In the archaeology lab we are still busy inventorying and photographing fascinating objects from Like-A-Fishhook village (32ML2), as part of an artifact cataloging project started in early 2015. We do this every Friday morning (we call it “Like-A-Fishhook Fridays”).  As you already know from my previous blog post about Like-A-Fishhook, (http://blog.statemuseum.nd.gov/blog/adventures-archaeology-collections-fishhook-village), it was the last traditional earthlodge village built in North Dakota and was home to Hidatsa, Mandan, and Arikara people.  It was occupied from about 1845-1889.

Since the site of Like-A-Fishhook is now under water, the artifacts collected during archaeological excavations in the 1950s provide a very important record of the village. The things that people left at the site tell us about what life was like: what the environment was like, what people traded, what people ate, and even the games that they played. Here are a few more artifacts that we have seen in the archaeology lab in the past few months:

There is a piece of turtle shell.

A piece of turtle shell (12003.17)

Notice the distinctive sutures (the zig-zag looking edges) where the shell fits together. We can compare this piece to examples of turtle shell in the faunal comparative collection.

A piece of a turtle shell from the AHP faunal comparative collection (HP 94-45.1)

I was excited to see a beautiful abalone ornament. Abalone shell comes from the Pacific coast—a long way from North Dakota! How many hands did this shell pass through before it got to Like-A-Fishhook?  Who made it into an ornament? Was the ornament part of a necklace, or sewed on clothing? Who wore this?

An abalone shell ornament (12003.2276)

This is the end of a small wooden barrel. What do you think was stored or shipped in this barrel?

A wooden barrel end (12003.2330)

Another exciting object is a burl wood bowl.

A burl wood bowl (12003.13175)

This bowl is almost perfect. I like to think that it looks ready for some stew!

My favorite find from this past month included two samples that were labeled “bison hair cordage.”

Left: Bison hair cordage (12003.2501)
Right: A close-up view of the bison hair cordage, you can see the cut ends of the fiber in this photo (12003.2501)

The fiber is twisted and looks like it has been cut into short pieces. Bison hair has been used for many things in the past, and people still use it to make things today.

A bison hair yarn scarf woven by Nancy Eley in 2015

Work is important, but so are games! There are some domino pieces in this collection. This one is made of bone, and someone has carved a design on the back.

Left: A domino made from bone (12003.2124)
Right: The reverse side of the same domino (12003.2124)

Another domino is made out of bone or possibly ivory, and a wooden back has been added to comlete the piece.

Left: A domino made from polished bone or ivory (12003.2445)
Right: The reverse side of the same domino, a piece of wood has been nailed to the bone or ivory face (12003.2445)

If only we could see what games were played with these!

We still have a lot more boxes to go through, and I promise to keep you updated on the exciting things we find!

Larson Village (32BL9) is an ancestral Mandan village site that was occupied from the late 1400s to the late 1700s. In 2010 repairs were made to a modern road that runs through the site. Archaeologists excavated the area affected by the roadwork. The excavated area mostly contained cache pits (storage pits) and a midden area (trash heap)—both types of features are valuable sources of information about how people used to live! And a lot of information usually means a lot of work . . .

The collections from the excavation came to the State Historical Society’s Archaeology and Historic Preservation division in 2011. Since that time, our dedicated volunteers have been busy sorting the artifacts from Larson Village. After that much work, it is understandable that a person might wonder if any of the objects being sorted will ever be seen again! In this case, the answer is definitely yes. Part of a reconstructed pot can already be seen on display at the State Museum in the pottery case in the Innovation Gallery: Early Peoples.

Reconstructed pottery from Larson Village, now on display in the Innovation Gallery of the State Museum (2012A.13.1)

However, most of the excavated items are still being sorted into different types of materials – animal bone, stone tools, seeds, charcoal, ash, pottery and more! But this does not mean that these objects will not be used or seen. The sorting is being done so that the objects can be sent to specialists who study specific types of artifacts. A faunal specialist (someone who studies animal bones) will be able to tell us more about the different types of animals that were used by the people living at Larson. Someone who specializes in lithic tools (stone tools) might be able to tell us where people found the materials that were used to make the tools, or from where the materials might have been traded. Knowing what kind of seeds are present at the site might tell us what kind of plants were being used for food, materials, or were growing in the surrounding environment. This kind of detailed information helps give us a better picture of how people lived and interacted with the world around them. After the objects are analyzed and the data is compiled, a final report can be written about the excavation of the site.

It might be a while before this project is completed, but here is a chance to see some of the artifacts found so far.

Just in time for fishing, here are some of the bone fishhooks.

Bone fish hooks and fish hook fragments from Larson Village (2012A.13)

And to give the fishhooks a better story, here are some of the many fish scales that our volunteers have also found.

Fish scales from Larson Village (2012A.13)

There are some very nice pottery like fragments, like the ones from this pot that was decorated with cord impressions.

Pottery decorated with cord impressions from Larson Village (2012A.13)

Pottery sherds are interesting to look at and fun to discover, especially when the fragments fit together like a puzzle.

Pottery from Larson Village (2012A.13)

Some of my favorite things to find are fingerprints! Someone left their fingerprint impressed in the clay when they made this piece of pottery a long time ago.

Pottery fragment with a fingerprint impression from Larson Village (2012A.13)

Stone abraders are tools that were used for sharpening and shaping other tools and objects – for instance . . .

Stone abraders from Larson Village (2012A.13)

. . . all the awls! Bone awls were tools used for various things including punching holes in materials like hides for sewing.

Bone awls from Larson Village (2012A.13)

Hopefully I will be able to post more photos of artifacts from Larson Village as the sorting continues.

Projectile points from Larson Village (2012A.13)

Feel free to send me a message if you would like more information about how you can help us out in the archaeology lab.

This month a journey began into the collections from Like-A-Fishhook Village (32ML2). Why Like-A-Fishhook? And why all the excitement?

An archaeologist on our staff is researching Like-A-Fishhook as part of her dissertation work. So, part of the excitement is getting to look closely at the objects as she inventories and photographs them. Also, as an older collection, the objects are in need of being repacked. The rest of the excitement has to do with the site itself.

Into the 19^th century, the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara peoples were prosperous traders, hunters, and farmers who lived in earthlodge villages and grew corn, beans, squash, and sunflowers in large gardens along the Missouri River. But in 1837 a small pox epidemic took a large toll on native populations in North Dakota. The loss of so many people during the epidemic, combined with ongoing conflicts with nomadic groups, led the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara peoples to settle together for mutual protection. By 1845 Hidatsa people and some Mandan people had settled at a new village site nestled in a large bend of the Missouri River. The large bend was shaped like a fish hook—which is why the village was called Like-A-Fishhook. The Hidatsa were later joined by more Mandan people, and by 1862 the Arikara people joined the village as well. Multiple cultures, languages, and traditions lived in close proximity in this village, making it very unique. Like-A-Fishhook was the last traditional earthlodge village settled in North Dakota. Situated next to Fort Berthold, it was a home and a hub of trade for people for more than forty years. The US government, however, began encouraging the people at the village to resettle, and by 1889 the village was mostly abandoned.

Most of the objects in our Like-A-Fishhook collection came from the River Basin Surveys. The River Basin Surveys were started as a series of archaeology projects in the mid-1940s sponsored by the National Park Service and coordinated by the Smithsonian Institution. After World War II dam building became a popular method for flood control, but many archaeology sites located on rivers were being destroyed as a result. In North Dakota, many of the early River Basin Surveys attempted to record important places along the Missouri River before they were flooded by the construction of the Garrison Dam. The location of Like-A-Fishhook is now underwater, but several excavations took place at the site before the river flooded it. The artifacts and records from the River Basin Surveys are part of the surviving record of the site.

Left: Some crew members from the Like-A-Fishhook River Basin Survey excavations in July 1954, left to right: Hubert Smith, Jerry Giddings, Fred McEvoy (holding “Fishhook”), Harold Dietsch, Bruce Conner, Alan Woolworth, Ray Wood, Lee Madison, and an un-identified visitor to the site (Photo by Raymond Price, AHP Archaeological Records)
Right: A view of part of the Like-A-Fishhook River Basin Survey excavations in July, 1954. The tents from the archaeologists’ camp can be seen in the left background. (Photo by W.R. Wood, AHP Archaeological Records)

We are now are going through the objects in the archaeology collection to photograph, record, and repack the artifacts in archival materials (in bags and boxes that will not damage the artifacts over time). We have only just started this project, but here are a few of the things that we have seen so far.

One of the first boxes we opened had an elk antler bow fragment in it. I have not seen an elk antler bow before!

Elk antler bow fragments (12003.726)

I was excited to see some cloth fragments! Cloth does not survive very well in North Dakota’s climate, so it is not very often that we have any in our archaeology collections. What do you think was made from this cloth material?

Textile fragments (12003.258)

There was a small child-sized leather shoe sole. I would like to know who this shoe belonged to and how old he or she was when it was worn.

Leather shoe sole (12003.2642)

The first few boxes contained a lot of plant materials. There were many charred corn cobs, plum pits, and squash seeds. Plant remains are interesting because they can show what types of food people were collecting or growing, harvesting, and using or eating.

Left: Charred corn cobs (12003.2263)
Middle: Plum pits (12003.258)
Right: Squash seeds (12003.258)

There were also some fish scales, so I am assuming someone enjoyed a good fish dinner.

Fish scales (12003.258)

We have many more boxes of Like-A-Fishhook artifacts to go through, so hopefully I will be able to share some more of the objects that we find in the future!

If you could go into the archaeology collections storage, what would you find? Mostly a lot of boxes. If you could peek into those boxes, what would you see? Mostly a lot of bags! If you could look inside one of those bags, what would you see? You would finally find an object! Since it isn’t possible for everyone to visit all the collections (and even if you could, there would not be much that you could easily see), this is the perfect opportunity for an online collections tour! This week’s tour will take us through some of the collection from Fort Rice (32MO102), a state historic site in Morton County, North Dakota (http://history.nd.gov/historicsites/rice/index.html).

Why Fort Rice? Quite a few projects I have worked on recently have involved this site, so there happen to be a lot of fun photos available. Dr. Barbara Handy-Marchello recently gave a talk at the fall North Dakota Archaeological Association (NDAA) meeting about the lives of officers’ wives who lived at this fort, and she needed me to photograph specific objects for her presentation. In the meantime, I cataloged about 678 additional objects from the site.

The first Fort Rice was established in 1864 as part of a chain of military forts built to protect transportation routes in the region. In 1868 Fort Rice was expanded and used as a military post until it was finally abandoned in 1878. Most of the objects in our collection date to the time of the fort, though some of the objects are more recent. Others pre-date the presence of non-native peoples in the area.

What kinds of questions come to your mind when you look at these objects? I wonder what their stories would be if they could talk (or write their own blog)!

Dentalium shell beads, like these, come from the ocean. Who wore these beads?

(2010.99.7312)

(2010.99.7312)

These are stone end scrapers for preparing animal hides. What was made out of the hides that these helped prepare?

(2010.99.6885, .6881, and .6884)

There are a lot of beautiful glass beads from Fort Rice. Which color would you pick to wear and why?

(2010.99.7198)

I would pick the green beads. I like green!

(2010.99.7242)

Or maybe I would choose the blue glass beads–I also like blue!

(2010.99.7228)

Or there is a bead with spots! Maybe I will just have to do a future post all about beads.

(2010.99.7307)

This boot was made for walking! Who wore this boot and where did they walk in it?

(2010.99.7444)

A metal spur. Did the person who wore this like riding fast? What was the horse’s name?

(2010.99.3214)

A fragment of a ceramic plate or saucer. This would probably have been part of a fancy place setting. What dinner party conversations did it witness?

(2010.99.1206)

These are fragments of a doll’s tea set. Was this someone’s favorite toy?

(2010.99.6296 and .6295)

There are a lot of glass bottles in the Fort Rice collection. This is a close-up of a medicine bottle. The letters on the bottle read: USA HOSP DEPT. Who needed this medicine and why?

(2010.99.2213)

Metal handcuffs. These look rather unpleasant. I wonder who had to wear these and for how long?

(2010.99.6159)

Where should we go next on our archaeology collections tour? Please let me know what kinds of artifacts or collections you would like to see in my next post!

What does an archaeological collections assistant do? And (even more importantly) why? Here is a whirl-wind review of some of the things I am involved in and why!

I do a lot of cataloging, photographing, and labeling of archaeological artifacts. North Dakota has an estimated 12 million objects in its state archaeology collection! Unless we record these objects, have a way to identify them, and can find where they are stored, it is very difficult for anyone to study, learn from, look at, or enjoy our collections. This is my favorite part of my job. You never know what you might find next.

I also catalog paperwork relating the collections to the archaeological surveys and excavations from which they were recovered. This is important because the paperwork connects the artifacts to their provenience (where the objects were found). Knowing exactly where objects were found means we can learn things about people living in certain areas of North Dakota at particular times. And knowing exactly where objects were found in relation to other artifacts and features within a site means we can form a clearer picture of how people lived and interacted with the world around them. It makes the stories that the artifacts can tell us much more detailed.

Older collections are sometimes stored in less-than-ideal boxes and materials. In the past, objects were often stored in whatever was available at the time (including window flower boxes, cigar boxes, and old newspapers). We have learned over time that older acidic materials like these (even if they look nice) affect the objects stored in them--the writing on the boxes and bags fade away and the objects stored inside these materials start to crumble or fall apart. We don’t want to lose the collection information on the boxes and bags, and we don’t want to lose the objects themselves! So re-bagging and re-boxing artifacts in archivally stable (acid-free) materials is another big part of my job.

Left - Before: wooden post fragments stored in an unlabeled wooden flower box stuffed with newspaper (Photo by Wendi Murray)
Right - After: wooden post fragments stored in an archival box (complete with label!) and wrapped in acid free tissue for padding and support

I get to work with the archaeology volunteers too, and volunteering involves a fun variety of people and projects. The current main project is sorting objects excavated from the Larson Village site into material types so we can send them to specialists who can tell us more about them. I usually sort some of the smaller sized material, but there are amazing things to be found even there.

Left - A tray of small-sized unsorted materials from the Larson Village site
Right - Fun objects can come in small sizes!
Top Row: a piece of copper, 2 biface or projectile point tips
Bottom Row: part of a bone fish hook, (top) the tip of a stone drilling tool, (bottom) the base of a projectile point (“arrow head”), (top) a bone tube bead, (bottom) 2 glass beads

There is a lot of variety in this job. The recent expansion project meant that a lot of time has been devoted to planning the layout, labeling the new shelves, and moving collections to the new storage spaces. One of the most exciting parts of the expansion process was being included in some of the new exhibits planning– there was a lot of proof-reading of labels and texts, documenting conditions of objects coming off and going on display, searching for new or different display objects in our collections, tracking the locations of objects, and carting objects to and from the old and new galleries. I love this because it means bringing collections out where people can see and learn about the North Dakota’s extensive past.

In summary, being an archaeological collections assistant involves a lot of documenting, sorting, and re-housing of artifacts. All this is done to help preserve North Dakota’s state archaeology collections and make them available for present and future use.