Program in Midwestern Archaeology

PIMA research is a combination of field school and grant supported research in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio. The UWM Archaeological field school for undergraduates and graduate students (Anthro 567) is run every other year. Between 1998-2017, 188 students have conducted field research at Lake Koshkonong Oneota sites. Since 1998, materials from the field school investigations have provided primary data for numerous undergraduate projects, master’s theses, and doctoral dissertations. PIMA support for undergraduate and graduate student research includes layout space, equipment, supplies, and funding for specialized analyses such as radiocarbon dates, petrographic analysis, and residue analyses.

Recent Research

National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant #1640364

Awarded to Richard W. Edwards and Robert Jeske, this grant allowed for the collection of stable isotope data and radiocarbon dates from dogs associated with Oneota contexts. The data from this project were important parts of Edwards’ 2017 dissertation, several presentations given at professional meetings, and for several articles in preparation for publication.

Archaeological Field School

In the summer of 2017, students and faculty excavated for six weeks at the Crescent Bay Hunt Club and Koshkonong Creek Village sites, both of which date to ca. A.D. 1050-1400. They are both farming villages near Lake Koshkonong, in southeastern Wisconsin. Our 10th field season Crescent Bay continued to provide details on the site’s spatial organization, including our third longhouse. Our 4th season of excavations at the Koshkonong Creek Village enlarged upon the structure and feature complex we have uncovered over years. Along with evidence for at least two residential structures, we have recovered many pit features containing a wide variety of Oneota pottery, as well as massive quantities of charcoal, fish, and mussel shell. Other materials from the features include tools made from deer and elk antler and bison bone.

Along with the Field School, PIMA research includes other field, laboratory and museum based research focused on the Midwest/Great Lakes Region. Students and staff have collaborated with institutions such as the University of Utah, the UW-Oshkosh, UW-LaCrosse, the Milwaukee Public Museum, Wisconsin Historical Museum, and the Logan Museum. We also have collaborative relationships with many government and tribal agencies, as well as private institutions and individuals.

Research in Progress

  • microwear and residue analysis of stone tools from Oneota sites across Wisconsin
  • GIS-based spatial analysis of Oneota settlement patterns and site structure
  • stable isotope analysis of dog bones, using the Canine Surrogacy Approach, to reconstruct prehistoric human diet
  • a systematic program of organic residue dating, X-Ray Fluorescence identification, and mineralogical analysis of clays from ceramic vessels across the region
  • investigations at the Late Woodland Nitschke Effigy Mounds/Garden Bed site complex in Dodge County
  • analyses of several Red Ocher mortuary sites in Wisconsin
  • Clauter, Jody A.
    2011. Ceramic Analyses from the Nitschke Mound Group (47DO27) and Nitschke Garden Beds (47DO518) Sites. Wisconsin Archeologist 92:3-26.
  • Edwards IV, Richard W., Robert J. Jeske and Joan Brenner Coltrain
    2017. Preliminary Evidence for the Efficacy of the Canine Surrogacy Approach in the Great Lakes. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 13:516-525.
  • Emerson, Thomas E, Robert J Jeske and Leighann Calentine
    2005. A New Radiocarbon Date from a Langford Tradition House at the Fisher Site (11wi5). Illinois Archaeology 17:168.
  • Hart, John P., William B. Lovis, Robert J. Jeske and John D. Richards
    2012. The Potential of Bulk Δ13c on Encrusted Cooking Residues as Independent Evidence for Regional Maize Histories. American Antiquity 77:315-325.
  • Hunter, Chrisie L.
    2002. Understanding Upper Mississippian Subsistence and Settlement Through the Use of Catchment Analysis: An Oneota and Langford Perspective. Wisconsin Archeologist 83:76-97.
  • Jeske, Robert J.
    1998. The Davidson Site: A Huber/Berrien Phase Upper Mississippian Site in Porter County, Indiana. Michigan Archaeologist 44:121-150.
  • 1999. World Systems Theory, Core Periphery Interactions, and Elite Economic Exchange in Mississippian Societies. In World-Systems Theory in Practice: Leadership, Production, and Exchange, edited by P. Nick Kardulias, pp. 203-222. Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham.
  • 2002. The Langford Occupation at the LaSalle County Home Site in the Upper Illinois River Valley. Wisconsin Archeologist 83:78-22.
  • 2003. Lithic Procurement and Use within Mississippian Social Networks. In Theory, Method, and Practice in Modern Archaeology, edited by Robert J. Jeske and Douglas K. Charles, pp. 223-237. Praeger Press, Westport, Connecticut.
  • 2003. Langford and Fisher Ceramic Traditions: Moiety, Ethnicity or Power Relations in the Upper Midwest? Wisconsin Archeologist 84:165-180.
  • 2006. Hopewell Regional Interactions in Southeastern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois: A Core-Periphery Approach. In Recreating Hopewell, edited by Douglas K. Charles and Jane E. Buikstra, pp. 285-311. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
  • Jeske, Robert J. and Lawrence A. Kuznar
    2001. Canine Digging Behavior and Archaeological Implications. Journal of Field Archaeology 28:383-394.
  • Jeske, Robert J. and Katherine M. Sterner-Miller
    2015. Microwear Analysis of Bipolar Tools from the Crescent Bay Hunt Club Site (47je904). Lithic Technology 40:366-376.
  • Jeske, Robert J. and Daniel M. Winkler
    2008. The Clovis Occupation of the Schmeling Site (47je833) in Jefferson County, Wisconsin. Current Research in the Pleistocene 25:99-102.
  • Jeske, Robert J., Daniel M. Winkler and Dustin Blodgett
    2010. Experimental Heat Alteration of Lithic Raw Materials. In Designing Experimental Research in Archaeology: Examining Technology through Production and Use, edited by Jeffrey Fergusen, pp. 111-128. University Press of Colorado, Boulder.
  • Jeske, Robert J., Daniel M. Winkler and Chrisie L. Hunter
    2002. Paleoindian and Archaic Occupations of the Kelly North Tract at Carcajou Point in Southeast Wisconsin. Wisconsin Archeologist 83:5-31.
  • Kaufmann, Kira E. and William F. Kean
    2002. Archaeological Spatial Analysis at Aztalan State Park (47je1): Using Geophysical Techniques to Interpret Prehistoric Land-Scape Features. The Wisconsin Archeologist 83:111-112.
  • Park, SungWoo
    2010. Subsistence Change and Lithic Technological Response by Late Prehistoric and Historic Occupants of the Zimmerman Site (11ls13) in the Upper Illinois River Valley of Northern Illinois. Wisconsin Archeologist 91:81-102.
  • Richards, John D. and Robert J. Jeske
    2002. Location, Location, Location: The Temporal and Cultural Context of Late Prehistoric Settlement in Southeast Wisconsin. Wisconsin Archeologist 83:32-54.
  • Schneider, Seth A, Eric J, Schuetz and Robert E, Ahlrichs
    2012. Intraregional Social Interaction in Late Prehistory: Paste Compositional Analysis of Oneota Pottery Vessels in the Lake Koshkonong Region. Field Notes 4:192-215.
  • Sterner, Katherine M. and Robert J. Jeske
    2017. A Multi-Method Approach to Inferring Early Agriculturalists’ Stone Tool Use at the Crescent Bay Hunt Club Site. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 41:1-27.
  • Winkler, Daniel M. and Robert J. Jeske
    2009. Late Pleistocene Occupations in the Lake Koshkonong Region, Southeastern Wisconsin. Current Research in the Pleistocene 26:126-128.

Ph.D. Dissertations

Master’s Theses

  • 2018. Carpiaux, Natalie Ceramic Analysis of the Koshkonong Creek Village Site, Wisconsin
  • 2017. Strange, David The Saints Peter and Paul Parish and the Milwaukee County Poor Farm: A Comparative Osteological Analysis between Two Historic Cemeteries in Wisconsin
  • 2016. Pozza, Jacqueline Investigating the Functions of Copper Material Culture from Four Oneota Sites in the Lake Koshkonong Locality of Wisconsin
  • 2016. Geraci, Peter The Prehistoric Economics of the Kautz Site: A Late Archaic and Woodland Site in Northeastern Illinois
  • 2016. Wilson, Stephen Late Prehistoric Lithic Economies in the Prairie Peninsula: A Comparison of Oneota and Langford in Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois
  • 2012. Sterner, Katherine Oneota Lithics: A Use-wear Analysis of the Crescent Bay Hunt Club Assemblage from the 2004 Excavations
  • 2011. Schulenburg, Marcus A. Ceramic Analysis in the Upper Miami Valley: Using Clay Sourcing to Determine Intraregional Contact within the Fort Ancient Tradition
  • 2010. Moss, James D. Intrasite Feature Analysis of the Crescent Bay Hunt Club Site (47JE904), An Oneota Site in Southeastern Wisconsin
  • 2010. Edwards IV, W. Richard Oneota Settlement Patterns around Lake Koshkonong in Southeast Wisconsin: An Environmental Catchment Analysis using GIS Modeling
  • 2009. Zamecnik, Angela An Osteological Investigation of the Late Woodland Raisbeck Effigy Mound Group, Grant County, Wisconsin.
  • 2007. Dahlen, Timothy N. An Analysis of the Copper-Based Metal Artifacts from the Flynn Site: An Orr Phase Oneota Cemetery in Northeastern Iowa
  • 2007. Epstein, Ethan A. Distant Cores: Lithic Technology, Group Mobility and Late Archaic Economic Adaptation at the Mortar Riddle Site, Steens Mountain, Oregon (35HA2627)
  • 2006. Brandon, Angela Exploring Possible Associations between Petroforms and Effigy Mounds in the Horicon Marsh Area
  • 2005. Bradley, Melissa Paleopathology and Nutritional health at the Nitschke Effigy Mound Site, Dodge County, Wisconsin
  • 2004. Winkler, Daniel M. The Kelly North Phase at Carcajou Point: A Transitional Middle to Late Archaic Component in Southeast Wisconsin
  • 2004. Foley Winkler, Kathleen M. Oneota Mortuary Patterns in Southeastern Wisconsin
  • 2004. Blodgett, Dustin J. Agriculture, Domestication and Oneota Subsistence in Southern Wisconsin: The Crescent Bay Hunt Club Site
  • 2003. Casey, Timothy Effigy Mounds in Southeastern Wisconsin: An Analysis Of Site Location and Environmental Factors
  • 2003. Clauter, Jody A. Late Woodland Cultural Complexity In Southeastern Wisconsin: A Ceramic Analysis From the Klug (47OZ26) and Klug Island Sites (47OZ27)
  • 2003. Olsen, M. Lee Agriculture, Domestication and Oneota Subsistence in Southern Wisconsin: The Crescent Bay Hunt Club Site
  • 2002. Hunter, Chrisie L. A Comparative Study of Oneota and Langford Traditions
  • 2002. Kelly, John M. Delineating the Spatial and Temporal Boundaries of Late Woodland Collared Wares from Wisconsin and Illinois
  • 2000. Naunapper, Linda H. Value in the Use of Historical Sources in the Archaeological Research: A Case Study at the Historic Period Robinson’s Reservation
  • 1999. Gaff, April Y. Canid Digging Behavior in the Archaeological Record: A Comparative Study of Wolves and Dogs
  • 1999. Johnson, Richard Pre-Clovis Possibilities in Southeastern Wisconsin