paste is tempered with very finely crushed granite showing angular fragments of quartz, mica and feldspar, although there is nearly an equal amount of very small rounded quartz particles, which probably represent sand in the original clay material. The hard body and rim sherds of the vessel show no evidence of coil breaks; and the exterior color ranges from gay [sic] to buff, with the former predominating. There is no exterior fire smudging, and the
interior surface of the vessel, also gray in color, shows no smudging, staining or other evidence of use.
Exterior and interior surfaces of the vessel are smooth with no indication of an initial cord marking. Decoration consists of dentate stamp, punctate and boss, incised or shallow trailed line, and elongate simple tool impression. The decoration occurs on both exterior and interior surfaces of the vessel above the shoulder, but the flattened lip is undecorated.
The interior decoration consists of a single row of deep circular punctates, 0.5 cm. in diameter, encirculing [sic] the vessel 2.5 cm. below the lip. These deep punctates produce an exterior boss. Above the interior punctates, a continuous series of vertical or slightly oblique tool impressions lead to the lip. The tool impressions appear as a regular series of long-shallow notches. Each impression is approximately 1.5 cm. in length and 0.4 cm. in width.
Exterior decoration consists of a series of five horizontal decorative bands encircling the vessel with the lower three bands outlined by shallow trailed lines. The decorative element in these lower three units consists of dentate stamp impressions varying in length from 0.9 to 1.4 cm. and resembling the oval "snowshoe" variety of dentate stamping. These oval stamped impressions are placed vertically, and are spaced approximately 0.5 cm. apart as they encircle the vessel.
The row of exterior bosses, formed by the interior punctates, encircles the vessel immediately above the three dentate bands. The bosses are spaced from 0.3 to 0.4 cm. apart, and each interval of separation contains a very shallow punctate which does not produce an interior boss. The final and highest decorative band consists of a series of oblique dentate stamps beginning above the bosses and terminating at the exterior edge of the lip. This dentate stamp is rectangular rather than ovoid, and the impressions are irregularly space[d] at intervals ranging from 0.4 to 1.0 cm.
The general vessel form, color, and the dentate-punctate-boss decorative combination indicates a relationship to the Havana Ware of Illinois (Griffin 1952:101). More specifically, the ovoid "snowshoe" dentate stamp motif resembles most closely the Naples Ovoid Stamped pottery type within the Havana Ware complex (Griffin 1952:112). Although both forms of horizontal bands, the decorative, and the incised or shallow trailed line, do occur in the Illinois Havana Ware, the closest parallel to this particular decorative pattern occurs on the Sorg banded dentate type from the Spring Lake Area (Johnson 1959). Sorg banded dentate differs from the type resented by the Cold Spring vessel, however, in several respects, most notably in the cord marked surface treatment and the more rounded or subconoidal vessel form in the Sorg type. The ovoid dentate stamp of the Cold Spring vessel is not present in the Sorg type. Thus the Cold Spring vessel appears to represent a type which is probably a northern variant of Naples Ovoid Stamped within the Havana Ware ceramic complex.
Figure 1. Diagram showing vessel shape and design elements
Figure 2. [Not legible]
Griffin, James B.
The 1965 Minnesota State Legislature passed an appropriation bill for the Outdoor Recreation and Resources Commission which includes funds for prehistoric archaeological research. The funds appropriated for the present biennium will enable the University of [sic] operate a program of site survey, site excavation, salvage excavation, and publication. We wish to thank those of you who expressed an interest in the program and invite all of you to visit any of the following summer field excavations.
A site survey and testing program in the vicinity of Mille Lacs lake will be conducted by Professor Leland R. Cooper of Hamline University, assisted by Professor Claude Stipe of Bethel College, and a small crew of University of Minnesota and Hamline University students. The survey work will concentrate on the area of the new MIlle Lacs-Kathio State Park but will be extended if time permits. An intensive excavation program for 1966 at Mille Lacs will be based on the survey results and will concentrate on late prehistoric and proto-historic village sites in an effort to document Eastern Dakota habitations.
A University of Minnesota summer session crew will excavate at the Orwell Site in Southwestern [sic] Ottertail County. Professor Robert Keyser of Moorhead State College will assist Elden Johnson in directing the excavation of this burial mound and embankment site during July and August. A survey crew will operate from the same camp to work in both Ottertail and Grant counties and the crew would appreciate any information on site location.
A small survey crew will work in south central and southwestern Minnesota during the latter part of August and September with its primary aim that of locating, mapping and testing preceramic sites. The crew will also survey projected highway right-of-way. Anyone who wishes to contribute information which will help this or the other crews should contact the Department of Anthropology in Minneapolis.
C. T. Shay concluded his second field season at the Itasca Bison Site and will continue analysis of the data from the site at Colorado State University where he has accepted a position in anthropology. The 1965 excavations were again financed under a grant from the Hill Family Foundation of St. Paul supplemented by a National Science Foundation Grant to the University of Minnesota. Shay continue excavations int he peat deposit, locating additional faunal and cultural materials and successfully trying [sic] his strata cut to that of the Jenks and Wilford trench of 1937. Excavations on the summit of the hill directly west of the peat deposit located a zone with projectile points and flint waste, with some of the projectile point types related to those from the peat deposit. Specialized analysis of faunal remains, molluscs, pollen, soils, and ecological reconstruction are continuing and the first series of six samples for radiocarbon dating have been submitted to the University of Michigan for analysis.