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83 chapter five Archaeological Sites in Dune Contexts around Lake Michigan This sample locale description and summary compendium contains many of the fundamental primary observations on the six major archaeological locales newly located, newly sampled, reassessed through field investigation, and/or dated and redated with new samples from 2006 to 2008 as part of the ISTEA buried site taphonomy/dune activation and cycling project. As we have done elsewhere, the sequential presentation is organized geographically around the Michigan locations in the Lake Michigan basin. The first site summarized, the Winter site, is the most western site the project visited along the northern coastline of Lake Michigan. Site descriptions then proceed eastward to the Straits of Mackinac, and then southward to our most southern site in Oceana County. As chapter 2 revealed, no buried and stratified coastal dune archaeological sites have yet been discovered south of this point on the eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan. As will be readily evident, the specific content of each site or locale summary is variable, although each contains a synopsis of past and current research, a detailed statement of the depositional sequence and formation processes, and any associated absolute ages (AMS, 14C, OSL) attached to either the geological deposits (paleosols, sands) or cultural residues (features, artifacts). Dependent on the availability of reports or published materials, other aspects of the summary may vary. For example, the Ekdahl-Goudreau and Mt. McSauba sites, among others, have never been published, and in some cases the only information available is from institutional field notes. These sites are less well described. At the opposite extreme the Winter site has been summarized extensively in major papers and a master’s thesis. In our presentation we chose not to be overly redundant with the available literature. Finally, it is essential to note that the sites described here are not the only sites incorporated into our analysis. Contributory sites are presented in appendix C, along with the many nonarchaeological dune locales field-sampled between 2006 and 2008. chapter five 84 Winter Site (20de17), Delta County Location and Description The Winter site (figure 5-1) is situated on the western shore of the Garden Peninsula, between the northern end of Green Bay and Big Bay de Noc. The site is located on the east bank of Valentine Creek, in the nw ¼ of the nw ¼ of Section 28, Fairbanks Township, t39n r17w, Delta County. The site was originally recorded by Thomas Bianchi in 1968, and was excavated by Jeffrey Richner, then a graduate student at Western Michigan University, in the summer of 1972. Two major pieces of analysis and reporting resulted from this work. In 1973 Richner produced a MA thesis titled “Depositional History and Tool Industries of the Winter Site: A Lake Forest Middle Woodland Cultural Manifestation,” and Bianchi subsequently in 1974 produced a major and unpublished description of the ceramic assemblage titled “Description and Analysis of the Prehistoric Ceramic Materials Recovered on the Winter Site.” In 1980 Terrance Martin identified and reported on the limited faunal assemblage from the two major components at Winter site Mid-Holocene shore 5-1. The Winter site location. Archaeological Sites in Dune Contexts 85 the site. The conclusions and interpretations resulting from these analyses were summarized in a recent comprehensive overview of northern Michigan Middle Woodland societies (Brose and Hambacher 1999). The primary reports by Richner (1973), Bianchi (1974), and Martin (1980) also form the basis for much of our ensuing summary. Our revisit to the site 17 June 2007, by a team consisting of the three authors, confirmed that the depositional history of the site as reconstructed by Richner was fundamentally accurate. However, neither Richner nor Bianchi had access to absolute dates for his analysis and interpretation. Indeed, the site remained sans absolute chronology other than the relative sequence revealed by stratigraphic superpositioning of the occupations and comparative ceramic cross-dating for 25 years, until the current project rectified the situation. Stratigraphy and Dating The Winter site is situated on an isostatically uplifted beach or storm terrace on the eastern shore of Big Bay de Noc, and is consequently situated inland of the current lakeshore at an altitude of 179–80 masl. Richner correctly argues that the site would have been on the lakeshore during its occupation. Bianchi (1974), following Richner, describes the stratified deposits at the Winter site in terms of a “lower,” a “middle,” and an “upper” midden; these are occupations in stable soils here translated as A2/B or Ab horizons (figure 5...

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