[Aztlan] Mississippian Site at Hovey Lake Indiana Discoveries

[michael ruggeri]

Archaeological project is finding Indiana's past
Monthlong dig brings excitement
By Thomas B. Langhorne
Evansville Courier & Press



HOVEY LAKE, Ind. -- It was a first in Cheryl Ann Munson's 42 years as  
an archaeologist. She and her team were excavating at Hovey Lake in  
Posey County last week when they made a rare find.

Buried about 18 inches down on what had been the floor of a centuries- 
old house probably made of wood posts, mud plaster and straw was a  
fully intact bowl -- a "deep-rim plate," in archaeologist-speak --  
made of clay mixed with shell.



Inside was an intact clump of something that looks like dirt but  
might be blackened seeds or burned grain.

"Mostly we find broken-up pieces of pottery, and they very rarely  
have contents," said Dru McGill, a graduate student in anthropology  
at Indiana University. "So what we're hoping to do is take it back to  
our laboratory, have it analyzed by a specialist and try to figure  
out just what people here at Hovey Lake were eating 500 or 600 years  
ago."

Munson, an IU research scientist and director of the Hovey Lake  
Archaeological Project, has been bringing teams to the roughly 20- 
acre site as she obtained funding over the past 30 years.

She believes the house burned and its occupants fled, leaving their  
belongings behind. Charred clay, wall plaster, charcoal and red soil  
offer evidence of a fire.

"We uncovered a prehistoric hearth, a fireplace on the floor and a  
crushed pottery jar, and lots of clay plaster, rubble of clay  
plaster, that had burned," Munson said, looking into a trench on the  
site.

"After we had excavated that, we could see soil stains again, and we  
said, 'Oh my gosh, we have something that was here before the house  
was built.' "

Munson's team uncovered evidence not only of an earlier house on the  
site, but holes four feet deep that supported posts for a tower from  
which attackers might have been repelled.

Munson says archaeological evidence uncovered over the years  
indicates the presence of a Native American village of the  
Mississippian Caborn-Welborn culture, including a courtyard square of  
sorts and homes ringed by a large wall supported by massive posts.

Until the archaeologists can find evidence that the villagers may  
have been trading with Europeans or others who had been trading with  
Europeans, they can only rely on radiocarbon dating to surmise the  
village existed anywhere from 1400 to 1650.

Likewise, while the presence of fortifications suggest the villagers  
were concerned with security, Munson and her team have found no  
evidence to suggest there was fighting there. Such evidence is  
typically found in burial sites, and excavating burial sites isn't  
part of her mission.

The area in which Munson and her team were digging lies across what  
is now Ind. 69, on the far east side of the Hovey Lake village site.  
They are attempting to discover whether another fortification wall  
could have been built to protect an expanded residential area.

The current excavations, research and associated educational programs  
are being paid for with about $20,000 in state and federal grants,  
plus private contributions. The work began Aug. 28 and will end Sunday.

"If we end up finding (evidence of) a fortification wall on the far  
south end of the village, it's evidence that social conflict  
continued for centuries," Munson said. "If we don't, I believe it's  
reasonable to conclude the villagers had negotiated a peace agreement  
with neighboring groups."

Distributed by The Associated Press.




Mike Ruggeri's Mississippians and Mound Builders including the Adena  
and Hopewell
http://tinyurl.com/276d8z