Voice Thread from Susan

Here is a voice thread that Susan did on questions about Imagine Exploring the Past and comments by other students and friends.  Please add your own comments or voice.click here

Last Post from La Crosse

As I reflect on all that I have learned about exploring the past around La Crosse, I thought about all of the birds I have seen.  I never expected to see so many eagles.  We saw 3 Tuesday along the Mississippi River on our way to the Indian Mounds and a family, mother, father, and 2 babies in Myrick Hixon Ecopark across the street from the University of Wisconsin La Crosse campus. Eagles are territorial, so are seen several miles apart.  If eagles aren't far apart, they are the same family or if not near their own nesting territory, they are just hunting and will "hang out" together temporarily.  Walking through the Myrick Hixon marsh, we have seen five Great Blue Herons together, a Green Heron, many Mallard Ducks, Gold Finches, Canadian Geese, Wood Thrushes, and Cardinals and Turkey Hawks.  On the farms we have seen Guinea Hens, chickens and turkeys.  It is a bird watcher's paradise.

Organic Farming

We have explored the past in the Upper Mississippi River Valley for the past three weeks.  Today we looked at organic farming and how some farmers are returning to natural methods.  We visited the Volden Farm near La Farge, again driving through the lush green rolling hills in southwestern Wisconsin.  Dan Volden spoke to us about his decision to not use steroids on his cows.  Over the years the vet bills had increased,  his cows lived only a few years, and had fewer calves.  Since he returned to organic dairy farming, his livestock are healthier, produce more calves and live to 7 or 8 years longer.  His decision was made after visiting Spring Green, WI and there was a sign in a restaurant that said, "Don't Drink The Water."   The pesticides used on the crops runs off the land into the water.  When a farmer decides to change to organic dairy and crop farming, he cannot use steroids or pesticides for three years.  Then the soil and cows are tested. We spent time seeing the cows and new born calves, which was so much fun for a city slicker.  Dan and Joanne's grandson, who is in third grade, accompanied us.  I gave him my email address and when school resumes he will answer any questions we have.  We then went to Organic Valley Family of Farms cooperative. Their brochure explains Organic Farming as a system and philosophy of production that mirrors the natural laws of living organisms. The building was built using green methods, with solar heating, and recycled products such as the carpeting, flooring, and cubicle space dividers.  What have you heard about organic farming?  click here

Effigy Mounds, Cordage, Cahokia Indians

Dr. Theler reviewed our trip to the Effigy Mounds National Monument and discussing Raisbeck Mounds which has 5 basic shapes: 38 conical, 14 linear, 13 bird shaped, 11 "canine" or bear shaped, and 3 oval.  The Hopewell culture, which includes the burial ceremonies, commenced or lived in the Upper Mississippi River Valley in Western Wisconsin from A.D. 1000 to 200 during the Middle Woodland period.  One to 6 humans were buried in some mounds, but the normal count was 1 to 3 individuals. 
click here

Dr. Theler then discussed William Hurley's study and duplication of the Hopewell cordage, or knotting patterns, found in their fabric made of nettle.  Nettle is the best fiber to use because it is extremely strong and wide spread.  The Amish are still making nettle cords. Sometimes the cordage was imprinted on to wet vessels before they dried in order to make the surface rough and prevent slipping while holding them.  Can you consistently make a square or granny knot?  It's not as easy as you think.  It's easy to make a cord, but the sophisticated technology needed to get a consistent cord is difficult. Anthropologists think mothers handed down their unique pattern to their daughters.  This reminded me of the fishermen patterns unique to each family on their Irish sweaters.

A hypothesis that we typically use for our Science projects is one or two sentences. Dr. Theler's hypothesis on why the Woodland Indians disappeared is complicated, but I will attempt to simplify it.  During AD 1048, there was a severe winter, the population had increased and depleted the resources because the bow and arrow made killing deer easier, and there was little fire wood on the prairie.  They reorganized and moved further West to hunt bison in order to let the deer repopulate.  Once you miss one generation, you forget the hunt cycle so they didn't return to this harsh winter environment.

After the Woodland Indians disappeared, the Cahokia Indians, who had a sophisticated village north of East St. Louis, Illinois, moved into the Upper Mississippi Valley.  The Cahokia Monks Mound near East St. Louis includes a park and museum where you can learn more about their culture.  http://cahokiamounds.org/learn/  They had a specialization of labor, elaborate rituals, spherical pottery, arrow heads with notched points, and the concept of land ownership.  If the winters are harsh in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, why did some Cahokia move here to farm and hunt deer?

Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center Website

This summer 25 teachers from across the United States studied at the University of Wisconsin La Crosse.  Here is their website and it is full of excellent information, pictures, and other links.http://www.uwlax.edu/mvac/

iMovie on Archaeology: "Archaeology: Are You Diggin' Me?

Watch this exciting and informative iMovie by Linda Wohlman from Long Beach, California who teaches Six Grade Ancient Civilizations.

Cave Drawings, Effigy Mounds, 1832 Black Hawk War

Today we visited the Effigy Mounds National Monument in McGregor, Iowa and saw rock art at Larsen Cave, on the Larsen Farm in Eastman, WI. They were about an hour south of La Crosse. We watched a video on the mounds at  the welcome center at the Effigy Mounds.  They have found mounds from New York to Iowa, and then south to New Mexico.  There is a beautiful, but long and steep trail to see the various types and sizes of mounds.  The largest one is just before a panoramic view overlooking the Mississippi River.  Some of the mounds are in the shape of a bear, probably to represent the Bear Clan, some in the shape of birds, and others are conical shaped.  More than half of the mounds in the low lying area were plowed over when the settlers moved here.   There are no artifacts that indicate there were villages near by.  As we stood at Fire Point, overlooking the Mississippi River,  Dr. Theler discussed the Pearl Rush at the beginning of the 20th Century that depleted the clams.  Mussels were later introduced to this section of the river.  Then we rode a short way to the Larsen Cave, where we walked through the corn fields and then down a treacherous path.  But it was well worth the effort.  It was 98 degrees, with a heat index of 102, but inside the cave it was 50 degrees - what a wonderful respite!  The picture above is very hard to seek, but if you look carefully you will see a deer facing left.  There were other drawings of crudely drawn birds and human arms.  The paintings were made with a red ocher dye.  The inside top was black from magnesium leaching out and parts of the walls were red from the iron when it hits air and water and rusts, also called rust oxidize. On our way home we stopped at the Historical Marker for the 1832 Black Hawk War, also known as the Battle of Bad Axe,  on August 1st & 2nd.  Many Sauk died of starvation on their escape through the valley to the Mississippi River.  Approximately 150 men, women, and children were massacred at this site.  Black Hawk escaped, but was later captured in Iowa by the Ho-Chunk Indians and turned over to American authorities.  When you see the mounds, the cave art, and this battle site, it brings alive all that we have read about while studying Native Americans.  Why do you think the settlers plowed the Effigy Mounds without any consideration for these sacred lands?

Cree hunters of Mestassini

We started class by reflecting on learning how to make flints, arrows, and throwing spears last Friday.  We were all struck by the fact that we refer to the earliest Indians in North America as primitives and yet their culture and skills were actually very advanced.  They had long traditions which were wide spread and interactive.  They might not have used our terms, but they had the technology and knowledge of physics to make their tools.  We then talked about Anthropology - probing a culture's secrets.  We watched, and then discussed a movie made in 1974 about a band of Cree who were hunters and gatherers and lived about 900 miles north of Quebec near James Bay.  The movie showed the women's specialized tasks of gathering and chopping wood, preparing and cooking food, and gathering moss to insulate the wooden cabin.  The men are primarily hunters who can be gone for many days.  Each year they move to a different site so must build a new home.  Each family has their own territory but many times 3 families will live and hunt together because they want to leave their land to repopulate with bears, beavers, moose, and other wild game. They put coniferous boughs on the floor to keep the home fresh smelling because there could be as many as 19 people living in the house. The 3 families eat separately in the one big room, but they keep their eye on each other to make sure no one is going hungry.  They burn up to 4500 calories a day and their diet includes a lot of fat and oil to keep them healthy and warm. This film centered around Sam Blacksmith who had 1200 square miles.  One teacher Googled Sam Blacksmiths and found he died two years ago at the age of 97.  Would anyone like to research and make a comment on this area in Canada to see how the land has been affected by the building of new roads, a dam, and saw mills?

Arrows, Atlatl, Knapping

Today we went back to the Cade Farm where our instructors had three stations.  At the flint knapping station, Robert Keipers, a professional knapper has been doing this for 40 years.  He took a very large granite rock and explained how he would use another rock and pressure to break away sections.  Once he had the basic shape, he would use two different sizes of deer horns to chip away at the outer edges to form it.  He also used copper to chip away at the flint.  As he worked on the flint stone, he would explain his thought process and why he did what he did.  Sometimes he would use a magic marker to draw around an area that he wanted to chip off.  He travels across the United States meeting other knappers, learning and sharing  techniques, and buying stones.  These meetings are called knap-ins. We were told that some unscrupulous knappers will sell their flint stones on E-bay as authentic.  The way to tell is if a flint stone is too perfect, it is probably a fake.  Our next station was learning how to throw an atlatl (spear) and it wasn't as easy as it looked.  One teacher teaches javelin and discus throwing so he had a better feel for this sport.  After we practiced several times, we given a very long spear to attach to the atl atl and this would make the spear sail farther and more accurately.  Our target was a fake bear which most of us missed.  Only one teacher came very close.They have atl atl contests and people attend them, just as there are marathons, bike or canoe racing, and other types of sport competitions.  We also learned how to use a wooden stake to bore a hole in a stone using sand.  At the arrow making station we were first shown an arrow bush on the Cade Farm.  The shafts are very straight. The wood is tied in bundles for 3 months, then the bark is shaved off using a flat stone and retied in bundles for six months.  Loren Cade invented a sizing stone to help whittle the shaft to a uniformed width.  Turkey feathers are burned or seared in a straight line. Sinew from a white tail deer is stripped and made very thin.  This is wet and wrapped around the feather and is a form of glue.  I asked about turkeys in North America because I had read recently that turkeys originally came from Turkey.  Loren said they have found turkey bones from prehistoric times in North America.  It could be that when Europeans came to the Americas they named the bird.  Where are wild turkeys found in North America and are they in South America too?

Woodland Indians

The Woodland Indians lived 2 - 3,000 years ago and archaeologists have discovered extensive relics :
  1. pottery containers
  2. great burial mounds with many exotic artifacts
  3. symbolism such as tracking the faces of the moon indicating they understood the concept
  of the equinox and soltice
  4. a tribal level society indicating people with prestige such as shamans were buried together
  in a high lying spot and others scattered in low lying areas
  5. clan organization showing they buried people with common ancestors along bloodlines

The Middle Woodland era was in the Greater Midwest and begins in Illinois and extends to New York.  They had trade networks. An oobsidian knife was found and obsidian is only found in Yellowstone. They had copper from upper Michigan.  They moved to what is now New Jersey,  no one knows why, but they have the same trade network.  They had cattail weaved houses which they rolled up and moved, leaving the tree-made shell.

Mastodons and Mammoths

As I started my note taking in class today I reflected on the information I thought my students would be fascinated by. I was also struck by how lucky we are to live in Chicago and be able to go to the Field Museum frequently.  Dr. Theler showed us a Mastodon tooth that was found in Chipmunk Cove by Elmer Harold in 1921.  He was still alive in 1984, so he went out to talk to Mr. Harold which I found thrilling.  Thomas Jefferson had heard about Big Bone, Kentucky, which is across from Cincinnati and was very interested in Mastodons and Mammoths so he schooled Lewis and Clark to look for them because he believed they still existed. We learned that a Mastodon is a browser (white tail deer is one also) who has bumpy teeth to eat vegetation above ground such as brush and bushes.  A Mammoth is a grazer with smoother teeth.  We can trace hunters across North America by finding fluted points in these animals. We reviewed the Paleoindians who lived in small populations, were highly mobile which meant non permanent habitation, used little marginal resources, and consumed large mammals as their staple food.
We next learned about the Archaic period which is divided into
1. Early - 10 -8,000 YBP
2. Middle - 8 - 5,000 YBP when we find evidence of settlements and the first formal cemeteries
3. Late - 5 - 3,000 YBP
During the Archaic period, archaeologists have found fishing tools and nets, middens or trash pits, stones used for boiling.  Fire was used widely on the landscape to prepare the land for spring planting.  Dogs developed out of wolves about 13 - 14,000 years ago and were used by these hunters and gatherers as pack animals and they were the first to sound the alarm to warm them against other humans or dangerous animals.  A three dog night meant it was so cold, they slept with 3 dogs.  As the population became denser, there were less large mammals and they would hunt smaller animals and fish.  During the Late Archaic period, there is evidence of regional adaptation, inter regional trade, and copper used for pots.  Musical instruments were found such as turtle shells and bone flutes.  Some plants were grown and among the most useful was the gourds because they were used as vessels or containers. Is the elephant found in North America before Europeans came?

Synthesizing what we've learned

Today we started with small groups to review what we have learned about the first North Americans.  Our group started with the question - How do you look for physical evidence and document it?
 We were given seven topics to think about and we completed this outline:
A. Environment - food, water, shelter, and space
    1. animal remains, shells
    2. ice age
    3. water source
    4. caves, simple huts
B. Technology - simple
    1. tools and pottery
    2. where materials came from    
 

                                                                                                           Clovis Point: fluted paleoindian point C. Subsistence
     1. processing sites
     2. animal bones, fruits, plants
     3. fire (hearth)
D. Settlements - along entry points
   1. nomadic bands (25 or fewer people)
   2. near kill sites
E. Social Organization - hunters and gathers in small groups because of  the scarcity of  animals
F. Ideology - believed in spirits, magic, gods
G. Date - 20,000 years ago using relative and radio carbon 14 dating methods

Professor Theler then introduced the Folsom, circa 11,500 YBP, and the Clovis , circa 13,000-13,500 YBP,  Points - flint stones used on spears that have been found mostly in central and eastern United States and down the Pacific Coast of South America.  Thousands of fluted points have been found in Illinois. There is clear evidence that these have been found in Mastodons and Mammoths which are ice age animals. The Paleoindians, also spelled Paleo Indians, are considered the first people to live in North America during the Pleistocene or last "Ice Age." There are different theories of when and where they came here, but he likes the one that expounds that they came from Siberia to Beringia through the ice free corridor roughly 12,000 BP (before present AD 1950).  There is DNA linking them to people from Siberia. They came here because their population density forced them to find new food sources. They have O blood type. There is a site in Washington State along the Columbia River where a human skeleton that is 9,200 years old was found and which had European or Caucasoid characteristics.   In Europe, artifacts have been found from 25,000 years ago that show similar projectile points by the Atl Atl or spear throwers. We know that the Vikings, led by Erik the Red,  founded Greenland around  AD 982. The question is who really discovered North America?

How do we go from artifacts to understanding?

We went to the University's archaeology department's lab, got into our unit group from Friday's dig, and washed with a toothbrush the surface rocks, the level 1 cherts or flints, shards, and charred or preserved seeds.  Sheila, who graduated in June and is working this summer, helped us to understand what we found.  We were given a MVAC Artifact Catalog form and Lithic (stone) Terminology worksheet to help us categorize our findings. Professor Theler demonstrated how to prepare a platform by taking tiny flakes off and rounding it and then pound it once, but very hard, to get a chip to make a knife, arrowhead, or scraping tool.  What many of us think of as arrowheads are really knives or knife points. Arrowheads are actually very small and fragile and fit on the shaft.  Experts in flakes can tell at which stage the tools are.  Looking at the various stages helps explain if this was a hunting or habitation (living) site.  If the flakes are small, this might possibly be a hunting site where the Indians make repairs or retooled their weapons.  The site find will all tell scientists what they were doing in the area and where they were getting raw material.  Valuable sites gave the Native Americans material to trade. The shafts were extremely hard to make because you needed hard straight wood.  They would make sure they retrieved them after they were thrown. The males made the hunting tools and of course hunted, while the women made the pottery and scraped the animal hides in addition to cooking. Professor Stevenson discussed the very specialized discipline of analyzing residue.  She also reminded us that archaeologists always start with a specific research question before they choose a site or analyze artifacts.  How do you tell if a tool maker is left or right handed?

Data Collection and Analysis

We reviewed our field work on Friday, July 16th. Ted brought up how broad based archaeology is because of the many disciplines required to analyze a site. Archaeologists are looking at the soil, bones - both human and animals, tools, and pottery to name just a few. We all had a better appreciation of the hard work required to find the artifacts and preserve them. Professor Theler mentioned that sites are missed because archaeologists don't go deep enough. He explained the two basic forms of dating: Relative, which looks at an object and is determined by if it is earlier or older than other known objects, and by looking at layers of bones; or Absolute which is based on a calendar date. With Absolute dating, scientists use Climatology - wet and dry cycles. Dendrochronology is the study of the rings in a tree that reflect these cycles with their distinct patterns. They have a tool that bores into a tree and extracts a long sample which looks like a rod. Absolute dating can also be determined by Radio Carbon which was first discovered in 1950 by Willard Libbey, who is known for his work on the Manhattan Project. We watched a documentary, Decoding Danebury, on techniques used by archaeologists to analyze material 2,500 years old to reconstruct a picture of life in Celtic times which included the political, ideology (including religion), cultural, and economical forces in this community.

La Crosse Tribune article on Archaeology

In Sunday's Hometown section of the La Crosse Tribune, on the front page was an article on archaeology because the University has a major department on archaeology and are educating the public because the area is so rich in artifacts. The article discussed MVAC - Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center - and programs that are available to the public. The article discussed the Oneota Indians who were a late prehistoric farming community. The area is rich in shards of North American pottery and shavings from shaping arrowheads and spears. La Crosse has an ordinace that requires MVAC to test areas if a contruction site is 20 square feet by 2 feet deep or larger. Road contruction requires an environmental impact statement. When they built the Valley Mall, they paid for salvage excavation before the developers moved in and a wealth of artifacts were found by volunteers.

Finding artifacts on the Cade Farm

Today we went to the Cade Farm, in Vernon County, which has been in the family for about 150 years. The farm was an hour south of La Crosse. Loren Cade began his accidental find of artifacts when he helped his father plant tobacco because the plugs had to be put in by hand. The family notified the state and they recorded it as an archaeology site. Loren had plowed a small area a few days before in anticipation of our dig. Two students were there and had measured off five 2 meter square units. This site was 47VE643 - 47 for Wisconsin, VE for Vernon County, and 643 for that particular area on the farm. We were given plastic bags, marked out bag and clip boards to record our findings, including that it was a level one plow zone. It was necessary to mark the level to show it had never been disturbed so they could continue to farm this area. Five of us worked each unit after being shown how to carefully dig and shift the soil. If we heard a clink we used a trowel. Someone asked Loren what was his most prized find and he said, "I want to say it's the whole collection. It includes artifacts from paleo to archic, to late woodland." We found pottery shards, two arrow tips, and numerous other specimens which we will wash and analze next week. When we finished for the day, all the dirt was put back and the unit markings were removed. It was important to not work a bigger area than we could complete in one day because this area will not be analyzed again until there is time to dig to the second level, which Loren showed us how to do on one unit.

Archaeology

How do you know it's an artifact and where do you find them? Today we spent the day learning just that for our dig tomorrow. Since prehistory has no written records, archaeologists have to look at the location, the patterns of objects in the landscape, and the context or time and space). Many of us think of the romance of archaeology such as Indian Jones, discovering King Tut's tomb, or the ice man. But much of it is mundane. Stewart Picket started a whole new approach referred to as garbology - looking at garbage. Grant Clark had a systematic study of antiquity to reconstruct the past: who, when, and where which is the easier part. It's the why that is the hardest part to explain, such as why have some civilizations simply disappeared.
90 to 95% of what was left behind is perishable so lost. We therefore can only look at the remaining 1 to 10% for cultural activity and physical traces. Archaeologists look at: 1)habitation sites, 2)burial sites, 3)quarry sites, 4)kill sites, 5)underwater sites, and 6) special processing sites.
There are 2 basic types of artifacts - portable and non-portable. Examples of portable are pottery and tools. Non-portable examples are house basins and storage pits. Archaeologists look at ecofacts such as plant and animal remains. When they looked at the ice man they even looked at the remains in his stomach to understand his diet.
Jim Theler used the example of a house in class in analyzing the content. Do you look at the contents and sort them according to tin, china, tools, etc. or do you go room by room, and sort them by content and location. Many of the objects we know facts about, but there are many we must make inferences about. He gave us a stone with a groove and we had to guess what it was used for. Then he brought in a modern day tool that was similar, and then we knew exactly what it was - the first axe. We learned the importance of analogy, to start with the modern contents, and work back - look at current tools and how are the artifacts similar, but we can sometimes be wrong.
Sites are found simply by walking over them, digging, asking other collectors where objects were found, flying over an area, erosion, or accidental (think of the ice man.) What would you do if you found a valuable artifact or site?

Amish in Cashton, WI

Today we visited a diversified Amish farm, where they raise young heifers and rock cornish game hens, train horses, sell exquisite quilts, baskets, flowers, and grow oats, hay, and vegetables. The Amish call us the English. From my readings, I learned that the Amish began when Jacob Ammann, who was Swiss, broke away from the Mennonites. The average family has from 8 to 12 children. They have no electricity, telephones, plumbing, bicycles, and of course, no cars. Across the U.S. there are church districts with 25 families and are led by a bishop. Even today they speak a language that is comprised of German, Swiss, Dutch, and English. Students only speak this combination of German, Swiss, and Dutch until they go to school where they learn English. The Amish find land that is cheap because it is usually in isolated hillsides which are conducive to farming with horses. The farmer introduced us to their draft horses that can weigh over a ton and are around 18 hands (4" to a hand) tall. We were asked not to take their pictures because in the Bible it says "thou shalt not make a graven image." They have a wind mill to pump water into a huge cistern. They cook over a wooden stove, but sometimes use coal. They cut frozen ice in January to store in a small room in their home. They order their seeds in August, and plant them in February in their greenhouse. They have a huge kitchen and living room area because every two weeks a family hosts the other 24 families for a three hour church service and dinner. Visitors travel from all over Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois to buy their products. They were excited to have us sign their guest book, especially those from as far away as California, Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Colorado. If, in 500 years, archaeologists study two farms side by side, one English and one Amish, what mistake would they make if they didn't know about the Amish culture?

Chicago

Today, some of us began the day by walking through Myrick Park which includes a marsh. We saw a bald eagle, blue herons, and many ducks. In class we introduced ourselves and used the U.S. map to discuss where we lived in terms of land formation, environment, and culture. I touched on such facts as Chicago means 'wild onion,' it's built on a swamp, and became known as the Windy City not because of the wind but because at one time some politicians went to Washington, D.C. and didn't stop talking. Many other cities are windier, such as St. Louis. I explained about our cultural diversity, our natural resources, and how lucky we are to live in a city with so many parks, forest preserves, bike paths, and what I think is the most beautiful and accessible lake front. I discussed how we are striving to add more trees and plants to our city, including roof top gardens. What did I forget and should tell them tomorrow?

La Crosse, WI

The drive through Wisconsin was beautiful, espcially as I headed west after Tomah on I-90. The Coulee region (valley) was a lush emerald green because of all the recent rain. The seminar started today, July 12th. There are 25 teachers from 14 states. Some came from as far away as California, Texas, North Carolina, Lousianna, and Oklahoma in addition to the Midwest. La Crosse was home to numerous villages of the Oneota cultures until AD 1625. The first written accounts began 350 years ago when French explorers and the missionaries came. The Oneotas were subsistence farmers during the growing season and then went west to hunt bison during the winter. La Crosse continues to be an ideal building spot because of the Mississippi River, the protection between the bluffs, and the flat flood plain's rich soil. This week we will study archaeology,anthropology, the Driftless Area and the Upper Mississippi Valley, the Amish, and go on an excavation at the Cade Archaeology District in the Bad Axe Valley. We will be visiting an Amish community. Did you know Amish children don't learn English before they start school? Please let me know any questions you have.