Posted on 09/03/2003 8:25:36 AM PDT by blam
Posted on Wed, Sep. 03, 2003
ARCHAEOLOGY: Site yields evidence of prehistoric farming on Door County peninsula
Associated Press
GREEN BAY, Wis. — Archaeology digs have provided researchers with the first hard evidence of organized, prehistoric agriculture on the Door County peninsula, a Marquette University researcher said.
The site along Wisconsin 57 in the southern part of the county may also give researchers more information on Ice Age glaciers in the bay of Green Bay.
"You don't get many sites like this in Wisconsin archaeology," said James Clark Jr., researcher for the university's Center for Archaeology Research. "We have multiple occupations over thousands of years here."
Crews from Marquette and the University of Wisconsin have accelerated years of digging near the highway in recent weeks, as the state finishes its investigation to expand Wisconsin 57 to four lanes from Green Bay to Sturgeon Bay.
A Marquette crew discovered tiny kernels of burnt corn and a milling stone, which was probably used to grind the corn, buried in sandy soil among artifacts dating to about A.D. 1200.
The corn and the stone, found near Fabry Creek in the town of Union, belonged to American Indians of the "Mero complex" Oneota period from about A.D. 1100 to 1300.
Clark said Oneota Indians once built a semi-permanent village there, and his crew has found evidence of at least one wigwam structure.
They also found piles of chipped stone, broken pots, arrowheads, spear points, burnt wood, bone fragments and dimly outlined trash pits.
Beneath the Oneota artifacts, the crew discovered several layers of older artifacts, each one representing another time period when American Indians occupied the area.
Clark said he believed the earlier occupations date to about 9600 B.C., about 12,000 years ago, because of the style of spear points found in the dig.
Archeologists have been digging through almost 5 feet of pure sand at the site, indicating a prehistoric beach, Clark said.
Lake waters at the time were very different. The shoreline rose and fell, according to the melting and freezing of the glaciers, over hundreds of years.
A thick layer of decayed plants may help determine the last ice retreat, Clark said.
Well, the site is a few billion years old (depending how we look on these things) ;-)
Okay. The human artifacts at the the site date back 12K years.
Of course it also has all those fish boils and you never know whether they are a Saturday night delicacy or a medical condition.
Just damn.
If you want on the new list, FReepmail me. This IS a high-volume PING list...
Well, the site I live on is 6 billion years old.
Evidence of gardening, however, is only like 30 years old.
Do I issue a press release?
Already there is a 30 year waiting list for pepole to view the site ;-)
Dat area in Door County's heavily Belgian, dontcha know. Ya gots yer booyah, ya gots yer Belgian pie, an' ya gots yer Belgian sausage.
Are the spear points Indian?
Probably not. There weren't any Indians here that long ago, they got here only 6,000 years ago. Must be Kennewick Man's people. (..and probably pre-Clovis like Cactus Hill and the Topper sites)
European DNA Found In 7-8,000 Year Old Skeleton In Florida (Windover)
Check out 9,000 year old Cheddar Man, he still has living relatives.
Yeah, well dat may be so NOW, doncha know, but dose early Cheeseheads, dey were somebody else, hey, dey got dere so early, dey don't know to wear green and gold, doncha know. Dey wore deerskins and a lot of dem got shot by da Yoopers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.