Middle Woodland/Hopewell

During the early part of the twentieth century, John C. Hartman of Waterloo, Iowa, documented archaeological sites and artifacts in Black Hawk County, Iowa. His legacy includes drawings, newspaper accounts, artifacts, and correspondence with other archaeologists. Hartman's work, coupled with more recent archaeological investigations like those conducted by the University of Northern Iowa at the Black Medicine site (13BH164), is used to refine what is known about the prehistoric use of the area. The results of this synthesis of old and new research suggest the possibility of a settlement system involving differential use of the landscape along the Cedar River.

The Weedo(e)n Island site is well-known among archaeologists in the southeastern US as the type site of the Weeden Island culture, a mortuary complex shared by geographically wide-spread cultures ca. AD 200-900.  Recent research (survey, excavation, analysis, radiocarbon dating) by multiple institutions focusing on the domestic sphere have added new details about the site’s history and use during the Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods.

The Elizabeth site is a bluff-top mortuary mound group constructed and primarily used during Hopewellian (Middle Woodland) times. Recent reanalysis of nonhuman skeletal remains from the site reveals that an intentional burial previously identified as a dog (Canis familiaris) is actually an immature bobcat (Lynx rufus). As a result of this discovery, we reevaluated eight other purported animal burials from Illinois Middle Woodland mounds, including seven dogs and a roseate spoonbill (Platalea ajaja). The dogs all appear to be intrusive or unrelated burial events, but both the bobcat and the roseate spoonbill were definite Hopewellian mortuary interments. The roseate spoonbill was decapitated and placed beside a double human burial. But the bobcat was a separate, human-like interment wearing a necklace of shell beads and effigy bear canine teeth. To our knowledge, this is the only decorated wild cat burial in the archaeological record. It provides compelling evidence for a complex relationship between felids and humans in the prehistoric Americas, including possible taming.

At least 20 Middle Woodland mounds once existed along the Iowa-Mississippi River bluff at Toolesboro in Louisa County, Iowa. The mounds were investigated as early as the 1830s or 1840s, with most excavations occurring in the late nineteenth century. Although field records are sparse, available data permit insights into mound structure, mortuary practices, demographic and biological characteristics, and cultural connections. Mound construction and use began early in the Havana tradition, ca. 150 B.C., and continued for perhaps 200–300 years during the Hopewell horizon. Excavations revealed log-lined tombs containing burials associated with ceramics, copper axes and pins, platform pipes, exotic lithics and minerals, and other funerary objects. Toolesboro and nearby sites indicate full participation by southeast Iowa Middle Woodland populations in the Havana-Hopewell cultural network.

In prehistoric North America, artifacts of copper occupy a position of prominence in the Hopewell societies of Ohio’s Scioto Valley. These artifacts also represent the social contacts and long distance interactions that brought copper to the Scioto Valley.  Yet our understanding of Hopewell copper acquisition, and the movement of copper artifacts within the social networks of the Scioto Valley and beyond, has been limited due to the limited availability of geochemical data concerning provenance and variability.  We begin to develop the foundation for understanding these important social issues by analyzing the elemental variability of Hopewell copper through the use of Laser Ablation Inductively-Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry.  We analyze 24 samples from four known copper source regions and 52 samples from six prominent sites in the Scioto Valley.  Results suggest that a majority of the artifacts are consistent with three sources in the Great Lakes, with a plurality classified as Isle Royale. However, 21 percent of Scioto Hopewell copper artifacts were most consistent with Southern Appalachian sources. High elemental variability argues against simple models of copper acquisition and suggests that different social groups had access to a variety of copper sources through varying social networks.  Native copper regardless of source seems to have been channeled along similar social and symbolic pathways. Our results suggest that instead of being derived from the struggle to access a specific source, value is derived from the social relationships represented by the copper and the connotation of exotic connection embodied in both style and material.

This article offers insights into the organization of Scioto Hopewell craft production and examines the implications of this organization through the lens of ritual economy. We present a novel analysis of investigations at the North 40 site, concluding that it is a craft production site located on the outskirts of the renowned Mound City Group. High-resolution landscape-scale magnetic survey revealed a cluster of three large structures and two rows of associated pits; one of the buildings and three of the pits were sampled in excavations. Evidence from the North 40 site marks this as the best-documented Scioto Hopewell craft production site. Mica, chert, and copper were crafted here in contexts organized outside the realm of domestic household production and consumption. Other material remains from the site suggest that crafting was specialized and embedded in ceremonial contexts. This analysis of the complex organization of Scioto Hopewell craft production provides grounds for further understanding the elaborate ceremonialism practiced by Middle Woodland (AD 1-400) societies and adds to the known complexity of craft production in small-scale societies. Furthermore, this article contributes to a growing body of literature demonstrating the utility of ritual economy as a framework for approaching the sociality of small-scale societies.

Este articulo proporciona nuevas perspectivas sobre la organización de la producción artesanal Scioto Hopewell y también examina las implicaciones de la organización artesanal aplicando la economía ritual como marco. Presentamos un análisis distinto sobre las investigaciones en el sitio Norte 40 y concluimos que es un sitio dedicado a la producción artesanal en las afueras de el renombrado Mound City Group. Prospecciones magnéticas de alta resolución a escala grande han revelado una agrupación de tres estructuras grandes y dos filas de pozos asociados con estas estructuras. Los materiales que provienen de excavaciones en una de estas estructuras y tres de estos pozos nos indican que el sitio Norte 40 es uno de los mejores ejemplos de la producción artesanal Scioto Hopewell. Productos hechos con mica, sílex, y cobre fueron producidos en contextos orga-nizados aparte de la producción y consumo domestico. Otros materiales que provienen de este sitio también revelan que la producción artesanal era especializada y estaba entrelazada con contextos ceremoniales. Este análisis, el cual se enfoca en la organización compleja de la producción artesanal Scioto Hopewell, nos proporciona la base para obtener un entendi-miento mas complejo sobre ceremonias elaboradas de sociedades Middle Woodland (1-400 dC). También nos enseña que la organización de la producción artesanal de sociedades de pequeña escala resulta ser mas compleja de lo que previamente teníamos entendido. Es mas, este articulo contribuye a creciente evidencias que nos demuestran la utilidad de la economía ritual como un marco para interpretar las dinámicas entre las sociedades de pequeña escala.

Summary of the 2016 geophysical survey at Gast Farm (13LA12), located in the Mississippi River valley in southeast Iowa. Results included documentation of plowed-down mounds as well as circular-plaza forms of the Middle Woodland and Late Woodland occupation loci.