Twelve Millennia: Archaeology of the Upper Mississippi River Valley

Chapter Seven

The First Revolution The Late Archaic is the final portion of the long, preceramic Archaic tradition in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, dating from about 3,500 to 2,500 years ago. During the Late Archaic, bands of hunters and gatherers manufactured projectile point styles and practiced burial patterns that indicate distinct regional populations and an egalitarian social structure. Late Archaic cultures produced an array of temporally distinct notched and stemmed projectile points, such as Preston Notched and Durst Stemmed. Preston points were found stratigraphically beneath Durst points at the Preston Rockshelter in Grant County and are thought to date from 3,500 to 3,000 years ago. Durst Stemmed points have been found at a number of sites, including the Durst Rockshelter in Sauk County. Stratigraphic evidence, coupled with several radiocarbon dates, indicates that this expanding stemmed type was manufactured from about 3,000 to 2,500 years ago. Both Preston Notched and Durst Stemmed points (fig. 7.1) are relatively small compared with the lanceolate, large-stemmed and side-notched forms of the preceding Paleoindian through Middle Archaic cultures. Some of the Late Archaic points are so small as to suggest they were made for arrows, which require lighter tips. However, a recent study found that the average c h a p t e r s e v e n early archaic middle archaic l ate archaic 9,000 b.p. 5,000 b.p. 3,500 b.p. 2,500 b.p. weight of Durst and Preston points is about .14 ounce, while late prehistoric arrow tips are consistently around .04 ounce. Therefore, the small Late Archaic points were spear tips but reflect a different technology than earlier forms. One possibility is that the smaller spear tips may have been fitted onto foreshafts. Wooden spear foreshafts, sometimes retaining relatively small hafted points, have been recovered from dry caves in the Ozarks and in the American desert Southwest. These points are notched to remain secured to the foreshaft , but the foreshaft itself was designed to detach from the main spear shaft. One advantage of this compound weapon is that a hunter could carry a single spear shaft with multiple foreshaft tips that could be replaced quickly. Durst Rockshelter One of the region’s most important Late Archaic habitation sites is the Durst Rockshelter. Durst was excavated by Warren Wittry during the 1950s along with Raddatz and three other shelters. The Durst Rockshelter was found to have a substantial Late Archaic component that appears to be a fall through spring seasonal occupation, where the major food resource was white-tailed deer. This component produced a characteristic projectile point type called Durst Stemmed. These relatively small points were found predominantly in 86 | t h e f i r s t r e v o l u t i o n 7.1. Preston (top) and Durst points (bottom ) are diagnostic of the Late Archaic stage dating from about 3,500 to 3,000 years ago. The Preston point is approximately 2.5 inches long. Drawings by Jiro Manabe. zones four and five and above Raddatz side-notched points and under Woodland tradition points and pottery sherds. Durst Stemmed points are common throughout the Upper Mississippi River Valley and are considered one of the diagnostic types for the Late Archaic. The Durst Rockshelter contained one of the few human burials to be found in a Wisconsin Driftless Area rockshelter. Although it is certain that many individuals died during the thousands of years these rockshelters were in use, few intentional burials have been encountered. As noted, the remains of individuals who died during the cool-season occupation at shelters were almost certainly removed, to be buried when the larger macroband assembled. The individual at Durst was an adult female having an estimated age at death of 56 to 75 years. Her teeth showed signs of extreme wear, and she had suffered from advanced arthritis. This may have been an individual with relatively lower social status at the end of her life and, as such, did not warrant receiving burial in a corporate cemetery. Ground-stone artifacts become prominent during the Late Archaic. These include woodworking tools such as grooved axes. At the end of the Archaic tradition, a new form of ax was developed that did not have grooves. These ungrooved axes are called celts (fig. 7.2). Most ground-stone axes have cutting edges but are not extremely...