MVAC e-News for October 2022

MVAC e-News for
October 2022

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MVAC Availability

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

Support MVAC during One Day for UWL – October 18-19, 2022

For 24 hours, alumni and friends from around the world will come together in celebration and support of university students and programs! One Day for UWL demonstrates the immediate impact of the UWL family. It provides students, friends, families and alumni the chance to work as a collective group, in a short amount of time, to give back to campus and the areas they care about most. Consider showing your support for MVAC on One Day for UWL.

Link to make a secure online donation

Midwest Archaeological Conference
Thursday-Saturday, October 13-15, 2022
La Crosse Convention Center

The Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse are pleased to be hosting the 2022 Midwest Archaeological Conference, October 13–15. Events will be held at the La Crosse Center in downtown La Crosse, Wisconsin, on the banks of the Mississippi River. Check the website for registration.

Link to the annual meeting information page for details.

MVAC Video
What Are Archaeological Features?
Some Upper Mississippi Valley Examples

Many people know the archaeological term “artifact”: a portable item that was made, modified, or used by people. But what do archaeologists mean by “feature”? Features are non-portable evidence of human activity—physical structures or elements that were made or altered by people but cannot be moved. They include storage or garbage pits, hearths, post molds or other house remnants, and a wide range of other types. MVAC Research Intern Cindy Kocik shows how archaeologists recognize, describe, and interpret features, using examples from western Wisconsin. Studying features helps archaeologists interpret and understand past activities and how people used the land, went about their daily lives, and adapted and changed through time.

Bill Gresens’ Archaeology Book Review for October 2022

The Locked Room by Elly Griffiths (three trowels)
The fourteenth Ruth Galloway archaeology mystery is set against the backdrop of the early days of the COVID 19 pandemic and involves the excavation of a likely 14th Century plague burial and a 21st Century stealth killer.

Link to read the entire review

News

Historic Indian Agency House – Archaeology Dig
During the four days of this year’s excavations, over 100 members of the public joined archaeologists Connie Arzigian (Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center, UW-La Crosse), Dan Joyce (Director Emeritus and Curator of Archaeology, Kenosha Museum Campus), Cindy Kocik (Mississippi Valley Archaeology Center), and John Wackman (retired) in their continuing efforts to locate the agency blacksmith shop.

Historic artifacts recovered from the excavations help expand the historical understanding of how the Fort Winnebago Indian Agency functioned in the early 1830s. The nails reflect a wide range of construction techniques, including hand-wrought nails to modern wire and machine headed. The nails, along with window glass, fragments of mortar and plaster and flecks of white paint, may indicate some sort of residence or similar structure that postdated the initial Agency House use. Animal bones, including both bird and mammal fragments, as well as ceramics suggest kitchen midden debris. An 1865 5-cent piece was also recovered. Exploration at the site will continue next summer.

MVAC at the United Fund for the Humanities (UFAH) Annual Event
UFAH has been a partner and supporter of MVAC since 1986. This year’s UFAH Annual Campaign event, attended by nearly 100 people, was held at the new Capella Performing Arts Center in La Crosse. This location provided a great opportunity for MVAC staff to show how archaeologists look for sites in urban areas, and to share information on archaeological finds and past cultures in La Crosse. We appreciate UFAH's long-time support for MVAC and other local arts and humanities organizations!

Archaeological Terms, Artifacts, and Specific Sites Snippets

New information added to MVAC’s website in September:

Vertical View: Archaeology in Profile - Video
Link to view videos

Second Fort Crawford - Stub-Stemmed Pipe
Link to view post

MVAC’s Archaeology Education Program – Video
Link to view post

Bones – What’s In This Jar??
Link to view post

Projectile Points – Largest, Smallest
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.

YouTube - Traveling Prehistoric Seas: Boats, the Oceans, and Archaeological Evidence for Precolumbian Voyages
AIA Milwaukee Society

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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