Indiana Jane

Retired historian discovers ancient Ho Chunk effigy mounds near Lebanon, WI LEBANON, WISCONSIN (WKOW) -- It's not often that tall tales and old rumors carry any truth to them, but in the case of one man from rural Dodge County, an

Explore one of the best-preserved, pre-contact Native American sites in North America with a visit to Angel Mounds State Historic Site during .

Discover 103 acres of the original town that served as a religious, political and trade center and was home to 1,000+ people who were part of the Mississippian culture. Plus, find out how modern archaeology allows us to learn about people who lived there hundreds of years ago.

Plan a visit: http://bit.ly/3bmSIm8

It’s true, we have met a lot of folks who didn’t know pumpkins are edible, but it’s not their fault. Commercialism is the biggest educator in our society. So here’s a usual bit our audiences used to hear from me at our harvest-time demos, shortened for you here ----> Through precise methods of breeding, Native Peoples transformed wild gourds/early squash and grass into ground fruits and grain that fed large regions of Native America (and later, the world over). For thousands of years Native farmers (likely many women) bred squash/pumpkins and corn into bigger, productive and nourishing crops, able to thrive at many latitudes and altitudes, perfecting plant qualities for harvest, storage and consumption,… all for us (you and me) to prefer less edible qualities of some of these same crops?!? And why? Because holiday decorating is big business! Just think about this… We took perfectly edible pumpkins and bred new varieties from them to be thinner with a woody texture because these qualities worked better for carving… So we purposely made a fruit less pleasant to eat so we can put a face on it, then let it rot until we unceremoniously toss it. Or how about the way we just outright labeled food inedible, like the multicolor “Indian decorative corn” that graces so many doorways this time of year. How strange it is, when you think about it, that we took the work of thousands of years, the work of thousands of Native hands and minds that went into creating and perfecting crops to feed humans, that we purposely bred some of these strains to make them less edible. Wow! (Photo: A perfectly baked pumpkin/squash, stone-grilled venison, and boiled green corn from our/WIEP’s camp at Feast of the Hunters’ Moon, 2017).
NOTICE: STAY TUNED FOR *NATIVE FOODS NOVEMBER* POSTS!!!... celebrating the Indigenous foodways of the Eastern Woodlands.

So, what were the earliest towns in Kentucky? Numerous internet and pages will tell you it was places like Fort Boonesborough, Fort Harrod or other revolutionary-era settlements that started as military outposts and later turned into agricultural settlements after Native Americans were forcibly removed in the late 1700s.

Archaeologists will tell you this narrative is missing something and needs to change, and they are correct. Native American farming towns were the first in Kentucky. These farming communities dotted the river valleys and uplands of Kentucky from ~1,000 A.D. until the mid-1700s A.D. when European colonization displaced them. Archaeologists call this farming culture "Fort Ancient", based on a shared tradition of agriculture / silviculture, architecture, technology, and religious/ceremonial symbols and practices. Archaeological remains of this culture have been recorded in central and eastern Kentucky, southeast Indiana, southern Ohio, and western West Virginia. Further south and west in Kentucky was another Native American farming culture archaeologists call "Mississippian". Mississippian communities had similarities to Fort Ancient, but the two cultures are distinct enough to consider them separate. We will explore the relationship between the two cultures in a future post. There is a growing consensus among archaeologists and historians that the three Shawnee Tribes are the main, though perhaps not only, Tribal descendants of the Fort Ancient culture.

Each Fort Ancient town had a few dozen residences surrounding a central plaza with a public structure and a cemetery area. The residences ringed the plaza to make a circular community layout. Each house had a central hearth, food storage areas, and usually the front door opened toward the plaza. Sometimes the interior floor was compacted or fired clay almost like concrete. The public structure (some use the term "council house") was in the plaza, and was typically larger than residential structures. The cemetery was sometimes between the houses and the plaza, sometimes behind the houses. Some towns had wooden palisades (high walls) around the perimeter; archaeologists disagree on whether these served defensive, symbolic, or both purposes. Towns would have been surrounded by in-field crops; corn, beans and squash were the mainstays, but to***co was also cultivated. Beyond the in-fields, forest lands were managed for nut-producing tree species and, as recent archaeological studies suggest, certain tree species were likely managed for choice wood types for building. Of course, all of the visible architecture is now gone, but archaeologists can trace out the structures, plaza and cemetery using a combination of maps, geophysical survey, and excavation. Many of the major trails connecting these towns were recycled by Europeans, and many Kentucky towns/cities are on top of former Native American towns, including Augusta, Petersburg, Ashland, Irvine and others.

Today you can visit the former location of a Fort Ancient town near Dayton, OH that was excavated by archaeologists in the 1970s and a partial replica rebuilt using their studies (see https://sunwatch.org/exhibits/). The image included in this post is based on archaeological excavation of a of a Fort Ancient village in West Virginia (artist: Jim Railey; source: https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/media/31530). That work was done comply with the National Historic Preservation Act - infrastructure projects that use federal funds are required by this act to record and asses the significance of archaeological sites in advance of developing an area. Much of what we know about the Fort Ancient culture is the result of such studies, which makes the National Historic Preservation Act important for Native American history. The act also requires consultation with local historic preservation offices and federally-recognized Tribes, which gives both local residents and descendant communities a voice in the process of recording and preserving history.

You can read more about the Fort Ancient culture and see lots of great pictures in a free public educational booklet by the Kentucky Archaeological Survey here:
https://www.kentuckyarchaeologicalsurvey.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Fort-Ancient-booklet.pdf

If you want more in-depth information about Fort Ancient in Kentucky, you can read Chapter 7 of The Archaeology of Kentucky: An Update here:https://heritage.ky.gov/Documents/TheArchaeologyofKYAnUpdateVol2.pdf

Remembering Jim Thorpe: An American Olympic Athlete
Name: Wa-Tho-Huk – Bright Path
Birthdate/Place: May 28, 1888 – Prague Indian Territory
Death date/Place: March 28, 1953 – Lomita, CA
Best Known as: a natural athlete who excelled in track, football, and baseball. At the age of 24, Thorpe attended the 1912 Summer Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden winning gold medals in the pentathlon and decathlon and setting records that would stand for decades.

Don’t let distance stand in the way of learning. Mesa Verde now offers virtual education programs designed to bring the wonders of the park into your classroom or homeschool environment. While our programs focus on 3rd -8th grade curriculum standards, they can be adapted for learners of all ages.

If you are a teacher and are interested in signing up for a live ranger-led experience, visit our website for more information. https://www.nps.gov/meve/learn/education/virtual-learning.htm

Image: A park ranger holds up a black-on-white pottery mug while standing in front of a green screen that displays an image of Cliff Palace and shows the program title, "Mesa Verde National Park - Puzzle of the Past."

Great news!!!

We begin our day with fantastic news!! Last night, the U.S. Department of the Interior officially announced that it has submitted the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks World Heritage nomination to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee on behalf of the United States of America! A 15+ year collaboration among Ohio History Connection, Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, federally recognized Tribal Nations with historic ties to Ohio, and a robust team of avid supporters has brought this dream to fruition! From the official announcement:

"This constitutes the official notice of the decision by the United States Department of the Interior to submit a nomination to the World Heritage List for the “Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks"...The nomination was submitted through the U.S. Department of State to the World Heritage Centre of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for consideration by the World Heritage Committee, which will likely occur at the Committee's 46th annual session in mid-2023."

Please join us in celebrating this milestone! To learn more and to help support the cause please visit the links below. Thanks for your support!

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2022/03/23/2022-06121/submission-of-us-nomination-to-the-world-heritage-list

https://www.ohiohistory.org/hopewell-ceremonial-earthworks-nomination-to-unesco-world-heritage-list-will-be-considered-next-year/

NPS photo, fog simmers at Mound City Group.

At the beginning of the month, we posted about a brooch recovered from the early-mid 19th century privy associated with 71 Joy Street in Boston’s Beacon Hill neighborhood. While it might have some of the most expensive real estate in the city now, the North Slope of Beacon Hill was once the home of working class people including much of Boston’s free Black community. 71 Joy Street was owned & occupied by members of this community from 1840-1878.

Yes, we study material culture here at the lab, but the whole purpose of that is to learn more about the lives & uncover the stories of the people who used & occupied the spaces we excavate. We wanted to learn more about who the owner of the brooch might be & what their life might have been like. So we needed to consult the documentary record as well.

Our research about the occupants of the property led us to mariner Thomas George & his daughter, Matilda, a dressmaker. Thomas lived at 71 Joy Street (it was 14 Belknap Street at the time) at least as early as 1843, & Matilda 1846. We found out a little later that her mother was probably also living there, though she wasn’t listed in the directory until 1848. The brooch could have belonged to either of the George women. It’s extremely rare that we can definitively attribute an artifact to an individual, but maybe learning more about Matilda & Juda could tell us what life was like for working class Black women of the time & how the brooch might be used by them.

We wrote in earlier posts how tracing the histories of Black individuals is often more difficult than their white counterparts. Black people’s lives were often not recorded as diligently in official records. The presence of women in the record is usually tied to the men in their lives, making them even less visible. We tried to find more about Matilda in the documentary record, but quickly hit a dead end. It seemed like the only thing we might ever know about her was her name.

Then the discovery of a key piece of information changed everything. We found an 1853 marriage certificate for Aaron A. Thompson and his bride, Matilda Scott. But the certificate also said that this was her 2nd marriage. Her father was listed on the marriage certificate as Thomas George. Wondering if this Matilda might be the Matilda George we had been looking for, we decided to follow her written history & it revealed a fascinating story.

This post is the 1st in a series of 3 about 71 Joy Street & the George family that lived there. Check back in on Wednesday for part 2, which will detail the lives of Matilda, Juda, & Thomas George.

Piecing Together Pandenarium: Archaeology at the Site of a Free Black Community in Western Pennsylvania - Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine In 1854 newly freed African American men, women and children hailing from a plantation in Ablemarle County, Virginia, arrived at a dusty country crossroads in northwestern Pennsylvania’s Mercer County. Estimates vary, but approximately 63 free people settled together on 100 acres of their own land...

This little scribble is actually a drawing made by an ancient Egyptian school-child nearly 2,000 years ago!

The big head, the stick legs, and the googly eyes are all instantly recogniseable as the work of a young child trying to draw a person (or maybe a king or a god?).

This adorable piece was recently discovered by Egyptologists at the ancient settlement of Anthribis, 40km from Cairo.

Here, they've found a collection of over 18,000 ostraca - fragments of broken pottery that were re-used by the town's ancient inhabitants for writing on, just like we use scrap paper today.

In ancient times, ostraca were widely used for making notes, receipts, lists, and accounts.

But, say the archaeologists at Athribis, a surprising number from this newly discovered collection seem to be from the classroom of an ancient school.

Instead of lists or accounts, many show pictures like this one, as well as alphabets, teaching materials, grammar exercises, and even lines written by naughty children as punishments!

More info and pictures here: https://digventures.com/2022/02/these-2000-year-old-drawings-by-ancient-egyptian-school-children-are-delightful/

Clam garden will bring history full circle at Kukutali - Northwest Treaty Tribes The Swinomish Indian Tribal Community is bringing back an Indigenous shellfish cultivation method that dates back at least 4,000 years and will bolster food sovereignty efforts. The tribe is building a 200-foot-long clam garden at the Kukutali Preserve. The garden will be a terraced swath of beach t...