Old Dirt – New Thoughts

The 2007 Council for Minnesota Archaeology Symposium was held this weekend. Archaeologists from around the state (including a few of our friends from across the border) met to hear papers on recent research and cultural resource management issues. One of the big events was a presentation on the Walker Hill Site by Thor Olmanson, Mathew Mattson, and Colleen Wells. They really provided a great service to Minnesota archaeologists by presenting their findings even as their analyses continue. Perhaps the best part of their presentation was the chance to see in person the Walker finds and to hear the assessments of these finds from different archaeologists. Although I didn’t take a poll, there were clearly a range of opinions with many archaeologists unconvinced of the site’s cultural reality.

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       Monty Rogers, an archaeologist with the National Park Service, recently sent me this picture of a miniature point found during their survey this summer. This point along with a base fragment of another small point were found at a large village site on Naknek Lake.   

This site, about 250 km from Aniakchak, is very near to the Brooks River Archaeological District where Don Dumond (University of Oregon) and the NPS have done a lot of field work. My quick review of Dumond’s classic 1981 monograph found only a few examples of “miniature” points. Dumond gives the size range for each of his point types and only the Bipoint I, Bipoint II, and Falls stemmed variety 3 point types include specimens with lengths of 20 mm or less. The smallest point recorded by Dumond measured 17 mm. Roger’s point measures 12.8 mm. Most of the Aniakchak points also measure under 20 mm.

I’m interested in hearing more about the Idavian Creek site. How large is “large”? How does it compare to the other sites in the region? Did the survey produce any other artifacts from this site? Where does this site fit in Dumond’s cultural sequence?

My archaeology lab class has been busy cataloging these last couple of weeks. They had two artifacts from Aniakchak that I find particularly interesting.

One “find” is a miniature bifacial “point”. It’s even smaller than the one I highlighted from this summer. I’ve seen small points like this one described in archaeological reports as “toys”. I suspect, though, that the Aniakchak miniature points are functional tools because we have so many (and virtually no larger points).

 Miniature biface of black chert.

The other find is a piece of copper sheet rolled into a tube. I’m assuming it is a “bead”. We found this bead near the site surface, but I believe it is native copper and from a precontact context.

 Copper bead.

 Haden just found this small chalcedony point while sorting  shell midden from Aniakchak. We’ve found a couple dozen of these tiny points and hardly any larger bifaces giving the Aniakchak chipped stone assemblage a very different look compared to our Unimak and King Salmon materials.