Old Dirt - New Thoughts

On December 26, 1925 the Hamline United Methodist Church was consumed by fire. It is believed to have started when materials from a Christmas celebration were left on a basement furnace and accidentally set ablaze. The building was a total loss. Eyewitnesses describe the eerie beauty of the rose windows lit by the flames within, and the almost human groan as the floor gave way and the organ crashed into the basement.

Despite their loss, church leaders and congregation members immediately made plans to rebuild. They cleared the remaining construction debris during the spring of 1926 and at the same time began laying the foundation for the new church. They decided to set the new church back from the street. The old building site, as a result, was filled-in and then left alone. These two factors, the tragic fire and the relocation of the church building, combine to create an archaeological site of great research potential.

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Can this snail tell us about climate change? We think it can. We think studying Aniakchak Bay’s modern snails and those we recovered archaeologically will tell us something about the intensity of wave action (or storminess) 1500 years ago compared to today. Storminess and exposure to waves would have been an environmental condition important to the Aniakchak Bay villagers since their economy was so heavily focused on the harvest of maritime resources. We hope that our analysis of snail biomechanics will give us insight into the climatic conditions faced by the Aniakchak villagers during their occupation and especially during the abandonment of their home on the bay.

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Well if you like vigorous scientific debate, the claim of a pre-Clovis component at Walker Hill, has really stirred up some intense discussion among Minnesota’s archaeology community. Most of the debate that I’m privy to is occurring on the CMA listserv. Although it would be inappropriate for me to quote from the listserv communications without permission, I think summarizing a few points will be helpful to readers of this blog.

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