John Richards, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
“City in the Wilderness: Mounds, Middens, and Ritual at a Late Woodland/Mississippian”
Sponsored by Archaeological Institute of America

Abstract: The Aztalan site in Jefferson County, Wisconsin is a mound and village complex that was occupied by a mixed population of Late Woodland and Mississippian Indians from about A.D. 900 to 1300. The site first captured the public imagination in 1837 when it was described as a mysterious “city in the wilderness”. Although certainly not a “city” as currently defined, one hundred and seventy-six years of archaeological investigations at the site have yet to fully dispel many of the mysteries surrounding Aztalan’ s presence in southern Wisconsin. However, recent investigations by UWM archaeologists have shed new light on previously under reported aspects of site structure, settlement chronology, subsistence practices, external relations, and community ethnogenesis.