MVAC e-News for June 2022

MVAC e-News for
June 2022

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MVAC Update

MVAC is usually open during regular business hours, but if you would like to visit, we recommend calling or e-mailing in advance to make sure someone will be available.
MVAC’s 2022 summer in-person events have been cancelled. Watch our e-News, website, and Facebook page for updates on future events!

Feel free to email us at mvac@uwlax.edu, or leave a voicemail at (608) 785-8463.

Youth Outdoor Fest
Saturday, July 9, 2022
10 am to 2 pm
Pettibone Park, 374 S Pettibone Drive, La Crosse, WI

MVAC’s Connie Arzigian will be at the event sharing some Native American artifacts and games, as well as information on Archaeology as a career, and on the Archaeological Studies program at UWL.

Link to more information.

Historic Indian Agency House
Archaeology Dig
Saturday-Sunday, August 6-7 and 13-14, 2022
10 am - 4 pm
The Historic Indian Agency House, Portage, WI

Come dig with us! We're in hot pursuit of the hottest place on the hillside: the Agency blacksmith shop. Roll up your sleeves and dig with us into our site's buried history! Come prepared to get dirty, learn a lot, and make great memories through this once in a lifetime opportunity as you and your family help unearth artifacts that may not have been touched by human hands for 200 years or more. Dr. Constance Arzigian, a research archaeologist with the Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center and a senior lecturer in archaeology and anthropology at UW-La Crosse, will lead the dig.

Link to more information

MVAC Video
Size Grading

MVAC Research Intern Cindy Kocik discusses size grading, a technique archaeologists use to efficiently focus their study of light and heavy fraction from matrix (soil) samples.

Bill Gresens’ Archaeology Book Review for June 2022

Picnic in the Ruins by Todd Robert Petersen (four trowels)
A tale of high adventure mixes well with this serious discussion of the ethics of archaeology and cultural resource management.

Link to read the entire review

MVAC News

An MVAC memory from Jean Lund, Onalaska, WI
My first 'adventure in archaeology' was volunteering with the Midway dig in 1988. (I had Summers off, teen-age kids, and finally decided to do something I had always been intrigued with.) What an amazing introduction to this fascinating world it turned out to be. Later digs included Pammel Creek, the Gundersen Site, and others. It was such a privilege to work with Drs Gallagher, Theler, Boszhardt, Rodell, and Arzigian. The senior archaeology students were always so kind and helpful to us 'older folks'. I believe they mirrored the excellent scientific training of their teachers but also their teachers' respect and appreciation for the entire crew.

Most of the digs were exciting and filled with 'finds'. I still remember the bison scapula cache I found at the Gundersen Site!

However, one dig stands out as 'not so much'. We were digging in a farmyard in Houston? Hokah? beside a small stream. The accommodations were non-existent--the restroom was a corner of the barn-eeeuw. For four days we dug and dug and found nothing. Finally, on the fifth day a young Social Studies teacher on his very first dig found an intricately carved bone knife handle. We were all so happy for him. He had so wanted to bring back stories and photos of great treasures to his students. At least he had one good tale to tell.

I learned that much of archaeology is hard, hard work with little return. Even when there are great returns the hard work continues back in the lab--often unseen and unsung. I am so appreciative of all that MVAC does to preserve and share the history of our area. What a wonderful opportunity it also offers to community members to be a part of it. We are very lucky here.

If you have an MVAC memory that you would like to share, please send it to mvac@uwlax.edu.

UWL Archaeology and Anthropology Senior Theses
Three UWL Archaeology and Anthropology students studied Oneota ceramics this past year for their Senior Theses. Two of them used MVAC collections to examine cooking patterns and design motifs. The third conducted experiments to replicate our large Oneota pots.

Lauren Stanley, Examining Ceramic Motifs as Markers of Oneota Identity: A Case Study from the 47LC288 Site, Wisconsin
Clayton Bruckner, Analysis of Carbonization Patterns to Determine Use of Oneota Ceramics at the Onalaska Village Site (47LC288)
Carley Arrowood, Recreation of Oneota Ceramic Manufacturing and Firing Techniques through Experimental Archaeology

UWL Campus Connection
Healing through history
Yoli Ngandali, ’14, developed her skills as a researcher and archeologist through UWL’s Archaeology & Anthropology Department and Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center.

Link to read the piece.

Archaeological Terms, Artifacts, and Specific Sites Snippets

New information added to MVAC’s website in May:

Dendrochronology – Video
Link to view video

Rock Art – Portable – Sandstone Carving – 3D
Link to view post

Lessard – Ironstone – Molded Saucer
Link to view post

Juneau County Rockshelter
Link to view post

Regional Interest

Links are provided to other organizations videos that may be of interest to our readers. MVAC is not responsible for the content of other groups' videos.

New – YouTube – The archaeological and paleoecological legacy of the Itasca Bison Site (21CE1)
Minnesota Archaeological Society

YouTube - 1,200-Year-Old Dugout Canoe Recovered from Lake Mendota
Wisconsin Historical Society

Zoom - Identifying Oneota Cuisines
The Charles E. Brown Chapter of the Wisconsin Archeological Society

YouTube - Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Recovery of a 1200-Year-Old Canoe from Lake Mendota
Wisconsin Historical Society

YouTube – Fur Trading in the 18th-century: A View From Réaume’s Leaf River Post, Wadena Co, MN
Minnesota Archaeological Society

YouTube - There is Flint: Rediscovering the Grand Meadow Chert Quarry
Minnesota Archaeological Society

Zoom - Working to Stay Together in “Forsaken Out of the Way Places”: Investigating Anishinaabeg Family Logging Camps as Sites of Social Refuge and Resilience During the Era of Assimilation in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, 1880-1940
The Charles E. Brown Chapter of the Wisconsin Archeological Society

Zoom - Ancient Pottery, Cuisine, and Society at the Northern Great Lakes
The Charles E. Brown Chapter of the Wisconsin Archeological Society

Historic Preservation and Archaeology Webinars
Wisconsin Historical Society

YouTube – Phase III Excavations at 47CR660 – Lessard Site (Vicki Twinde-Javner)
Colorado Archaeological Society, Indian Peaks Chapter

YouTube - Iowa Stories: Household Economy at Wall Ridge (Jim Theler and Joe Tiffany)
State Historical Society of Iowa

Podcast - The Power of Indigenous Knowledge (Heather Walder)
Wisconsin Humanities

Zoom - From the Mountains of the Philippines to the Shores of Lake Superior: Exploring the Performance of Pots
The Charles E. Brown Chapter of the Wisconsin Archeological Society [Note: it must be watched through the zoom client software. It can be installed for free online; just the regular zoom viewer does not work.]

YouTube - The Moon's Tears Fell on Cahokia
The Archaeological Conservancy

YouTube - Evidence for Bison Butchering and Use from the Joy Creek Major Site
Iowa Archaeology

YouTube - Archaeological Examination of the War Eagle Shipwreck
La Crosse County Historical Society

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