[Illustration: Laural-Blackduck {sic} antler with beaver tooth incisor]
Department of Anthropology
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Number 15, Fall 1970
Jan E. Streiff, Editor
[5 pages, one illustration, no figures, 1 attachment]
The C.M.A. will hold its fall meeting on Saturday, November 21. The 1:30 pm session will be devoted to short reports on field work conducted this past summer by Minnesota archaeologists. We hope to hear reports on work done on the Rainy River, in the Sherburne Wild Life Refuge, in the area of the Chippewa National Forest and west, at Grand Portage, and in SW and SE Minnesota. THIS SESSION IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC! We will be meeting in the Nolte Center for Continuing Education on the University of Minnesota campus (see attached map). There will be ample parking in the garage under the Nolte Center and nearby lots. Coffee will be provided. Please join us that Saturday if you can.
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota began its field season this year on the Minnesota Canadian border in Koochiching County near International Falls. The following is a summary of the work written by Professor James Stoltman, University of Wisconsin, who acted as visiting director for the field school:
Preparatory work was begun in the summer of 1968 with excavation of two five-foot squares in the presumed village area near the four mounds of the Smith group. This is the type site of the Laurel phase of northern Minnesota, and is
known mainly from Wilford's work earlier in two of the burial mounds. It was our hope to answer the following questions:
In 1970 it was our intent to take the University of Minnesota summer field school in archaeology to the Smith site (on the Big Fork/Rainy River junction) in order to conduct large block excavations in the village area after a random sampling system had revealed (we hoped) the most promising areas on the site for excavation. Unfortunately, the weatherman conspired against us. On the weekend of June 13, 1970, northern Minnesota was visited by torrential rains in many places - as much as nine inches fell on Cook, Minnesota, in one night causing the Little Fork River to leave its bank and the town to be declared a disaster area. On Monday, June 15, the day we were to comment work at the Smith mounds, we found the site totally under water except for the mounds, which stood as islands above the flooded village. Thus we were forced work elsewhere until the floods subsided. We worked at McKinstry Mound 1 nearby, which stayed high and dry because of its position on a high terrace of the Little Fork. It was not until July 8 that we were able to return to the Smith Village to dig.
Because the academic summer quarter ended July 17, we had only eight working days at the Smith site in 1970. During this time we excavated three two-meter squares (Features 6, 7, and 8). This time we found what we had hoped to find in 1968 - multicomponents [sic], physical stratigraphy that was undisturbed, bone preservation and charcoal. In all three squares we found Blackduck cultural material stratified above Laurel. It is clear from the five total test pits that the Laurel component was largely, if not totally, restricted to the western portion of the site. This is apparent in the following data:
| Total Blackduck Sherds | Total Laurel Sherds | |
| Feature 6 | 51 | 17 |
| Feature 7 | 373 | 177 |
| Feature 8 | 599 | 327 |
The stratigraphic relationship of Laurel to Blackduck is also clear from these excavations. Although the analysis in only in preliminary stage, all
three features reveal the same basic pattern best exemplified in Feature 8:
| Blackduck Sherds | Laurel Sherds | |
| Level 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Level 2 | 16 | 5 |
| Level 3 | 82 | 15 |
| Level 4 | 260 | 13 |
| Level 5 | 241 | 78 |
| Level 6 | 0 | 125 |
| Level 7 | 0 | 72 |
| Level 8 | 0 | 12 |
| Level 9 | 0 | 3 |
| Level 10 | 0 | 1 |
| 599 | 327 |
The second half of the summer, under the direction of Professor Elden Johnson, a University crew conducted an intensive site survey focusing on the problem of prehistoric population shifts which may have accompanied the introduction of intensive utilization of wild rice. The site survey was conducted along an east-west line from Grand Rapids to the Red River Valley. This line cuts through the heart of the most productive wild rice area, includes both Mississippi and the Red River drainage zones, crosses variant physiographic zones, and includes segments of several major vegetation zones. This line also parallels the paleoecological transect of John McAndrews which provides us with control over post-glacial vegetation changes. Over 100 ceramic period sites were located, tested and recorded. While the analysis has not yet proceeded far enough for any systematic presentation of results, late prehistoric sites with Blackduck and/or Sandy Lake wares certainly constitute over 75% of the total, suggesting that the correlation of these ceramic wares with wild rice subsistence modes is positive and should provide a reliable index of population growth.
Minnesota Historical Society
Alan Woolworth, chief archaeologist, conducted excavations at Grand Portage on the Great Hall, the reconstruction of which was destroyed by fire a few years ago. The original foundations were found as well as an accompanying porch. The structure, measuring 30x95 feet, was constructed of wood on a stone foundation.
In addition to the north of the above structures, a wooden building believed to be the kitchen for the Great Hall was discovered. This building was 32x35 feet and within it were uncovered, besides a stone fireplace, artifacts of porcelain, bottles, glasses, spoons, and bones.
David Nystuen of the archaeology staff was in charge of HIghway Salvage and reconnaissance this summer. He and his crew inspected the proposed highway routes throughout the state for possible archaeological sites which might be destroyed during road construction. Although he surveyed many sections of the state, much of his effort was directed to the area along the Mississippi River between Red Wing and Winona and the path of the new Highway 61.
The details of the Historical Society archaeologists' work will be presented at the C.M.A. meeting this month.
Other Areas in Minnesota
Professor Richard Lane, conducting his field school out of St. Cloud State College, continued to excavate within the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge. He and his students are investigating a series of burial mounds and village sites.
The University of Winnipeg conducted excavations in the northern part of Minnesota, on the Rainy Lake, which ran concurrent with the University of Minnesota's first session in that area. The following report by Professor Jack Steinbring, who is in residence at the University of Minnesota this year, summarizes their work:
The Houska Point Site (21-KC-6) is located at the west end of Rainy Lake just across the international boundary from Fort Frances, Ontario. While the site has been known to archaeologists for many years, no formal work has been done there until May, 1970. Following a referral by Dr. Walter Kenyon of the Royal Ontario Museum, the University of Winnipeg, with the cooperation of the MInnesota State Historical Society and the University of Minnesota, undertook the first of two planned field season. The 1970 work confirmed that Houska Point is a well stratified, multi-component site, probably used intermittently by fishermen over a span of about 3,500 years. Evidence exists for at least two clear preceramic units, as well as transient Laurel, and a relatively dense, final Blackduck unit. Of special interest at Houska POint is the presence of hammered copper tools commencing in the lowest levels and continuing into pottery times. A striking feature of some of these copper artifacts is that they are miniature representations of standard Wittry types, established for the Old Copper Culture. Only in the lowest levels are there any suggestions that larger Old Copper types were used at the site. These, however, come only in the form of fragments which appear to derive from the larger types. While only 27 of a planned 61 5'x5' squares have been excavated, it is already clear that some long persisting questions on Old Copper, and some exciting new ones as well, may be partially satisfied . . . at least for this sector of the east-west water route from Lake Superior to Lake Winnipeg. The old question of "technology vs. culture" will certainly receive new attention because of the apparent continuity of copper here from preceramic into ceramic times. The occurrence of miniature copper artifacts in an occupation site, as opposed to the universally large ones in burial sites, poses a variety of new points of inquiry. Besides the obvious one of "value" attached to the commodity itself, there is, for example, the interesting question of function for these tiny but very well made tools. If they were used, as seems quite plausible, in the production of very delicate objects in wood and possibly bone media, we may be missing a great art.
Among the thirty-odd copper objects recovered in well defined stratigraphic contexts are: double pointed pins or probes, single pointed pins, small punches, socketed projectile points, cones ("tinklers"?), conical projectile points, crescent knives, fish hooks, chisels, straight knife blades, toggle head harpoons, awls, and trim bits. The last listed, of course, make it clear that artifacts were manufactured on the site. Numerous specimens of such residue were recovered from the surface of the site, along with 200 or more copper artifacts. Only a few trim bits have yet been excavated, however. No beads or other ornamental copper objects were excavated so far at Houska Point, and none was found on the surface. There is practically no bone preservation.
The stone artifacts at Houska Point consist mainly of projectile points and
scrapers. There are a great many scrapers. Since the site has always been at the far tip of a long finger of land, the interpretation of these scrapers as being used in animal hide preparation may here be retired in favor of a new conclusion reached at other "point" sites in the Upper Great Lakes over the past few years. Scrapers were probably used in processing fish. The projectile points are not numerous, and most would fall roughly in Late Archaic and transitional types: simple lanceolate, side notched, corner notched, and a few stemmed forms. There are as yet only two excavated lanceolate specimens, both from deep levels, but they do suggest the possibility that "classical" Agate Basin types found on the surface at Houska Point may yet occur in the stratified portion of the site. If so, the time span of the site might be somewhat expanded.
The Laurel presence at Houska Point consisted only of (at most) two isolated vessels occurring in a fire-darkened hearth-like concentration which also contained abundant Blackduck sherds. At this point an archaeological association between Blackduck and Laurel in this feature does not seem contestable, especially since some of the Blackduck sherds were found under and containing Laurel sherds. Carbon samples are adequate, and further interpretation will await their dating.
The final Blackduck component is thin but dense. Several thousands of sherds have been cataloged.
Evidence of historic contact is limited to a few trade beads within the root zone, easily 19th Century. It is not yet clear if the historic material is related to the Ojibwa who ave occupied the immediate vicinity of the site until very recent times. Certainly it is probable.
The Houska Point Site is being excavated as a project of the University of Winnipeg's Archaeological Field School. The 1970 Field School was directed by Mr. James P. Whelan, assisted by Mr. David Riddle and Mr. Jeff Rushowick. Mr. Rodney Houska, owner of the site and enthusiastic amateur archaeologist, made numerous useful suggestions in the conduct of the project. In special tribute to Mr. Houska, it is worth noting that not everyone will permit the complete excavation of his front yard!
Recent Publications
Johnson, Elden, "Archaeological Evidence for Utilization of Wild Rice," Science, Vol. 163, pp. 276-77, January 17, 1969.
---, "Preliminary Notes on the Prehistoric Use of Wild Rice," The Minnesota Archaeologist, Vol. 30, No. 2, 1969.
Johnson, Elden, Martin Peterson, and Jan Streiff, "Birch Lake Mound Group," Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science, Vol 36, No. 1, 1969.
Wilford, Lloyd A., Burial Mounds of the Red River Headwaters, Minnesota Historical Society, St. Paul, 1970.
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Map: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, PARKING FACILITIES, MINNEAPOLIS CAMPUS